Sleeping Giant

[H-towngreen]

Requires insider access. Awesome to hear yet so sad and frustrating.

http://insider.espn.go.com/college-football/blog/_/name/mcgee_ncf_ryan/id/8638710/ucla-ranks-top-sleeping-giant-programs-college-football

[Harry]

Good find and so true....some fine day

[UNT90]

I would argue we are a sleeping sleeper.

Edited November 17, 2012 by UNT90

[North Texas Shep]

Slowly but surely we are getting better. I know the fans are more involved than I have ever seen. That will draw more talent our way.

[Proud North Texan]

Go MEAN GREEN

[trussbussdad]

im not an espn member....what does it say?

[NorthTexan95]

Considering that the part about UNT is just in the opening few paragraphs of the introduction, I think it's safe to quote that part completely. If I'm wrong then an admin can edit it.

Three weekends ago, I was sitting in the sparkling new press box of Apogee Stadium, home of the North Texas Mean Green, with my mouth agape. Why? Because I hadn't been on the Denton, Texas, campus in more than a decade, and I couldn't believe where I was sitting and what I was seeing. It was as nice a press box as I've seen in college football, the product of a nearly $80 million stadium construction project and a larger Mean Green athletic village that will soon be home to 13 of the school's 16 sports teams.

Looking out the south end of the press box tower, over the three giant turbine fans that sent power through the village, I saw cars rumbling by on I-35, the main corridor between Oklahoma City, Okla., and the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. One thought kept rumbling through my mind, the same thought repeated after the game by Arkansas State coach Gus Malzahn.

"Located where it is and with the commitment they're making to facilities," the former Auburn offensive coordinator said, "this place is a sleeping giant."

Yes, it is. But while UNT is still in the midst of a pace-yourself construction project, what are the other sleeping giants of college football -- the programs quietly on the cusp of something big, or at the very least on the verge of a long-sought breakthrough?

http://insider.espn.go.com/college-football/blog/_/name/mcgee_ncf_ryan/id/8638710/ucla-ranks-top-sleeping-giant-programs-college-football

[NorthTexan95]

When someone like Gus Malzahn notices the committment being made here It means college football is at well. If McCarney doesn't work out then I don't think we'll be lacking in quality applications to be the head coach.

[NT91]

go 10-2 and the place will be ave. 28-30K per year.

[Cougar King]

The real question here, is Mac the one who can awaken it?

[Huff]

I've heard North Texas described as a "sleeping giant" for about forty years now. I am tired of that phrase. I believe it was Bill Parcells who said "you are what your record says you are" or words to that effect. We have been asleep now for most of the last four decades. I am ready for us to wake up and kick some ass. I just hope it happens soon because I am REALLY tired of getting beat.

[UNT90]

I've heard North Texas described as a "sleeping giant" for about forty years now. I am tired of that phrase. I believe it was Bill Parcells who said "you are what your record says you are" or words to that effect. We have been asleep now for most of the last four decades. I am ready for us to wake up and kick some ass. I just hope it happens soon because I am REALLY tired of getting beat.

The first step is beating someone that matters.

So tired of this same old "Sleeping giant" crap. That is what every large school that sucks says about their program. How about just waking the F up and winning some football games.

Edited November 17, 2012 by UNT90

[DeepGreen]

The first step is beating someone that matters.

So tired of this same old "Sleeping giant" crap. That is what every large school that sucks says about their program. How about just waking the F up and winning some football games.

Bingo!

[SilverEagle]

I've heard North Texas described as a "sleeping giant" for about forty years now. I am tired of that phrase. I believe it was Bill Parcells who said "you are what your record says you are" or words to that effect. We have been asleep now for most of the last four decades. I am ready for us to wake up and kick some ass. I just hope it happens soon because I am REALLY tired of getting beat.

I'm pretty sick of it too. I think that Hayden Fry might have been one of the first to use that phrase...followed by countless others. The problem with the term "sleeping giant" is the implication that we were once a giant, but then at some point went into hibernation....awaiting our wake-up call/alarm to then, once again, dominate all that we survey.

What we are, and always have been, is a very large assortment of (mostly) unrelated/unconnected college students who happen to have a sports program. But we have never been consistently oriented and/or conditioned to believe that...

A. supporting those teams is being patriotic to North Texas or

B. that the administration truly believes point A.

There are scattered, but not very well co-ordinated efforts to instill/whip up spirit on campus. You see it in all those t-shirts from various organizations (which most students have never heard of) that say things like "see you at the game", "North Texas pride" or "the dictionary definition of pride".... and the latest "we are all in".

When I see those attempts at instilling pride, or at least getting the attention of students that may or may not care, I always say the same thing to myself "who are you trying to convince, me or you?"And you have to ask yourself if the same question is going through the minds of the fence-setting students/alumni and/or Denton residents that they are trying to attract.

Wearing North Texas gear that just says NORTH TEXAS or MEAN GREEN or at the most NORTH TEXAS MEAN GREEN is sufficient to convey that you have pride in your school.

