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Seriously though, this social media thing is taking over. Twitter has become the biggest recruiting service. Players start their own accounts and tweet updates. Programs tweet helicopters flying to visits. Coaches tweet "Yessir" on twitter when they land a commitment and everyone already knows who it is... I find myself reviewing twitter more than anyplace else for the latest recruiting information. Anyone else seeing this?

2016 Non-conference schedule announcement Bethune-Cookman? I thought we had either Abilene Christian/Lamar/Incarnate Word lined up for 2016?

We are into the 44th season of the Larry Brown Show, and the plot never changes. If you are surprised that one of the game’s greatest minds is in NCAA trouble again, you haven’t been paying attention for the last few decades. Brown simply does not have the kind of personality to follow NCAA rules. Coaches who follow the rules understand that doing so might cost them a recruit, or might cost a player his eligibility, and therefore might mean a down year for their team. You have to be patient, put your personal ethical code above professional gain, and trust that things will eventually work out. That’s not Brown. Of all the great coaches in basketball history, he is the neediest. Brown’s on-court success has been built on his relentless attention to detail. He does not have any magic formula. He just coaches every little bit of the game a little better than almost everybody else. His players succeed because he convinces them there is no shortcut to success. But this is the hypocrisy of Larry Brown: Once he steps off the court, he looks for shortcuts everywhere. Academic misconduct is a shortcut. Anybody who has ever cheated on a paper could tell you that. It’s what you do when you didn’t do the work and you can’t accept the consequences. Lying to the NCAA? Also a shortcut. Brown reveres his college coach, Dean Smith, but he never learned Smith’s most important lesson: How you win is more important than how much you win. Of course Brown lied to the NCAA. He lies to himself all the time. That whole history teacher bit is a lie to himself. When the NCAA was descending upon his star recruit, Emmanuel Mudiay, for academic and eligibility reasons, Brown could not admit Mudiay left for China for those reasons. Instead, he released a statement insisting "This is not an academic issue, since he has been admitted to SMU, but rather a hardship issue.” read more: http://www.si.com/college-basketball/2015/09/29/larry-brown-suspension-smu-postseason-ban LARRY BROWN at final NCAA hearing: "But I realize, you know in hindsight that was a terrible mistake on my part. I wish I could have changed all that. But we had that interview with the NCAA, I don't know why I lied. You know, dealing with people that I really care about, and I used terrible judgment, and I tried to acknowledge that as quickly as I could, but it doesn't seem to make a difference. I realize that"

Curious how our crowd is, I didn't get out of work until 6 so I am watching the game on espn 3 instead of in person. Sounds like a pro UNT crowd

On facing North Texas: “It’s their opener. I know those guys will be extremely ready to go, especially opening up the season. I’m going to challenge our guys with the embarrassment that they had up there. Watching that game from last year was very disheartening. Our guys will be excited about getting back on the field for a Saturday night game and perform in front of our fans and our crowd, which I thought was outstanding.” On if having a bye week to open the season gives North Texas an advantage: “I guess it’s a little bit of an advantage because they got to see the personnel we have on the field and watch us play. I guess that’s an advantage. If that were us, I would definitely be saying it’s an advantage. But in the same sense, as a coach, you always try to get that first game out of your system because there are a lot of things that are unknown in your first ball game, especially a first ball game on the road.” read more: http://collegesportsblog.dallasnews.com/2015/09/smu-quotable-chad-morris-challenges-team-after-last-years-embarrassment-vs-unt.html/

