Green Lantern

Totally agree about NT needing to get a big win next week. However, we (as a conference) need to keep winning the OOC games. It's true that most casuals will not immediately be impressed with the SBC...but consistent winning of these games over a 3-5 year span of time does nothing but help NT's perception in the college football world. I think we are all expecting good things under Dodge in the coming years, so it would benefit us if our conference mates were viewed as legitimate competition by college football analysts in the near future.

Good weekend so far for the Belt. Hopefully ASU will come through tonight.

The argument is not about not playing "money games"...It's the opponents that we choose to schedule. UT, OU, and LSU in 4 years are not the kinds of games I want to see on our schedule. Perennial top 5 programs. There are a host of other teams in BCS conferences that we could try and schedule, and still get a nice payout...while still having a good chance to win. Have you not been on the board the last 4-5 years after our opening games? People say they wanna play the "big boys", and then when we do (and lose big) everyone freaks out. Now, if losing those kinds of games has that effect on the "hardcore" NT fan base here on GMG, what effect does it have on the casual NT fans? I'll tell you...it breads apathy among those fans. They see that we got killed in a season opener...again. They lose interest in NT football again for another year. I'm all for scheduling a couple of $ games. I understand the need for these games to support the program financially. Just pick some opponents that we have a reasonable chance to compete with. Miami next year would have been great...oh wait, we dropped them to put LSU on the schedule.

Great point about the home and home thing that RV said. I tried to bring this up in another thread (specifically about scheduling @ LSU 2 years in a row) and I got responses like "Donate $1,000,000 to the athletic department and then we wouldn't have to schedule these type of games". Really constructive stuff. I'm glad someone else remembers what was told to us. If the season ticket sales increased significantly and the MGC donations went up, we were supposed to lose the juggernauts on our schedule. Hopefully this will be the case in the future. To the point of the thread...The SBC has looked pretty good so far in OOC games. The conference as a whole needs to take the next step and start "cashing in" on these close games. Kudos to Troy for setting the bar this year.

I love this type of retort. Miss the point much? Why not schedule a team that will still pay well, and a team that still gives a reasonable chance to win. Examples: Texas A&M, OK State, Colorado, Miami (oh wait...we dropped them to schedule LSU) and countless others. Why keep sending our team to open the season against a perennial top 5 program in one of the hardest venues in college football to get a win?

GrayEagleOne, You make some good points. For the undisclosed game in 08', I don't see any point in mentioning anything regarding this game period. The article makes it sound like we're getting some great opponent...and I agree with you, not mentioning who it could possibly be is probably best for the fans (in case a name opponent falls through). I think that just leaving the whole situation unsaid would be the better choice. As for the LSU thing, I understand the huge payout we get, but when are we gonna get away from scheduling perinnial top 5 programs? I get (as do many others here) a little frustrated with being offered up as fodder for these types of powerhouse teams in their season openers. It offers nothing productive to our program (currently...3-5 years from now may be a different story) except for a huge paycheck and tends to demoralize the fanbase just as the season is getting started. Why not try to schedule someone else who will still pay fairly big, but still offers us a reasonable chance to win the game? The Miami game was an example of this to me. They are down now, but we get rid of that game and put LSU on the schedule instead!? Thanks for the insight that you offered and the clarification of the K-State series.

Our lone offensive highlight that day (minus the touchdown early in the game called back cause of holding).

Agree. FAU looks to be decent this year and Minnesota looks vulnerable. Probably the best chance for an upset this week. Troy has a chance, but you have to think that OSU will be looking to nail them this week.

What's with the undiscolsed opponent in 2008. I've read that a couple of times now. What is the reason for not disclosing who it is? Isn't the K-State game a home and home series? Also, I'm not terribly pleased with scheduling @ LSU 2 years in a row.

Love seeing commits that help us shore up the lines. Keep em' coming.

Boy, this topic really spun out of control. To the SMU guys, thanks for stopping by and offering your perspective. I really do happen to agree with what they said for the most part. Realistically, NT really does have the most to gain as far as enhancing perception and creation of rivalries are concerned. SMU and TCU already have each other. I really feel that it's a shame that all three Universities choose to not see the bigger picture. Creating a yearly scenario where all three teams play each other creates more local media attention, gives the winning teams bragging rights for the year, and helps (hopefully) keep good local talent interested in staying and playing for one of these schools when they go to college. Everyone would benefit from this in the long term...but make no mistake, NT stands to gain the most by a long shot.

True. My friends and I were commenting all game about how poor our run defense was, and how poor the tackling has been for two weeks in a row. Right now, the defense is performing miserably from top to bottom. People want an easy scapegoat and Roman has become that for many...but they are ignoring much more glaring weaknesses defensively. We also get no pressure on the quarterback on a consistent basis. Jeremiah Chapman was there a few times, but we were losing the battle on the line defensively all night long. It was the difference in the game.

