Y'Barbo and Dunham Hook Up in All-Star Game
Hall to UTSA
North Texas was in on John Poehlmann, OL, 6-6, 265 from Brenham High School but he opted to play for Rice. He had offers from Houston, Colorado State, Rice and North Texas. His brother plays for the University of Texas.
North Texas is looking at Rodney Hubert, CB, from Brenham. He already has offers from SMU, UTSA, Colorado State.
North Texas at the Taste of Dallas
The University of North Texas used the 24th Annual Taste of Dallas event to it’s advantage to reconnect with former alumni and friends and to make new supporters. The three day event was held at Fair Park from July 9-11 and reports coming out of the University of North Texas are the event was a success.
Representing North Texas were the Cheerleaders, the Dance Team, staff members, the Big Truck and the bounce house. Giveaways were available. On display was the rendering of the new football stadium which caught the attention of a lot of visitors.
The North Texas Athletic Department, under the direction of Athletic Director Rick Villarreal, is looking for ways to get closer to their alumni base, find ways to get closer to the community, draw more interest to what North Texas has been doing on the playing field as well as the athletic department facilities improvements. Most of the improvements have not been noticed by fans outside Denton.
So, athletic department officials felt the Taste of Dallas was one of the best ways to get the word out about what is going on at North Texas. It was a way to get closer to the 100,000 University of North Texas alums that live in the metroplex and to bring to them what the new stadium will look like. It would also allow North Texas to get closer to possible future students and interested sport’s fans.
A source close the program said they felt he worked. There were North Texas alums, as well as interested fans, that were impressed about the new stadium. Several alums said they have not been involved with North Texas since they graduated but the new stadium has gotten them interested in becoming involved and now want to support the program.
North Texas officials also thought this was a great opportunity to prepare for future conference realignments. Every several years in college football there are shakeups in conference memberships and they wanted to get prepared for the next one. Going out to the metroplex would not only give North Texas a chance to get closer to their alumni base but would give fans from other schools the opportunity to see what North Texas is doing to improve their facilities. The result would bolster North Texas’ position for support from fans from other schools who would help support admission to their conference.
One of the things officials are trying to point out to North Texas alums is even though they maybe fans of other Texas programs, that is fine, but they need to support North Texas. Afterall, North Texas is where they got their degree and they should support the school where they earned their degree in some form or fashion. They need all the alums to join the Mean Green Club or the Alumni Association, purchase tickets to home sporting events because doing so will help North Texas move their programs forward and they could become just as powerful as any other school in the state.
North Texas does not intend to let this event be a once a year thing. They have plans to contact everyone that stopped by the booth to thank them, to let them know how much North Texas needs their support in anyway possible and to push for ticket sales.
While some may feel this is not the best way to get to fans, it should be noted both Southern Methodist and Texas Christian also had booths at the event.
Look for the North Texas Athletic Department to be at more such events in the future.
Hall Back on the Market
North Texas Head Coach <b>Todd Dodge</b> courted Brenham High School, 13-3, Defensive Back/Safety <b>Jeremy Hall</b>, 5-11, 195, 4.5 but lost him in the recruiting wars to Southern Methodist. Hall had offers from North Texas, Southern Methodist, Louisiana Tech, Louisiana-Monroe and the University of Texas-El Paso.
He was rated a three star player from Rivals.com. Scout said about him the “only thing he is lacking is an inch or two in size. He has great instincts for the ball and has won two games with late game interceptions to seal the win. Plays hard in the secondary and plays with force. Seems to be in the right place at the right time over and over again.”
He was selected to the first team defense in 4A-18 football.
His reason he choose SMU over the other schools was for its academic history and its sports facilities. Now, he has packed his bags headed home to decide what options he has in front of him after the SMU Admission Board decline his application to attend the school. Another SMU signee offensive lineman <b>Darryl Jackson</b> from Long Beach, Calif. was als
o declined admission and is in the same situation as Hall.