On February 25, 1987, Chad Morris was an 18-year-old senior at a high school in Edgewood, Texas, a small town 60 miles east of Dallas. That may seem like an arbitrary slice of minutiae with which to begin a story, but this happens to be a story about the football program at Southern Methodist University, and it is pretty much impossible to talk about SMU without referencing February 25, 1987, the day an NCAA enforcement official got so stressed out while announcing that the Mustangs would receive the proverbial death penalty that he literally fainted on the spot. Three decades later, February 25, 1987, remains the defining day in SMU football history. Unless and until Morris rebuilds the Mustangs into a statewide and national power (and since we’re talking about Texas, the two are generally synonymous), it will continue to be so. And so this is one of the first things I ask the first-year head coach, who’s coming off four seasons as the offensive coordinator at Clemson, about when I speak to him on the phone. He tells me that he doesn’t remember where he was on that particular day, though he does remember the emotional weight of that period. He tells me that he grew up taking a bus to SMU games, and that he has distinct memories of those Pony Express glory days, and that he’s spoken to several of the players who were at SMU back then (including Eric Dickerson, who has criticized the school for its feckless approach to rebuilding and supporting the football program in recent years). He says that he is not ignorant of the past but that, in terms of a deeper historical analysis of the SMU program, he “can’t really go any further back than the era I just replaced.” And this is a perfectly understandable hedge from a coach who is seeking to move ahead rather than continually analyze the repercussions of a decision made when he was an adolescent preparing to attend Texas A&M. read more: http://grantland.com/the-triangle/2015-college-football-preview-chad-morris-smu-mustangs-rebuild/

Looking to ride the train from Collin County to the SMU game? Anyone and everyone are welcome to meet at Vickery Park in historic downtown Plano. Vickery Park is located at 1101 E. 15th Street in Plano, right around the corner from the downtown Plano DART train station. (Coming from US 75 Central Expressway, just take the 15th Street exit in Plano and head east to downtown Plano.) Let's meet at Vickery Park around 2pm for pre-tailgate food and drinks. We can then march around the corner to the train station and catch the 2:31 train, which will have us to Mockingbird Station at 2:57pm. Local train tickets are $5 and cover you for the day. The North Texas Mean Green Tailgate starts at 3pm (tickets are $20 in advance through the North Texas Ticket office or $30 at the gate). Feel free to hang out at Vickery Park later if you don't plan to tailgate prior to the game. To make it there by game time, you probably want to catch the 5:11pm train at the latest, which gets you to Mockingbird Station at 5:37pm, giving you about 20 minutes to get to your seats at Ford Field. There is gameday shuttle bus service from Mockingbird Station starting at 6am that concludes 1 hour post game. Post here if you think you might join us. RSVP not necessary to attend.

Larry Brown is attempting to weather the storm. SMU's coach is currently dealing with an NCAA investigation as he prepares for his fourth season as the leader of the Mustangs' program. CBS Sports' Jon Rothstein talked with Brown to discuss the NCAA investigation, the new rules in college basketball, and much more. Jon Rothstein, CBS Sports: What has it been like for you over the last few weeks after the report surfaced about the potential results of the NCAA investigation? Larry Brown: It's hurt us with a lot of kids in recruiting indirectly because people kill you. It's the second time that there's been a leak like that. When you're being investigated nobody is supposed to know. We self-imposed a bunch of penalties the first time this happened. Our school suspended Ulric (Maligi), who was an assistant at the time and then they brought up all this stuff about me which isn't accurate. I happened to be the coach at UCLA when a decision was made against the program, but I wasn't involved with anything except for cleaning things up. They always write that -- that I was involved with bad things at UCLA -- and then at the end of the article they say I was never charged with anything. But nobody reads that. And then this last thing -- we've been waiting six months for a hearing and we finally had a hearing, but when you leave the hearing you have to sign a pledge not to let any of this information leak. It leaked and the article even had the schedule -- golf met first and then basketball met next. It came at such a critical time because we were in the middle of recruiting. Kids are trying to decide on things and what schools they should visit. We've lost three or four kids than I thought we had a legitimate chance with and none of them were fully admitted, but the fact that all of a sudden we're not involved makes me think that the same stuff is happening again. But we'll get through it. I found out that this investigation was happening on July 26 last year and I just want to get it behind us. Look I've got my team back. Keith (Frazier) is eligible and Markus (Kennedy) is eligible. We've got to build on that. CBS Sports: You've always been someone who's wanted to do what's right for the game. How much do you personally think about your long-term legacy when you're associated with something like this? Brown: It bothers me. I don't like it, but at the end of the day there's so many other things going on. The bottom line at the end of the day is this: I'm 75 and I'm still coaching. I'm watching our program grow. I've got a lot of people that I know that are working and doing pretty well. So, I'm not going to be concerned with that. I'm just going to keep doing what I do and try to get better. CBS Sports: Are you anticipating a suspension heading into next season? Brown: I don't want to comment about that. I kind of want to focus on the good things we're doing here. It seems the school is really excited about what we've done and we've got some really good kids. We're all pretty proud about they've done and what they've accomplished. Hopefully we're going to be pretty good this year. read more: http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/eye-on-college-basketball/25273239/qa-smu-coach-larry-brown-on-ncaa-lack-of-respect-for-aac

