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I don’t have to say anything to let you know what day this is.  This is September 11 which has become a day of remembrance for every American for the rest of our lives.  We now call this day 9/11.  It is a symbol of those who would ruin our way of life and of the heroism and sacrifice of those who lost their lives doing what they do every day.  Now, I am not saying everything about our country is great, but this is a great country with great people.  We try give aid to those in other parts of the world when disaster strikes.  Most of us look in horror the images from Cuba the last couple of week as Hurricanes Gustaf and Ike ravaged that country.  Therfore, if you want to stick a finger (a la Rick Flair) in the eyes of those who would seek to ruin our country, follow my advice.

Search the Net. . . . . Log on to your internet and go to your favorite site.  Maybe it’s ESPN.com, or SI.com, or Amazon.com, or even Collegefootballtopten.com.  I don’t care, search the net!  The internet is one of the things that make this country great.  It is to information what the Space Shuttle was to space exploration.  Go ahead, check your fantasy football stats and teams, check on that eBay transaction or read the New York Post, but, darn it, just get on the internet and search.

Watch some TV. . . . . Make that cable or satellite.  Don’t just settle for rabbit ears; no, pay money for it.  Make sure you can watch ESPN, Fox Sports Southwest, or the Mountain West Conference Network.  Check out the Battle for the Butter between Maine and Stony Brook.  That game may not be on TV, but it will be covered by Mike and Mike in the Morning on Monday morning.  Watch Grey’s Anatomy, Dr. Phil, or Oprah.  I don’t care, just watch some TV!

Buy Something. . . . . . Go to Wal-Mart or Target or J. C. Penney.  I don’t care where you go.  Go to the grocery store to stock up on tailgating supplies.  Go to Gameday Connexion and get some sports memorabilia that is autographed.  Go to Amazon.com, Borders.com or even BarnesandNoble.com and buy something.  Buy something in a store or online.  Heck, if you’d like, go to the Collegefootballtopten Bookstore and buy a book or sports apparel.  Maybe you should go out to eat.  If you live in Fort Worth, go to the Railhead tonight and watch the Gary Patterson Show.  If you live in Dallas, go to Ford Stadium on Saturday and watch the Houston vs. Air Force game that was moved to Dallas because of Hurricane Ike.  Maybe we should all root for the service academies this week since they are largely responsible for us having a pretty pretty peacful life for the past 7 years.  You can also support our troops by buying a bag of coffee at any DFW Borders Bookstore and donating it to the troops through the store’s partnership with Soldiers’ Angels.  Please, buy something!

This is UNT Preview week at Collegefootballtopten.com.  We will review the offense today and the defense and special teams tomorrow.  Finally, we will conclude with a look at the UNT 2008 Schedule.

After just averaging 12.8 points a game in 2006, Todd Dodge brought “Dodge Ball” to North Texas and the Mean Green picked up the pace with an average of 24.8 points per game.  The transition wasn’t easy as UNT scored more than 20 points just once in the first four games in 2007.  By the time that the Green played the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, Dodge had turned to true freshmen QB Giovanni Vizza to run the offense, and the points began to rise along with yardage.

Of course, no performance had garnered more passing yards than the performance by QB Daniel Meager against SMU.  Meager passed for a staggering 601 yards against the Mustangs, but UNT failed to score enough points and lost the game 45-31.  Meager threw eight interceptions in four games, and Vizza became the starter.  Vizza had a huge performance in the late season shootout with Navy.  Vizza passed for 478 yards as the Mean Green lost 74-62 in the highest scoring regulation game in NCAA history.  Vizza went on to earn Sun Belt Freshman of the Year honors.  What makes Vizza so potent in Dodge’s Spread Offense is his ability to run.

Vizza had options at the wide receiver spot, and most of those return.  At the top of the list is Casey Fitzgerald whose performances in 2007 earned him an Honorable Mention All American from SI.com.  Fitzgerald tunred in a dizzying performance against SMU when he caught 18 passes for 327 yards.  Overall, Fitzgerald caught 111 passes for 1322 yards and 12 touchdowns.  UNT also returns Micah Mosely at Running Back.  Mosely had 461 yard rushing and 5 touchdowns and should be called upon to be the leading rusher with the departure of Jamario Thomas.  Helping out Mosley will be Cam Montgomery.  Montgomery took a Medical Redshirt last year after coming from Northeast Mississippi Community College.  Rivals.com listed Montgomery’s 40 time at 4.4.

The Offensive Line is a more uncertain area of the UNT Offense, but it seems to be in better shape than it was last year.  The Mean Green return 4 starters and at least 7 lettermen which should provide better depth.  UNT will hope to improve on the 39 sacks it gave up last year.  The UNT line will be anchored by Junior Center Kelvin Drake and Sophomore Right Guard Esteban Santiago.  To help strengthen the Offensive Line, UNT signed a couple of JUCO players.

The X Factor for the UNT offense is Freshman QB Riley Dodge.  Will Riley play as a true freshman or redshirt?  Will Riley take over the starting job at QB?  How will coach Dodge use his son?  Dodge is a great athlete who could be used on the field in certain situations or in other posistions such as a WR or some kind of H Back.  However, as good as an athlete as he is, college football takes time to get accustomed to.  If Dodge can adapt to the speed of the college game and adjust to college life, he might be playing on Saturday.  If QB Giovanni Vizza continues to improve, then  there should be no pressure on Coach Dodge to throw his son into the fire early.  Then, he would have the option to ease Riley into college football.

I expect to see UNT’s offense be even better in 2008.  The Mean Green played a lot of young players last year and now everyone is in their second year of “Dodge Ball.”  The Offensive Line may be slow to improve, especially with early games against Kansas State and LSU.  However, by the time conference play rolls around, they should be better able to protect the QB.

Compile your own top coaches list. That’s what Tom Dinehart of Sporting News did. Dinehart had been compiling lists for all of the BCS Conferences and he ranked coaches from number 1 to 66. You can check out his article here. If you are interested, you can compare his thoughts with Stewart Mandel’s list and the one compiled by Collegesports-fans.com. There is also the list compiled by SI.com’s Lang Whitaker compiled in August of 2007. Mandel’s was published in July of 2007, but I’m not sure when the Collegesports-fans.com list compiled. All seem high on Pete Carroll who finished first on three of the four lists.

These kinds of list are usually pretty subjective when you get below the top 5. There is also usually a desire to put coaches who may have been successful in the past but not in the present on these lists. Such coaches may have won national championships, but his teams may have not been too good in the last five years. Writers also like to include “hot” young coaches who they think will be the next Urban Meyer.

I hope to reveal my top ten list of best college football coaches in the coming few days.