Disappointment

[BIG DAWG]

I just got through watching this draft and I think my lot in life as a NT fan is disappointment!

Damn the bowl years...if not for them I may not have had to go through a life of emotional abuse as a NT fan who now bleeds green for life...

[UNT90]

Disappointment is what being a UNT fan is all about.

It is becoming crystal clear that the fans of UNT athletics care FAR more about athletics than anyone at UNT.

[PlummMeanGreen]

Wonder how Kansas State fans felt before Bill Snyder came to town. Their dismal record before Snyder makes ours look like a success story.

[Greendylan]

Here's what concerns me: When I first began seriously following the Mean Green around 2001, I didn't know much about North Texas's past successes, outside of the Joe Greene era. So, I did some dutiful research and actually found that the Mean Green had an all-time winning record. That surprised me. And, over the last several years of painful disaster I've often cited this fact when justifying my continuing faith in all things North Texas. Here's the problem. After the 2004 season, we were 456-395, which is safely on the winning side of the equation. After just eight more seasons we having fallen to 478-468. That's a precipitous decline by any measure, and we are moving at light speed toward the dreaded all-time losing record. I don't think it will happen this year, but two more rough years and it could easily happen.

I know it may seem like I'm making too much of this, and yes, recruits and casual college football fans care more about your recent history than your record since 1913. Still, considering a lot of the either complacent or even downright antagonistic attitudes that persist from within our own North Texas community toward athletics and football in particular, I think our complete history may be crucial. If we can show that over the entire life of our program we have ultimately been successful, then I think we have an easier time justifying the continued, or even expanded, use of university resources in the present and future.

[DallasGreen]

I view actually four eras as significant in 50 years of watching Mean Green FB. 1) Joe Greene era2) Hayden Fry era 3) 1-AA era under Corky Nelson 4) SBC Bowl era under DD. Notice I did not include MAC or H of D bowl as jury is I still out. I witnessed MAC' s colossal melt down at the signing day reception which was frankly embarrassing and I truly expected he was going to have a stroke right there before us. How can MAC & RV expect sell outs when the on the field performance is not even mediocre? SMU suffered a worse season last year and immediately took steps to remedy, had a great recruiting class, and hired a quality coach to lead them in 2015. I foresee them beating us by at least two touchdowns at Ford this fall. Talk about a downer before your home opener the next week.

[MeanGreenTexan]

[MeanGreenTexan]

I view actually four eras as significant in 50 years of watching Mean Green FB. 1) Joe Greene era2) Hayden Fry era 3) 1-AA era under Corky Nelson 4) SBC Bowl era under DD. Notice I did not include MAC or H of D bowl as jury is I still out. I witnessed MAC' s colossal melt down at the signing day reception which was frankly embarrassing and I truly expected he was going to have a stroke right there before us. How can MAC & RV expect sell outs when the on the field performance is not even mediocre? SMU suffered a worse season last year and immediately took steps to remedy, had a great recruiting class, and hired a quality coach to lead them in 2015. I foresee them beating us by at least two touchdowns at Ford this fall. Talk about a downer before your home opener the next week.

I foresee the exact opposite. SMU sucks bad. Morris is a good coach, not a miracle worker. Going to take him some time.

[Ben Gooding]

We beat SMU if our JUCO haul shows up. We beat SMU in attendance in their own stadium and at this point that's all we can control. So, show up.

[drex]

Everybody pray that the SMU game is not an 11 o'clock kickoff on a 90 plus degree day...absolutely no breeze in their stadium.

[DeepGreen]

Everybody pray that the SMU game is not an 11 o'clock kickoff on a 90 plus degree day...absolutely no breeze in their stadium.

If it's on TV(ESPN?), and I can't imagine anyone televising those two giants of the gridiron, you can count on the game being televised early.

[greenminer]

I witnessed MAC' s colossal melt down at the signing day reception which was frankly embarrassing and I truly expected he was going to have a stroke right there before us.

What happened? New news to me.

[MeanGreenHoops]

Everybody pray that the SMU game is not an 11 o'clock kickoff on a 90 plus degree day...absolutely no breeze in their stadium.

If it's an 11am game for TV count me out. It sucked this year at home. I'd go to Apogee at that time, but not to SMU.

[817Fan]

What "colossal melt down at the signing day reception"...

please explain.

[Withers940]

I dont remember a melt down

[Stix]

What's the point of resurrecting an almost 2 year old thread with only 3 replies where the last reply was 28 June 2013?

