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Defense was ok. Not great, but not bad. Showed flashes of stopping the run. Secondary was aggressive in the run game. D-Line and linebackers need to get more involved. More pass rush also. But didn't give up any big plays. Offense 1st team looked good. Scored almost every possession. Running backs a little banged up so didn't see them all. Stone was with 1st team QB. Looked accurate. Ran the offense well. Good timing with receivers. Cash was 2nd team QB. Looked solid. Good arm, but a little late on a couple of throws. Ran the ball well when he had to scramble. Reese was 3rd QB. Didn't do much. Missed some receivers and completed a couple of short passes. Overall a good scrimmage. Looked better than this time last year. O-Line will be solid. Kicker made a 51 yarder during live scrimmage. So that's good. Saw Chandler Morris there watching. Not very big. Smaller than Stone. Will be interesting to see how things play out this summer.

There's no recruiting dropoff. Hodge is likely more relatable than McCasland anyway. Coach Hodge brought in Edwards, Noland, Buggs, Walker & Allen over the last cycle. Also, Phil Forte, who is a good coach/recruiter. The two HS kids we have lined up appear to be nice players (Taylor ranked the #20PG in this class), and based on last year's success, I think it's safe to say he knows what he's doing when finding guys in the portal & JUCO.

I can. We would have lost our coach to Michigan and feared for our future. FAU is still playing in a practice barn and might disappear into irrelevancy for a while...again. (And it'd be totally worth it!)

Nice to see him take a step up and advance his career.

Agree, our most challenging schedule ever.... North Texas @ Missouri L 7 28 North Texas Kansas L 10 27 North Texas Oregon State W 30 27 North Texas @ (10) Oklahoma L 10 51 North Texas @ Nevada L 24 56 North Texas UAB L 14 19 North Texas @ LSU L 7 49 North Texas @ (18) Alabama L 19 38 North Texas @ Nevada-Las Vegas L 24 34 North Texas Idaho State W 41 38 North Texas @ Louisville L 14 57

While a Final Four team would definitely get our head coach swooped up, I'm optimistic a coaching change wouldn't throw us off course much anymore. This is the first time we've had seven straight winning seasons. While losing here isn't going to get death threats like at the P6 schools, I feel the pressure is greater now for us to succeed. And with the rise of social media it is easier for the AD to feel the pressure. As much of a fan I am of Wren and Jared, their availability on social media also leaves them subject to hearing displeasures much more often than Rick might have. I don't think he was on Twitter.

So it sounds like we need to buy an entire section of season tickets! 🤔 I may not be in the financial situation to be a major donor of the program but I try to make up for it for going to as many games as possible. 39 so far this school year across all six specator sports. While I'm still physically able I plan to keep being rowdy and holding the refs accountable from as close to the court as I can (while refraining to curse if there's kids sitting nearby). I try not to stand as much if there's people directly behind us, but a lot of our crowd needs to be better at recognizing when we're grabbing momentum and get louder. There's more instances than us dribbling out a win with 20 seconds left to get on your feet and make some noise. Also, watching March Madness and I'm seeing a lot of non-students standing throughout the game from the front row to the top. The more energetic fans need to be closer to the court.

Bet he declares.

