Days of Our World Turns

 It has been a soap opera trying to follow the NCAA and the courts last week. Lawsuits from several states targeting the National Collegiate Athletic Association's transfer policy of players looking to transfer to another school a second or more time have made things much different in the course of a week. 

On Wednesday, a temporary restraining order was put on the policy, allowing players who were multiple-time transfers to play. That TRO was set for only 14 days. Then, the NCAA said those that did play may lose a year of eligibility if they play and the courts later decide the NCAA's policy should stay as written. Then, a short time later, the NCAA and the States involved in the lawsuit reached an agreement that any player that plays will be granted eligibility through the end of the spring semester. 

And with that, UT Arlington faithful got to see Phillip Russell this weekend against Air Force. I heard many good things about he's abilities, style of play and game smarts. Looking at his stat sheet from the last couple of seasons shows he had the talent as a freshman and sophomore.

UTA FB History: Vol. 7 Gm. 14 - Bowl Season

 I really wish I could have experienced the Arlington State College, later the UT Arlington, Rebels in the 1960's. Not just in football, though obviously they believed that sport was the cornerstone. Men's basketball was a combined 82-163 overall and 14-34 in Southland Conference play from their four-year jump in 1959 to the end 1968/69 season. Their best finish was a tie for second in the SLC in 66/67, where they finished 14-12 and 4-4, both were bests in the decade for the Rebels. I can't help but wonder how much of the current MBB culture stems from this era, especially in the student support side.

Baseball had one season in the decade, a 6-18, 0-8 conference mark. Cross Country finished last in four years and second to last in the other conference meet. Golf had the second-best performance of all he sports, getting second in the conference meet twice and third out of five a separate four times. Tennis was near golf with two runner-up finishes, two third places and one fourth. The track team had one top half finish, a third in 1964. There were three second to last place finishes and two lasts. The women's teams were still years from their first competition.

But the football team was competitive, and in some cases dominant, throughout the decade. Their record was 61-42-1 during the decade. They won a conference title twice, while finishing second twice and last once. The optimism surrounding Athletics at UTA was pretty high during the decade.

When we last checked in with the 1967 UTA Rebels, they were fresh off a 16-14 win over Arkansas State to go to 8-1 on the year. As covered in 2017 in this series, the final game was a convincing 16-10 home win against the defending co-champs in Lamar. It was the first undefeated champs in conference history. All that was next was the waiting.

The team was a strong candidate for a berth in the Pecan Bowl. It was the second real flirt with a bowl, as the 9-2 1960 squad was in the mix for the at-large berth in the Tangerine Bowl before The Citadel Bulldogs got the nod. Later, they had an outside shot in 1968, but Arkansas State won their meeting, the conference and the Pecan Bowl berth.

A couple of days after the Lamar game, it became official. 

From the Dallas Morning News, November 20, 1967

In a twist that I didn't remember, I did not cover this game in 2017. How it slipped my mind then, I don't remember. They were close to several bowl bids in their University history, but this was the only one. It may be the biggest game in the program's history.

Other close misses include 1976, where they lost to Arkansas State, 14-13 at home. Had they won that one, they would have gone to the Independence Bowl. They still had a chance when they beat Lamar to end the season, but didn't get a Southwestern Louisiana win over McNeese State. In 1977, had they beaten Louisiana Tech, they would have been SLC champs and Independence Bowl participants. In 1979, the only home and conference loss of the year was to McNeese State, 14-13. The Cowboys would run the SLC undefeated on their way to a second Indy Bowl. In 1981, the last year UTA won a conference title, the Indy Bowl no longer took the SLC champs.

I can't understate how rare bowl appearances were during UTA's time as a football-sponsoring institution. The 1981 season was UTA's last at the I-A, now Football Bowl Subdivision, level. There were 137 teams in 1-A in 1981 to go with 16 bowls. Less than a quarter of all team made a bowl. Now, there are 133 FBS teams, but a whopping 42 bowls. Almost two-thirds of all teams make a bowl. 

The pinnacle of the decade, and probably the entire program, came in today's entry, the only postseason appearance for UTA football as a four-year school. I even ranked this the fifth best moment in the history of the Athletic Department.

As mentioned in the article above, today's opponent was North Dakota State. They are just one of those programs that have success in whatever classification they are in at the time. They have won or claimed three national titles at the College Division, five in Division II and nine at the Football Championship Subdivision level. They have an all-time winning percentage of two-thirds.

They have played in six bowl games total, all between 1964 and 1970. They went 5-1 in those games. They were heavy favorites coming in, receiving a polling position of second in both the Coaches and the AP polls. UTA, meanwhile, was third in the Coaches, but sixth in the AP.

Both teams had nine wins, while the Bison had zero losses. The Rebels lone loss was to the University Division's West Texas State. 

Pretty impressive to think UTA's company during this time was North Dakota State and San Diego State, who would win the national title in 1967.

In addition to the daunting opponent, weather forecasts leading up to the game proved dire, freezing temperatures with precipitation. A southern underdog team playing a northern squad in freezing, icy weather? Just another typical script confronted by the 1967 UTA Rebels.

On this day in UTA football history, the Rebels play in the postseason for the first time at the four-year level as the North Dakota State Bison await the Rebs in the Pecan Bowl.

Taken from the Dallas Morning News, December 17, 1967.

December Quick Hits

There are a few of topics to cover, but none are exactly a full posts length. Time to dust of the quick hits segment.

-The volleyball team finished its season at 21-11 with a second-round loss to UT El Paso in the National Invitational Volleyball Tournament. The Miners beat the Mavs in 4, 18-25, 25-23, 13-25 and 21-25. The score variation encapsulated what the Mavericks program has been of late. Scoring as little as 13, but winning a set, versus the UTEP's variation of two, winning three and losing one by 23. UTA had a lead in every set but the third, trailed 15-17 in the first and had a 15-14 lead in the fourth. Mav Nation has seen a lot of that type of inconsistency the last two decades or so.

It also contrasted with the three sets to none win in the first-round. Florida Atlantic's 18, 22 and 20 scores meant the Mavs defense was pretty consistent. I'd say it was the best all-around match of the year. 

Volleyball Mavs in the Postseason

 Selection for the NCAA volleyball tournament occurred this weekend and the Western Athletic Conference's tournament champions, Grand Canyon, knew they were in while Stephen F. Austin, the regular season champs, were a solid bubble team. Both teams were announced in the field, giving the WAC two teams in the tourney for the first time since 2010.