Just wondering if anyone on this message board can provide additional details regarding the SMU Tailgate Event that is currently being promoted by the Mean Green Online Ticket Office. The description from the website reads: $95 Tickets & Tailgate Package, 2 Endzone Tickets, 2 Tailgate Tickets, Spiriki Mean Green Club Membership $135 Tickets & Tailgate Package, 2 Sideline Tickets, 2 Tailgate Tickets, Spiriki Mean Green Club Membership I'm trying to find out which sections these tickets are being culled from, and whether or not the Mean Green Club will be hosting the tailgate again this year. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Has anyone thought about the irony of SMU hiring former high school coach Chad Morris and our hiring of Todd Dodge back 9 years ago? In familiarizing myself with Morris and the direction he intends to take in the SMU rebuilding project, I took in some videos and articles around his introduction to the SMU community and the media in general. I swear to you, you could have taken clips and sound bytes from 9 years ago when Dodge was announced as HC at UNT and matched them up exactly with the Morris talking points. "I'm a Texas high school coach first and proud of it" or "We've had 100's of area high school coaches sending me texts" or "We open our arms to all of the high school staffs to be a part of this" or "I have an obligation to represent the Texas High School Coaches" etc etc... Make no mistake, there is a lot in common in what SMU AD Rick Hart is trying to do now compared to what UNT AD Rick Villarreal was trying to do almost a decade ago. And honestly, there are some differences. Morris was a heralded college assistant at Clemson and one of the highest paid in the country. Dodge had a quick cup of coffee as an assistant at North Texas before going back into the high school arena. Morris is making reportedly $2+ million a year at SMU and Dodge was making $331,448 a year at UNT. Morris has assembled a very impressive staff with college experience, including recruiting guru Van Malone as well as some young assistants he worked with at Clemson. Dodge brought in mostly high school assistants from Southlake Carroll. I have to say, it's hard not to be impressed with Morris. He is an extremely passionate speaker, and by all accounts very personable and intelligent with a math degree from A&M. He has stated very clearly that it will take all of SMU, including faculty, students and alumni to get the program where they want it to be. But I also find it interesting that he says the reason he took the SMU job was to "get back to my roots" and it was "just a great fit"... come on Chad, SMU gave you a $1+ Million dollar raise and set up your family for life... not that he didn't already have a nice paycheck at Clemson but - let's be honest - the money played a pretty significant role in getting him back here. Let's just say I don't think he would be taking $331,448 a year to rebuild the Ponies. That said, I do think Morris will do good things at SMU. It's a good academic school that has a lot of tradition and it's sitting in huge city and plethora of good recruiting prospects. As a UNT fan you are constantly plagued with the "what ifs". What if we had forced Dodge to hire college assistants? Did he stipulate that he had to remain loyal to his high school staff? Or was our budget such that we we're ok with him bringing in guys who would not command a lot of money? Or was it a mixture of both? What if he had been given more direction and support from coaches with college experience who knew the ropes? Since UNT has a 20-year or whatever contract with SMU, we will get to watch what Morris is able to accomplish on the field of play. We will get to see how the recruiting picks up and how his uptempo offense and blitzing defense fairs as the years go by. Other than our game with SMU, I wish their program well. They have the same challenges all of us non p5's face. I do think Morris can do some really good things there. But, every time I look at or hear Morris speak it will remind me of the opportunity we lost with the Todd Dodge hire. A hire and direction which BTW many of us (including myself) were 100% behind at the time.