Edited February 16, 2015 by Stix

[SilverEagle]

I view actually four eras as significant in 50 years of watching Mean Green FB. 1) Joe Greene era2) Hayden Fry era 3) 1-AA era under Corky Nelson 4) SBC Bowl era under DD. Notice I did not include MAC or H of D bowl as jury is I still out. I witnessed MAC' s colossal melt down at the signing day reception which was frankly embarrassing and I truly expected he was going to have a stroke right there before us. How can MAC & RV expect sell outs when the on the field performance is not even mediocre? SMU suffered a worse season last year and immediately took steps to remedy, had a great recruiting class, and hired a quality coach to lead them in 2015. I foresee them beating us by at least two touchdowns at Ford this fall. Talk about a downer before your home opener the next week.

I made a passing reference to his presentation in another thread, but I don't think I characterized it as a melt-down.

Mac has made comments about our fan(?) base before, but he was getting more specific and emotional that night. What he was trying to do was get the crowd worked up and on their feet and cheering, but the embarrassing part was (typical of North Texas fans) that it was almost totally lost on the people that were there. Here he was trying to do his best evangelist/coach shtick and here we were being the typical North Texas fan on the reserved ticket side. And in the case of North Texas fans(?)"reserved" side is a double entendre. And while I didn't get to my feet either (I wasn't raised in a southern Baptist home) I did appreciate what he was trying to do and knew that with the recent death of his brother he was not exactly at optimum form.

For those not there he started talking about how people say "win coach win!" but "I need your help too". He said that we need more fans coming to the games to give the team a boost, because no team can win every game unless they know that their school's fan base is behind them. He indicated that he couldn't cure the attendance problem all by himself and that is why he was slapping the podium and asking for the crowds' help and trying to get the crowd pumped up.

Trouble is, he was talking to a long line of "polite tennis applause" North Texas graduates who, just as I predicted, showed up with about 1/3 of them wearing nothing resembling North Texas gear.......and these are the big time doners.

As I've said before about our other gatherings, the way everyone was dressed (anything but NT gear), to the casual observer, it could have been a meeting of the rotary club.....or more appropriately the "Odd fellows".

As my sweet TWU graduate wife said that day a few decades ago when we first joined the "reserved" side of the field......do these people know they are at a football game?

You call him embarrassing, I call him on the road to being beat down. Something that happens entirely too often to coaches who come here.....and who were lied to about the true challenges of the job.

I've said this every since Mac made his first public pep talk. His approach is long overdue.....BUT HE CAN'T DO IT ALL HIMSELF. SOMEONE ELSE NEEDS TO BE REGULARLY GOING OUT AND MAKING GREAT PEP TALKS!

[meanrob]

No but he can build a football program by himself and he's yet to show he can do that. I was on board when Mac was hired and I said unless he was a disaster I'd give him seven years to get this thing on solid ground and entering year five I have a lot of concerns.

Quit bitching about a fan base that has always been fickle to say the least and get a quarterback. Or a DLine. Or a better offensive scheme.

And if Mac didn't know the challenges of taking a Sun Belt/CUSA job, that's his fault. Nobody at this level has it easy.

[Cerebus]

Well, we know meanrob is still alive. That's clearly the best thing to come out of this thread.

[SilverEagle]

No but he can build a football program by himself and he's yet to show he can do that. I was on board when Mac was hired and I said unless he was a disaster I'd give him seven years to get this thing on solid ground and entering year five I have a lot of concerns.

Quit bitching about a fan base that has always been fickle to say the least and get a quarterback. Or a DLine. Or a better offensive scheme.

And if Mac didn't know the challenges of taking a Sun Belt/CUSA job, that's his fault. Nobody at this level has it easy.

Maybe my post was somewhat unclear, but Mac wasn't bitching about the fan base, he was trying to "coach up" the (supposedly) most loyal of the NT fan base to help with attendance. An issue that is ever present and certainly effects game day (the players not feeling fully supported) and recruitment (who would want to play in front of a chronically unfilled stadium with a less-than-enthusiastic fan base?) .

Bitching about the fan base? If he does (and who could blame him) I'm guessing that would be in the confines of his office with the door closed. I think coaches that have taken public shots would have been Bob Tyler and D.D. I can't remember either Dennis Parker or Matt Simon taking public shots at the fan base.

I guess my main issue is characterizing Mac's presentation as "embarrassing". Especially coming from a fan base such as ours. Do I have to say the "pot/kettle" thing?