Both teams will be playing on the road as SFA goes to Fayetteville to play third seed Arkansas while GCU travels to Pullman with a date against the fourth seed Cougars of Washington State.

While I will occasionally go in the topic of the WAC, this blog is mainly a focus on the goings on of a campus in Arlington (not to be confused with the conference office now in Arlington). Nice for the conference to land those two are in the big dance, but the UT Arlington volleyball squad received an invite to the National Invitational Volleyball Championship, or NIVC.

Early Returns

I intentionally wanted to wait a few games after the UT Arlington mem's basketball match-up with Oral Roberts as I was very excited after the UTA Mavericks defeated the Golden Eagles 75-71. There was an excitement around this team that I haven't felt in a half decade. Of course, much of it had to do with the hiring of K.T. Turner as the head man, but many of the folks I've talked to have said the head man assembled a very talented team.

I also fully expected a home loss to ORU, as they have been one of the top mid-major basketball teams the last few years. They have a sweet sixteen appearance three years ago and won the Summit League with a perfect conference record en route to 30 wins last year. The conference expected them to repeat the championship this year.

The Mavs went toe-to-toe with the Golden Eagles in the first half before a late spurt gave ORU a five-point lead. In recent years, Mav fans would have been happy with a moral victory of hanging tough with a quality opponent. But that's not what the team was thinking this time. 

After a rough start to the second half, where Oral Roberts extended their lead to 11, UTA began chipping away before permanently getting the lead with five minutes remaining. Every opponent run was answered quickly and I haven't seen UTA trade blows like this in quite a while.

UTA FB History: Vol. 7 Gm. 13 - Ending on a Redundant High

 Like the start of this year's edition, the end of the 2023 edition of This Day in UTA Football History will end with a game that has already been covered. The 1972 Mavericks started the year 0-5, all five were blowouts with an average losing score of 34 to less than 15. Southern Mississippi, Oklahoma State, Toledo, TCU and Louisiana Tech were the victors.

In week six, the Mavericks traveled to Las Cruces and lost to New Mexico State 17-12. That close loss sparked a change in the rest of the season. Wins soon followed against Southwestern Louisiana, now Louisiana or Louisiana-Lafayette (7-0), at Abilene Christian (36-22), West Texas A&M (20-7) and at Lamar (10-3). A home date against Arkansas State remained and a win would earn the Mavericks second place in the conference.

All that was discussed more in detail in 2017. What wasn't discussed much was Maverick running back Dexter Bussey. He ultimately became one of the best Maverick running backs of all-time. Consider this: Bussey is fifth all-time in yards rushing (1,908) and carries (436), is fourth in touchdowns (16) and third in 100-yard games (9). He holds the single-game rushing record at 225, set against Abilene Christian. And he essentially did it at just two seasons of work.

UTA FB History: Vol. 7 Gm. 12 - Case of the Fumbles

It has been a while since this year's series of This Day in UTA Football History has looked at the 1978 squad, ten weeks to be precise. These repeat seasons were tougher to cover than the first time around and I try to avoid that. But obviously there are a limited number of games. Additionally, the 1978 team is one of the most fascinating to me. But that's the way it goes when trying to coordinate several seasons, so here's the season recap. 

UT Arlington started the season with a preseason ranking of third of six in the Southland Conference. Louisiana Tech and Arkansas State were picked ahead. When the 1978 squad last appeared, they were fresh off a one touchdown loss to West Texas State to drop to 0-2 for the young season.

The annual North Texas game at Texas Stadium came in week three. North Texas raced to a 28-10 lead. Quarterback Roy Dewalt began the attempted comeback with less than six minutes left in the game as he led two quick TD drives with a combined 75 yards passing and one TD to tight end Jerry Woodard. Bill McClesky added another TD on the ground. The Mavs got an on-sides recovery, an extra point, but missed a two-point attempt, and also a quick defensive stop led to a punt to get the score to 23-28. However, when the Mavs were trying their last drive to take a lead, Dewalt threw an interception, his third of the night, to seal their fate. The Mavs lowered their fumbles lost to two (compared to four in both games prior) but couldn't overcome five total turnovers.

UTA FB History: Vol. 7 Gm. 11 - As Good a Competitive Rivalry as Ever

We stick with the 1967 UT Arlington Rebels football team for the second straight week as the 2023 edition of This Day in UTA Football History proceeds. Two weeks ago, Trinity was the opponent, a foe UTA started Southland Conference play in six of the eight years they shared a home. The SLC expanded the final year of the Tigers stay and they were the second SLC opponent that year.

Last week, Abilene Christian College (now known as ACU) was featured. Like Trinity, they were in the early portion of conference. They followed Trinity on the conference schedule for six of the nine years they shared a conference. Early conference games are important for a championship run, but don't stick in the memory year in and year out like the later games do.

Speaking of later games, after last week's win over ACC, the Rebs were 7-1, with a 2-0 conference mark. Up next was the Arkansas State Indians. The preseason favorites to win conference were struggling a little more than expected with a 3-4 record, though the toughness of the schedule makes the record a bit deceiving. In the SLC, the Indians lost on the road to defending co-champs Lamar 28-23 and beat ACC and had a 1-1 mark. Even tougher for UTA was they were playing in Jonesboro, Arkansas.

Attendance High

With the Seattle match in the books, the UT Arlington volleyball squad concluded its home schedule for the 2023 season. While the conference portion has contained a bit of a disappointment, there team has set a record that I'll end the post with. 

First, a mild recap. The team held its own against the majority of teams they should have. The earned a road sweep over Utah Valley, road wins against Seattle (3-1), Southern Utah (3-2) and an upset over UT Rio Grande Valley (3-1). They had home wins over California Baptist (3-0), Tarleton (3-2), Utah Valley (3-1) and Seattle (3-0).

The had a few losses to teams that the Mavericks are superior to on paper. A road and home loss to Stephen F. Austin (0-3 and 1-3 respectively) along with home losses to Grand Canyon and UTRGV (1-3 in both) weren't unexpected. However, UTA was upset twice and it is really putting a damper in the standings for the Mavs. Abilene Christian and Utah Tech followed the same formula as the Mavericks went up 2-0, before losing the last three sets. The set scores for the ACU match were 25-19, 25-13, 20-25, 22-25, 15-17 while the Trailblazers were 25-21, 25-22, 19-25, 13-25 and 10-15.