Brenham High School Athletic Director <b>Glen West</b> told Eagletalk.net Hall is “a player that has a nose for the ball” and “would be a great pickup for a program.” West was on vacation when the news broke and caught him by surprise. He has “heard from several programs” about obtaining Hall’s services.
He has not talked to Hall about which programs he maybe interested in and could not say if North Texas is in the picture. At this point in time, Hall is not accepting telephone calls while he is considering his options.
Because Hall “was a NCAA academic qualifier” he can attend any school without any penalties. The questions are does any school have a scholarship to offer at this time? Would he be forced to grayshirt this season?
Hall was selected to the Texas Sports Writers Association All-State team as a defensive back. He garnered three interceptions during the season and four in the playoffs for season total of seven interceptions. His efforts help Brenham get to the state finals for just the second time in school history.
He is an all around athlete and as the starting point guard he directed the team to the Class 4A Region III semifinals.
Hall was the starting right fielder on the baseball team which won the class 4A State Championship. He batted .421 with an on-base % of .559, slugging % .605, fielding % 900 with seven doubles and accounted for 23 runs.
North Texas fans can watch him play in the Texas High School Coaches Association All-Star Football Game which will be help in the Alamodome on July 20th.
Reports are Hall would now like to play for a school where he can play football and baseball.
Here is what SMU Head Coach <b>June Jones</b> had to say about Hall when he was talking about his recruiting class. June Jones on Jeremy Hall
New Stadium Opening Opponents
While doing some checking on next year’s football schedule and a source close to the program has stated that it looks like Houston is on the schedule but details are being worked on. As to whether they will be the team opening the new stadium is another matter. North Texas fans will have to wait for at least six months to find out who the official opponent will be to open the stadium. It could be Houston or someone else.
The reason is simple. There have been some changes in the college conference realignment which may lead to some openings for some very attractive opportunities for North Texas to carpe diem. 
For example only, since Nebraska has changed conferences and will start to play Big Ten schools next year what will happen to all the Big 12 schools they were suppose to play along with the out of conference opponents? They need games. Could North Texas hook up with one of those teams? Nebraska was supposed to play Texas, Washington, Missouri, Iowa State, Kansas, Texas A&M, Colorado, Oklahoma State, Kansas State, Western Kentucky, Idaho and South Dakota State. Could Athletic Director Rick Villarreal’s staff convince one of them to open up the new stadium? Would one of them be a better opponent to open the stadium then Houston? What if Kansas State was convinced to close Fouts Field and make a return visit to open up the new stadium? Could Nebraska be willing to schedule North Texas as their OOC opponent in case they can not honor their OOC schedule because of Big Ten dates?
There are always changes going on with scheduling because of television. National networks are willing to pay to see two teams play on a certain date because they feel it will garner a big television audience and big advertising revenues. If those teams are not playing on the day the television wants, the two teams will start to rearrange their schedule. Some opponents can’t move their schedule so they get dropped, moved to another season or given additional games. As a result, at the last moment, some teams find themselves in a position of needing a game. Maybe North Texas can pick one of them up.
When some teams were scheduled they were not very good but have gotten better. As a result some big name teams would rather pay the buyout then play them. As a result openings become available for both teams.
So, North Texas is waiting to see to if maybe there is a big name opponent they might be able to schedule at the last moment before they officially name the opponent for the stadium opener. It’s part of the scheduling process and part of what happens in the life of a college football athletic director.
Little Eagle Basketball Camp begins Monday
North Texas Head Basketball Coach Johnny Jones uses his knowledge of basketball not only to win basketball games for
Starting Monday July 12-15ththe Little Eagle Camp will be in full swing at the
The camp is for boys and girls who will be entering 1-3 grades. Jones and his staff will be teaching 
campers the basic skills of ball handling, shooting and fundamentals’ of team play. The result is the players should be better all around basketball players on the court and better team players. Not only will the campers learn skills they otherwise might miss out on, they are going to be taught the primary skills Jones has used to build a winning basketball program at
The camp runs from 9-12 each day with drop-offs starting at 8:30 a.m. each morning.
Online registration is available at Little Eagle Camp All other information is available through the website.
