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Obviously the event today was intended as a kickoff for the football season, and I’m anxiously counting down the days. Still, the thing I came away with today was a sense of excitement for our OVERALL athletic department. The women’s golf coach was a pleasure to hear from and it seems their arrow is pointing up. Softball sounds like a powerhouse in the making…and OU, Oklahoma State and (I believe) Purdue come to US this next season. Basketball is clearly the strongest mens program right now, and it’s impossible to hear Grant speak and not want to get some season tickets. Seth said all the coach speak you would expect, and I am now cautiously optimistic about what the defense may be this year. I feel like there is a reason to keep the Mean Green optimism up all year long.

Nebraska, Arkansas, and Missouri has proven the check is more important than being competitive.

People are fighting over liberties and freedoms, masks and science, and here is one individual determined to tell people we have the word "vaccine" all wrong. I would also like to point out that last year there was no true lock down. At least, not here in the States.

Another good one. Podcast + Aldstadt Amber kept me sane and distracted while putting together a cabinet tonight. I feel like these get me drinking the green kool-aid way too much, but everybody needs at least one self-destructive trait in their life, right?

Clearly, to me anyway, is our lack of exposure on TV week in and week out. Judy and CUSA have done a poor job of securing a meaningful TV package for us and the conference overall. There's a good reason we're not mentioned in any realignment talk. Out of sight, out of mind.

Based on what I've heard for some away game ESPN+ broadcasts, let's just be extremely proud of and thankful for the high quality of the MGRN crew.

Texas OU Okie State and Duke? That’s what I heard from Delong. McCasland, like I’ve said before, is such a great person. Super friendly and talking to everyone. My favorite coach at NT by far.

This is good stuff Completely agree. I’d throw Colvin in there as well. Colvin has played in 32 career games with 9 of those being starts and all he has to show for it is 2 career TFLs and half a sack. Meanwhile we have Mccrae getting looks at that 3-tech tackle spot, Enoch Jackson in from Arkansas, Tashoyn Johnson and Pickett in year 2, and Kalvin Hutchings in from JUCO, and Dayton Leblanc all as options. Last year with Bowen, the year before with Reffett, too many times we had dudes just giving no production and never really seeing any reduction in play as a result of poor performance. Too many options for that to happen again this year.

That doesn't even make sense.

vac·cine /vakˈsēn/ noun a substance used to stimulate the production of antibodies and provide immunity against one or several diseases, prepared from the causative agent of a disease, its products, or a synthetic substitute, treated to act as an antigen without inducing the disease. There is the definition. Looks like you are the one with the comprehension issue. The shots they are offering are not providing immunity.

@emmitt01, I share your optimism and will cheers with any and all of the house's Green Kool Aid. If SL and Co can just get their shit together - and I have faith this is the year - we could be entering an era of unprecedented Green Glory in Denton. I don't remember feeling this good about our AD (Wren), and Men's BBall. But we need football to complete this trifecta. The non-money sports are doing quite well, too, if I understand things correctly. That only sweetens the pot.

I'm going to need to see a lot more out of Whitlock if he's gonna start over Stout or Thornton.

I would like to add Jared Mosley to that list. We not only hired what has turned out to be a great AD, but the assistant AD is a proven winner in his previous jobs. AND I've said this many times. Jared Mosley was my fantasy pick to replace RV before I ever heard the name Wren Baker. AND to complete my list of great hires that NT made recently I would add the director of the GB, "Fessor" Daniel Cook. You can't have a great game day experience without a great College-game-day Band. Thanks to "Fessor Cook" we now have that.

From what I have read the "left behind" in the BIG 12 bring no additional value [ code for revenue] to any other P5 conference either collectively or individuality . If fact, they are no longer considered a P5 program by the AAC,PAC 12, or BIG 10 conferences demonstrated by their exclusion from ongoing talks among these BIG 3 regarding working together to increase their collective value to ESPN. The 8 remaining BIG 12 members seem to have no other option that to stay the course and add 2 to 4 programs. However whoever they add, [and SMU assuredly will not be invited] have even less value/revenue that its existing 8 members. If their ESPN pie will be reduced in value by 50% in 2025 with the loss of Texas and Oklahoma at least it will be split only 8 ways. The quandary The BIG 12 finds themselves in is why add members who bring no additional revenue and decreases the value of their slice of the money pie. Actually, that is the same question the BIG 10 asked and answered when they chose not to add Kansas or Iowa State. Its always been about "show me the money", but now it really is for every program that would like to change conferences, regardless of P5 or G5 status.