UTA FB History: Vol. 7 Gm. 10 - Marching On

After the newly-named UT Arlington football program beat McNeese State in 1967, the Rebels kept cruising along. The following game against Tarleton State was an easy Reb win, 37-7. The following game was the Southland Conference opener against Trinity University, a 31-16 win. The win upped the season mark to 6-0, and just as importantly, 1-0 in SLC play.

The final game of October was a bit brutal as the Rebels never led on the road in Canyon, Texas and the 37-27 final score loss to University Division West Texas State was the first blemish on the season. UTA set several offensive records along the way, but the defense had a hard time stopping the Buffalo rushing attack, including a future NFL star in Eugene "Mercury" Morris. 

With the first loss of the season in the books, the Rebels were looking to avoid the first losing streak of the season as they entered today's game.

UTA FB History: Vol. 7 Gm. 9 - Birth of a Conference?

 I find much of the early half decade of Arlington State College's time as a four-year school fascinating. They entered the College Division (today's Division II) when they transitioned from the Junior College ranks. As much as I have mentioned the 1970's transition to the University Division (today's DI) and the poor execution, the mid-50's and early 1960's set the stage for an optimal transition to the higher level. 

The then-Rebels were the Junior College national champions in 1956 and '57. They had an on-campus stadium that consistently sold out. The Arlington community was on board, and they attracted local talent, the only thing that was lacking was a conference home.

There's very little about how the Southland Conference was formed. What I have uncovered was the charter members, Abilene Christian College (now ACU), Arkansas State, Arlington State College, Lamar Tech (Tech has been dropped), and Trinity University met at the now demolished Baker Hotel in downtown Dallas and formed the conference. Texas A&I, now Texas A&M-Kingsville, was invited, but declined to attend. 

Arlington State played ACC and Trinity quite often prior to this meeting. ASC first met both teams in 1960 and would play again every year until the conference was formed. Ironically, ASC never played the other two charter members until conference play started. Total from 1959 to disbandment in '85, Arkansas State and Lamar are the most played teams at 22. At least one game from either of those last two teams and there'd be in sole possession.

UTA FB History: Vol. 7 Gm. 8 - Turnaround Game?

 As October moves past the halfway mark, our series for this year returns to 1972. While historians look back at the '72 squad with general enthusiasm, no one would know it at this point in time. When we last checked in with the '72 Mavericks, they were fresh off their 21-3 loss to Oklahoma State. That loss moved them to 0-2.

It didn't get better from there as they lost to on the road to Toledo, 38-24. The fourth road game in a row did not fare any better as the Mavs fell to TCU in Fort Worth 38-14. At least that road game was a small distance for Maverick fans to follow. Hard to get excited for an 0-3 squad facing a team in the premier conference from the region. A good crowd of 22,000 plus was on hand, so they were at least traveling in some number. 

Finally, last week, the team's first home game occurred as conference favorite Louisiana Tech came to Arlington. I mentioned last week how much the Bulldogs dominated UTA during this era, and specifically mentioned the 35-14 loss. While the stat sheet wasn't dominated by Louisiana Tech offensively, Tech won the rushing yardage battle 196-150, passing yards 154-78 and first downs 19-13, they intercepted nine, yes nine Maverick passes. That interception record is still a Southland Conference record for most thrown in a game.

Football Info Find

I consider myself one of the few remaining knowledgeable people regarding the UT Arlington / Arlington State College football teams. I got there by acquiring knowledge from many different outlets and different ways. Over the years, I have bought 16 different ASC / UTA football media guides from various online outlets. Occasionally I search to see if I can find any of the 11 I am missing. 

I conducted one such search this month and there were a lot of the same sites I have seen the times I have looked, but one new one caught my eye. 

You won't find any links to the main page, but on the UTA athletics site, there's a football page. If you didn't know any better, it looks like any of the other 15 sports' sub-sites. The football page has the front page rolling news site, which is currently manned by Hall-of-Honor and former NFL-great Bruce Collie. 

At the top left, there's the typical schedule, roster, news and archives tabs.

This One Seems Off

 As expected, the Western Athletic Conference released the coaches poll for the upcoming men's basketball season on Monday. Again, like I did yesterday with the commentary for the UT Arlington women's basketball team, I want to emphasize that I don't believe any singular poll is worth anything other than commentary. And I definitely have something to say with this one.

But first, the poll, with first place votes in parenthesis:

1. Grand Canyon         (9)    99

2. Stephen F. Austin    (2)    87

3. Seattle                              86

4. Utah Valley                      61

5. Abilene Christian            60

6. Tarleton St                      49

7. California Baptist           47

8. UT Arlington                  43

t9. Southern Utah               26

t9. UT Rio Grande Valley  26

11. Utah Tech                     21

With Grand Canyon at the top, there's no surprise. Preseason Player of the Year is Ray Harrison, who tested the NBA waters this year before electing to come back. He was a big part of them winning the WAC tourney and getting to the NCAA's. Seattle has been consistently tough and Cam Tyson is a tough guard for any defense. SFA, I'm a little less sold on, but we'll see. I certainly think UTA closed the gap with them.

That's about Right

 It's that time of year where anticipation for the upcoming UT Arlington basketball seasons is starting to build. Schedules have been released, there's little fall outlets for sports competition and in the case of this year, tons of new faces and a new coach on the men's side. Rankings and preseason polls are coming out. 

Yesterday, the Western Athletic Conference released the coaches' poll for how they see the conference race ending. Those that know me know I'm not a fan of these things, with one exception: they are wildly wrong way more than they are close to right and provide fodder and motivation in a distractionary way. In the transfer portal era, where just about every team seems to have at a minimum 50 percent roster turnover, these are worth the paper they are printed on. However, they are great for talking and getting ready for the season. 

 The Mavericks were tabbed seventh, which is about right for where we were last year. The Mavs were tabbed first and second, depending on the poll and finished eighth. There were injuries that caused issues, but they underperformed against teams they shouldn't have. So, this is about right.

UTA FB History: Vol. 7 Gm. 7 - The Circle of Friends Grows

 We started the 2023 This Day in UTA Football History with three straight games in the 1970's. Today will mark the fourth entry in the 1960's. Just two weeks ago we looked at the 1961 Arlington State Rebels' win over Stephen F. Austin that victory jumped the ASC record to 2-1 on the year.