[Ben Gooding]

Want to get attendance up then do things that inspire people other than talk. I am not saying these kind of things aren't happening because they may be, but go visit hospitals, nursing homes, primary and high schools, food drives, soup kitchens, goodwills, etc. Put your team out there in the community trying to do good things.

On a less ethical approach...change your offensive philosophy, market waaaaaaay better (AD), and most importantly WIN. It's amazing that he has the audacity to complain about attendance while sitting on a losing record here at North Texas.

GMG

[FirefightnRick]

I don't understand Mac's concern for attendance? He's mentioned it several times now and is obviously agitated about it even though he's boasted an ill informed bit about how we set an attendance record in 2011/2012 before. Doesnt make sense?

I think he knows by now he was misled about our so called attendance record. Surely he knows it didn't look good to boast about something that wasn't true. So it is what it is for now. No sense in going on about it and preaching to the choir how we gotta increase it. He knows what really brings people out to support the team. Wins!

Want to sell out Apogee? Beat Iowa or Tennessee or both, or someone your not suppose to beat and do it on a regular basis.

Rick

[UNT90]

I don't understand Mac's concern for attendance? He's mentioned it several times now and is obviously agitated about it even though he's boasted an ill informed bit about how we set an attendance record in 2011/2012 before. Doesnt make sense?

I think he knows by now he was misled about our so called attendance record. Surely he knows it didn't look good to boast about something that wasn't true. So it is what it is for now. No sense in going on about it and preaching to the choir how we gotta increase it. He knows what really brings people out to support the team. Wins!

Want to sell out Apogee? Beat Iowa or Tennessee or both, or someone your not suppose to beat and do it on a regular basis.

Rick

Do something on the field to turn some heads. That's why it's so important to schedule better for home games. It's hard to beat an Iowa or Tennessee on the road. Hard like we have never done it in the modern college football era hard.

It's even harder when we are playing 7 road games without a bye week.

So much dysfunction.

[UNTLifer]

Recruit the students to the games and win. That will build attendance. Trying to build it through the older alumni and Denton community ain't gonna happen. The reactions in this thread prove that. Go after the younger set that isn't hyper-sensitive or jaded due to their years of support.

[SilverEagle]

Recruit the students to the games and win. That will build attendance. Trying to build it through the older alumni and Denton community ain't gonna happen. The reactions in this thread prove that. Go after the younger set that isn't hyper-sensitive or jaded due to their years of support.

Assuming that the coaching staff starts doing a better job of assessing/coaching/training a viable QB for this fall and puts a decent defensive line out there and all this starts the ball rolling on winning........do you trust the current staff in the athletic department to do the other part?

[GrayEagle]

If you want enthusiasm you must start with the students. If properly indoctrinated and kept motivated I see little reason for there not to be 12-18,000 students on most game days. But, they must be charged from their orientation and perpetuated by pep rallies and game day reminders. To get this started, there should be pep rallies on campus and game week portable LED reminders to get your tickets in advance. Have a drawing for a semester's free tuition for two or three students each home game. Give them a reason to want to be there even if the team is performing poorly. Study other G5 colleges that have large attendance and see if any of their promotions would be applicable to North Texas.

Next, keep in touch with new alumni and keep or expand the reduced season tickets and special sections. Consider canned phone messages each game week as a reminder. Consider tailgating sites for each class year for those who do not know individual tailgaters and do not want to tailgate on their own. I'd like to see 1-2,000 new alumni game attendees added each year. Think outside the box.

We are approaching 10,000 old alumni that attend at least one game and if kept motivated could easily become season ticket holders; if they are not already. But, don't expect the older alums to do a lot of standing or yelling. I've done both in my time and will continue to do as much as this old body will allow. The 10K is a decent number to build from but it's going to take a better home schedule for that to dramatically improve. And, a team that wins and/or is fun to watch.

Lastly, start promoting Mean Green sports (especially football) to the townspeople. Free wing zone ticket to schoolkids when accompanied by and adult who buys a general admission ticket. Or, make it two or three free school tickets for one adult GA. Discounted tickets to Denton County residents for openers...whatever it takes to promote. As RickV has said, "an empty seat can't buy a hot dog and coke."

Now, this to Mac. Give us a team that we will enjoy watching. It's definitely important to win but it also a priority for the team to be entertaining. Unless three yards and a cloud of dust means consistently winning football, make the game exciting. Hell, if possible, do both.

There is likely an attendance limit for as long as we are in CUSA. I'd guess somewhere between 25 and 30K. If we can consistently top the thirty thousand mark consistently then we should be ready for a new or revised conference. Just keep promoting!