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Two Pittsburgh Steelers legends will be dialed into Thursday's bowl game between North Texansand Miami (Ohio). Joe Greene, widely regarded as the greatest player in Steelers history, starred at North Texas before embarking on a Hall of Fame career in Pittsburgh. Ben Roethlisberger led the Redhawks to a Mid-American Conference title in 2003 before winning two Super Bowls as Pittsburgh's quarterback. Roethlisberger has placed a friendly wager with Greene ahead of the first-ever Frisco Football Classic. Here are the terms of Roethlisberger's wager: If Miami wins: Roethlisberger will receive a "Mean" Joe Greene autographed jersey If North Texans wins: Roethlisberger will donate to the Agnes Lucille Craft Greene Memorial Scholarship Fund, which was started by Greene in honor of his late wife whom he met when the two were students at North Texas. read more: https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/ben-roethlisberger-makes-friendly-bowl-wager-with-steelers-legend-mean-joe-greene/amp/

I kid, I kid. Good on you for doing the responsible thing.

Frisco Bowl Classic seats getting scare To whomever is doing it, please stop scaring the seats.

It's just sad that some people would rather dwell on the stadium only being 80%-90% full instead of our first bowl win since 2013. We're a historically bad program that went 6-6. Of course our fan support isn't going to be great right now. But guess what? If we win this game, we'll have a great crowd for the season opener next year vs SMU.

Happy to talk about the first part of the season. It was shit. He totally wasted multiple opportunities to beat superior opponents despite a great chance to do so. I called for Seth’s head. Then he adjusted and we started winning. And I am damn happy about that. And even though he beat a ranked opponent for the first time in 50 years, I would have been fine with his firing because of the entire body of work. Even the nine win seasons were somewhat of a mirage. Honestly this year and 2016 were better coaching jobs than ‘17 and ‘18. But I am also a realist: there was no way Wren was going to fire Seth after that winning streak. It just isn’t where we are and it honestly wouldn’t make a ton of sense to our fans and donors given the hype over the big win and bowl berth. Should we expect more? Perhaps. But unless you are giving six figures - and you are not- then you don’t really get a say. Me either. I would have fired Seth after Liberty. But like Dickey, he didn’t get fired at his lowest point and turned it around. So rather than bitch and moan in every damn thread about how much he sucks I am going to enjoy the streak and our unexpected success. And root for SL to break his bowl drought because this team deserves my support and a win. And if he starts out slowly next season I will again be at the front of the line calling for his firing but always rooting he has finally figured it out. We win less than 7 next year and he should be gone.

Great alum! 🙌

SMU doesn’t have the stones to play us on 24 hour notice.

I think these videos highlighting an awarded scholarship are incredible. Just as feel-good as winning a big upset game. Or a championship game. Usually, you're looking at an athlete that started as a walk on and, against incredible odds, earned it.

Click on each individual page to blow it up enough to read

I met George Carranza at the Breakfast Kiwanis Turkey Roll Bicycle Rally. He had a booth there and I asked him why there wasn't an Allstate "Good Hands" net at Apogee Stadium. He seemed as surprised at the suggestion and admitted he didn't know. He said he thought it was a good idea and i followed up with him. He told me that Allstate would be moved to do something by some sort of sign of support by North Texas fans. "Like what ?", I asked. Like fans asking, was the reply. So here I am, asking. I'd like North Texas fans to take ONE MINUTE and write something to Allstate Insurance asking for a "Good Hands' net in the north end zone of Apogee Stadium Send your requests to Allstate c/o George Carranza, 2430 South Interstate 35E, Suite 212, Denton, 76205, or gcarranza@allstate.com. Here's a sample of what to say: Dear Allstate and Mr. Carranza, I'm a fan of North Texas Mean Green Football. I'd like to see an Allstate "Good Hands" net in the north end zone of Apogee Stadium. This would be good exposure for Allstate and a fun addition to North Texas Football. Go Mean Green. YOUR NAME HERE. Easy. Get your family together over the holidays and each of your write to Allstate and let's get a "Good Hand's net up before the start of football season. See you Thursday at Frisco. GO MEAN GREEN

They probably heard it is forecast to be 52 at kickoff with the temperature dropping and got scared.

Not to mention other QB's coming in and being servicable. Quinn Shanbour led some scoring drives against Iowa and FAU. Alec Morris almost won the bowl game. Kason Martin(albeit in garbage time) playing well in the New Mexico bowl. Every QB Harrell coached looked way more competent than what we have now. It's a direct result of the playcalling and QB coaching, both of which have taken a nosedive since he left.

