University of North Texas Athletics
Green Gang: Future Schedule Thoughts
7/22/2009 12:00:00 AM | Return to Play
By Ryan Kasmiersky July 22, 2009 2:10 p.m.
Looking at the future schedules that we released a little while ago, the first thing that jumps out at me is the heavy dose of championship caliber schools on the list. The next thing I thought about, knowing college football, was the venues that the Mean Green will have to play in when the travel to these games.
On the list of places North Texas football will travel to in their non-conference slates over the next nine years are some of the best and most feared stadiums in the nation.
The intriguing site for the 2010 season is making a trip to Clemson, SC to play the Clemson Tigers. Memorial Stadium, or Death Valley as it is referred to by Clemson fans, seats 80,301 and is home of one of the best pre-game rituals in the country, pounding the rock and running down the hill.
The 2011 slate sees the Mean Green make a trip to ‘Rocky Top’ Tennessee and to the campus of the University of Tennessee. A mass of 102,307 fans fit into Neyland Stadium and they don’t like to keep quiet. The largest stadium in the Southeastern Conference isn’t an easy to place to steal a win for anyone. Also, Tuscaloosa, Ala., receives another visit from North Texas as the two teams are scheduled to play this season as well. Bryant-Denny Stadium seats 92, 138 screaming fans, and has had a shutout streak that has no end in sight extending all the way from 1988. Add a trip to the perennial Conference USA championship contender Tulsa Golden Hurricane, and the 2011 schedule is a very exciting one.
One of the more popular stadiums for opposing fans to hate re-appears on the North Texas schedule in 2012, as we make a trip back to Baton Rouge, La., for another chance to play the LSU Tigers. Tiger Stadium, or Death Valley, is always one of the loudest stadiums in the country. When you pack 92,400 fans into the stadium the outcome is almost unbelievable. After a game winning touchdown in 1988, the crowd noise was so loud that they were able to register it on a seismograph across campus. LSU has added 11,600 seats since that feat has happened. The LSU game, coupled with a trip to Kansas State makes for a very very challenging 2012 out of conference season.
The tour of phenomenal SEC stadiums continues in 2013 as North Texas makes a trip to Sanford Stadium in Athens, Ga. Aside from playing between the famed hedges, the Mean Green will have to compete with not only the Bulldogs, but with the 92,746 other fans in attendance making it almost impossible to hear.
The next two years see a break in the action with the SEC, but not a step down in competition. 2014 brings the possibility of going to the, by then, one of the largest stadiums in the country and a national powerhouse. The 2014 also season sees the return of the regional rivalry with SMU, which will continue through the rest of the foreseen schedule as a home and home series.
The campaign in 2015 sees the Mean Green play its first Big 10 Conference team EVER in Iowa at the 70,585 seat Kinnick Stadium. I know Iowa hasn’t been at the very top of the Big 10 Conference the last few years, but if you want to know how solid of a team they are and how tough it is to play out of their famed pink visitors locker room, just ask the 2008 Penn State team whose national championship game hopes were left on the 21 yard line in Kinnick Stadium. Tulsa returns the favor by making a trip to Denton in 2015 concluding the two away and one home series for the Mean Green.
The SEC returns to the schedule in 2016 with a trip to Gainesville, Fla., to face-off with the ever powerful Florida Gators. The Gators play in another one of those stadiums that is revered by the nation. The 88,548 seat Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, or The Swamp as it is so dearly called by the Florida faithful, is a hard place to pick up a win. The Gators hold a .891 winning percentage at home since 1990 and show no signs of letting up after winning two of the last three national championships. Army returns to the schedule as well with the front part of a contract putting the Mean Green at West Point in 2016 and 2018 and playing in Denton in 2017.
The Last two big games remaining at this time are in 2017 with another trip to Iowa, then in 2018 North Texas Football returns to Arkansas to take on the Razorbacks.
Bear in mind, as Steven said, the schedule is ever changing, but just the sheer possibility of playing at all of these places in a short amount of time merited mentioning. Another thing to remember is with all of these great places being visited, home will be a new place too with the new stadium scheduled to open in 2011. The future of North Texas Football looks like a great one to follow closely, with a lot of opportunity to see some of the great stadiums, and maybe sneak a few W’s away with it.