The following week, the Rebs faced the McNeese State Cowboys, not to be confused with last week's entry against McNeese State in 1967. After trailing 13-0 at half, the Rebels scored 15 in the third and got an insurance touchdown in the fourth, which they needed. McNeese scored with a minute and a half remaining, recovered the ensuing onside kick with a few seconds remaining, but Ronnie Sutherland sealed the game with an interception and then a lengthy return as time expired. The 22-19 win moved their record to 3-1.

This week's tone will be similar to last week, as today's opponent is similar to McNeese State last week.

Basketball Schedules are Released

 I went to the UT Arlington volleyball match on Thursday against Cal Baptist and when I got s program, I happened to see a paper with the men's basketball schedule for the 2023/24 upcoming season. Thought I had the chance to post the schedule before the University formally released it, they formally released it on Friday.

There wasn't much we didn't know by piecing together the schedules other teams released, with my most recent post about the topic listing it here.

The missing pieces are a November 11th homecoming match against U of Texas-Tyler, another non-DI home game against North Texas-Dallas and the known-opponent, unknown-date road contest against North Texas on December 23. 

Overall, I'm happy with what I see. Coupled with a new coach, new roster with proven skins and a different vibe coming from College Park Center, I'd expect several indicators to be pointing up for the program. I'll give my impressions of the 31-game schedule. 

UTA FB History: Vol. 7 Gm. 6 - Soon to be Good Friends

 Now that every season has at least one entry for the Arlington State College/UT Arlington football program, we'll start to check in with each team again. For this week's game on This Day in UTA Football History, we'll return to the 1967 squad. It's only been one game we've missed since the last entry, but it certainly was a momentous one. 

When we last checked in, the team was 2-0 after a come-from-behind win against the higher-level school in New Mexico State. The game we missed was an entry in the 2017 edition. The link is here, but the short-story is a rivalry game against East Texas State, now Texas A&M-Commerce, resulted in another last-minute, come-from-behind victory. 

The 1967 squad was now 3-0 but they had trailed in the second half in every game. Further, the Rebels trailed in last two minutes of their prior two games. That was the magic of the late 1960's teams. They found a way to win, whereas the 1970's came, it was a case where it seemed they found a way to lose.

Those early season performances started gaining national attention in 1967. After the Los Angeles State win, the Rebels entered the AP College Division poll at number nine. After the New Mexico State win, they moved up to seven and debuted in the Coaches poll at number five. Following the East Texas State win, they stayed at five in the AP and dropped to nine in the coaches.

UTA FB History: Vol. 7 Gm. 5 - Star-Studded

 On the last day of September, this year's series will dip into the 1961 season for the first time. Like the last time in 2017, it seems I'm working backward, starting with 1978, doing them twice before going to '72. Last week was 1967 and this week is the fourth and final qualifying season.

The Arlington State Rebels opened the 1961 season against Southern Mississippi on the road, losing in a blow out 30-7. They came home for the second game and defeated the Southwestern Louisiana Bulldogs, now known as the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns, 26-0. They came into today's game at home with a 1-1 record.

The early 1960's are the hardest for me to cover for a couple of reasons. The first is their independence status limits both records and meaningful games. Some of my research went through the Southland Conference records. Some of the games had a conference title with a possible postseason berth on the line.

How Weak is the 0-2 Record?

The last time the Maverick Rambler checked in with this year's UT Arlington volleyball squad, I wondered how good the team was with their 6-0 record. Losses to Central Arkansas and Tulsa kind of confirmed they weren't top of the conference good. 

Especially weird was they dominated the Sugar Bears in 5 sets, 25-27, 25-20, 29-31, 25-17, 11-15. The Mavericks lost two sets by the bare minimum in what other sports would call overtime. But here's the weird part. The Mavs lost a match where they had 12 more kills, two more aces, five more assists and trailed by two in blocks and one in digs. UTA out hit UCA .185 to .095, as the Mavs had four less errors. Rarely will you see that stat line attached to a loss. It certainly was a winnable match that got away in the fifth set.

A three-set loss to the Golden Hurricanes showed the Mavericks were a tad behind Tulsa with only the third set close at 23-25. The Mavs did rebound with a sweep of the normally solid Oral Roberts Golden Eagles. After this tournament, I firmly believed UTA was a top-third WAC school. 

Stuck on the Side of the Road

 When the middle of the UT Arlington athletic season is underway, I try to avoid posting about irrelevant news stories. Instead, I try to save them for summer. It's not a hard-set rule I establish for this blog but one I generally try to follow. Occasionally there are exceptions and this will be one of those.

A recent news report has released that Chicago State is actively exploring the idea of starting an FCS football team. If this is true, every .... reason or excuse, depending upon your own viewpoint, that UTA officials have given for not looking into starting a team are absolutely flimsy. Let me explain why.

First, for those who aren't familiar with Chicago State, and I'd imagine there are quite a few, they are probably the University in Division I with the most challenges. Their enrollment is 3,000 overall and headed in the wrong direction. Their athletic budget is near the smallest in DI. Their revenue sources are severely limited. No conference wants the school, and they are independent without a conference home, save for a few affiliations like men's soccer. Few schools want to play them at their place. As such, attendance is dismal. Some of their facilities are nice, but others are lacking, or non-existent. Their student body is composed of commuter students. They've been Division I since the mid-1980's and have zero tournament appearances in any team sport. Only the track team had any success in the late 1980's.

If this University can begin the process to start a football program, anyone can.

UTA FB History: Vol. 7 Gm. 4 - Come from Behind

 We look at the 1967 UT Arlington Rebels for the first time this year in today's history installment. You can see the season opener a week ago here, a 17-14 victory over the Los Angeles State Diablos. It was the first time the squad, known as Arlington State in prior years, started 1-0 since 1960.

Speaking of season openers, this fits in with the two original prior posts this year. All-time, ASC/UTA was 8-19 in season openers, a .296 winning percentage. Oddly enough, UTA is almost the exact opposite in season finale's, 18-9. Odd that the same thing that plagued the 1970's squad existed in the 1960's, a much better time for overall performance. From 1959 to 1969, the Rebels were 61-35-1, while the 70's saw a 40-68 cumulative record. 

