Green Lantern

Best shirts we ever created. I remember me and DPS coming up with the idea for that year's Bowl shirt. I believe he paid for his trip in sales of those shirts. The fact that the Memphis fans wanted to buy those from us as well was hilarious. The year before I had to explain to two ladies in their 50's (at the request from their husbands) what a FUPA was...good times. Anyway...Good Dart!

That shirt's awesome. Gonna have to pick one up after work.

It's nice to see more stadium talk for NT available for the public's consumption. Over the last few weeks, it seems as though there has been more new stadium talk through local media. Can't hurt to let potential donors and the fanbase in general know that a new football stadium is becoming a major priority for the University.

Rice and Kansas State at home in 2010 sounds pretty good to me. Is the Air Force return game still scheduled for 2009?

Actually I bought the other version of the hat. Probably won't wear it all that much, but it will go with rest of my NT items for display in the office.

Ditto. I don't like how they have to "trick up" hats like this. I tried this on the other day at Vista Ridge mall and I thought it looked funny on me. The logo on the hat is sweet however. Hopefully these will sell well and the demand will get them to make a more "conservative" version of the hat.

Maybe we can secure the services of the guy who provided the sketch of the "Leprachaun".

Tasty, Reading that just brought back all the horrible "soap opera" memories that was the 2006 NT football season. I may just puke up my lunch. Thanks

I'm warming ot the white helmet. If there was no precedent in the past of NT wearing a white helmet, I might be more attached to the Green helmet, but that's not the case. I think the new one looks sharp but I really wish they wouldn't just write out the name on the helmet. It's just so lazy. The new eagle logo would look perfect on this helmet...sadly we'll probably never see that happen no matter how much we complain about it. Boggles my mind that we've been hoping for years for NT to develop a strong, simple logo/symbol and then when we actually do it, we don't use it on one of the most visible mediums we have (the football helmet). All that being said...I like this helmet much better than the last two years helmets.

None of the previews matters. I also think that it is a lazy analysis of our current situation, but I can't really fault them for thinking that we're gonna be bad again next year. We had two really bad seasons in a row and didn't really show much promise last year coming down the stretch. We hired a high school coach (no matter how good he is, they'll compare the hire to Faust) that they don't see as having a proven D1 track record. The burden is now on Dodge and Co. to prove them wrong. We were in most of the Sunbelt games over the last couple of years even with our lackluster gameplans and poor in game coaching. We consistently shot ourselves in the foot with undiciplined play/untimely penalties. It was brutal to watch. However, we (under Dodge) should see a drastic improvement in these areas and eventually will have an offense that will actually put points on the board and in turn pressure on our opponents to make something happen. This team will be significantly better than what most of the "experts" think. I definately do not see us finishing in the cellar of the Sunbelt again this year.

I like this line of thinking. I single out the Navy game as the "statement" game because if the other two games presented in your scenario play out like this, then the Navy game legitimizes everything. We have the best chance here to "win over" the fanbase (especially the fence sitters) because it is a home game showcase for the program. Every NT fan that I know is planning on coming out to this particular game being that it is the attraction game on our home slate this year. If we make this game count, we can really have a positive effect on the program this year as well as the coming years by energizing the fanbase.

I also happen to think that SMU will be a good team this year and we will have our hands full with them. The problem is that we are playing them as our second game of the season. I think that we have way too many "unknowns" right now to think that this game is a sure thing. As stated, Bennett is really coaching for his job this year and I have to believe that the Ponies will show up for this game. A win for us is not out of the question but I think it will be much more difficult than many are predicting.

I personally think that the game that we can make a statement that we are arriving under the Dodge system is the Navy game. By the time we play Navy at home on November 10th, we should hitting our stride as a team (assuming that our offense has clicked and our defense continues to improve from last year). Beating a well respected team like Navy at our house coming down the stretch would be an impressive win and hopefully show the metroplex recruits that we have arrived. What games on this years schedule do ya'll think are the most important in order to "make a statement"?