Haha got sidetracked trying to find Brett’s article Here’s what I saw from 10AM to 11:45AM from inside Apogee to the Practice Facility because of rain/lightning. Ruder looked great. Had a few times where he was surrounded by lineman on defense but had some good passes. He ran with 1st team more than Aune it seemed. Ruder also had a great house call on the ground against the 1s to end the scrimmage. He turned up the jets! Aune had some good passes including a nice one to Torrey in the flat for some good yards. Like I said above, pressure was real. Bush had a great catch in the corner of the endzone against Whitlock. Pass from Ruder. Shorter seems to be getting completely 100% and had several nice catches, one was an almost terrific catch but somehow taken out by John Davis. Mose didn’t practice because of an injury Turpin was at LT and Brown was at LG for 1s. Both 1st and 2nd string Oline’s were pretty dang good. Ruder and Aune seem to have some time in the pocket, but when they leave that, they’re hunted down. Not much room to scramble with both Murphy twins on the end! Gumms is a beast. Ran with 2nd and 3rd teams and was so dominant on the run blocking. Leveled one guy on a pitch, and I think Keith Jackson got a good gain. Jake Roberts is so so good. Big fan and should start. Novil looks massive and moving good. Had a few mess ups (false starts) and Bennett tore into him. 2 scouts were also there, I would greatly assume because of Novil. Depth on defense is great. Rotation in the front 7 is just crazy deep. Guys like McCrae, Johnson, among others got good runs and looked solid in the middle. I know this doesn’t mean that much, but Stout was with 2nd team a lot more than I would think. Tyreke Davis wasn’t playing a traditional linebacker position and Sanders was more of a slot for some reason. Larry Nixon was a player that stood out to me. Was in the backfield a lot, and really made some good tackles against the 1s and 2s. Adaway was very physical and Torrey had some good catches in the flat. I’m not sure if we run a 2 back set with Adaway and Torrey at all, but if we did, that would be dangerous. Bennett snapped every time something wrong happened, big or small. I can’t tell you how much I love that. Physicality was off the charts. Guys cussing each other out, really aggressive up front from OLine vs Dline, and energy/chemistry really shined. Was talking to quite a few guys including Dillion Lovelace about what he saw, and we all agree this is a damn good football team. The depth is real, and with not much expectations, I think we can run the table in many games. Maybe I need to take my green glasses off, but whew I’m so f’ing pumped for September 4th and mainly the 11th. I think we can hang in with SMU. Although they’re loaded at every position, I know Bennett is gonna have the guys really fired up. Getting embarrassed against the school you were a head coach at for 5 years is something I know he doesn’t want to happen. Also loved the turn out from fans. Seth gave some good answers to questions for the first time in a while. Not as much as the usual monotone voice and answers haha.

Win games + Sell tickets. We are moving into a universe where viewership numbers are calculated by seeing how many subscribers access the servers to watch. Value in G5 boils down to can you help us get our champ into the access bowl or possibly into the expanded playoff? Can you boost our CFP performance money? Do you have a program that people want to watch on their TV, phone, tablet, laptop?

And yet, I am not posting on a mustang forum bragging about another teams' success. Notice you didn't really address SMU as the post penalized program in the NCAA which was the focus of the comment.

whats going to be left of the former Big12 is not a power conference, and I dont see them adding the right schools to become one.

I wish Siggers the best. But lets be honest, he's not the same running back since his knee injury. I'm glad we have another scholarship to offer.

The have nots are eventually going to have to fill their stadiums to make money. You do that with regional competition. ( UNT playing SMU example) SWC needs to come back.

the resolve and inner-fortitude it must take to be dead wrong about something for almost a year-and-a-half, but still continue to double-down and hold the line. if only you put that strength-of-will toward something that benefitted society rather than unnecessarily killing people

If the western programs were to realign, I think the current C-USA West (UNT, Rice, LA Tech, UAB, Southern Miss, UTSA, and UTEP) might have a shot at adding Arkansas State and ULL as a package deal. But only if we can keep all of non-Texas C-USA west members (LA Tech, Southern Miss, and UAB) in this configuration. Those programs would make some nice regional rivalries for ULL and Ark State.

