North Texas at Oklahoma: The Lost Ogle Preview

With the kickoff of football season later this week, we figured it was time to preview the first game for both Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. First up, OU and their game with North Texas, at 6 o'clock this Saturday in Norman.

In our examination of the UNT football team, lets start with the most important thing:

The Cheerleaders:

Unfortunately, there don't appear to be many pictures of current North Texas cheerleaders on the internet, but the good news is that they've got an alumni page that does have some photos of former UNT cheerleaders. And judging by what they apparently do in their free time, we're kind of sad we didn't go to North Texas ourselves:

The North Texas Dancers:

In addition to the cheerleading squad, there are also the North Texas Dancers. Here's excerpts from a questionnaire with team captain Tara:

Nicknames: Tar-tar, Tarbear
Dance Experience/Accomplishments: ... halftime dancer at Dallas Cowboys Thanksgiving games with Leann Rimes, Toby Kieth, and Destiny's Child ...
Pets: My beautiful cat Layne!!
Favorite Colors: PINK!
Favorite Perfume: Dolce and Gabbana Light Blue, Curious by Britney Spears
Favorite Movie: Troop Beverly Hills
Favorite Song: Life is a Highway-Rascal Flatts, Crash- (anything DMB), Don't stop Believin'- Journey, Love is one the Way-Celine Dion
Favorite City Outside of Dallas: Dodge City Kansas!

Wow. We're sure Tarbear is a great young lady, but she seems to be pretty much the opposite of us. Generally we don't work too well with people who have Britney Spears or Celine Dion on any favorites list, and the ability to get so fired up about the color pink that you spell it in all caps and add an exclamation point is a bit horrifying. And then there's that whole proud of working with Toby Keith thing.

Nickname Awesomeness: A-. It must be said: "Mean Green" is a great nickname -- among the best in Division I. It's unique, it doesn't end with the letter "s," and they even pull off giving a human personality to a color. Although we think the "Cynical Green" would be an even better nickname, though probably not as indimidating.

Mascot Awesomeness: C-.

Not too much to like here. It's not as unthinkably dumb as the Stanford Tree, but just not a lot of inspiration. It's an eagle, which apparently is their alternate mascot, but we'd like to see some creative folks come up with a good Mean Green mascot.

Non-football alumni awesomeness: Well, there's Thomas Haden Church, who was on Wings, the horrible Cheers imitation (he played Lowell the mechanic, which would be the Coach/Woody bartender role in Cheers.) On the other hand, he was in the the excellent Sideways, so that's a wash.

Major points for Joseph Patrick Cranshaw, better known to Old School fans as "Blue Palaski," but demerits for Dr. Phil, Meat Loaf, and Pat Boone. All told, not a particularly impressive group, good for a grade of D+.

Traditions: We're not going to go into all of them in this space, but you can read about them here. We'll just say this: these people are obsessed with the color green. Donald Trump and Snoop Dogg would be proud, though probably for different reasons.

Cool Names: One of the things we love is people with interesting names, like this guy. Here are some of the more interesting names on North Texas' football team:

Charlie Brown
Rafu Durodoye
Keronna Henderson
Troy Kokjohn

Oklahoma Connections: North Texas has four players on the roster, and a few alums from the state. Dr. Phil and Joseph Patrick Cranshaw were born in the Tulsa area, and PBS journalist Bill Moyers -- also a North Texas grad -- is from Hugo.

That's all for now. If you're looking for actual insight into the North Texas football team, you'll have to find it yourself. Tomorrow or Wednesday, we'll have the OSU/Georgia preview. Also, if you're looking for this week's installment of the Top 100 Oklahoma Embarrassments, you'll have to wait until tomorrow. It's been delayed. Sorry. Those responsible for the delay have been sacked.

Until then, sit back and and have a Coke with the inspiration for North Texas' nickname, Joe Greene.