With the athletics department recently posting a Director of Marketing and Fan Engagement position, I thought this would be a good time to revisit some of the ideas we had - you know, us! The people who don't get paid to think of these things. Maybe we can help the new guy/gal out. This thread is for ideas other than the inevitable "Just win, baby." comment!! Some thoughts I had: Bring back the homecoming parade. The student interest/sustainability is BS. And also, pick a game that'll make the mostly unengaged alumni say, "Wow, this is good football. Our defense doesn't look like the worst in the country. I'm going to come back." Gotta be September 28th vs. Tulsa this year (November 9th vs. Army should be a higher attended game anyway). Promote the skills and productions of other student organizations at games. Organizations who may be made up of students who don't normally like sports. Have student musicians/bands perform national anthems or halftime, have pregame art galleries, screen Media Arts film festival winners at halftimes. Do whatever it takes to stabilize the Greek presence at football/basketball games. Extend tailgate season to weekend conference home games in basketball, move them inside when it's cold. Incentivize RA's to have their floors/dorms out at games. Run campus buses strategically to provide transportation to games. Go back to putting bus trips together for away games in the area (SMU, UTA, etc. etc.). Have a ticket center in the UNT Union/bookstore, somewhere almost all students visit daily, plus almost every visitor. Signage everywhere on campus promoting games. Students should never not know "when the next game is." Start a mailing campaign offering four free tickets to every household in Denton, Wise, and Cooke Counties (possibly even Collin and Grayson Counties since there are no major universities there either). Not sure what the cost of this would be, but the combined population of these five counties in 2020 was 2,216,730. So you could start with the promotion for football, at least expand it to men's/women's basketball, then depending on the cost even expand it to the other three spectator sports, although "supplies" will be even more limited for those sports. Or go county-by-county year after year. Hopefully you get several hundred or a few thousand new sales leads out of this. The next year, send the mailers out to only the households who didn't take advantage while trying to sell tickets to the people who attended. Rinse and repeat for 3-5 years. Until we can regularly fill up our student section, extend the free ticket program to Denton high school (or Denton County high school) students, maybe limiting to a certain number per school. Have each high school get their own tailgating area. This may be tricky from a liability standpoint though? If a high school kid wants an alcoholic beverage I'm sure he/she'll have no problem getting it. Work with some of the local community colleges to provide the same opportunity for football - like NCTC and Collin College. Loosen up media credential ability while we continue to get little coverage. Allow/encourage local Denton high school newspaper/video production/photography organizations to be a part of North Texas game days. Beyond our basic First Responder days, Parents weekends, work with the closeby districts who have education foundations to have "Gainesville ISD Day" or "Decatur ISD Day" at DATCU/the Super Pit where part of each ticket purchased goes to their foundation. Or could be an elementary/middle school PTO. Every TV in a public space on campus should be playing our away games for any sport. Arrange watch parties for the dorm TV's. Like student emails allows students to access Microsoft programs for free, extend this to Disney bundles (Disney+/Hulu/ESPN+). Showcase our university by operating our facilities as premier venue options. We're not getting any premier concerts after all the new venues that have been built around the area since 1974, or even 2013. But DATCU should be hosting a higher-class playoff football game every Friday/Saturday it's available till the state championship. Same with the Super Pit. What else?

I love this announcement! Joy all around! GMG

I can't think of better news that could happen to the NT athletic program. Notice I didn't say WBB program.

Did your girlfriend approve of the way Hodge addressed his players? I think this goes a long way in determining whether we are successful on the recruiting trail or not.

F. Lanier will do good things. Rice just got better. It’s all good. Hodge gonna bring in some horses and the AAC gonna continue to grow. GMG

Totally different situations. If we were to reach the Final Four, with the talent in our backyard, we’d see a BIG uptick in our recruiting. Even if Mac had taken us there, then left for Michigan, Boss Hodge would have taken over a very strong squad…even if some recruits followed Mac. FAU will disappear for a while now.

Does it suck he didn't stay? Yes. But he should always be remembered for the NIT championship, CUSA championship, CUSA player of the year and NIT Most Outstanding Player honors. He scored over 1,000 points in 67 games and the team went 56-14 in his two seasons in Denton. We need more players like that even if they eventually get lured away by deep-pocketed rat bastards higher than us in the food chain.

Will J Davis (from Gary, IN) join him??

Back to back to back walk-off winners. I doubt I'll ever see that again. Very proud of the way the girls fought against great pitching in this series. Tulsa is going to be a tough out in the conference tournament. Coach should take the girls out and celebrate this series sweep. Remember, Tulsa was tied for the conference lead heading into the weekend. We moved them down to 4th place. Co-leader, FAU got to feast on a 3-25 Memphis team this weekend. Right now, UNT looks as good or better than any program in the AAC.

We did. And it was awesome. GMG

any info on the scrimmage?

After a huge sweep of Tulsa, the ladies will go for the sweep of UT Arlington this Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Allen Saxe Field in A-town (do people call it that?). If you're close to Arlington, join us for the game to give the ladies some home-away-from-home cookin'! As of right now, I should be able to get people added to the pass list for free. So let me know if you want to join our group.

I hope her and her son are getting some NIL support

He looked real good. With some RB's out he got a lot of reps. Very shifty and quick. Had a couple of big runs.

Heard Shane Porter got reps at RB and ran pretty well. Scored a rushing TD and 1 catching TD.

GREAT news! Recruiting starts in your own house these days. Glad Tommisha is sticking around!

There is no reason to use the C word in the basketball forum. It's like cursing.

