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In case you've missed it, the 2013 squad was not just Champion of the HOD Bowl but it was recently announced that during the fall semester, they were CUSA Academic Champs! DENTON -- The North Texas football team had the highest grade point average of all Conference USA schools during the 2013 fall semester. The cumulative GPA for the Mean Green last fall was 2.70, which was higher than all 12 of the other football playing schools in the conference and well above the 2.53 league average. http://www.meangreensports.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/042514aaa.html The success Mac has had turning around this, most critical, element of the program continues to impress me. If there were an opportunity for the students and coaching staff to let up in this area, it would've been last fall when on-field success could seemingly justify a lessened focus academically. I'm sure this has and will continue to play well on the recruiting trail.

UPDATE: Chris just got off his weekly call with Coach Canales and caught Chris off-guard with a quarterback knowledge pop quiz. Bottom line was he told Chris he was very impressed with Chris' football IQ and that level of knowledge and his confidence in his answers are exactly what he's looking for in a quarterback. Coach told Chris to be ready because next week he's going to hit him with 10 in-depth questions. Go Mean Green!

USC must've really pissed off the NCAA this time!

I was told I had to try Joe T Garcia's. So, when I was in Fort Worth for work I did. It's on par with On the Border. The place itself is really cool, however, the food is average. Maybe the reason all those famous people on their walls think it's great is because they've never had really good Mexican food. Call me picky but being from El Paso, I think Joe Ts is pretty weak. I'm still searching the Metroplex for good Mexican food.

Amtrak leaves Fort Worth at 2:10pm on the 29th of August and arrives in Austin at 6:22pm Return trip, leaves Austin Sunday morning 9:31 and arrives in Fort Worth at 1:58 $28 each way.

My favorite band of all time. I can play just about their entire catalog on the trombone. We might be music Soulmates.

I had sticker shock at first, but you gotta do what you gotta do. When does tailgating start in Austin?

That doesn't sound like fun. I like fun.

Consider this. North Texas has what, 6 or 7, D1 transfers for the 2014 season. Coach Mac and his staff awarded scholarships to 2 to 4 walk on's after the spring game. North Texas already has 8 to 10, D1 players "committed" to North Texas. As far as High School and JUCO prospects, I would say there are solid commitments right now for North Texas (I would not call this stealth recruiting prospects). Committed players make their own announcements on their school of choice. The announcements will become public at the proper time for these players. I do not worry about which school has the early commitments or the star power rankings. My view of star power is the star ranking is just a popularity contest. The college football rag mags will start showing up soon. We will have many new topics to discuss from the sports talking heads experts. I believe Coach Mac and his staff can evaluate players they want to recruit, regardless of "star" rankings. I do trust in Coach Mac! GMG!

This is all about power and greed,,,period. They could give a damn about the actual benefits but it gives them a way to stay ahead of the competition. Trips for parents included? Now, if that's not grounds for a lawsuit there is no justice. What burns my ass even more is that a few (mostly two commissioners) decide who stays and who goes. What are the criteria for being a P5 conference? There are only a few for entrance into the FBS and they're not enforced. Even conference selections are based almost entirely on money/attendance. Look at the gerrymandering in conference alignment and you can easily see how out-of-hand the situation has gotten. Originally the request was only for a $2,000 annual expense stipend and there was enough support from the G5 conferences that it would likely have passed. That wasn't good enough they had to keep adding until they got rid of the riffraff. So now they'll be sued by the G5 AND their own non-football athletes. Question. If there are multiple lawsuits would that not hold up the implementation of the new benefits? Another question. What if some agreed to the new package? Would they be elevated to a G5 conference? Or is this simply a move to keep the little guy down?

I really enjoyed your post but it was your use of "axiomatic" that pushes it over the top. The only thing I would take slight issue with is the over-simplification concerning EU O&G resources. North Sea production is currently in decline, like much of the aging mega-fields around the world. Additional investment there will slow or stop declines but that is multi-year process that is already underway. Still that will not move the needle. The EU no doubt has potential to increase it's production through shale but attempts to unlock their resources, up to this point, have frustrated E&P companies. Still if you put that aside and every EU nation greatly reduced environmental regulations on the drillers you still have a challenge that will take a decade or more to overcome. Infrastructure. Often overlooked the US already had a massive network of gathering, processing and pipeline facilities in place from a centuries worth of E & P. Even with that advantage it has taken us a decade of massive investment to stop declines and increase production. (we still import over 40% of our oil) Most EU countries don't have near the infrastructure in place on a relative basis and it would take well over a decade in my estimation to actually bring enough oil and gas online to move the needle. One can look at the rig count numbers as a simple indicator of the daunting challenge it will be to bring more EU oil and gas online. Compare the number of US rigs to Europe. Then remember that we can not just move rigs to the EU , they must be built otherwise you are robbing Peter to pay Paul. Manufacturing all the additional rigs needed would take several years and that is still a far simpler problem to overcome than all the gathering and processing infrastructure that needs to be built-out. In summary Russia has Europe by the short hairs. Worldwide Rotary Rig Count Change Percent Change January 2014 December 2013 January 2013 Monthly Annual Monthly Annual Latin America 401 417 414 (16) (13) -3.8% -3.1% Europe 126 126 134 0 (8) 0.0% -6.0% Africa 139 138 115 1 24 0.7% 20.9% Middle East 403 405 379 (2) 24 -0.5% 6.3% Far East 256 249 237 7 19 2.8% 8.0% International 1,325 1,335 1,279 (10) 46 -0.7% 3.6% Canada 504 372 503 132 1 35.5% 0.2% United States 1,769 1,771 1,757 (2) 12 -0.1% 0.7% World 3,598 3,478 3,539 120 59 3.5% 1.7% Edit: I apologize that was a total cut and paste fail on my part. You can find the data here: http://www.wtrg.com/rotaryrigs.html#Monthly Please keep your post coming as I truly enjoy your insight.