That's the fact that is the most sickening thing about it. I'm aware of the politics between the different Universities, as well as the idea of "perception" that is keeping this from happening. All of this boils down to robbing the fans from what could be a yearly tradition that all involved could rally around.

That was my one and only minor complaint about Ford Staduim. I loved being so close to the field (I tried to imagine how cool it would be to have a home crowd that close to the action) but if the people in front of you stand up, you are forced to stand up as well. This could even pertain to people 2 rows in front of you. I'm not bitching about standing (I love to stand and watch games) but it always causes problems at games. Some fans want to sit the entire game and sometimes make it confrontational regarding the sitting/standing situation. We had minor issues with the people behind us wanting us to sit down all game, but we couldn't because two people 2 rows down kept standing up and watching the game through binoculars, blocking our view (like that was f'n necessary at Ford). It forced us to stand up all game just to watch the action and caused arguments between us and the people behind us. Sorry for the long winded story...My point was really just to agree with kj86 in that the new NT stadium should take note of small things like pitch/angle of the stadium seating. All in all, Ford is an awesome venue and great place to watch a game.

Ok, after last weekends game at SMU, I'm officially beaten down by the fact that SMU-NT-TCU don't all play each other on a yearly basis. The game at SMU was great as were the pre-game festivities. Kudos to the NT athletic department for a great set up for the fans and kudos to SMU for a unique pre game "tailgate" setup. The fan turnout for NT was great. By far the most enthusiastic and energetic traveling crowd that I've been apart of (minus the NO Bowls). All week prior to the game, we got great local media coverage, and there really seemed to be a great feeling about these two programs playing each other again. This was similar to last year's game here at Fouts. The last time that we had a 1-1 series with TCU, similar things happend. Great travelling fanbases to all school's home stadiums, positive local media coverage, and great gameday atmosphere. All three of these schools bitch about being an after thought when it comes to Metroplex media coverage and being the step children to the Big 12 teams...well, do something about it!!! It's obvious that the fans want to see these games, the money has to be pretty good for the schools involved, rivalry's that people give a $hit about can be created, and local media is more or less forced to give you attention. My question...How can we not get these games scheduled every year?

To add onto this thought that I agree with...Our run defense really needs to tighten up. We have way too many big holes followed by poor tackling to be effective against the run. Arkansas will eat our run defense alive if we are not willing to make some adjustments.

His quote said that WE made mistakes. Couple that with playing a team (OU) that has marvelous athletes and you are bound to be in for a tough day. I don't see what's wrong with what he said. God, I'm ready to kick the crap out of SMU so we can put OU behind us for good.

The last paragraph there made me lol (yea I know it's gay to lol...but I did it anyway). To your point...I think the Sunbelt's programs are starting to grow up a little bit. If we get that second gauranteed bowl game (I'm sure Ark St. Fan probably has info regarding this) for the conference, I really think that would make a positive statement about Sunbelt football. Has anyone noticed how many more Sunbelt games are being broadcast on National TV in the past couple of years? I think we need to give the conference and WW some credit for doing small things each year that raise the credibility of the conference. Now we just need some teams to take that next step and cash in on opportunities to win games against the big boys.

What can be said about this, really? The video says it all.

Post Bully.

Would we be better off putting Peachy in the lineup this week against SMU or hold him out for another week and make sure he's ready to roll for conference foe FAU?

Did Quoner do the third one?

No, surely not. I was just pointing out the typical over-reactions that get thrown out here on a yearly basis. GoMeanGreen1999, you personally bring up very good points and offer insightful discussion. That can not be said for all. There's always a glut of new posters (and some old fav's) that pop up to try and kick the program in the groin when something doesn't go as expected and offer nothing constructive. Questioning coaching decisions, evaluating game preparation as well as player execution is what should be expected on message boards. What GreenMiner was saying...and I find it amusing, is that all of the Dodge lovefest in the offseason seemed to end very abruptly after Sat. Many people that claimed they would be patient and not "expect too much" in TD's first season sure turned around on that stance at the first sign of adversity. For the record GMG 1999, I am not one of those people who will be happy with a 3 win season. I expect us to beat SMU this Saturday and to compete for the Sunbelt Conference championship this year. It can be done.

This is probably the best question posed after the OU loss. Everyone was dissapointed with the lopsided loss, but did everyone on here not think that it was within the realm of possibility? At least it wasn't a 54-2 loss to Tulsa at home or a 65-0 Loss to UT. Think about those atrocities and then put the OU game in perspective. Seems like there was quite a bit of venom being spewed after last Saturday. What happened to all of those patient Mean Green fans?

At least this is the "Old School Version". I hate all the young hipster's SMU songs.