Agreed. Funny analogy. Arrow really is walking into a positive situation this year at South Alabama. Should be interesting to see how his coaching influence will affect how they play coming down the stretch this year.

Also, according to Scout team rankings, we're only behind BYU as far as Non-BCS conference schools are concerned. Pretty impressive so far.

Our 02' and 03' teams were pretty stout by Belt standards. I think last year's Troy team was pretty good but there's some revisionist history going on with that team right now. People are remembering the NO Bowl win over Rice and acting like Troy steamrolled everyone else in the Belt. They lost to ASU and MTSU gave them all they wanted a week later barely losing. I don't think last years Troy team was any better than the NT team the beat Cincy in the NO Bowl. As far as not having anyone else good in the Belt, those NMSU teams (specifically 02') and MTSU (01') were pretty good Belt teams that we beat during those Bowl years. For the record, I think that NT will be able to be competitive in the Belt immediately under Dodge. I don't necessarily expect a Sunbelt title next year...but I wouln't be surprised to see us win it either.

Brad Kassell and Cody Spencer.

I think that we win somewhere between 5 & 7 ballgames this year. I also expect to see: A rejuvinated fanbase (w/plenty of new faces) Disciplined football Creative/Explosive offensive production Return to aggressive, attacking defense Team with an "expect to win" attitude

In simplest terms, I'd like to see the way the general fan watches/participates in the Gameday experience change. Someone else in the thread pointed out that many NT fans (especially on the Alumni side) seem embarrassed or show no real interest in participating in chants/standing & cheering. This is pretty much the case on the Alumni side (lower to mid section E excluded). It was depressing to graduate and get season tickets that first year and come to the Alumni side and see how docile and boring that portion of the crowd is. Being told by people that sit on that side that you should "sit down" when you are standing and cheering for NT doing something good just got old. I now watch most of the games from the Ben E. Keith deck because at least the people on the deck like to cheer/high five/talk NT football during the game. The only really good Alumni side Gameday experience I've had with the crowd was during the NMSU game for the conference title/bowl bid a few years back...other than that, the Alumni side crowd pretty much sucks. I'm hopeful that with TD, the crowd will have quite a bit more to cheer about in the future and will actually participate. It makes the whole experience much more enjoyable.

I agree 100%. We love to talk about how irrelevant they are in the college football world. Then why do some of our members spend so much time focusing on what they are doing or saying about us? Who cares? Let's focus on getting better as a program. BTW...I know that we need a rival. SMU is not it. They don't care about us. They wan't to be TCU's rival and TCU (as a whole) doesn't want anything to do with them either. Let's not be be that school. The one that so badly want's to be rivals with another that could care less. For the record, I think we should try to restart our series with NMSU and try and build a rivalry there. It was the closest thing to a rivalry that we had in the Belt. Or, approach UH and see about starting a home-away series. Could make for an interesting rivalry.

Great...Now I gotta get one of these after I get outta work.

Agreed. I'm preparing myself for the over-reaction here on GMG when we do end up losing one. Just remember...We all wished that the previous regime would conduct recruiting the way that Dodge and Co. are right now (ie. going after local talent, recruiting against the "big boys" without fear, and selling the positives of the program). Well, were getting that now. We need to be prepared for the way that things work when you are more visible with your recruiting efforts.

Exactly the way I feel about it. We had a really good team the year that we played Memphis in the NO Bowl. No one on the national scene gave us any more recognition than we received in the previous year. I also agree about SMU. We seem to focus so much time and energy on a program that has no relevance in today's college football landscape. I think that beating Navy this year would do us a whole hell of a lot more than a win against SMU. People actually talk about Navy on the national level occasionally. I understand the need for a rival but SMU doesn't really do much for me.

Ditto.

To be fair, they did play in the Motor City Bowl against Central Michigan last year...but I assume you meant that they never represented the SBC as the outright champion of the league in the NO Bowl.