This is very cool, definitely brings a little excitement (attention) to the game. It would be another level if they were both available to be part of the coin toss as honorary captains.

We were the undercard of a two game event in OKC. The feature event, USC vs OSU was cancelled when USC announced they would not be able to travel due to California Covid. Then the whole event was cancelled so refunds could be issued. Tulsa didn't duck us, they just got lucky.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/unt-east-oak-bowl-game-package-tickets-224318822637?aff=eand&fbclid=IwAR3r_idqgn9XJXDUgB_R59aQe3h488zWDi1J4dF4_M4tGT4uSFyap4l95dQ

The team deserves more support. We've had two really quality OOC wins and are coming off of a victory in the NCAA Tournament. This could be the best squad Mac has had come March.

I think WBAP is just trolling @PlummMeanGreen

I guess me and you have a different meaning of success at North Texas

And also having 3 NFL WRs to throw to and a NFL RB to hand off to….

Go North Texans!

Ben Roethlisberger and Joe Greene have a friendly wager on the game: https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/ben-roethlisberger-makes-friendly-bowl-wager-with-steelers-legend-mean-joe-greene/

Kentucky isn't ducking WKU. Look at this late scheduled game due to UofL canceling (COVID). Hilltoppers to Play at Kentucky on Wednesday in Newly Scheduled Game (wbko.com)

John Williams at Eastside still has about 35 spots left in his bus, beer, bowl package.

Almost all are gone from the bowl site, but still about 1,200 left on Miami’s website. The bowl needs to repossess those and release them to the public.

Assuming nothing changes, are there any special Covid protocols required for the game?? Vaccine card? Mask? MAGA hat? Empty Ivermectin tube? Anything?

It was December 21, 1946 I stopped by Coach Mitchell's grave in Denton this week It was beyond comical how the 1946 football season started for North Texas. The football program had been cancelled at North Texas State during World War II. The was no equipment and there were no facilities. North Texas had hired a new coach to rebuild the program but he never reported to campus and he called to say that he had taken another job just two weeks before the fall semester started. Former Athletic Director Theron Fouts had been instrumental in the creation of the new Lone Star Conference and now his own school was not even going to be fielding a team. A call went out to Odus Mitchell, football coach at Marshall High School in the tiny east piney woods town of Marshall, Texas. Mitchell had studied the game and it's great innovators, and was having a very successful career coaching at Marshall. His 1944 team, with a side throwing kid at quarterback named Y.A. Tittle, had just made the Texas football quarterfinals. Coach Mitchell must have been crazy because he boldly jumped at the opportunity. He was then told "you have no team, you have no equipment or facilities, you have no time to recruit players so you'll have to draw from current students on campus, and, you play at Texas A&M in College Station in 11 days." Nothing daunted Coach Mitchell and he enthusiastically accepted the challenge. In a 1982 interview, Mitchell recalled the whirlwind start to the 1946 season. "It was nearly time for the season to start," he said. "I hadn't done any recruiting or anything, and I hadn't had an experience with recruiting. I got initiated like heck the first game." Texas A&M trounced North Texas in Mitchell's first game at the helm, 47-0. But things turned around quickly. Mitchell got his first collegiate victory the next game with a 14-0 win over Austin College. Two weeks later, the squad beat Fort Sam Houston. Three wins later, North Texas was geared up for a showdown for the Lone Star Conference Championship with rival East Texas State, now known as Texas A&M-Commerce. North Texas exploded for a 47-7 victory and was headed to its first bowl game in program history. Mitchell was set to square off with legendary coach Amos Alonzo Stagg's College of the Pacific Tigers in the 1946 Optimist Bowl. First year North Texas coach Odus Mitchell with Pacific coach Amos Alonzo Stagg the night preceding the bowl game 1946 Optimist Bowl Public School Stadium, site of the 1946 Optimist Bowl, later to be renamed Robertson Stadium The game was scoreless through the first quarter, but NT got on the board in the second when Ned McNeil intercepted a Pacific pass and ran it 58 yards back for a touchdown. Pacific tied the game in the third on a five-yard touchdown pass following a fumble recovery deep in North Texas territory. The Tiger broke the tie late in the fourth quarter on a 22-yard touchdown pass, but a key miss on the extra point gave North Texas some life. NT then drove down the field to give the school its first ever bowl victory. The drive began with a long kickoff return, a 20-yard gain through the air, a lengthy quarterback run and a couple Tigers penalties, making it first-and-goal from the Pacific nine-yard line. After three failed pass attempts, North Texas was down to its last chance. NT hall of fame running back Billy Dinkle, who frequently took snaps at quarterback for the 1946 squad, stayed back and threw a pass to wide receiver Louis Rienzi in the end zone to tie the game. Dinkle, also the kicker, then won the game himself by putting the extra point through the uprights with only seconds left, giving North Texas the 14-13 lead and victory. Legendary Coach Stagg prepares to shake hands with victorious North Texas Coach Odus Mitchell as he watches the final seconds tick on the game clock Mitchell went on to win an incredible 122 games at North Texas, took the team to 14 winning seasons and led the school's efforts in integrating the team in 1956, making it the first team in Texas to allow African-American students to play college football as he instituted a policy allowing "any African American students who showed interest in the football team to be given a fair chance" while he was the head coach at North Texas. He extended a scholarship offer to incoming African-American freshmen Abner Haynes and Leon King in 1956, promoting them to the varsity squad in 1957. Haynes and King both made their varsity debuts on September 21, 1957, becoming the first African-Americans to play major college football in Texas. In the summer of 1965, he also recruited future National Football League Hall of Famer Mean Joe Greene from Temple, Texas. The ferocious Greene-led defense allowed an average of less than two yards per carry in 1966, Mitchell's final season at North Texas, earning the team the nickname "Mean Green," which stuck and is now the official mascot of the university to this day. In that 1966 season, North Texas went 8–2, which helped earn him National Coach of the Year honors. In 1986, he was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame. Mitchell retired in 1966 and was selected for the North Texas Hall of Fame's inaugural class in 1981 and the Optimist Bowl-winning team boasted several other hall of famers as well including Dinkle, tackles Felton Whitlow and Dick Lindsay, defensive linemen Jim Cooper and Jim Eagle and starting quarterback Fred McCain. North Texas HOF Center Jim Eagle's varsity blanket. Mitchell, now a member of the Texas Hall of Fame, took North Texas to the Salad Bowl the very next season, but nothing could compare to the scrappy 1946 team that rallied around him and won the Optimist Bowl in his first season. We are now heading into our 13th Bowl Game this Thursday in the Frisco Classic *** and in an odd side note*** ... that high school quarterback that he started despite the sidearm-throwing-hitch went on to play at LSU. He got moved to running back because of his throwing style, but was then pulled back to QB due to personnel shortage. Tittle then played 17 years in the NFL, and still holds the NY Giants record for most touchdowns in a season, and only retired when he said "I think it's a hint to retire when your backup quarterback is dating your daughter." (That's a hint to Aune, keep playing) Almost all of the notes in this post are compiled from other people's notes and stories. If you feel like thanking somebody, please thank Randy Cummings, for he compiled all of Coach Odus Mitchell's recorded memoirs into a compilation for the Willis Library back in the 1980's. For those of you that don't know him, Randy is the tall white haired guy wearing a referee jersey at the sidecourt table at every North Texas men's basketball game. He's had a lifetime of selfless devotion to our sports programs, please stop by and tell him "thank you". .