Chad Morris is into fixing things. So when he arrived at SMU last December as the school’s new football coach, he got to work right away and convinced his bosses to cough up more than $1 million for facility upgrades. Morris’ decorating touch can be seen throughout Gerald J. Ford Stadium, from upgraded weight room equipment to new video and audio technology, wall graphics highlighting the program’s three national titles, wood panels in place of dingy carpet, and an enhanced player’s lounge. In the coming months, the school expects to announce plans for a stand-alone football building that will house an indoor practice facility. Morris, a Dallas native, must now try to fix the team. His predecessor, June Jones, resigned after two games in 2014, and the Mustangs started 0-11 before beating Connecticut in the season finale. SMU scored 10 or fewer points in eight games. For years, Morris had been a hot name for job openings. He led Lake Travis to back-to-back undefeated seasons in 2008 and 2009 before becoming offensive coordinator at Tulsa. From there, he went to Clemson, where he was the nation’s highest paid public school assistant in 2012, earning $1.3 million. He sat down with the American-Statesman to discuss where he’s been, where he is and where he’s headed: What’s been the biggest challenge since you’ve started? I don’t even know if it’s really a challenge, but getting everyone to believe in the vision we have. When you come here, it’s easy to sell the academics, it’s easy to sell a degree from SMU. I haven’t been able to sell the fact this team won 11 games last year or went to a BCS game two years ago or what not. One of the things you sell is we have won 10 games each of the last four years (at Clemson). Everywhere I’ve been, we’ve won. We’ve won in high school in this state. That’s what you sell. I don’t know if it’s so much a challenge as it is to be able to sell the belief. When you’re trying to sell something on a product that was 1-11, you have to change the attitude. Not only were they 1-11, but their coach quit on them. Did you encounter a team with a broken spirit? I don’t know if the word “broken spirit” is right. Loss of direction. I think (interim coach) Tom Mason did an outstanding job, as good of a job as anyone could have done. But when the head coach leaves, players lose the sense of direction, the sense of leadership. You get to the point where the players sense this coaching staff isn’t gonna be here so they kinda lose belief in themselves. I really think it took them six or seven games before they realized, hey, maybe we can win a game. Because of the challenges, were you reluctant to consider the job? Had an awesome job at Clemson. Had a six-year contract. Loved it. I’m a Texas high school coach and this is home. When this job opened up, and because of the location that it’s in, i thought OK, this is the one, this is the one that we can go and get flipped and get turned, show improvement, get this thing on the right track. June had it that way. June went to four bowl games in six years and had Garrett Gilbert not gotten hurt, he would have gone to five in six. I think if they would have put just a little bit more emphasis in recruiting the state of Texas, who knows. When you start looking back to the mid- to early-2000s, SMU and TCU were neck-and-neck. In the last 10 years you’ve seen TCU take off. Because of where I’m from and the relationships I have in this state, that’s what really caused me to believe this is the right fit. If this job had been in Florida or the Carolinas or Georgia or Virginia, I wouldn’t have taken it because I didn’t have the strong bonds and the strong relationships that I have in this state. Read more: http://www.mystatesman.com/news/sports/college-football/the-statesman-interview-smu-coach-chad-morris/nmhQD/?icmp=statesman_internallink_invitationbox_apr2013_statesmanstubtomystatesmanpremium#18f36ec6.3499288.735770

One of the big offseason stories in Texas college football has been the arrival of new head coaches at SMU (Chad Morris) and Houston (Tom Herman). Each comes with an impressive pedigree and landed at schools with some inherent advantages due to location and something to sell as a member of the American Athletic Conference. Whether or not it’s true, each will tell recruits the American is the best conference in America outside of the Power Five. I bring it up because Dave Campbell’s Texas Football made the argument that the pair will end up ruling Texas college football outside the power leagues. … read more: http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2015/06/dctf-argues-houston-smu-should-be-top-g5-programs-in-state.html/

read more: http://ponyfans.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=78108&sid=b80350de303cfa0e3138fa3507239b63

