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Because the people on this board have room to talk about nerding out on things, right?

I was able to attend the UNT team camp yesterday as I coached a HS team during the event. I would say that I was impressed with Benford and staff, but that would be an understatement. first of all, I remember benford being in pinkston to recruit tony mitchell. i know he would get out and recruit, and i think that tony's interest in marquette was primarily due to benford. with respect to the camp - benford was constantly engaging with the coaches and asking about them, their teams, offered to share any drills or help he could give them, etc. he very impressive and engaged. the 1 hour practice that the UNT team went through was high paced, purposeful, and engaging. benford was constantly coming over to talk to the HS coaches to explain what they were doing, and he was also very involved in coaching the kids to the point where he was sweating his a$$ off by the end of the practice. he also had tony mitchell speak to the HS kids, and he did that on purpose to force tony to be accountable. he has to live up to the standard he is setting. and then you have a veteran like rob evans out there getting after the kids, and bringing his years of knowledge to the staff. benford did one thing that really impressed me, besides being engaging and extremely knowledgable. he told the coaches that tony averaged 4 turnovers per game, and they were going through drills that would force tony to work on his foot work and be purposeful. the things that keep tony from complete domination are turnovers and fouls. benford has already identified these issues and is addressing them and coaching tony like he needs to be taught. i told tony that he needs to listen to those guys because they know what they are talking about. benford discussed their offensive philosophy, primarily to get a target # of post touches. I think this should be a beneficial strategy for this team with the talent on the roster. with paint touches and good player and ball movement this team should be virtually unstoppable in the sun belt. benford stated that all practices will be open. I think benford was a fantastic hire who can take this program to another level with the move to CUSA.

Knees were never the problem, it was a lack of any sort of arm. I just don't have any confidence in any QB other than DT. While Mac may know where the problems are located, that doesn't mean he has been able to address them through recruiting. When DT went down last year, we were forced to start a true freshman who had not been recruited by any other FBS school as a QB. That is not a good situation for this team. I think you see us run the ball (unsuccessfully) over 30 times against LSU (40 if we have enough offensive plays), doing this to protect the only viable FBS QB on the roster. Having this lack of QB depth makes this a paycheck game, not an opportunity game. Pretty big disappointment not to sign a QB in this class.

QB is one of the weakest positions depth wise on this team. One injury to DT (who happens to be a bit injury prone), and we could be looking at 2-10 all over again. Niether of the backups have proven a thing in game conditions, with McNaulty looking pretty god awful in the chances he was given. DOes anyone really feel comfortable with little Mac or Osbourne running the show? I don't. You need to land a QB in every class. Cooper Jones not panning out at the position really hurt and means that we haven't had a solid H.S. QB recruit come here since DT. He is now a junior. We need 2 QBs in the next class to make up for the last several years, maybe even three. I really hope the decision not to offer Scotty Young doesn't come back to bite us big time.

Let me tell you who made Keenum look good.....his receivers/RB's who were some of the best YAC receivers I've seen in a long time. When I watched Houston play in their bowl game before playing us, I was more impressed with their receivers/RB's and their YAC ability, than Keenams passing ability. One of the best JUCO QB's we've ever had was Vidal Carlin (mid-60's). He had (for his time) some pretty impressive numbers for his two years here. But what padded his numbers was the fact that he would dump the ball off to John Love, and Mr. Love would get very impressive YAC's. Right now our best YAC receivers are Bynes (#81) and Chancellor (#3). And I base this on receivers who have demonstrated an ability to break tackles after the catch, as well as make tacklers miss. If we get/develop more receivers like that this fall, our QB's will look much better.

When JJ took the LSU job, I immediately thought "here we go again". I certainly expected us to lost TM, CJ and a few others. Its difficult to not think that way given our overall program history. However, not only has Benford come and kept things from falling apart, he is adding more "potential" top notch talent to the program. I am even more excited about our potential in the next few years than I was 6 months ago. I know it is early. But, Benford has really impressed all the way around. Of the 3 programs in the area that just changed coaching staffs, I can't help but feel that we have the best. Thanks already for all the hard work you put in Coach Benford.

I know I am in the minority here, but I really enjoyed our Sun Belt brethren and will always support them in 2012. The only time I might root against in 2013 and beyond is when they are playing CUSA and I may have to hold my nose with the ugly bird known as UTSA. GMG

Yes, Tulsa can get Oklahoma State into their stadium. When Texas or Texas A&M is ready to play at Apogee, I'd be glad to make one of those a regular meeting. I am glad C-USA is not expanding right now. Lets see how things work out, and then look at where teams are.

Are you even allowed to mention women's basketball??

I think the same thing could be siad about when Coach Aston departed so quickly...I know, i know...hwer dream job, but still.....looks to me like Coach Petersen is a "keeper" as well if the early returns are any incication. To me, it looks like UNT hasd a fine new set of BB head coaches. Pretty darn excited about the season to come...both men's and women's BB.

I don't think any of our QBs would be considered good by CUSA standards. DT can be a good game manager, but I still wouldn't count on him being able to beat a good defense with his arm if our running game is struggling.

Q: What happens when a team wins a BCS National Championship?. A: 1) They get a nice crystal football trophy, 2) They get to travel to the White House and meet the President, 3) They get to open the next season at home against North Texas.

They might not end up with any better options. Maybe I'll go have a four martini lunch and rethink the situation.

Tulsa got a home & home with OSU. They played at OSU in 2010 and OSU came to Tulsa last year.

Maybe they are holding those spots in hope of Houston and smu returning. And I couldn't agree with you more harry

The current situation in the Big East - everybody but the new kids looking for an exit, Notre Dame's uncertain situation (they may have to join a conference to get access to the playoff), the basketball/football division - has everything on hold for now. With no BCS left, the case for Boise and SDSU moving has gotten a great deal weaker,too. Grab your popcorn.