Now of course, UTA began the process of playing at the highest level near the beginning of that decade, prompting the decline the winning percentage. But it still strikes me as odd that in 27 University seasons, the football team won only eight games to start the year.

UTA FB History: Vol. 7 Gm. 3 - Playing with the Big Boys

 We venture to the 1972 season for the first time this year as we continue the 2023 edition of This Day in UTA Football History. The season opener was covered a week ago in 2017. In short, the Mavericks lost to Southern Mississippi on the road, 38-17.

I've chronicled it many times, and it's in the intro to the linked blog entry, but it is worthy of repetition. UTA is the worst example of a University moving up to the highest level of athletic play. I won't comment on whether the on-campus facility, Memorial Stadium, was an eye sore. I will say the alternative of playing in Turnpike Stadium, later renamed Arlington Stadium when the Washington Senators relocated to Arlington and became the Texas Rangers in the summer of 1972, was terrible.

Even before they had to compete with professional baseball in September, playing in Turnpike/Arlington Stadium was a misfit at best. The stadium had poor sightlines for fans, average player amenities at best, had to work around the infield dirt for the players and the sports media didn't have adequate work space, just to name a few. It got a bit better in later years when the field was moved exclusively to the outfield and the outfield bleacher expansion put the seats well above the field rather than seat level at home plate, but there were administrative challenges of sharing a field with another organization. 

UTA FB History: Vol. 7 Gm. 2 - Self-Inflicted Wounds

 As I mentioned in game 1 of the seventh Volume of This Day in UTA Football History, several of this year's entries will break my general rules for this series. This week, primarily it's to avoid doing the same season two weeks in a row.

In 2017, I covered the season opener for the 1972 season. Seeing as how the other two qualifying seasons didn't start the season until next week, that leaves the 1978 season as the only candidate for today's entry. 

Coming off the disappointing loss in the season opener against Drake where they lost four fumbles and came inches short on a last-minute drive, UTA was set to host long-time rival West Texas State. As mentioned last week, they were set to open the season at Cravens Field on the campus of Lamar High School.

2023/24 Schedule Detective Update

It's been near a month since the last post regarding the schedules of the UT Arlington basketball programs, so rather than put the new information in a comment of an old post, I'll add the new information into this one. 

First, I haven't seen much on the women's side, so I don't have anything new to add. In year's past, the ladies have fewer leaks or people interested in putting the information out before the schools. What is released now will likely be it, save for a game or two, until the schedule is released.

On the men's side, the schedule is getting near complete by piecing together information from other team's schedule releases. Announced yesterday, Texas Tech has published their upcoming schedule and the Mavs will make an appearance in Lubbock for the first time since 2010. UTA is 0-6 all-time versus the Red Raiders, all in the Texas Panhandle, save for a neutral site game in 1992.

How Strong is the 6-0 Record?

It has been 19 years since the UT Arlington volleyball team has started 6-0 after this weekend's matches. It's something that has been fun to watch and enjoy. However, it has looked almost too easy. Given that many blog posts of mine have chronicled the Mavs struggling against teams they maybe should not have struggled against, it seems like I am in weird territory.

The Mavs opened the season against the Bryant Bulldogs in the Amy Svoboda Memorial Classic last weekend. The Mavs looked like they started out rusty, but found their groove in the final two sets for a 3-1 win. The following day, they matched up against the Rhode Island Rams and looked much more consistent in a straight set sweep. They did not allow the Rams to reach 20 points in any set.

That set the stage for the final match against the host of the weekend tournament, the Air Force Falcons. Both teams won their first two matches leading up to the finale.

UTA and Air Force were evenly matched and a tight back and forth affair ended in a thrilling five-set win for the Mavericks. Each team got to the 20-point mark in every set, no set was won by more than five, two sets were won by the bare minimum of two and each team had a comeback set win. Overall, it was just a fun match to watch.

The victory gave UTA its first 3-0 start since 2020 and first 3-0 non-COVID season start since 2017.

UTA FB History: Vol. 7 Gm. 1 - The First Volume of Redundancy

 Football season is back upon us as today marks the first game for most Universities. As such, This day in UTA Football History resumes today as well. The seventh volume is an interesting year, as it is the first where the seasons featured have been featured in prior editions.

For those new to the blog, the This Day in UTA Football History series chronicles the history of the football program corresponding with a historical game from the past played on football Saturday. I try to provide a variety every week and want to avoid back-to-back weeks from the same year. That gets harder on a second run through.

As UTA played 27 University seasons, that means an average of roughly four season per year, give or take a season. Obviously, at some point, the seasons are going to repeat at that's what is occurring this year.

So for the first time, I'm going to have to say the same thing in a different way, but not today. 

Summer is almost over because...

 ...the 2023 Western Athletic Conference Volleyball preseason poll was released yesterday as well as the preseason accolades. Those get released roughly a week before the season starts which means the summer doldrums are almost up. WAC and NCAA women's soccer has already started, but seeing as that is one of many teams UT Arlington does not have, volleyball is the Maverick bellwether for the end of summer.

The same disclaimer I put before every preseason poll is coming: the poll plus a dollar will get you four quarters. While volleyball doesn't have the same turnover that football, both genders of basketball and baseball do, there's still new faces, new coaches and in some cases new teams, though the WAC did not add any University this year. All that change gives a bit of uncertainty to the poll. It does set clear expectations for the season and this poll has the UTA squad right around my expectations.

But first the poll:

Basketball Schedule Detective, August 2023 Edition

 I almost put the following news into the comments of the schedule post from last month, but I'm excited about one of the two games I'm going to update for the upcoming UT Arlington men's basketball season, so its own post it gets.

Rocco Miller broke two games this week on his Twitter account. The first is most likely a guarantee game against the New Mexico Lobos on November 16 in Albuquerque. The teams have met four times prior, including three in New Mexico, losing all four.

But the big news is that the UTA Texas State series that I speculated to coming is now known and the series continues. It looks like the rumors I received that Texas State played their half of a home-and-home contract in Fort Worth last year aren't true as College Park Center will host the Bobcats this year and the Mavericks travel to San Marcos next. The game is schedule for November 25.

Summer Chats: Conference Realignment Thoughts

 I haven't addressed wide-scale NCAA conference realignment on The Maverick Rambler, with the exception of how the UT Arlington Athletics Department fits within that framework. I will break that today.