Cutesy phrases only convey that someone has won a cutesy phrase contest, and that the wearer either likes cutesy phrases as much as they like their school.......or they were given the shirt.,

Edited November 17, 2012 by SilverEagle

[SilverEagle]

The first step is beating someone that matters.

So tired of this same old "Sleeping giant" crap. That is what every large school that sucks says about their program. How about just waking the F up and winning some football games.

...beating someone that matters and then following it up with a comparable win or close loss.. You know, kind of like what ULM did this year. THEN don't collapse at the end of the year.

[GL2Greatness]

the real problem is at this point there are 2 programs in the DFW area and at least 6 or 7 in Texas that could take the coach that makes the "giant awake" in a heart beat and it is right back to square one

if north Texas is pushing the limits paying DMac $400,000 per year well TCU and SMU can pay at least 5X that and Texas, A&M, Tech, Baylor, can all pay 5X or more and UH can pay probably 3X that or more and even UTEP might be able to lure a coach away with their fan support and stronger history and better pay

the coach would not even have to move his family to go to TCU or SMU and if you are making $2 million per year even if you are gone after 4 years that is $8 million total which would take 20 years to earn at north Texas making $400,000 per year...only a fool would turn down 5X the pay guaranteed for 4 years to go to a place that has a much better winning tradition (TCU) or even a better winning tradition overall and better recent winning history (SMU) especially when the facilities are better and the financial support for the program is much better

and hell those 6 or 7 teams are only the teams in Texas that could pull him away and again two of them would not even require a family relocation

and even if the "winning" did bring in fans to fill the stands those 10K new fans would have to be coming into the stands paying 30 dollars per ticket X6 games to come close to matching what TCU or SMU could pay a coach and that is a huge risk to try and match TCU or SMU on coaches pay based on the idea that north Texas will continue to win and draw those fans for 4-5 more years while paying a coach close to 2 million per year...if the wins dropped off in year 2 or 3 of that deal and the fans dropped off you are looking at either lowering ticket prices and hoping that brings a few fans back or you are looking at sticking it to the fans that do show up for high prices and hoping you can weather the losses until something changes

sure some situation could develop like Boise where the coaches that take over do even better until you get to a coach that wants to be at that place for reasons other than money, but again Boise does not have two other programs with much more money less than an hour away that could let the coach stay in that area and still make a lot more money with a job jump

the time to act on the "sleeping giant" thing was 10 to 15 years ago now with 12 D1-A programs in Texas, TCU in the Big 12, and SMU having the backers step up to pay for a winning coach and making conference moves themselves the competition is going to be fierce to even sustain wins much less hold on long term to a coach that does turn it around and win with consistency

[Green Mean]

It's nice to get a mention but how the heck is UCLA and North Carolina part of a "sleeping giant"? They're both in big 6 conferences with a ton of money and resources. UCLA was one of the big dogs until about 15-20 years ago but just because they've been meh since then shouldn't put them as a sleeping giant. That term should only go to non bcs schools or maybe the very very low level bcs schools.

As for NT it's all a work in progress. While things are far far better than they were a decade ago what we've doing is playing catch up in my opinion. Need to prove it on the field/court and we gotta continue to grow the fan base and have better attendance numbers throughout.

[JRock]

Great to see. No negativity here.

[filmerj]

As for NT it's all a work in progress.

It feels as though NT football has been a Work in Progress for nearly 100 years.

[greeninok]

I just want to win TWO games in a row!! Something we havent done here in a long time.

[Green Dozer]

The sleeping giant is in critical condition in ICU and in a coma.

[NT03]

I think we are frozen at the cryogenics lab

Edited November 18, 2012 by NT03

[eulessismore]

Sleep is overrated.

[untjim1995]

I think that the reality is that we have never given the local media and fanbase any reason to want to come watch us play with any regularity. We always get smoked by the big OOC names by anywhere between 2 TDS and 10 TDs since we have moved up to 1-A. Heck, even when we play a regional team that the old SWC media cares about, we usually get beat badly, too.

I've posted it before, but a friend of mine who covers sports in the DFW area has always said this about UNT. To gain attention, they have to do two things; Beat a huge AQ team AND then win their conference. We have beaten Tech and Boise State in the same season that we went 2-9. We have gone 9-4 and won the SBC, with those losses to OU, Arkansas, Air Force, and Memphis. We have never done both. I can't imagine what it would be like here if we were to beat a big OOC name and then win our conference. I really believe that our best chance to do both is when we play at Iowa in a few years, assuming that Iowa gets back to being good again and we can actually take the next steps upward toward being good. Scheduling games at those SEC and Big XII powers in the first game of the year will continue to kill any momentum we can possibly build. When I see OOC games to start the year at Texas, OU, LSU, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee, I don't see any way we can expect anything to get better. Maybe McCarney and staff will fool me, but I will remain skeptical that this program can beat any of those teams early in a season, which always leads to the inevitable dropoff once conference season begins.

Edited November 20, 2012 by untjim1995

[Rudy]

I think we are frozen at the cryogenics lab

Right next to Ted Williams' head.