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And it is a completely false narrative. If anything, Fine made a rookie OC look better than he is, parlaying Fine’s talent into a top 5 (historically speaking) job.

The point of this article seems to be that if Harrell can make a great QB out of little Mason Fine from nowhere Oklahoma, he is going to really shine with USC's four and five star QB's. I think Harrell will do well, but Fine is a tough act to duplicate.

They're one of those "directional schools." 😉

https://footballmaven.io/talkoffame/state-your-case/state-your-case-cedric-hardman-was-a-sack-savage-like-few-the-nfl-ever-saw-3L54XeE-G0ubI4Ssfdonbg/

Just Confirmed...EASTSIDE in Denton will be showing the WBI Championship Game today at 5:30PM. Come on out and watch the game with your fellow Mean Green supporters. In case you don't know: 117 E Oak St., Denton, TX 76201. Just off the square...south of square on Oak. Let's Go Mean Green...bring home the gold!

https://www.latimes.com/sports/usc/la-sp-mason-fine-graham-harrell-usc-20190401-story.html?fbclid=IwAR3eA4QK4R2K47s42k-5LXXhsb-drw_8NMTEqEI525xEyeFz1-TI9SM1T94 Back in Denton, Texas, Fine has come a long way from where he was before Harrell visited Locust Grove more than three years ago. Recently, an NFL scout came by to see him and take his measurements. “I can’t control my measurables,” Fine said. “All I can control is what I put on that tape. Some teams may look the other way. Some teams may look at the film. I hope they do.”

They made a strong play to join the most likely P5 conference & were shut down 2 yrs ago. Same deep-pocketed Fertitta was at the helm at that time. They're going to have to wait until the next round of shake-ups in a few years. They're absolutely positioned well for that upcoming opportunity though.

Because it wasn’t a priority,....not because he “couldn’t do it”. The guy can thread a moving needle 40 yards away while on a dead sprint. He can do shit with a football only a handful of human beings on earth can do. In regards to taking a snap under Center, theres no way in hell do I buy that “he couldn’t do it” arguement. Rick

Not sure who USC is. Are they G5?

One of the best games as a UNT Alumni & Fan. Amazing atmosphere and I'm still amazed at some of the clips in the highlights how loud we were at that huge stadium, only filling up one section. We drove up early that morning and drove back afterwards - We will never forget that game! Also, one of the best sights (aside from the fake punt return) at that game was seeing how much of the Arkansas crowd cleared out after halftime - then another good chunk after the 3rd quarter. When Kemon got that pick and ran it in, then just pointed at the crowd in our section, you could feel that we had conquered that stadium. Everyone in red was completely defeated that day and it was marvelous. Arkansas game aside, one of my other favorite games was the very last home game at Fouts against Kansas State in 2010 (Riley Dodge days). Dunbar rushed for like 270 yards or something and had a great game. Even though we lost, it's still one of my favorite games during my time there (07-11) - Fouts was packed for the entire game and didn't trickle out after the half. Good times.

IIRC, The Big12 was trying to figure out if they would still qualify as a P5 conference with only 10 members & no conference championship game. They appealed the NCAA. In the meantime, Houston was really jockeying to get in, and many others speculated BYU or Cincinnati/Memphis would also join to round out a 12-team conference if the NCAA handed down they needed to get to 12 teams. When it came back that they would retain their P5 status as-is, they told all of those suitors to kick rocks. None of the P5 conferences want to share their $$$ pies if they don't have to.

Had a chance to watch practice a few weeks ago and every qb including the freshman was throwing strong wide receiver out patterns. I don’t think that play was an option with Mac! Great group!

If you have deep pockets like Fertitta you can buy your way into "primetime". IMHO, the success Houston is having in sports, they are ripe for making the move up to a P5 conference.

FWIW. starting with last year, I've never seen a North Texas football team this deep in QB talent.

He deserves a statue at Apogee!

Great article. It's awesome seeing good things about UNT in the LA Times. Plus, now we know for certain Fine's height: 5'10".

I think he already broke out last year. I think I might have gone with Kelvin Smith somewhere in that countdown. Dion Novil could be another breakout player. (And we better hope he is.)