Conference realignment has always been a thing, even if it wasn't called that. Look at the constant shuffling of the Southland Conference from its founding until UTA left in the 2012. The Mavericks had 18 different SLC rivals, but never had more than 11 members at any one time. The pace has accelerated the last two decades, starting with the Atlantic Coast Conference's raid of the Big East. Ever since then there has been a constant rollercoaster of universities trying to better themselves.

Rivalries have been postponed and/or destroyed while teams with no geographic compatibility have replaced the more natural and/or heated ones. Teams are chasing the dollar to increase their competitiveness while negating the fan base. Baylor stopped playing TCU and SMU to replace with Kansas and Iowa State. Until of course TCU was admitted back, along with West Virginia. Guess which game tends to draw more fans, regardless of sport? Now obviously Kansas is a draw in basketball, but now so much in anything else. West Virginia had no natural rivals until Cincinatti was admitted this year. Iowa State's biggest games were out of conference.

But it didn't hit clown world until a year ago.

Basketball Schedule Detective, Addendum

 Wouldn't you know it, only a few hours after I posted about the known games for the upcoming basketball season, WAC Hoops Digest posted about the Western Athletic Conference's scheduling alliance with Conference USA, specifically the match-ups coming up on the women's side.

To recap, we know very little about the UT Arlington women's basketball schedule, but I expect a flip of venues of some of last year's opponents. Potential road games exist against Texas Southern, Texas A&M-Commerce and Arizona with potential home games against Lamar and Houston. Houston played at College Park Center in 2020/21, so that's likely a completed contract. Texas Southern played in Arlington in 2019 with no return game, so that's not set in stone either.

Unlike the men, the UTA women finished decently in the NET rankings as they played a difficult non-conference season well before injuries hurt the squad in conference play. Thanks to that, they get to participate and of the potential names to come to CPC, I'm pretty happy. 

Basketball Schedule Detective, Summer 2023 Edition

As usual per the summer, there's a slow trickle of information coming out, usually from outside sources, regarding the upcoming season's schedule. I'm not sure why and I have never followed up upon why, but the UT Arlington teams always seem late to the schedule-release party.

So with that, let's play schedule detective for the basketball teams and see what we know as of now. I'm not sure of any other place that tries to put the known releases all in one place.

First, the Western Athletic Conference has released their upcoming conference schedule and it is vastly different than what we've seen as of late. It is a full double-round robin schedule, with one home and one away game against each member of the conference. UTA hasn't had that since the 2015/16 Sun Belt Conference season, when they played 20 games against the ten other members of that conference. In fact, the first three years of the Belt was a double round robin, as well the lone year in the WAC in 2012/13. You'd have to go back to the 2002/03 season when UTA played a double-round robin in the Southland Conference.

Are the Feet Dragging

It has been three months since UT Arlington students voted in favor of football returning to campus by nearly 62 percent. Obviously, there's not going to be much movement in three months, but news has been scant to come out about the topic. 

I've spoken to a few people about the latest and unsurprisingly, the University is either taking a deliberate approach, or dragging its feet. I'm generally an optimist and want to believe the U is giving a good faith effort.

UTA President Jennifer Cowley was on record with the following quote:

Title IX requires that there be a sufficient number of women's sports seats, so the very first thing we need to do is to ask what it takes to expand our women's sports. So I've asked the Athletics director to evaluate some women's sports and come forward with recommendations around what we might do there.

What she is referencing is Title IX, the landmark legislation passed in the 1970's that dictate funding based on equality of both genders. Most people mistakenly believe Title IX requires a one for one scholarship for both women and men. It is actually a three-prong test where just one prong needs to be met.

Summer Chats: Men's Basketball Attendance

The summer is always the roughest part of the athletic sports season at the collegiate level. There's no active events, at least at UT Arlington, schedules for upcoming sports aren't released for a while and, specific to UTA, upcoming excitement for the arriving year is muted by the lack of fall sports on campus. With that said, I generally post the more random or non-calendar-specific items in June, July or August. I will now officially give it a title: Summer Chats.

Recently on Twitter, I and a couple other UTA fans engaged in a discussion about men's basketball attendance. It started off with WAC Hoops Digest showing a picture of a full College Park Center in its debut against the University of Texas-San Antonio. The text read that if new head coach K.T. Turner can pack the place, UTA would become one of the best home teams in the country. 

Of course, that point is entirely true. We have seen it before, both in big games and a couple of seasons that saw near 3,000 average fans in the seats. In addition to the high-talent teams, those crowds helped propel the team even further. 

Historical Information Made Available

Recently, the Official Twitter account for the UT Arlington Mavericks volleyball team post the following tweet:

Fun news for UTA volleyball history fans. 😀

Now on our website:
➡️ Complete match results (1973-present)
➡️ Box scores (1987-present)
➡️ Season stats (1984-present)
➡️ Media guides (1977-2015)
➡️ Rosters (1973-present)

Check it out ➡️ https://t.co/wswbwwAMTD#BuckEm 🐎 pic.twitter.com/RF377fK3JS

— UTA Volleyball (@UTAMavsVB) June 27, 2023

Well let's just say, for a guy like me, this is Christmas. I've received media guides from the 1970's and '80's as yuletide gifts. I was not disappointed. What they've added has been a treasure trove of historical information. It has shattered some beliefs I thought I knew about the program. 

Limping into the Tourney

 I followed the seeding race to end the Western Athletic Conference baseball season and it didn't disappoint, if you weren't rooting for a particular team or outcome.

Sam Houston and Grand Canyon had a great race for the championship. Sam came in with a 1.5 game lead. They played a team that was in the bottom three in the standings. GCU, meanwhile, was playing one of the five teams in a virtual tie for third in CBU. Yet, GCU swept the Lancers and Tarleton won two of three to give the Lopes the regular season crown.

Utah Valley beat the UT Arlington squad two to one, same as Seattle's margin over ACU. The Wolverines, by virtue of game cancelations, get the third seed ahead of the Redhawks by percentage points. ACU, thanks to their 2-1 series win over UTA, gets the five seed. The Mavs get the sixth.

The Final Day

 I'll add another short entry here in following the end of the Western Athletic Conference baseball season. Friday answered some questions, but not a lot. 

What we learned was UTRGV's 15-1 victory gives them the eighth spot in the standings, and the last ticket to the conference tournament.

