I Would Like You New Fans To Watch This

[stebo]

Here we are again, screaming about our problems and blaming them on the Belt. Well folks, the Belt is the best thing that ever happened to North Texas. Our football program was dead in the water. We were finished. No (and I mean ZERO) money was being put into the effort. The conference had just disbanded. And we were moving into a conference that did not have enough football teams to justfy a bowl game. We made it work - the 6 of us football schools that had no other choice. Well, we got a bowl game put together. Sure, it was kind of a joke at first - on Tuesday night, about a month before the real bowl games started... but now it has a Friday night timeslot on ESPN and is just a few days before Chrstmas. That bowl game is also getting the Belt some recognition. We have had a couple of at large bowl bids now, something that never happened in the Big West.

Anyways, back to my original point. You guys that are new never went through the crap years; so you can't really appreciate how great the program is now (even when we are losing). When we were losing those last years of the Big West - there was a game that FFRick and I sat on the deck and counted the fans, literally. There were about 157 people there as best we could tell. Taigating? It wasn't really outlawed, it just wasn't encouraged. You couldn't have an open flame. But Mean Rob and our crew tried our best to tailgate - we were just the only ones out there. But we were a TIGHT bunch.

Finally, I want to address the Sun Belt bashing. Fans should come out to see North Texas. It shouldn't matter who the opponent is. This video was from a Sun Belt game - heldat Fouts - for all the marbles and a ticket to the New Orleans Bowl. That may be small change to you guys now but it was a big freaking deal for us back then. Listen to the crowd (hell, look at the crowd)... listen to the roar. This was a Sun Belt conference game just a few years ago. Stop blaming the conference on the shortcomings of the North Texas team. Blame Dickey and his piss poor playcalling that put us all to sleep. As soon as DeLoach left, this exciting brand of football went with him. This was the lastgame that DeLoach would coach for NT, he was on his way to UCLA after this win. I don't even think that he was able to go to our bowl game; but I might be wrong about that. Anyways - enjoy the clip (found it on You Tube courtesy of John Denver)... we can have that excitement for every single game, this is a Belt game with a near full house... the opponent? little old NMSU, but really - who cares? ... the fans were there to see North Texas play, it wouldn't have mattered if we were playing Florida Atlantic or Western Kentucky - as fans back in those years - we appreciated every game because we knew how bad it had just been and how much better it was now. It was all of this hard work that we all put in that got us into the postion to even DISCUSS a FUTURE invite to CUSA, at the time - we were just trying to save our football team, period. Because they were on ther way off the field for good. You guys just don't know how bad it was and how much better it got (and still is, thanks to the Belt)....

Watch the clip, there is no excuse for every game to not have this type of atmosphere.

[DeepGreen]

Kennedy was a great player and created excitement. And the Emilia Attias video creates excitement too!

[good_ken]

Excellent point Stebo. And your point doesn't just apply to those folks who graduated in the Hayden Fry era. I graduated in 2000, and suffered through some of the worst football during my tenure in Kerr Hall.

I remember one Big West game (against Idaho I believe) that was played in an absolute monsoon. We eventually went down to the bowl, and started sing the aluminum walkways as a Slip-N-Slide. There were so few folks at that game that when we yelled at the opposing players (while in the red zone), that they turned around and looked at us....as it was that deserted.

The ole Sunbelt has helped bring us a long way. It will be up to us (students, alumni, and university) to UNT football the next step.

(Because I couldn't find the clip of Booger single handedly destroying Baylor).

[UNTFan23]

(Because I couldn't find the clip of Booger single handedly destroying Baylor).

Here's our scoreboard on the Daktronics website from the Baylor game.

[UNT_playmaker]

Greatest and most exciting athlete in UNT History......

Edited May 6, 2007 by UNT_playmaker

[BleedGreen64]

Watching the Mavericks/Warriors series then having to get up and go to work the next day made me so apprecitive that we said no to the WAC.

Edited May 6, 2007 by BleedGreen64

[MeanGreen61]

Greatest and most exciting athlete in UNT History......

That's a bit of a stretch.

[meangreendork]

Stebo's right. The SBC isn't the problem right now. It doesn't matter what conference we'd be in at this point because the problems would still be there, and it'd still be in Dodge's hands to fix them. Right now, the most important thing is Dodge and winning. Once he starts to rack up the wins against SBC and OOC opponents, conferences will take care of themselves.

[greenjoe]

It's up to Coach Dodge to win. It's up to us to be there whatever the record, whoever the opponent.