I’m all for that. My 50 year high school reunion needed a place and my wife said OK without a problem. However, I’m a little hurt that Lifer just assumes my house is “a smaller venue” than the Coliseum. Is Miller High Life OK with everyone ?

Hi ya'll - Some big news in Green Brigade world. Dr. Nicholas Williams has accepted the incredibly prestigious position as Conductor of Wind Ensembles at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music in Australia. I am super thankful for the generous spirit Dr. Williams always afforded me and his continued passion for athletics' success as a multiple degree-earned alumnus. Today, his successor was announced. From College of Music Dean John Richmond: --- Welcome Daniel Cook!

This might be a little off topic but eff it it’s the off-season. What where the reasons that Houston got turned down? Doesn’t seem like they’ve changed anything since two years ago? Anyone know?

That's cool! I got hooked just over 10 years ago, been going to the Denton show ever since. There is a great lineup this year so don't want to miss it! The DCI tour premiere is broadcast live in local theaters and is set for June 20th, its good chance to see whats in store for the season while being indoors lol I'm a bit of a big fan and enjoy watching the classic and "old skool" shows pre 2000's. I'm a big SCV fan, but PR is my all-time fave! Crossmen had a great season last summer and I'll be excited to see them again as the make another finals run!

Bbecause I'm not going to indirectly concede to package after his departure. There will be players in line that have the ability to sustain and I expect to see sustainability.

He is the best to ever throw the ball at UNT. I am not disputing that.

3 mil a year in basketball is big time. Puts Sampson in the same category as some pretty savvy basketball schools and the 21st highest paid coach in CBB. Paid more than 9 SEC coaches. UH is trying to pay their way to primetime.

Want a piece of Mean Green history? How about a piece of Fouts Field’s goalpost? Yep...it’s a piece of Mean Green Football history. It will be in our silent auction.

Mason Fine has been a tremendous player for us throughout his time here at UNT. I am sure he will have a great senior season. With that said, let's not act as if this production under this system can't happen again, especially if you consider the talent level being put around whoever the successor is. Fine came in and produced very well with minimal talent around him in the early stages. His successor will have 2 fold the type of talent Fine first started out with. It's also worth noting that QB's in these types of systems put up numbers. It just happens. I expect there to be a drop off until there is some built in experience for the next starter, but I do not expect the productivity to be floored. And in no way am I trying to diminish what Mason Fine has done for this program and university. He's been a Godsend.

Those awful snaps were from the shotgun, so I don't grasp your point. Under center snaps are much easier for the center to make. The problem is as you stated it is not practiced often and the OL has completely different blocking schemes. Most QB's of spread offenses have problems with under center snaps because they just don't do it often in practice or games.

A snap of any kind is a 2 man job though. So, yeah, you may be right that Mason can do everything right in regards to going under center 99% of the time, but can the center get the snap to him 99% of the time? It would take a lot of practice. Not saying it can't happen, but in practicing taking snaps under center, you're giving up practice reps of shotgun snaps that are much more a part of this offense. We saw what happened to SMose in the NM Bowl when he was on his heels (didn't he have like 4-5 awful snaps?).

This is my nephew. He's a 6'6" high school sophomore QB at Raypec High School in Missouri. He's got Michigan State and Iowa State after him already. He's an amazing arm talent. Also an elite basketball player. His grandma is a dean at UNT. Someone tell the coaches. http://www.hudl.com/profile/7532592/Conrad-Hawley

How does this OL project compared to the last two years? I haven't really dug into it.

I don't normally comment on voting, but I love getting Rays

https://www.mensjournal.com/sports/5-best-quarterbacks-nfl-history-shorter-6/doug-flutie-buffalo-bills-patriots-chargers/ I'd say he's in good company!

Should be a big challenge, App St. has 6'4 space eater in the paint. Had two 20 rb games in tournament. Very strange that NT has scored 56 points in every tournament game. NT won the last game with both George and Bradley having bad overall games. This game is going to be very tough and for NT to win, they are going to have play much better.

All he has to do is take a breath on the pass rusher and that's an improvement. Didn't say it will be a good oline just the best he has had here. Add more tight end chipping and help.

We can laugh at Thomas Dundon for losing 70 million dollars today. A little blessing in disguise for MGN.