True Harry, but Keenum was a 2-star recruit coming out of high school with a rating of 5.0.

I personally think that the state of Texas storming into the SEC should have been the cover of this magazine. That is a bigger story than TCU coming back to the fold in my opinion. GMG

TCU would beat us down like a body bag game, we just wouldn't get the big check.

Tulsa World article The thing is, no one knows. And that makes it impossible to plan. Certainly, it's impossible to go ahead with a C-USA/MWC merger or even additional C-USA expansion. "I think there's always a thought of mind that you can always get to 16 if you want to," Parmley said. "So we're kind of holding those last two spots to see what shakes out in other conferences over the next 12-15 months. Read more from this Tulsa World article at http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/article.aspx?subjectid=231&articleid=20120617_29_B1_HOWCAN484740

UNT #85 http://www.collegefootballuniverseblog.com/1/post/2012/05/college-football-strength-of-schedule-preseason-2012.html

This is a pretty interesting breakdown. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/luke_winn/05/22/conference.rankings/index.html?xid=sbnation

I am really interested to see what Mitchell can do this year with, hopefully, a full compliment of teammates. I really think we will see a dominating performance, especially in the conference schedule. And throw in a little motion offense....

We aren't anywhere near where we need to be at QB. Numbers at the position mean absolutely nothing. While i hope he steps it up this year, DT isn't even playing at the level we need. We don't need nor can afford to have just a manager at the position. If you want to win at this level, you've got to have an exceptional QB. You guys complaining about Keenum, look at the teams he beat during his career. I'll take a QB of his caliber any day.

Having municipalities pay for pro sports facilitates is one of the biggest scams ever. What has the average Arlington resident got out of having two major sports franchises? On another note, what has Dallas lost by not having the Cowboys. I guess there is a little prestige that goes with having a pro franchise, but they seldom spur the economic growth they are touted to. Look at the area where Texas stadium was in Irving, they really benefited from the Cowboys. Victory Park has been mostly a failure. Subsidizing extremely wealthy people and particularly in these times seems far from a function of government.

I wouldn't be scared to put Dodson in if Thompson and Osborn went down. If the O-line jells as it should, he would get decent protection and in my humble opinion he would manage things just fine. If the coaches are seriously thinking about a RS for McNulty, they should give Dodson more reps this fall in practice.

We have one of the easiest schedules in college football. Why is this even a conversation? Remove this year's LSU game and we likely drop to the bottom of SOS. And we still sit here and "hope" for a winning season. As soon as these "body bag" games get in the way of our undefeated seasons, I'll talk strategic scheduling. Otherwise, give me the CASH.

It does sometimes seem as if we plan it that way. I mean, can't we get somewhere close to the same paycheck at Arizona State as we get at LSU? I don't mind playing Texas because they definitely have their off years and I want to finally knock the MoFo's off, but playing LSU or Bama more than once every couple of decades makes little sense to me.

To be fair - they don't mention about 20 leagues.

Why did Grimmace from McD's make the cover?????

Notice how the Sun Belt isn't even mentioned in that article. Yes, CUSA loses a lot when they lose Memphis, but it's still a million miles up from the Belt.

Our DBs made keenum and U of H look good too.

If we mostly steer clear of the SEC (exc. Vandy, the Mississippi's, and A&M) and OU I'm OK with most big money games. It's just too hard to catch teams like Alabama, LSU, Florida, and OU in a down year. I wouldn't mind us scheduling a couple of PAC 12 games, since most of those teams are down as much as they are up.

NBA scouts know who he is, but the casual and knowledgable fan does not... in which TM would be "under the radar"

This

Now thats' funny!

I would like to see both of them return to C-USA, and it would probably make financial sense for all parties - but can you really, even in your most intoxicated state, see SMU moving back "down" to C-USA? The University of Houston I can see - but not SMU.

I think Tech beat OU in Norman this year in a strange weather game.

Or, we could just get better and make competitive games out of them. Arkansas State has done it... a couple times. Troy has done it. The schedule isn't the problem.

I see your 200 or so dead Texas patriots and raise you one dead American President. Just sayin...

Na. Let's save that for Sandusky. But a pretty meh death. I mean, he was a horrible 0-1 all time against LAPD.

I hate Kool-aid talk and just ignore it or roll my eyes, but when you point out specifics it gets my attention. Its great to hear that he is working on ball control and fouling with Mitchell, instead of just "going through some drills." It means our staff is focused and that working individually with our guys. Great to hear and I'm glad all those schools where there. Hopefully we got those kids some free tickets.

just a personal impression from someome who has no prior ties to UNT.

texashoops.com ranked him above perry jones and phil pressey. everyone who saw him play that season knows he is a major future pro - top 5 in the draft type talent. I would call him under the radar because most of America has no idea just how good he really is - media included.

Yeah, I love seeing the bigger conferences beat up on the small ones too! I sure hope Alabama teaches WKU a lesson or that Arkansas whoops up on Monroe.

This thread is kinda facepalm.

Looks like we won't be hearing from you for the next year then?

If Denton wasn't already a tourist draw with a huge government presence, then the criticism in the Atlantic might apply. The article is also talking about big conventions, where Denton is making a play for a much different market. Ask yourself if Hurst can support a convention center why can't Denton?

Can you post a story WITHOUT sounding like a complete ass? He is in custody, and charged. And isn't it a tragedy when ANY unarmed teen's life is taken? But most importantly, is it racist?

Very Impressive Indeed. He may come for a visit during the LSU game. WF Hirshi will be playing @ Argyle on Jan 6th. A chance to see both Overlander & Foster