(green-tinted glasses removed) What should we

[gangrene]

Bottomline is, I'd love nothing more than to beat the defending national champion Texas Longhorns enroute to an undefeated season and a berth in the Fiesta Bowl but, my friends...THAT just ain't gonna happen. Cracking the Top 25 is less-aspirational but still a very unrealistic expectation for this team.

So what should we realistically expect to accomplish this season? Here's my take - based on last season's disappointing results, I would consider this season a success should we accomplish these three goals:

1. Win two of five OOC games (SMU and either LaTech, Tulsa (would love to beat them after last year's ass-thumping) or Akron

2. Win four of six Sunbelt games

3. Finish no worse than a tie for 2nd in the SBC

That's 6-6, an increase of four games in the win column, and a 4-2 SBC record could even be good enough to win the SBC and return to the New Orleans Bowl.

An additional goal would be to build a solid foundation for the 2007 season so that loftier goals can be achieved in Jamario's last year. I'm not suggesting that we bench starting Seniors in favor of returning underclassmen should the season turn sour (or am I??), but I certainly don't want to repeat a 2-9 or 2-10 season again in 2007 either...certainly not when we're playing in the worst D1 conference in the nation. It was painfully obvious to me that our team was not properly prepared last season. Replacing Quinn and Muzzy will be difficult enough without having to worry about an inexperienced O-line and defense again.

While I would love to demand no fewer than three OOC victories and an undefeated SBC run, I learned my lesson last season when I set my expectations too high. Although I feel our schedule is much easier than past seasons (including 2005), a 10-2 or 9-3 season would be a phenomenal accomplishment for the 2006 Mean Green and, as I sip the green kool-aid, I believe 10-2 or 9-3 is possible, although not probable.

Anything less than six wins in '06 will be a big disappointment for me and I'd hope to see some DRAMATIC changes in the program moving forward...mainly in the form of coaching philosophy and/or personnel and recruitment techniques. This practice of "stealth recruitment" is absurd. If a national Top 10, although somewhat tarnished, Rhett Bomar would consider UNT, why wouldn't a DMN State Top 100?? But I digress...

[bigrobdsp]

if we can win any out of conference games, we should not lose any sunbelt games. I am all about "build the belt", but realisticly we should not win any OOC games if we lose any sunbelt games. Akron, La Tech, Tulsa, and yes SMU are better than everyone in the belt. I dont like it either but it is a fact. having said that I think we beat SMU and sweep the belt. if we had gotten blown out last year in all our games I would say different, but since we were close last year we should be able to catch and pass them all this year.

[Travis]

I am thinking a 3-4 win season with no wins coming out of conference. Finally the coaching staff get what they want...They complain that they have too many money games and need some more winnable ones....of which i understand. But, now RV has set it up to where it isn't like that and we will see if they can deliver. I do not think they will though.

And what is my reason for this realistic expectation?

answer: last year

[untbowler]

realistically look at a 3-9 season wish another big 0-5 OOC record.

Sad but true until DD and Company show us differently.

[good_ken]

Here's my expectations:

1. The day after the Texas game each UT player should be sore becuase the UNT player across from them gave them hell for 60 minutes. I want 60 minutes of competitiveness. I would like to see Jamario go off, but UT is gonna have an excellent D-line; and Jamario is only one man.

2. SMU: I would like to win, and then run up the score. I would like to see both Thomases have big days (Jamario and Isaac).

3. La Tech and Tulsa. Win one. I think the La Tech game is the more feasible of the two.

4. Sunbelt play: I am not overly concerned here, as if the above mentioned occurs, I think we will be fine. With the exception of that fool Weatherby[sp]. I still haven't forgiven him for insulting Jamario, and I would like to hang 50 on him.

Overall, I think 8-4 is very possible; with the low end expectation being 6-6.

[medpilot21]

Dont panic guys... This team is better than last year (go to practice and see for yourselves)

Realistically we should go 8-4 if J-mo stays healthy and we have a QB who can get the ball downfield. Phillips, Woody, and Meager are able to do that so far in practice. Dont be so quick to give up on winning because of last year's debacle. We had four good years before the one bad one. Our defense is much improved with the 3-4 and our LB speed. We are bigger up front on the OL, and QB play is noticeably better. Here's my guess on this season...

