VideoEagle

True! Denton county has a population of 941k+ and is a 40 minute drive from hundreds of entertainment options. Boone is in Watagua county with a population 54k+ and is a two hour drive from Charlotte with about a quarter of the entertainment options. Going to a game is one of very few choices for a fall day in Boone! In Denton, there are a lot more options. Saying that’s an “excuse” is like saying the rotation of the Earth is just an excuse for the sun not rising in the west!

Do want to institute a totally new base defense or do you want to win immediately? Those two choices are mutually exclusive!

Not the possibility of a chance. The sole reason he was willing to take the NT job in the first place was his close friendship with Seth. We fired Seth. Phil's not coming back.

I've never seen ANY athletic department make a public announcement there was going to be a rebuilding year. That's not how it works. As a Memphis fan pointed out last week, expecting a new coach coming in the same year we move to what everyone knew was a tougher conference is "unrealistic."

Technically no, they would have needed to expand Fouts BEFORE the NCAA passed the rule. It was all retroactive. We simply had to drop for at minimum of a few years. But, we could have returned to 1A much, MUCH faster if we'd expanded Fouts. Hurley was very much in favor of 1AA versus dropping football altogether or worse yet changing to Division III. He wanted scholarship football, but the Regents wanted to balance the budget AND reign in athletics after Bob Tyler was just spending beyond what he was authorized to spend.

It could have been USL, I’m not certain. I thought their stadium was big enough to qualify. There were several ways to qualify- stadium size, average attendance over a period of years, at least two games over a certain attendance in the same period, and more. The big one was being in a conference where at least half of the other schools qualified as the NCAA didn’t want to mess with conference membership. No, they did NOT know it was coming. The rule passed retroactively - if you didn’t qualify when the rule passed there was no period where you could qualify. All of the requirements had to have been fulfilled at the time it passed. We needed to have played most of our games at Texas stadium during Jerry Moore’s time. @Arkstfan knows the details. I don’t know the NT internal politics of why it wasn’t fought. I suspect part of it was the total contempt for athletics Bob Tyler created within the university. I’m told multiple administrators from Mississippi State told people at North Texas “don’t hire him.” He nearly got NT on NCAA probation for giving athletes extra benefits. It appears he knowingly spent WAY over budget which angered the Regents. Plus there were a lot of faculty from President Matthews day that wanted football as long of the coach didn’t make more than a Department Chair. I’m certain, though, that just filing the waiver request would not have helped. It possible it WAS filed as the NCAA rejected all the waiver requests.

Here's how 1AA happened to NT. The NCAA voted for the only time ever to apply a retroactive standard to decide which schools would be moved to 1AA. It was the only time in history they did this. If they try again, they will undoubtedly lose in court. There were a number of ways to stay 1A. We could have stayed 1A IF we had used Texas Stadium as our primary stadium in 1979. The rule passed after the 1979 season, so there was no way to go back and do that after the fact. The NCAA said using it going forward would NOT count. We didn't fit any of the other ways of qualifying - having a big enough stadium, being a member of a conference where at least half of the members qualified for 1A, or several ways of measuring attendance over a period of years. At the time, I was told by a friend who was a student working in the athletic department, all the university needed to do was submit a "form" and we'd automatically get to stay 1A. I didn't find out till the 2000s this was not true. The form was a waiver request to stay 1A. I don't know if it was filed or not, but it would not have mattered in either case. The NCAA rejected every waiver - all of them. One school, I think Cincinnati, threatened to take the NCAA to court but the lawyers worked out a deal where Cincinnati had a year (maybe two) to get their attendance up. They did and thus Cincinnati (I think that's who it was) was the only school that didn't qualify retroactively to got to stay 1A. There was absolutely nothing NT could have done to NOT drop to 1AA. But, they COULD HAVE immediately started working to move back up which they did not do. Lots of folks blame Hurley, but there was a very strong movement in the faculty to drop football altogether and he opposed that.

Yes, it makes a statement to the fans. Does it increase the chances of winning this year? No, no one can successfully install a totally new scheme during the season. There are a lot of experienced DCs out there and the good ones are committed through the end of the season. It’s painful, but firing him now only makes fans happier for one week. When the new guy has a defense that’s just as bad or worse the next week, those same fans will be claiming Morris can’t hire anyone and will be even madder. The better choice is to stick it out this year.

Sorry, I meant 2. It's ESPN, big drop to 2, another drop not quite so big to ESPN News, then U right behind News. It's possible with the drop in total ESPN subscribers U and News flipped places. We should be drawing better, but 2 is almost always significantly less the ESPN. Last week the highest rated game on 2 was TCU with 400+ K.

TV ratings don't happen in a vacuum. Other games happening at the same time will pull away casual fans just looking to see what is on. At the same time as our game there was Alabama/Tennessee, Texas/Houston, Minnesota/Iowa, Wazzu/Oregon, and Okie State/West Virginia. Plus, we are on ESPU2 which only available in about 2/3 the homes as ESPN. Yes, we need to be doing better in rating. But frankly, we should be doing better in home attendance which will ultimately hope build the program more.

Ironic, isn't it?

He did play quarterback in high school!

Does the Royal Military College of Canida have a team?

At least of of the regents has said $100 million isn't worth getting excited about, so why not?

Yes, I want to bring back the HOCO parade. But I understand not having two parades on the same day. The Day of the Dead celebration was set by the City of Denton well before the date for homecoming. Yes, there is a narrow window for hoco dates, but Memphis most certainly was not the only one! Whoever picked the date for hoco clearly screwed up. As for "sustainability," the Tournament of Roses Parade is a great example of making a parade a great example OF sustainability!

Hurray for Bill! Everyone with an interest in NT broadcasting history should read Bill's book "Play by Play." He also was one of the authors of "When the news went live: Dallas 1963" about the coverage of the Kennedy assassination. Look at that famous picture of all the reporters lined up when the Dallas police brought out Oswald for a midnight press conference - there's Bill on the front row!

How many of you currently know an 18 or 17-year-old boy? They change their minds more often than a butterfly changes directions! He could have a girlfriend now that is going to SWTSU. He could have buddies that want him to join them there. There are any number of reasons completely unrelated to football that can and do cause people to change what school they plan to attend.

I think this is going to be a close game, but I don't see NT winning against a ranked opponent on the road. The two times we have beaten ranked opponents have both been at home. I'm NOT saying we can't, but I don't think it is going to happen.

Great article! It points out the obvious progress the team is making while also pointing out we have a very long way to go. It also points out we have a huge challenge over the next four games, but that we have not lost the chance to complete the goals set at the beginning of the season.

Not all, not even most. But this describes a small but very vocal group.

I thought so, but lately I see entire threads that I think must be parody only to find the writers are serious.

I don't remember Morris saying that. He DID take responsibility for going for it instead of kicking a field goal. He did say that both the team and the coaches need to improve, but nothing about "3 phases of the game."

I think we win this one by between 10 and 14 points. We are improving, very slowly, but still improving. And we play better are home. Temple has yet to win a road game this year and none last year.

Sounds like a good plan. I hope the technique is better today. I don’t care what kind of front you run, if running backs are not getting stopped till the 3rd or 4th man making contact you are going to give up big yardage.

No, they have to pick one or the other.