FAU is making some noise. Anyone else concerned that just about everyone else in CUSA has landed recruits while we still sit at 0 commits? After a bowl winning season?

UGH. UGH. UGH.

I think it's interesting how A&M is deemed high and mighty now because they haven't won so much as a conference title since, what, 1998? Why is that? Is it because they are in the SEC? Some SEC teams aren't exactly swell though. Texas has won a National Title and played in a national title game since then and the Aggies haven't even won a conference championship. I'm not a UT fan boy but kids aren't as dumb as people think. They have dad's too. I'd rather my kid go to Texas if those were the only two on the table. Texas is still Texas. It's still in a really cool town and College Station is crap. The schools and towns still matter. (I'd rather my kids go Ivy league but that's just me.) Texas is one of the perennial Goliaths. A&M behaves as if they are. Texas still puts plenty of guys in the pros too. In more sports as well. If I were throwing money down, I'd say Strong will be coaching Texas in a National Title game or at a minimum a conference title game before Sumlin does either at A&M. Hopefully, Texas gets those aspirations crushed opening weekend 2014... Anyway, maybe I'm wrong. Strong seems to be the real deal to me. No matter what A&M is not going to easily replace the talent they're losing. Rice was taking it to them without Manziel. Food for thought anyway.

Who for freaking cares

Still hate both of those schools.

ONly difference is that nobody would believe Charlie Strong if he said that. When Mac said it, is was very believable for two huge reasons: 1.) We were coming off of a stretch of football where we went 8-40 in the previous 4 years of the Todd Dodge Experiment. 2.) At least with the small part, he was spot-on. When he got here, our lines looked like a below-average FCS team in size that spring. By the start of the season, the OL began to look bigger, and by the end of the year, it looked legitmate. Last year, our DL was saw the same type of improvement. This is what Mac is known for and why is a perfect fit for UNT right now. Development of the lines will make us a contender in CUSA for a years to come, just as it did in the the old SBC days under Dickey, when we could run the ball at will on any of those SBC teams and our DL was too talented to stop. It won't be sexy, but running a ball-control offense will make our defense better, just as it did in those SBC "glory" years. The biggest difference between then and now is that we actually play a few teams people have heard of and care about, plus we have a charismatic coach at the helm, not a guy who loathed the fans and the school.

In that he has other offers?

With only 1 ship available for a QB in this class, not sure I'd be ready to pull the trigger on this kid. We really need to find an impact QB (preferably dual-threat) Just my 2 cents.

Pretty soon he'll be talking about how they are the smallest, slowest football team in the P5...

They will not stick

Star rankings hold more weight than you think. P5 schools land the most stars, and in hand most P5 schools would beat most G5 schools. Coincidence? No. Landing highly touted recruits is a good thing and they are highly touted for a reason. Just because North Texas isn't getting the top tier recruits let's not bash the recruiting research done by a couple credible sites. UNT will need to start landing at least one of these guys a year if UNT wants to become somebody. If not we will be playing 2nd class football in about 10 years.

Absolutely. But if BYU and Boise can snag an All-American from time to time, why not North Texas? Those 2 schools dip into Cali and take recruits away from Cal, UCLA, USC, and even Or, Or St and Wash. From a geographical standpoint their recruiting grounds are putrid and they have little to offer in their backyard. So if BYU and Boise can snag up All-Americans every few years North Texas should be able to as well. I understand coming off a decade of losing taints those chances, but the future should be bright. Master plan has the enrollment climbing to 50k by 2016? I believe. Expand the Business and engineering departments and get some people at this school that give a shit about athletics. That would be a good start. Without legitimate pressure from a large alum base and student body we will just tread water forever.

North Texas has hired Marquette assistant Tony Benford, sources told CBSSports. Story coming. This post has been promoted to an article

Can we just get a commit? Just to get our feet wet! Do we have a young guy involved in recruiting? Mid to late twenties. They seem to know how to talk to high school guys rather than an older guy hurrying up a home visit for a colonoscopy appointment.