Sept 2nd - UT: Loss

Sept 9th - SMU: Win

Sept 16th -Tulsa: Loss

Sept 23rd - Akron: Win

Sept 30th - MTSU: Win

Oct 7th - FIU: Win

Oct 21st - Ark State: loss

Oct 28th - Troy: Win

Nov 4th - La Tech: Loss

Nov 11th - La. Lafayette: Win

Nov 18th - Fla. Atlantic: Win

Nov 25th - La. Monroe: Win

If there are doubts as to how much this team has improved, go to practice and see why we are better. J-mo is back, the ball is getting to Nwigwe and Quinn downfield, and the OL is actually opening holes again. There is enough promise in all that talent to expect a winning season. 8-4 is enough to win the conference, and would at least make us bowl eligible. As far as wins and losses, I am just guessing like you guys. I went to practice and was impressed with the change in attitude and work ethic. I am no fortune teller, but you can see the improvement in the defense, and these guys will not be letting up in game one because the Longhorns won the National Championship? They will fight it out on September 2nd. I cant wait to see it.

The new attitude works for me. Let's see what you guys think after seeing them practice. I think you'll feel a lot better about our chances.

GMG!!

[UNTBill]

If there are doubts as to how much this team has improved, go to practice and see why we are better. J-mo is back, the ball is getting to Nwigwe and Quinn downfield, and the OL is actually opening holes again. There is enough promise in all that talent to expect a winning season. 8-4 is enough to win the conference, and would at least make us bowl eligible. As far as wins and losses, I am just guessing like you guys. I went to practice and was impressed with the change in attitude and work ethic. I am no fortune teller, but you can see the improvement in the defense, and these guys will not be letting up in game one because the Longhorns won the National Championship? They will fight it out on September 2nd. I cant wait to see it.

The new attitude works for me. Let's see what you guys think after seeing them practice. I think you'll feel a lot better about our chances.

GMG!!

←

I attended the spring scrimmage and was equally encouraged by (IMO) overall improvement. I would like to attend a practice if I can fit one in with my work schedule. What day or time would you recommend? Is there a summer scrimmage?

[eulesseagle]

I predict that the FB teams wins 1/5 OOC games, runs the "Belt" and wins the NOB against the #4 C-USA team.

[KingDL1]

I predict that the FB teams wins 1/5 OOC games, runs the "Belt" and wins the NOB against the #4 C-USA team.

←

Whatever you are drinking I need some!

[stebo]

The NOB does not get the "#4" team from CUSA, we get the 2,3,4 pick depending on geography and fans. The year that we won, we were playing the champions of CUSA - Cinci, it is just that we picked fourth then and they had not had a final week of games to determine their champ yet. In fact, if you look at the 4 years that CUSA has sent teams to the bowl, you will see that they have only sent their #4 team to the game once (last year - when it was in Lafayette). The other years they sent their (tied)#1, (tied)#2, and (flat out) #3 teams. The Belt may be poor in the rankings but CUSA has chosen to invest $300K a year into buying up that spot for their conference and have just as much to lose by sending a team with a poor traveling fan base. I just freaking hate it when people take something that is not ideal... in fact - bad, and then try to make it even worse because they have sour f-ing grapes.

The NOB is a freaking great trip and we always get a great opponent with great fans. The one year that we didn't - we beat them... I am waitng for us to have both. BTW, ASU gave that #4 Southern Miss a great game last year, the score was 31-19 ... . Sure, they lost - but it was a close game played under bad circumstances in a pretty cruddy destination city. Southern Miss had lost to Alabama by 9, NCState by 4, Tulsa (the CUSA champ), Houston by 3, and Memphis by 2... There is a lot of parity in CUSA - That USM team was literally 5 points away from being the #2 team... and now that the bowl is back in New Orleans - and the whole country is wanting to see New Orleans gets back on its feet - AND the fact that the game is FINALLY beaing played on a Friday rather then a Tuesday - I think that you will see our little bowl game explode in crowd volume this year. And I bet that we get the #2 or #3 team out of CUSA in the process for the game. We get the pick of #2, #3, or #4 depending on what other bowls have picked and who can travel the best. Having 500 Marshall fans in Ft Worth does nothing for CUSA - they will base who goes where on who can give them the best return on their annual investment.