With Seattle's 16=6 win over Abilene Christian, they've secured a top four berth and a first round bye.

Sam Houston won over Tarleton and Grand Canyon beat California Baptist. That means a Sam win or a Lope loss gives the Bearkats a regular season title. A Sam loss and a GCU sweep will give it to GCU.

Updated Seeding Scenarios

 There's no surprise after Thursday's games that the Western Athletic Conference standings look a little more settled. We will know even more after today, but given yesterday's results, here's what we know:

GCU beat California Baptist and Tarleton upset Sam Houston, in a shutout no less. The Bearkats lead is now down to half a game with two to play.

Utah Valley's win over the UT Arlington squad puts them percentage points ahead for third place.

Seattle beat Abilene Christian, giving them the fourth spot currently.

Crunch Time in the WAC

 I wanted to get this post up a bit earlier but hit crunch time at work. Dang need for regular income...

But the Western Athletic Conference baseball season has come down to the last week and the standings are as tight as my jeans from college on me now. There's a somewhat close race for the conference crown, a five-way tie for third, of which the UT Arlington baseball team is a part of, and a two-team race for eighth place and the last invitation to the conference tournament.

I'll start with top, transition to the bottom, then move to the middle. But first, here's the standings:

Softball's Rollercoaster Return to the WAC

With UT Arlington's doubleheader sweep of Sam Houston this past Saturday in softball, the Mavericks concluded the 2023 season, the first in the Western Athletic Conference since 2013. There were some highs and some equally rough lows.

I'll start with this: I don't know what I expected from this team. They lost a lot of offense from last year, but the two main starting pitchers returned. Softball arms don't tire as easily as their baseball counterparts and the pitching really is dominated by a select few players. They were picked ninth in the preseason poll. They finished seventh.

I don't put stock in the polls, especially in this era of roster turnover (admittedly less than football or the two basketball sports) as well as the constant conference changes. However, the Mavericks were not far off, finishing with the seventh seed. However, due to some of those aforementioned low, there were some real head scratching moments, it could have been much, much better.

Transfer News

 It was a big news week for the UT Arlington Men's Basketball team, about as big as the off-season will allow. Several players for this past year's team have put their name in the transfer portal.

Chendall Weaver, the reigning Western Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year put his name in the portal. That news came out Monday. Shortly after Weaver's name went in, Kyron Gibson, last year's leading scorer at 11.2 points per game, put his name in as well. 

Then Friday, Shemar Wilson, the player I consider the most important piece to the team, announced he would return for the upcoming season. It's been the best offseason news so far this year.

First WAC Titles since Rejoining

 April 16 was a milestone for the UT Arlington Athletic Department as both tennis teams won their final regular season matches to claim a conference championship, the first of any team in the UTA Athletic Department this year. As this was the first year the Mavericks were back in the WAC, it marks two important championships.

The women's team is no stranger to winning titles. They are now back-to-back-to-back champs, with the prior two coming in their last two years in the Sun Belt Conference. But for the men, it's the first regular season title since 2010. Now, in 2016, they were near the top of the SBC, but the seedings weren't based on conference matches as the SBC didn't play a round-robin schedule. But outside of that, their tenure in the SBC wasn't one of winning. Only three of nine seasons saw them finish in the top half. 

The WAC (re)tenure started with a bang for both teams.

More First Steps

Football is a topic of never-ending speculation, gossip and desire in the UT Arlington community. Football was again on the ballot of a two-day election that was held on campus this past week. The results were announced on Tuesday and unsurprisingly, students voted for it in a large number, 1,004 in favor to 625 against.

Now, before I proceed, let me be clear that this is a non-binding referendum that asked if students supported increasing the athletics fee from $8.50 a credit hour for a maximum of $115 per semester to $18.50 an hour for a maximum of $250 per semester. The funds would go to the Athletic Department and be used to fund a football team and women's sports programs, presumably beach volleyball and a soccer team. It's non-binding, meaning the University has no requirement to follow through with the vote.

But it does fulfill the requirement the administrators and power-brokers have said for decades, the students have to care.

Certainly Improved

 After a little less than two months into the 2023 baseball season, one thing has certainly emerged from the UT Arlington squad. After one of the worst seasons in program history, pretty much everything that is measurable needed to be improved. To paraphrase a popular manager, they couldn't hit, they couldn't pitch and fielding was suspect. Other than that, they were doing all right. 

Before I get to this year, I want to look back at certain stats from last year. Discounting the COVID shortened year, the 15 wins earned last year was the lowest since 2007. Same for last year's 37 losses. The .289 winning percentage was the worst since .245 in 2007. Prior to that, you have to go back to 1977's 14-39 record with a .264 winning percentage to find the worst year.

The .248 batting average by the team actually looks good when compared against the .235 average in Sun Belt play, which only beat perennial doormat Arkansas State. It's the lowest cumulative average on UTAMavs.com, though that only goes back to 2018. 

There's a New Sheriff in Town

I'm in California for spring break, so this commentary is delayed more than I would have liked, given its magnitude. The UT Arlington Athletic Department is in the process of finalizing the hiring of current University of Kentucky assistant coach K.T. Turner as the 11th head coach in the program's University history (10th if you remove interim coaches).

Social media is showing a lot of excitement over the hire. In his history, Turner hasn't stayed anywhere very long (more on that later in the post). He was with the Wildcat program for one season. In 2021/2022, Turner was an assistant with the Oklahoma Sooners men's team. He was there for only one season as he was an assistant with the University of Texas-Austin for the 2020/21 basketball season. 

The longest stretch of his career at one place was a seven-season stop as an assistant at SMU. Interestingly, he was an assistant with the Mustangs under two different head coaches from 2013/14 to 19/20. That period was an anomaly as he was at Wichita State for one season, 2012/13, the year prior. In what is more the trend than an outlier, He was an assistant at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi for just one season in 2011/12. 

WAC Basketball Facilities Ranking

I wrote the following post on the WAC message boards on CSNBBS.com. I had pondered it for a while, and after rediscovering an article where the Sun Belt Conference coaches ranked College Park Center the best in the conference, I had a renewed vigor to do the same for UTA's current home. After a robust conversation on Twitter, there is no better home for this than here on the Maverick Rambler.

I ranked all 13 current members in the conference. New Mexico State and Sam Houston State will depart, but since there are no new members on the horizon, I say the more the merrier.

