Greigns

Wow, I can't believe the pessimism I'm seeing here. I came out of watching practices much more confident that 6-6 is reasonable, and it looks like the rest of you guys suddenly jumped ship. 6-6 was a common prediciton a few weeks ago (that was after losing Horton and Gilmore) and the major problems at D Line we were seeing then seem to be at least under control now. Our 2 starting DEs had sacks in the scrimmage and looked good. Franklin should be a standout. DeLoach seems pretty content with his linebackers, and I trust him. And who doesn't feel confident about our secondary? Offense looks strong again, Vizza has a year in his belt, we have what looks to me like a much stronger O Line, and a TON of talent at RB and WR. Personally, I'm really looking forward to this season.

I'm adopting a wait and see attitude here. Seems to me like the defence is gelling much better than expected and the o-line actually looks pretty good. I'm hopeful, but we may not be quite where we need to be to give K-State a game yet. We'll see soon. I know I'll be there in Manhattan; hope you all will too.

6-6 is my prediction too

agreed

I was able to watch a couple of the practices last week and it did seem to me that condition was an issue with the 2 JUCOs, but it's so early in the year and they sure did look talented (not to mention huge). I could sure see them doing well in limited playing time with a little butt kicking in practice over the next couple of weeks and could see them being fantastic by the time Sun Belt play starts. It's optimistic, I know, but from my own experience with basketball those first few weeks of practice make a huge difference in conditioning. The rubber will hit the road in a couple of weeks in Manhattan, and we should know by then if we can expect much from our incoming titans/kung-fu pandas. SKADOOSH!

Not sure how much you care to talk about it, but is the issue there conditioning?

Yeah that's what I figured too. I can't wait to see if we pop out of that waiting list after week 1.

Thank the LORD that the season is about to start

Yeah, a close friend of mine sings his praises too. I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do.

I just came from watching practice, and it is open to the public. They weren't running full speed/pads and all that but they were looking pretty good. The O Line looks big. Riley's arm looks strong (no apparent problems from the shoulder). Vizza looked really good too. Secondary looks fantastic. I also think there's going to be some exciting competition at running back. Other than that it was hard to see how the D Line is shaping up since they weren't in pads. I'm excited! Lots of football left before the first snap in Manhattan.

Just to give this a more positive note: It seems to me that the mood around campus is much different than it was when the first vote came out. Now people seem to really have school spirit. Instead of hearing people say, "I'm just here to get my grades up so I can get into UT", I'm hearing "I visited UT but liked UNT way better" and other similar sentiments. I think the vote will be much different this time. People who don't care about their school (a la a few years ago) don't want to pay extra to make it better, and it still almost passed.

I know these things are pure speculation, but it still gets my mouth watering for the season. So fun!

This is encouraging. The DL is the one area that I'm really concerned about, so I appreciate the positive outlook/good info.

The first one is something he mentioned at the athletics luncheon thing during Parent Orientation. Essentially, he is going to have the SMHM department (particularly interior design students) work on doing the interior decorating for the stadium. He will also be giving hospitality students chances to help with running the concessions as a sort of practicum. One other big part of it is that they are working to make the stadium especially "Green" (using solar energy, using all recyclable products, there was also something about a special kind of parking lot that allows grass to grow up through it, I didn't really understand how it would work but it sounded cool). This may not seem like a big deal, but UNT is really developing a reputation for environmentalism which will get our name in newspapers and magazines. He said he's got a few other ideas too, but those are enough to get some wider support among students.

I actually got a chance to sit down with RV (his door open to anyone who wants to talk about how to promote UNT Football btw) and a few friends/coworkers a few days ago and he's got me convinced that this thing is really going to happen for 2010. I could be naive, but I know the department I work with will be hugely behind this in a grassroots sense. He's got some really cool ideas that will make this have a demonstrable impact on the University's academic reputation above and beyond the name recognition that it will inevitably bring. I think that will be a big selling point to those students who are less interested in sports. I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much, but it's getting tough at this point.