Hi Guys, I just wanted to provide a brief first hand account of the induction of Hayden Fry into the SMU Hall of Fame last night. I am pleased to report that there were no less than ten North Texas alumni, former players, and staff on hand to represent the Mean Green in celebrating Coach Fry's amazing 40+ years in Football. We made our presence known as we proudly displayed the Flying Worm on our jackets, and loudly cheered for the former NTSU coaching great. Even 3x Pro Bowler Jerry Ball took notice. He asked me after the ceremony, "What's with all the green stuff??" The highlight of the evening had to have been the opportunity to present both Coach Fry and Coach McCarney, who was also there to cheer on his mentor, with one of the lime green lapel pins that we had custom made for the event. Hayden is still as humorous an ornery as ever. The entire Fry family was very very nice, and all of the assembled Ponies were extremely gracious in welcoming a group of Eagles into their stable. It was a great night all around! Go Mean Green!! This post has been promoted to an article

Several people have asked over the last few days if the terms of Jalie Mitchells first contract as the head coach at UNT are available. Good question. Sometimes it takes a bit for contracts for head coaches to come out because of one key point. The board of regents has to approve contracts that exceed $1 million for the duration of the deal. When I asked about the deal yesterday, I was told that the board had yet to approve the contract. Mike Petersen made just short of $200,000 a year in base salary last year. Read more: http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2015/04/tuesday-afternoon-notes-a-few-basketball-football-tidbits-on-the-financial-end.html/

The topic of rivalries has been a prominent one when it comes to the discourse surrounding the UNT athletic program over the last decade. UNT was once the only Texas team in the Sun Belt Conference before making the move in 2013 to Conference USA, a league the school shares with UTEP, Rice and UTSA. Some of those old Sun Belt rivalries still linger, boosted by history and the fact UNT still plays some of those old Sun Belt schools that also made the move to C-USA. Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky are among those schools. And then there is the significant issue of geography. UNT, SMU and TCU are all located in the middle of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Read more: http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/

I guess we will not see SMU's Sigma Chi at tailgating at Ford Field in the Fall... https://gma.yahoo.com/smu-fraternity-chapter-suspended-alleged-neighbor-harassment-160907159--abc-news-topstories.html

It’s safe to say that Southern Methodist University head coach Chad Morris sees the potential in coaches on the high school level. After all, he was a high school football coach himself. After being named SMU’s coach, Morris plucked Claude Mathis away from DeSoto to serve as his running backs coach, and Morris has just selected another coach from the college ranks, according to the Dallas Morning News. Mark Smith, coach at Hurst L.D. Bell since 2009, will join Morris’ staff as the Director of Recruiting and an offensive analyst. Read more: http://texashsfootball.com/2015/01/morris-adds-another-texas-high-school-coach-to-smu-staff/

Editors note: this guy can flat out recruit and was the best recruiter on the Dickey staff back when he was here. Malone’s experience recruiting in the Lone Star State is likely a factor in his name being connected to the SMU opening. Prior to Malone’s two-year stint in Tulsa, he coached defensive backs one season at North Texas and four seasons at Texas A&M. The Cowboys’ pass defense has allowed an average of 282.8 yards through the air per game this season, a mark that ranks No. 120 nationally. read more: http://newsok.com/media-report-oklahoma-state-cornerbacks-coach-van-malone-candidate-to-become-next-defensive-coordinator-at-smu/article/5371835

Names like Chad Morris, Jake Spavital and Houston Nutt are being thrown around as possible candidates to replace June Jones, who resigned earlier this week, as head coach at SMU. But what about former Texas coach Mack Brown? According to Roy Bragg of the San Antonio Express-News, Brown could be a nice fit on the Hilltop. “SMU has shown it has an affinity for older guys. Jones had been coaching for 50 years. The head men’s basketball coach is famously-itinerant Larry Brown,” Bragg wrote. “If they like old guys, hiring Mack should be a no-brainer. “Mack picked UT up off the ground and made it a national contender every year. He can do the same at SMU, which has money, resources, and — as the only school of note in Dallas — has a tremendous recruiting advantage. In fact, it’s a crime that SMU doesn’t own Dallas-area recruiting. It should be able to lock that city down.” Read more: http://collegesportsblog.dallasnews.com/2014/09/national-writer-hiring-ex-texas-coach-mack-brown-should-be-a-no-brainer-for-smu.html/