Just got mine. Sec. 124 Row 15

why couldn't the game been played at Tulsa or UNT since we both were without a date? We have Rice (maybe) on Jan 1st? Hate to keep not having games right before conference starts.

Directing to their marketing folks may be a better tactic that sending to a small business owner/agent. This is coming from a fellow agent.

Done.

Nice retort.

Wonder if Lewis transfers? We were close on him.

Someone already posted a link to the CBS article so this is not original, but it does take you directly to the tweet without having to go through the article.

Me plus 12 are going. Idk about you guys but I'm gonna have a good time regardless of official attendance numbers.

Not likely.

Bennett is 100% here for Littrell & saved his job. Seth would be wise to take his entire bowl game bonus & just Zelle it all to Bennett.

Jimmy Sexton is an amazing writer.

Dog-gone-it. I was considering driving to Oklahoma City. Which briefly would have improved the average IQ of both Texas and Oklahoma.

Look CMJ, i know you really want to be there for every game, and we all appreciate your dedication to the program... but for you to call the game off due to your unavailability is a little extreme. Signed, golfin

Tell me when and I’ll pick him up at the airport.

Our tailgate team is part of this pregame party. There has been a lot of planning as to how we are going to feed and drink 5000 people. Lets just say I think the "group of alumni cooking" are going to pull it off. As for us, we are going to have a "Western Son Vodka bloody mary bar" Free to all until we run out of course, and we have a sh** ton of vodka. As well as our usual bbq in expanded quantities. I would love to metaphorically leave Frisco in ashes. GO MEAN GREEN!!!!!!!

Good question

Transfers to Colorado

If I were them I would buy as many tickets as possible. Rather have empty seats over a green stadium.

Until Uncle Covid showed up and screwed the whole thing up.