And our starting forwards and midfielders came off the field multiple times. Make no mistake, the only place North Texas didn’t dominate was the scoreboard. I have played in and watched hundreds of soccer games and aTm was not a better team.

I predict Liberty will be our first win over a ranked team since I’ve been following the Mean Green ‘86. To do it at home will be a big deal and so much fun! I was in Albuquerque when the Lobos took down highly ranked Utah. It was a fun day in the land of enchantment. GMG

It’s quite possible I’m in the minority on this (never really discussed it at length with anyone) but I don’t see any issues with Barnett connecting with fans. I wonder how many people know he’s one of us.

Some thoughts from a Bucs blog are positive on Darden's night... https://thepewterplank.com/2021/08/15/buccaneers-key-takeaways-2021-preseason/2/

“Second, the broadening of the Big 12 with college football programs on the rise, as well as programs that expand the Big 12 footprint into new television markets, makes sense.” They say this…and then mention SMU as a possibility?

Standing room only here at the Hub Club at Apogee. Women’s Golf coach, Softball coaches and Grant MacCasland followed by Seth Littrell. Lots of food and gimme stuff and season ticket and parking sales seem to be going strong. Great fun. GO MEAN GREEN

I was thinking I heard softball was hosting Texas this season. Right ?

In 2018 we had Mason Fine and demolished them. Now just two years later and we are scared to death of them. That’s messed up man!

Who in the gov’t should determine what’s in my family’s best interests? What are their qualifications? Politicians aren’t our moral guides. To answer your question: You act on your community wants. Every time. I would never depend on Greg Abbott to tell me what’s in my best interest.

Here's the thing the last year+ has revealed: Equip a population/community with all the information they need to make the right decision, the decision best for themselves and a greater good, in addition to the freedom to make that decision, and we have demonstrated that many - A LOT - of people still make the bad decision. Either because of ignorance or, even worse, they only care about themselves and have zero shits to give about any greater good. I'm all about government staying out of our business, but these pandemics present an ugly moral dilemma for politicians: do you act based on your community's wants, even if it is against their best interests?

Dave Barnett is a professional sport’s broadcaster who love North Texas. Hank has developed into a professional color guy, either by training or experience, who is an instructor teaching others to become professional sports broadcasters. We have lots of talent at the Mean Green Sports Desk.

The vaccines have shown to really lessen the severity of Covid. They are free. Easily obtainable. I don't understand why you would make anyone wear a mask. The masks, like the vaccines, should be a personal choice. (and I'm not even taking a personal position on vaccines or not...just listing the facts as we know them today) Don't want to get a vaccine? Fine. Wear a mask. Don't want to wear a mask? Fine. Don't. Knowing everything we know now, if you get hospitalized or die with Covid, isn’t that on you? Indications are it can be easily avoided with the vaccine. Also, I would imagine most people that are anti-vaccine are also anti mask mandate anyway. So the group we're supposedly concerned with catching it aren't asking people to wear masks anyway. They're making their choice. I can't imagine being vaccinated and having an unvaccinated person walk up and say "Uh, excuse me, would you please put a mask on so I don't get hospitalized?" Uh....no chief, you don't want to get really sick, get the vaccine or wear more masks or stay home.

Incorrect. Research has shown vaccinated persons who catch the Delta variant of the virus can spread the virus, perhaps as much as non-vaccinated. But the vaccination largely prevents infection in the first place, so no the vaccinated are not “just as likely” to spread the virus because they are much, much less likely to contract it in the first place! And also less likely to be symptomatic if they do.

Usually those players don’t transfer to SMU

We scored to tie it? Hedlund's philosophy can "catch up" against bigger teams. He just ran out of time. I'm being, like, 50% sarcastic here.

Excuse me?? No, A&M actually scored against North Texas!

I feel better knowing Judy is watching out for CUSA. Honestly what has she done for CUSA and how does she keep her job?

Is this the first podcast or the second one in the last two weeks?

29th place....paid $41,013. I think that put Seb at over $1.9 million this year. On to the Fedex playoffs.....

ODU is a basketball school who has had mild success in the sport. Wish they would leave CUSA. They only moved to FBS football a few years ago. F’em.

Their $46 million budget gives them even less reason to whine about C-USA. LA Tech, and Southern Miss manage to win with food stamp budgets.

Good result and I hope it bodes well for the season. But it should be noted that A&M did rotate their squad a bit more. They played 4 GKs for instance.

Sir, this has nothing to do with UNT Football.