Join the Mean Green Club

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GO MEAN GREEN

[stebo]

You are all getting what I was trying to illustrate; but in your own ways. My point was (and is) that North Texas fans should stop blaming our shortfalls on the Sun Belt. The Sun Belt actually saved our hides. It gave us a home and an opportunity for some success during a time when we were pretty terrible. We were able to get some name recognition, build some school pride, get new facilities built, etc... Back then, we didn't have the new turf, we couldn't even afford to patch the old turf. We had students wearing Longhorn and Aggie gear everywhere - there were almost no student fans to speak of. We didn't have jumbotrons, in the basketball arena or at the football stadium. We definitely didn't have the clout with the BOR to get any money out of them to build an athletic center. We were in REALLY bad shape. We were also running our "IA" program on a budget that most IAA schools would laugh at. I think that our budget during the last year of the Big West was right around $7 million a year. That was for the entire department. Now our budget is about $13 million. Still far from the $20 million dollar budget that we need to be hitting but we are at least within striking distance now.

When I see these posts about the Belt, belittling it and talking about how we are too good for it; it makes me laugh. We came in second to last in 2006 and dead last in 2005. We have a ton of potential but so do schools like FIU, FAU, MTSU, and the like. Any one of those schools could make an arguement about their future growth possibilities, just like us. Embrace this group and lets grow together. If CUSA expands again, we will all battle it out for who deserves that spot. But if we wait until then to embrace the Belt, it will be too late. CUSA will be looking at how we draw against MTSU, TROY, and FIU... because they know that if we draw 20K against those schools - we will draw 30K against SMU, Tulsa, and Rice. In the meantime - we schedule those schools OOC to show that we are getting there. We have schedules against all three of them and we have drawn well for them. We beat one of them wth a very bad team showing that we have potential.

Anyways, I just wanted to remind everyone where we were just a few years ago. We are no better then Louisiana Whatever and we don't need to be talking that way. Those are our conference mates and we should support them and support our current home/conference. Do that - support YOUR team - your MEAN GREEN, and the conference stuff will all work itself out them next time a reallignment occurs. Bitching about it in the offseason gives other amunition against our home and that just allows them to down play our wins against our conference mates when we return to prominence. It is not easy to win in the Belt anymore - we have shown that. Last in 2005 and second to last in 2006. Respect your conference mates. Go to games to cheer for the Green, not watch the opponent.

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

Watching the Mavericks/Warriors series then having to get up and go to work the next day made me so apprecitive that we said no to the WAC.

---And even worse.... you know that the game results from WAC games are never in Sunday papers ( or weekday mornings in case of basketball) in the Eastern time zone and miss a lot of Central Zone papers. SunBelt Games can have write ups and scores available. The WAC is bad deal for lots of reasons, one of which we would lose even more media attention in newspapers and would not even make ESPN -TV at a reasonable hour for most people, especially those on the East coast. We need all the attention we can get.

--

---Amen Stebo.... those who complain now don't understand how it was...... I still insist the best thing to happen to us was the breakup of the SWC.... we were completely ignored then since only NT and UTEP in Texas were not members. Now we have a chance to improve our status and are doing so.

Edited May 7, 2007 by SCREAMING EAGLE-66

[Bryan316]

Ironically, I was watching all of those Booger clips 2 nights ago. If you have the 2002 DVD, you can see and hear the crowd the whole game. The fans didn't care that the Sun Belt was one of the bottom conferences, or that we were playing NMSU. They came because we were one game from going to a bowl, and both teams were so far undefeated in the conference. They came to support their team. I hope future generations of students realize that whether we suck ass or kick ass, they should always support the team.

[BIG DAWG]

Man...when was the last time Fouts rocked like that???

That was the best day in my 8 year NT history! That NMST game was unmatched for me. We were down at the half, but in those days you just knew that the team would find a way to win.

MAN THOSE WERE THE GOOD DAYS!

[FirefightnRick]

Here's the game Stebo was talking about. And great post Stebo, by the way. But this was the last game of the season against NMSU, the last Big West game we would ever play. NT won the game to finish 3-8 on the season. Look at the stands behind NMSU's bench. That's the student side. Not pictured were the 200 some odd members of the Green Brigade. I then counted roughly 110 others bringing my guestimate of a little over 300 on the students side. It wasn't much better on the alumni side. I think the announced crowd was 4,500....and I'm guessing that was tickets sold as there couldn't have been over 900 in the stadium.