The three day investment for a young budding star is $145.00.
McNeill Comes Back to Denton Every Chance He Gets
North Texas is trying to bring back former football players for the Fouts Field Finale. Eagletalk.net is trying to contact former players in order to get their memories of what it was like playing at the old lady.
The first former North Texas player we talked with was Kenneth (K.C.) McNeil, 69, 70, 71 and 72. Before we begin, some North Texas Fans may be confused why certain players in past years did things which are not allowed today. This is because there have been NCAA rule chan
ges since then and we will try to explain the changes in the stories to keep confusion at a minimum.
At the time McNeil played, players played for four years because there was no such thing as a red-shirt freshman like there is today. A redshirt allows a player to play for four years in a five year span. The year they sit out is called the redshirt year. It generally is the freshman year but it can be any year. Sometimes a player may get a sixth year when they are injured. During McNeill’s time incoming players played on the freshman team which was more or less the team the varsity practiced against.
McNeill was recruited by Head Coach Rod Rust who had just come off several successful seasons. In 1967, his first year as head coach, he took North Texas to a 7-1-1 record and the Missouri Valley Conference Championship. In 1968 North Texas went 8-2 and 1969 they went 7-3. In 1968, McNeill signed with North Texas to play fullback and middle linebacker, but during his freshman season he suffered a hamstring injury and was moved to defensive tackle. He was on the freshmen squad which only played five games that season.
During his sophomore year he was switched to center and played behind an All-American so he was basically in training to take over the position. He also played on all the special teams that year.
In his junior year, McNeill played himself into the starting center position.
He ended his career at the center position and was the tri-captain of the team during his senior year.
“We only played four years [because] there wasn’t anything like there is today” McNeil explained, talking about the red-shirt now available. He also went on to add that almost everyone played on the freshmen team when they first got to campus.
The team started to decline and according to McNeill “it was a turbulent time.” There was the Viet Nam Police Action going on, women wanted equal rights and there was the civil rights issue. All these external issues started to spill over to the football team making it a challenging time for the players and the coaches.
As a result the team went 3-8 in 1970 and 1971 before falling to 1-10 in 1972. “We had the talent on the team” stated McNeill but the outside events hurt the team’s performance. In 1973, after McNeill eligibility was gone, Rust was replaced by Hayden Fry and North Texas went 5-5-1 becoming Co-champions of the Missouri Valley Conference which backs up McNeill’s statement about the team having talent.
The Missouri Valley Conference included North Texas, Memphis, Louisville, Tulsa, New Mexico State and St. Louis. North Texas was part of the conference from 1957-1974.
As a member of the Lettermen’s Club, McNeil tries to go to “as many home football games as his schedule will permit. I make four or five games a year” he stated. He then added he travels to some away games if possible.
He has watched as North Texas continues to move forward. “I’m proud of what is going on” with North Texas. “I appreciate the student body increasing their student fees to help fund the new stadium.” He likes all the new building going on within the athletic department and the success in all the programs. He hopes the football team can soon join the ranks of success of the other sports programs.
It is not only what is going on with athletic programs that makes him proud. He also likes all the other improvements going on around campus. He has watched as the campus has grown up around him and the same thing can be said about the Denton area.
While North Texas was a large campus when he played, Denton was a small town. “There weren’t a lot of things to do back then” pointing out Denton’s population was about 20,000 at the time. So there wasn’t a lot of night life. Now there is so much more for former football players and alumni to enjoy when coming back to Denton for football games.
McNeill said “I think [Athletic Director] Rick Villarreal is doing a great job” with all the athletic improvements at North Texas and hopes Villarreal will be able to get North Texas into one of those “big name teams” in the coming future. According to McNeill, Villarreal has done so much with so little and what he has done is amazing.
McNeil now works for Pumpco an oil field services company and is the Material Service Manager. He comes back to the Letterwinner’s meeting to get reacquainted with former players and friends as well at to meet new players and establish new friends.