The list includes on-campus venues only. All schools played three-quarters of their games on-campus and as such, I believed that ranking was best. 

With out further ado, ranked worst to first, here's the list of best on-campus basketball venues.

The Grass is Decidedly NOT Greener

 I came across some interesting tidbits due in part to the UT Arlington men's basketball coaching change. I briefly mentioned it in the last post, but one of my main concerns is losing the High School pipeline that was temporarily halted when Scott Cross was fired.

Some of that was mended when Royce "Snoop' Johnson was added to the staff of failed head coach Chris Ogden. That still didn't help as many of the local coaches had a loyalty of some kind or another to Cross. Some of the coaches were his former players and highly looked down on the way the school and Athletic Director departed with Cross.

When Greg Young was promoted and Johnson stayed on, the pipeline started re-opening, as freshmen Brandon Walker and Chendall Weaver have shown this year and Montez Young, Jr last year, that is paying dividends. One reason Mavs fans were frustrated with the coaching change, at least those I talked to or observed, was that Greg Young compiled a talented, young team and then tried to fill the gaps with older, experienced transfers. There was no doubt they were getting better as the year progressed. There's also no doubt the inconsistent play exhibited is a trademark of young teams. 

But let me get to the point of this post. A large fear is that some of the talented youngsters may depart at the end of the year. Obviously nothing can be done now except let it play out. But in the meantime, I wanted to take a look at a few recent Mavericks who utilized the transfer portal and may be regretting that decision. 

A Coaching Change Hold my Beer

This one won't be a long one. Maybe there's too much deja vu from the last time the UT Arlington men's basketball team made a coaching change. It was announced on Friday that Greg Young has essentially been fired mid-season. I'm just in a WTF frame of mind. 

It's not like the Mavericks were underperforming. The currently sit in 10th in the WAC, right where the media pre-season poll had them and one spot better than the coaches. There's a young roster full of potential talent. In the current NCAA era, that doesn't mean much for the long run as the transfer portal has made some non-power schools a farm system for the "bigger" universities. There are only two seniors on the team. Had G.Y. stayed, next year could have been a big year. Now, maybe not. Roster turnover is common in coaching changes. I see no reason that won't be the case here too.

A young team will struggle, as evidenced by close games against good teams and inexplicable losses to teams at or below the Mavericks. But there have been upsets this year too. At this point, the only reason I'd see you firing a coach would be due to that young talent not being developed. That's now not the case. UTA has won four of seven. Of the three losses in that time frame, only Abilene Christian was lopsided. Yes, letting Tarleton slip away hurt, but again, that's what young teams in Division I do the vast majority of the time. 

Basketball School?

 I got the idea for this post the day before the most recent slate of games played by both UT Arlington basketball teams. As evidenced by the January 14th games, this will be a little outdated, but a couple of wins doesn't negate the poor start to Western Athletic Conference play for both teams. 

Prior to Saturday, the men's team was 0-5 to start WAC play. You have to go back all the way to the 1988/89 season, when the team started 0-7 in the Southland Conference. to find a worse start. That team ultimately won four of the final seven conference games. They were a young squad then and ultimately built the second-best run in program history (to that point) in the following years. 

In 89/90, they improved to 13-16 overall and 6-8 in conference, 20-9 and 11-3 the next year with two more winning seasons to follow, both in conference and overall. I'll go more in depth on the hopeful parallels that exist between these two teams.

On the women's side, at 1-4, they were off to their worst start since 2013/14 when Krista Gerlich began her first season of rebuilding the women's team that won less than ten games and lost more than 20 the previous three years. The 13/14 squad completed the season at 4-25, 3-15. It was the last major losing season. The only other losing season was a 15-16 mark in 2015/16. There have been four 20-win seasons since, the most successful period in program history.

A Nice Slate of Games

Like I mentioned in the baseball companion entry, the Christmas season took priority over my hobbies. Like the baseball team, the UT Arlington softball team released their schedule for the upcoming season. Unlike their baseball counterparts, the Mav softballers have some local teams and big names coming to Arlington.

The season starts with four games, two each against Texas Tech and Tulsa in Arlington. Two good tests against two good teams to start the season. 

The next week, they go north to Denton. The UTA site shows three games. The North Texas website shows the Green playing six games and when I check the Tracy Beard Classic website, there are six teams. No official schedule, but the teams include UTA, North Texas, Kentucky, McNeese State, Sam Houston State and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Interesting that the six teams represent four conferences. I wonder if they will play each other or if there's scheduling agreements to avoid it.

2023 on Deck

The holidays are never a good time for a fan blog who posts in spare time, as this entry shows. The UT Arlington baseball team had announced their upcoming schedule a few weeks ago, but I'm just now getting to it. Having to pick between my college or my kids isn't a fair choice.

This is the first season under new coach Clay Van Hook, so I was expecting something different. There are some newer teams coming in 2023 but was somewhat disappointed by what's coming to Arlington this year.

My understanding of scheduling in baseball is that schedules can vary widely year-to-year and aren't made far advance, unlike football where the non-conference slate is done five years or more down the line. So, a new coach can make a wild difference from the prior one. 

The season opens like many recently have with a three-game trip to Corpus Christi to play Texas A&M-CC. This will be the sixth year in a row these two teams play each other to open the season. UTA also plays the Islanders in a mid-week game in Arlington in late April.

Underperforming at a High Level

 It seems basketball season has been a bit rough the UT Arlington Athletic Department in 2022. I documented the men's side earlier this week. Like their opposite gender counterparts, the women played one of the harder schedules in the conference. And came out of it okay at 6-6. There weren't any wow games, but conversely, there weren't any crushing disappointments, at least as the final results go. 

We knew UTA had lost a lot prior the start of the season: Claire Chastain, Katie Ferrell and Terryn Milton. Most pundits and fans thought the slack, or some of it, was taken up by the additions of Kamaria Gipson, Jireh Washington and Kayla White. 

Unfortunately, Washington missed five games with an injury. She was back for the last non-conference game but played well-below the minutes she averaged prior to her injury. However, there seem to be a detriment to this team that may be a by-product of the modern NCAA, more on that towards the end.

UTA started the season with a drubbing of Division I Texas Southern. Those that truly follow this blog know I don't have a high opinion of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, but they are still Division I. So after 102-53 victory, Maverick nation was feeling good.