Now here's the result after a win against the same opponent exactly 24 months later.

Rick

Edited May 7, 2007 by FirefightnRick

[Guest GrayEagleOne]

I"m not sure what it being referred to here. I don't see anyone advocating leaving the Sun Belt now nor saying that it won't improve. That doesn't mean that we don't prefer to be in a conference that would have more teams closer to Denton and a greater return of NCAA money, etc. We realize that we need to do our best each and every year, regardless of our conference affiliation.

Yes, the Sun Belt was good for us at the time but if you want to follow that line of thinking so was the Big West. We could not have made it as an independent in 1995. I think that our main complaint about the BWC, before it's football demise, was that we weren't very good. My memory's not as good as it once was but I don't recall great consternation about travel expense or the inability to get gameday reports. Oh, maybe the early editions didn't have a full recap but the later editions did. We were just happy to be back in Division 1A.

The Sun Belt Conference ranks #11 of the eleven Division 1A conferences. That doesn't mean that it has to stay that way. Most of the schools have added new coaches and/or iupdated facilities or have definite plans to improve their situation, except for possibly ULM. It is a conference on the rise.

Be the best that you can be in your current situation but also keep one eye on the future. Short term goals should always be to win in the Belt and do our share to raise the level of the conference. Long range goals should be to strive for membership in a conference where its teams spark, interest, attendance and contributions by our alumni.

[FirefightnRick]

I"m not sure what it being referred to here. I don't see anyone advocating leaving the Sun Belt now nor saying that it won't improve.

Click Here

Rick

[NT80]

I"m not sure what it being referred to here. I don't see anyone advocating leaving the Sun Belt now nor saying that it won't improve. That doesn't mean that we don't prefer to be in a conference that would have more teams closer to Denton and a greater return of NCAA money, etc. We realize that we need to do our best each and every year, regardless of our conference affiliation.

Yes, the Sun Belt was good for us at the time but if you want to follow that line of thinking so was the Big West. We could not have made it as an independent in 1995. I think that our main complaint about the BWC, before it's football demise, was that we weren't very good. My memory's not as good as it once was but I don't recall great consternation about travel expense or the inability to get gameday reports. Oh, maybe the early editions didn't have a full recap but the later editions did. We were just happy to be back in Division 1A.

The Sun Belt Conference ranks #11 of the eleven Division 1A conferences. That doesn't mean that it has to stay that way. Most of the schools have added new coaches and/or iupdated facilities or have definite plans to improve their situation, except for possibly ULM. It is a conference on the rise.

Be the best that you can be in your current situation but also keep one eye on the future. Short term goals should always be to win in the Belt and do our share to raise the level of the conference. Long range goals should be to strive for membership in a conference where its teams spark, interest, attendance and contributions by our alumni.

Good post. The Sun Belt, like the Big West, were quick fixes in desperate times. Hopefully our next conference decision will be based on aspiration instead of desperation.

[greenminer]

Oh man I miss DeLoach. I see a lot of his fire and pride in Mendoza. I hope that translates onto the field!

[Charlie NT 73]

Grate posting, Stebo! I con not agree more, that the Sun Belt Conference is

one of the best things that has helped NT. I am a "older" NT fan- been through

many highs and lows since 1968.

The SBC gives us a bowl bid, a NCAA BB bid, and hopefully a baseball team that can

compete for a NCAA crown. Look at the NOB- 4 straight trips- I never thought

NT would ever be in a real college bowl game, much less than 4 in a row. Now-the SBC

is starting to have 2 teams going bowling-I beleive this alone is giving a quality

to the SBC teams.

I beleive the SBC teams are getting better and stronger, and I do beleive there

will be several "upsets" in football this year. Every OOC game a SBC team wins will be

deamed a "upset". That is OK- just keep winning the OOC games!

Finally, I am very happy to see the response from the fans. As all know, the spring

game had over 5000 fans-WOW! The "new" NT fans are in for a real exciting time now,

something the "old timers" last saw a long time ago! What is amazing to me, young and

old NT fans are a big NT family, that are uniting together for the first time in a long

time. It is a good thing to be part of the SBC!

[LoveMG]

I con not agree more, that the Sun Belt Conference is

one of the best things that has helped NT. It is a good thing to be part of the SBC!

only if you like watching train wrecks. rv is what helped us get where we are not mtsu fiu and other unknowns.

[Quoner]

only if you like watching train wrecks. rv is what helped us get where we are not mtsu fiu and other unknowns.

You can't spell Jesus without the letters R and V.