😎

Absolutely agree here. CUSA is not good, but its all we got and its better than we have ever had in the last 40+ years. I really do get defeated at the reality of SMU being in the AAC, just as I did when they were in CUSA and we were in the SBC. I just cannot understand how the public schools in the AAC have bought into these small private schools in big cities being a good fit for them. You will never convince me that we don't deliver twice as much to a conference as SMU can--more eyeballs, more potential,etc...Really, I could say the same thing about USM or La Tech over Tulane or some big MAC school over Temple. It is what it is. Nothing we can do about it anytime soon.

Antonio Gage. Unfortunately, in the end, he could not qualify. But prior to that, he continued to field other offers & play the recruiting game while "committed" to us, and people didn't like that. People gotta stop taking that stuff personally.

Last time we went fishing for a WR out of Madison, GMG.com pissed all over the guy. Let's hope it doesn't happen again.

This. I will never shame a young man for changing his mind or wanting to press pause on making a decision at this stage of the process. I also don't fault 2019 de-commit Garrison Johnson for his decision but it's much better for all involved to have Carpenter be open about his second thoughts than it was when Johnson made his feelings known so late in the game.

What's with the trend of one sentence paragraphs? I've noticed that a lot lately in sports coverage. Is the influence of texting creeping into everyday writing? It's like the author can't carry a thought through more than a sentence or two or maybe they are just writing for their audience. It's not just the NTDaily, so I'm not picking on them.

Aune looks like #2 and Martin looks like #3. Bean still tries to make up for his indecision with his legs. He does have good wheels, but then, just about everyone else does too. BV is right, Keune will probably redshirt. He does have some Fine-like qualities however. Addaway looked pretty good. He weaved through the middle of the defense for his first TD. He has very good speed, but I still haven't been able to evaluate his power running. Siggers is getting back into rhythm as a rb after spending a season at DB. White looks pretty good and Shorter made some pretty good catches, but he seemed a bit off after taking an uncomfortable fall in the endzone going for a fade pass. He got mugged most of the day by the DB's...…...as did all of the WR's. It looks like our DB's are being turned loose to go bonzai on the receivers. Hopefully they will then learn to dial it back. #20 and #40 looked good out there at LB. #32 was a monster. All the starting DL's were putting a lot of pressure on the QB's and I saw a lot of #45 and #46 around the ball when they were in there. That's good, because they both look like they are capable of jamming up the middle. just going by todays efforts, #47 seems to have the strongest leg. #49 under kicked a 50+ yrd FG attempt, and #47 had more than enough leg, he just missed. All the receivers had to battle a brutal cold gusty wind today. It never got over 48 degrees and the wind averaged around 15-20 mph. I was sooooo glad to get back into my truck.

Promise? And who TF is “we”? I didn’t know Houston was letting their Make A Wish kid dictate conference affiliation.

Stop ruining everyone’s “ignore” setting. Rick

Which is exactly how every power member feels about y’all being in a conference with you...

On the contrary, his DCI background almost guarantees another era of "corps style" marching. He is not the director of the Northwestern Marching Band, but a grad assistant. Here is an example of his high school band on the field: I must say I am very disappointed with the hire. I hope I am wrong.

This is a video of Sunny Dykes bending over with his hands on his knees like he’s going t vomit on TV during the SMU game last season, after which he rubs his forehead and closes his eyes as if he has a migraine...makes me giggle every time I see it...if you guys can’t see this I need to convert (?) it to gif format...really hilarious...the broadcasters are like this is not how Dykes would like his season to begin or some such crap...really funny. F38FD9C4-AB44-42B8-B369-A3543FCD84A9.MOV

As others have mentioned, coaching was a factor. To me, we also need to remember the 3 injuries that took place in the LaTech game: Easley, Hall, and Fine. Easley was picking up steam and ended up missing the rest of the year. Hall missed the rest of the LaTech game, missed the next 3 games, and returned against UAB (not the easiest opponent to come back against). Fine missed no time but was never the same as we often saw him hobbling around during and after the LaTech game. So in short, our best member of the secondary, most physical offensive weapon, and our star QB. That LaTech game affected the team for the rest of the year IMO.