Edited August 15, 2006 by stebo

[eulesseagle]

Stebo---

Dude, it was just a prediction.....there is no fact about my prediction

[PlummMeanGreen]

Whatever  you are drinking I need some!

←

HYPERTENSION PROBLEMS? THEN DON'T READ THIS POST, EITHER!

Save some of that stuff for me, too, KingDL1!

OK to the few, the bold, the brave out there who just can't stand to read my "hard to understand" posts (but for some reason or another still read them anyway and get all tensed up over what they read); anyway, here is what would (eventually) be nice at dear ol' alma mater someday in the future.

AND THAT WOULD BE.................Whatever league we're in now or in the future for us to win its football championship and finish out the year as an actual bowl winner; but more importantly than those 2 things would be for UNT to finish inside the Top 50 ranked football schools in NCAA D1-A.

I am sorry, but merely winning the SBC and going bowling yet still finishing #90 thru #117 in the final polls is hardly what many of us older nestors consider a really "got it going on" college football program at the NCAA D1-A level. With all our so-called success of late, just why didn't all that translate to the Texas Bowl officials having no problem leaving an "up and coming" Texas D1-A school off their list no matter how they explain it. In fact, have they said anything on an official basis to anyone about UNT? I might be wrong, but I'd almost wager no one from UNT with clout even confronted those Houstonians on this matter.

When the aforementioned (Top 50 rankings) starts to happen in Denton, I'll be a new convert and even get re-baptized all over again over at the Denia Duck Pond , but until this happens, I will still remain a Mean Green infidel and will raise some kind of holy hell on this board (and beyond) until the day, hour, minute and second we get what we "ALL" deserve at UNT and FWIW, what we should have gotten a long time ago in the area of personnel. .

Hard for me to believe that here in the year 2006, we are still having to talk about trying to get this program jump-started (again) into something acceptable and what would make most NT Exes proud of the 4'th largest university in the state of Texas. I know many who are not proud of hardly anything at UNT now and the resignation of Norval Pohl started many of their own soul searching about just what are we going to get now from all these new non-UNT graduated leaders who (quite frankly) won't give a rat's ass about you or UNT the first 5 minutes they are off the UNT payroll. Sorry I can't be more PollyAnna'ish about what I am posting here as to not make some of you get all tensed up.

2006: 4 and 8 and DD kiss up & vacation pal Bobby Ray gets him yet another contract extension after 4 & 8. Once the ink dries on that contract extension at CEU, you know, ol' Contract Extension University; anyhoooooo, there will be a public hanging of the ghost of Dr. J. C. Matthews at the Denton Courthouse court yard. Ol' Uncle J.C really must be haunting the hell out of our school's leadership to make sure we never hire people who will ever actually be able to get jobs of a higher profile than the ones they have in Denton, Texas, America.

Edited August 15, 2006 by PlummMeanGreen

[MeanGreenHoops]

It's hard to know what to expect since college football teams change so much from year to year. However I expect this -

Sept 2nd - UT: L - 59-0

Sept 9th - SMU: L - 38-13

Sept 16th -Tulsa: L - 29-10

Sept 23rd - Akron: L - 20-17

Sept 30th - MTSU: W - 14-13

Oct 7th - FIU: W - 21-17

Oct 21st - Ark State: L - 30-28

Oct 28th - Troy: L - 34-17

Nov 4th - La Tech: L- 40-20

Nov 11th - La. Lafayette: L - 30-14

Nov 18th - Fla. Atlantic: W- 19-12

Nov 25th - La. Monroe: W- 20-10

4-8

No wins in OOC games.

74 throw the ball chants at Fouts

Edited August 15, 2006 by MeanGreenHoops

[UNTFan23]

I'd like to see us post a winning record (>= .500 ) and win at least one OOC game.

[Green Crazy]

Since I haven't been able to go to a practice to see for my self, could someone tell me if the defense is throwing 7 and 8 men in the box to test the quarterbacks and the line for what they will see in the games?