Regarding this: Loosen up media credential ability while we continue to get little coverage. Allow/encourage local Denton high school newspaper/videoproduction/photography organizations to be a part of North Texas game days. The AD / School do a great job supporting media. I covered all of CUSA for a bit and there are some programs that actively discourage anyone not named ESPN from covering things. NT is great at encouraging and supporting non-traditional media coverage (blogs, podcasts, small sites, etc) . No complaints.

Where do we go from here? One way ticket to the AAC champs. May out at FAU? USF was great this season, but I need another year before I'm convinced. No one else scares me.

We go up. That's where.

Yep. Hey loser, it's season ticket time. Don't you want to watch the kid you chipped in $10 / month to fund? Time to put your deposit in! (also we need a new locker room so leave your checkbook out)

It works both ways. I bet OU wasn't too happy to lose one of their brighter young guys last year in Noland (a guy who started 8 games for them as a sophomore). But Noland wanted more run, and he found that here. I'm glad he did. I bet OleMiss wasn't too happy to lose Allen (a 13-game starter last year), but I'm thankful they did. It's just a part of the game you have to play. Recruiting is a different animal now.

That may have been for the best. When he was on Twitter with the Light the Tower NIL collective he kept posting political opinions because he forgot which account he was on.

I can't speak for everyone or for anyone. But we are trying to stack success... 20+ win seasons, reg season 🏆, conference tournament 🏆, NCAA tournament appearances, etc. We are trying to give our alum a reason to be proud of their university while shining a positive light on our university. If that one day leads to a deep run and a natty I would be elated, but I'm also realistic. So, given that, we can recruit junk yard dawgs, play like snails, slap the floor and rely on defense. It's a frustrating product to defend and it's a winning formula for us.

Thank you, I've been trying to find a way to put this. Also, I know we want the most qualified people in these important roles in the AD but some actual UNT alumni who want to see our athletics succeed before any other P5 team and will work hard to make that a reality would be nice too.

The people forking over money for NIL probably don't want to fork over more for commercials, since that money could be spent on more athletes. If I was bankrolling NIL deals for UNT I would make the players endorse Morrison's Corn Kits.

I heard he we had $150k for him to stay. I think that was the amount, but don’t hold me to it. I was shocked when I heard the amount.

What a great win.........3-2.....winning run driven in by Saleen. Great pitching from MackWags and Skylar. Some more great defense. Team now 8-1 in league play.

Yep, they need to move up top, not complain or join in and stand up when appropriate.

What a horrible interference call overturning a force out at third and resulting in a run for Tulsa. The runs in the fourth inning by Tulsa are on the umpires. As a former third baseman and umpire, complete B.S.

A couple of years ago, my Breakfast Kiwanis Club offered to provide and operate, at no cost to UNT, passenger golf carts to help move, quickly, fans coming to and/or from the stadium. We would rent the golf carts and simply go back and forth moving as many people as we could. The Athletic Dept said no. The catch-all response was “our insurance won’t let us do that. It’s hard to help when any and all ideas get shot down.

The least he could have done was to leave the AAC a few more NCAA units before he left.

I finally bought season tickets this year after a few years of continuing to stand in the student section. Now that the Maniacs have established themselves, we tried to bring noise on the other end. But we need some of the old farts to stop telling the energetic fans to sit down/be quiet. Those people should go sit up in the higher rows!

Mentioned starting at Coffeyville... bypassed his biggest accomplishments... went into massive props for KSU.

Yep, we need to target the Business/Engineering students. The weird art kids are not going to attend a football or basketball game.

Have a ticket center in the UNT Union/bookstore, somewhere almost all students visit daily, plus almost every visitor. Signage everywhere on campus promoting games. Students should never not know "when the next game is." Run campus buses strategically to provide transportation to games. Promote the skills and productions of other student organizations at games. Organizations who may be made up of students who don't normally like sports. Have student musicians/bands perform national anthems or halftime, have pregame art galleries, screen Media Arts film festival winners at halftimes I like all of your ideas, but these three seem so easy and relatively inexpensive. Plus, they are all geared towards current students who obviously have a connection to the university.

The problem with engagement and getting new potential fans out is if they don’t enjoy the on-the-field product then it was all for naught. The odds of them showing again is almost zero. Regardless of this person’s job, it will start and end with Morris and Mosley and if they can build a program people want to watch. We almost sold out LaTech in 2018 and had we beaten them and continued the winning streak I bet we would have sold out at least once that season.

Examples showing actual national superstars really don't count. Their endorsements hold clear value, comparable to or exceeding what a high-profile professional athlete holds. What about these benchwarmers pulling in 6 figures a year NIL?