McNeill’s most memorable moments playing for North Texas have to do with playing Louisville. The first was being “the first team to open up Texas Stadium” in Arlington. Dallas was out of town at the time and North Texas was assigned the home team locker room. “The players ran into the locker room trying to grab one of the Dallas player’s lockers.” He doesn’t remember whose locker he had because it was not that important to him; getting a win was. They were 0-4 going into the game and the opponent was the University of Louisville under the leadership of Lee Corso. McNeill got his wish by upsetting the Cards 20-17.
He chuckled and said the reason North Texas got to play in the stadium was because they were the “warm-up for the Cowboys. They needed to make sure that everything worked.” It was an opportunity to train the employees, make sure the restrooms functioned, check the phones, test the lights and make sure everything was in working order before the Cowboys played their first game there.
(The actual first game played in Texas Stadium was Division 1-AA, Texas Southern beating Bishop College 32-21. The game was played on Thursday, Oct 14th. North Texas was the first 1-A team to play in the stadium beating Louisville and the first pro game was Dallas beating New England, 44-21 on Oct. 24, 1971)
He laughed about a recent trip he made to Louisville, KY. He stopped by to see the new Papajohns’ Stadium and he was impressed with what he saw and feels the North Texas Stadium is right there with the Louisville Stadium.
The reason he chuckled was simple, the old stadium was on the Kentucky Downs Fairgrounds. “When we played Louisville our locker rooms were in the horses stalls. We got to walk down the same aisles as the horses.”
North Texas Plans to Honor Former Letterwinners
The North Texas Lettermen’s Club is trying to put together a program where they will honor all former football players during one of the home football games this season. Matt Phillips’ vision is to make this a big part of the Fouts Field Finale. The goal is to remember former players who fought hard for North Texas on the gridiron in order to give present fans a sense of Fouts Field history.
Phillips is working on c
ontacting former players to get them to participate in the event. There are so many memories former players can give to present North Texas Football Fans. He is hoping to hear from any football player to make this dream a reality.
Tentative schedule looks like this; Sept 11th against Out of Conference opponent Rice, North Texas will honor players from 2000-2009.
Sunbelt Conference opponent Louisiana-Lafayette, Oct. 2nd, will honor players from 1990-1999.
The next weekend against SBC opponent Arkansas State, Oct. 9th, players from the 1980-1989 will be honored. This will also be the Family Weekend game.
SBC opponent Florida International, Oct 16th players from the 1970-1979 era will be honored. This is also the Homecoming Game.
SBC opponent Troy, Nov 6th will feature players from 1960-1969.
The Fouts Field Finale will have Big 12 opponent Kansas State in on Nov 27th with players from 1950-1959 getting center stage.
Any former player are asked to contact Phillips at 940-369-8609 or email him at Ntla@unt.edu to get further information about the planned project.
To get a jump start on the Phillips’s idea, Eagletalk.net is also trying to locate former North Texas Football players to find out what they are doing and for them to share some of their memories of what it was like to play for North Texas during their era.They can email don@eagletalk.net in order to feature them on Eagletalk.net.
The first former player we talked with and who will be featured tomorrow was Kenneth (K.C.) McNeil, 69, 70, 71 and 72. The reason we will start out with McNeil was Eagletalk.net ran into him at the spring football game. He was at a Letterwinner’s meeting and he took time to talk about his memories of previous North Texas seasons, the change in the Denton area and his hope for the future of North Texas Football.
North Texas Football Features National Players
The national sports magazines are hitting the stands as football fans are starting to get ready for the next season. Until the first kick-off, almost all college sports fans believe their team is going to go undefeated, winning their respective conference title, headed to a bowl and winning the mythical BCS National Championship. What is so exciting about a new season is everyone is starting out undefeated. What is exciting about the magazines is they give football fans the hope their team has improved enough to end the season at the top.
North Texas Fans ar
e much the same way. While most are not expecting an undefeated season, a lot of fans are looking for a winning season and a possible bowl bid. Head Coach Todd Dodge and his coaching staff are under the gun this season and he has some players on the team which could make a winning season a possibility. What he has in his arsenal is one of the top ten players in the nation and one of the national 'sleepers to watch' ready to make his move.