[Guest GrayEagleOne]

Realistically, I would expect 4-8 with all four wins coming in conference.

However, if this program is ever to advance, then I'd like to see a finish in the top 60 nationally. That would be the upper half. To finish there would take two or three OOC wins and no more than one conference loss. Anything less and I'm ready for a new gegime.

There appear to be some changes this year in offensive and defensive schemes and even more importantly, changes in attitude. I still want Dickey to succeed but I really mean SUCCEED, not drift on in mediocrity.

[KingDL1]

The title to this thread is, "(green-tinted glasses removed) What should we, realistically expect from this season??"

The answer you give should be as if you had to bet your life on it. My gut instinct says 2 wins at best, my heart wishes for much more.

Realistically is a tough one.

Some are saying we will have a winning season, but is that what they are hoping for or what they truly believe.

I hope for a winning season, hell I would love to see us go undefeated this season, but I know better.

[gangrene]

The title to this thread is, "(green-tinted glasses removed) What should we, realistically expect from this season??"

The answer you give should be as if you had to bet your life on it. My gut instinct says 2 wins at best, my heart wishes for much more.

Realistically is a tough one.

←

Well, you hit the nail on the head. I wanted honest, realistic expectations without UNT biases. But the key word there is expectations not predictions. We lost 5 SBC games by a grand total of 21 points. Hypothetically speaking, if we were just four points per game better last year, we would have only lost 2 SBC games...eight more points and we would have been back in the NO Bowl with an undefeated SBC record. My point is that our poor record may not have been a good indicator of our team's capabilities and I think everyone will agree that last year's team did not meet expectations.

Likewise, I doubt if winning only two games again this year would meet anyone's expectations.

Edited August 16, 2006 by gangrene

[eulesseagle]

KingDL1---

Hey buddy, to insulate that I waz dringing sumpting on the job wen i predicked UnT winning 1/5 OOc gamz an ruining the bell and wning the SBC again #4 CUSA...that wuz insulating to me an yur warning should go up to 50%.

i never tell you 24 hours between bottle and throttle and no closer than 50 feet from smoking.....or is that the other way around?

[kj86]

Realistically, I don't see an OOC win on the schedule. If I had to bet my life on it, I'd say we go 5 - 7.

My hope and expectation is more along the lines of 7 - 5.

[eeally]

OK non believers....

We will go 8-4

Loss UT, La Tech, Tulsa, ULL

We will not lose to ARK state!!!

[KingDL1]

KingDL1---

Hey buddy, to insulate that I waz dringing sumpting on the job wen i predicked UnT winning 1/5 OOc gamz an ruining the bell and wning the SBC again #4 CUSA...that wuz insulating to me an yur warning should go up to 50%.

i never tell you 24 hours between bottle and throttle and no closer than 50 feet from smoking.....or is that the other way around?

←

eulesseagle,

Not to say you were on the sauce, but I thought maybe there was something to make me feel better about the upcoming season. OK, maybe that would be the sauce for me! And you can pick the poison.

gangrene,

To me, my expectations for UNT is to put out a winning team year after year until we're in a BCS conference and then I will be looking for that National Championship. As far as I am concerned for the time being as weak as the Sun Belt is we should dominate it every year until we move up to a better conference.

But what I expect this year realistically, will fall far short of my expectations. I hope I am wrong! We will see shortly.

It would be nice if we came out strong against UT and beat the ever living sh#t out SMU. That would be more to my expectations.

I think that realistically is the key word!

[ntmeangreen11]

Sept 2nd - UT: L - 49-2

Sept 9th - SMU: W - 32-31(OT)

Sept 16th -Tulsa: L - 44-13

Sept 23rd - Akron: L - 36-17

Sept 30th - MTSU: W - 27-21

Oct 7th - FIU: W - 34-28

Oct 21st - Ark State: L - 35-14

Oct 28th - Troy: W - 28-20

Nov 4th - La Tech: L- 31-20

Nov 11th - La. Lafayette: L - 31-24

Nov 18th - Fla. Atlantic: W - 45-42

Nov 25th - La. Monroe: L - 34-13

This is as realistic as you will get from me.