Eagletalk.net has had a working relationship with Athlon’s Sports in the past and it is one of the first magazines we look for when it hits the store selves. So we contacted them a few week back before their magazine hit the selves to get some early thought about North Texas. As pointed out earlier, they expected North Texas to have a better season this year then they have had in the past three years . They expect Lance Dunbar will have great year and lead North Texas to more wins this season.
OK, that was the advanced information but what do they really say in their in the store editions? Here is an overview of what they have to say about North Texas and some of the players.
On the ‘Back Page,’ where they project upcoming bowl participates, they do not expect North Texas to be in a bowl this year. In other words, North Texas will not end the season with an even or winning record.
North Texas gets a plug in the “Sleepers to Watch” section. They mention Tyler Stradford, WR, with the comment “Oklahoma transfer could emerge as Mean Green’s best receiver.” Stradford is only one of six receivers mentioned in this area and one of only nineteen total players mentioned for all positions which says volumes on what they think of him. This is pretty elite territory for anyone and for North Texas to get a player mentioned is something else. You should see what other players he is in company with.
In their “2010 College Fantasy Football Mock Draft” North Texas gets mentioned in the top 84 players section. Sitting at #12 of the best player in the mock draft is none other than Lance Dunbar, RB, North Texas. He is right there with some big time players from other big name schools.
In their top 150 players in the section, looky at #17 from North Texas. Yep, it is none other than that little old running back Lance Dunbar and he is ranked ahead of some very noticeable and high profile players.
When selecting their top 75 running backs in College Fantasy Football there at #8 is Lance Dunbar. You should see whom he beats out.
OK, enough of Dunbar, what about other North Texas players. Seems Athlon’s already knows who the starting quarterback for North Texas will be next year, he is Derek Thompson. Why? Because of the top 75 quarterbacks in the College Fantasy Football he is rated #65. They must think a lot about his talents to rank him in the middle of the pack of FBS teams and he hasn’t even played a down, or officially named a starter.
Of the top 75 wide receivers in the College Fantasy Football #70 is Tyler Stradford. He is ranked that high and hasn't played a down for North Texas. Then when you figure most FBS teams carry about four active wide receivers and there are 120 FBS teams it means there was about 480 receivers which Athlons could choose from. Stradford is rarefied air at his position.
Well, no surprise, the #1 coach on the hot seat is Todd Dodge. Athlons basically states, “defense has been the big problem in Denton. The Mean Green have ranked 112th, 119th and 119th in the nation in scoring defense the past three seasons.” They mentioned he has only won five games in his three years going 5-31, 2-20.
As a result of the defense they predict Dodge’s team is the #115 team in the nation.
When it comes to ranking the best coaching jobs from “First to Worst,” North Texas lands at #96 with the statement, “good for the league, but No. 9 in the state."
They predict Troy to be the winner of the Sun Belt Conference with North Texas coming in at #7 ahead of #8 Florida International and #9 Western Kentucky. This indicates Athlon’s does expect North Texas to win a minimum of three and possibly more games this season. So, true to their early forecast, they are expecting North Texas to improve this year and put more W's in the win column.
Breaking down each unit in the SBC they rank North Texas running back position #1. Wide receivers/tight ends both come in at #2. Linebackers are the fifth best in the conference with the defensive line and defensive backs at #7. The quarterback position is #8.
Recruiting ratings in the SBC finds North Texas at #6.
To summarize, Athlon believes North Texas fans will have more to cheer about this season as they are expecting more wins. As they point out, North Texas fans will have the opportunity to see one of the best running backs in the nation in Lance Dunbar. They will also bear witness to the emergence of one of the best wide receivers in nation in Tyler Stradford.
In other words, there are a lot of good reasons to see North Texas play this season. Fans will get to see the curtain close on Fouts Field, every game they will get to see a couple of the best players not only in the Sun Belt Conference but the best players in the nation and they will also be appreciated by the team on the field.