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State or federal?

Who cares. He's a career sub-.500 coach. Show him the door. FIU has to raise their expectations.

He actually had a piece with a positive outlook written...but then substituted this one in at the last second.

Okay, I want everyone to remember this Cristobal thing every time a coach leaves one place and people bitch about him being a traitor, stone stepper, etc. Cristobal was loyal to FIU, built them into a winners, and was crapped on after a rebuilding year with the graduation of QB Wes Carroll and WR T.Y. Hilton. This is why coaches leave when they have the opportunity to leave. Sorry, you can't be loyal anymore. Best of luck to coach Cristobal. He took a situation with little monetary support and little in the way of facilities and won. He's a good coach. He's a great OL coach and will catch on somewhere. FIU is the only non-BCS qualifer he ever coached for. Someone needing OL help will pick him up. Crazy.

Benford even sucks at coach speak.

But with just one mistake, is it really good for a player to come out and just sit on that mistake? Wouldn't sometimes letting them play a little beyond that one mistake allow them to get over it quicker and move on? That is some kinda anxiety that doesn't allow a player to relax if you get pulled so quickly. That is when you begin to over think things out of sheer fear of being benched. what do you think?

Is the game in East St. Louis?

ESPNU is working on a possible doubleheader in the metroplex on December 13th. Chicago Simien was scheduled to play Plano Prestonwood but ESPNU decided to drop Prestonwood after the injury to national recruit Julius Randle (and super 6-7 soph Mickey Mitchell) What is currently being discussed is a game between Simien and DeSoto (Matt Jones, Duke signee). Dallas Kimball (Keith Frazier) is schedule to open up against Greg Wesley's Arlington Sequin. Not sure if both games will be televised. Discussions are ongoing.

I think that Mack is a great recruiter. I think that any of those guys he turned down, including RG III and Johnny Manziel, weren't as good as what he had already signed or thought he had. The problem down there at Club Med-Austin is that their players are coddled and adored, thus their development falls apart. I'm convinced that Colt McCoy developed the way he did as a freshman because he was a coach's kid and that aided his development. Gilbert was supposed to be all-world, just like Simms was and Chance Mock and David Ash and...The real problem that Texas has is that their recruits all get ranked high because they get recruited by Texas--and their media alums just make a fortune on propping them up. In reality, many of those 4-5* kids they get aren't any better than what A&M, Tech, Baylor, and TCU have been getting. The difference has been that the coaching under Sumlin, Leach, Briles, and Patterson has been much better, which has allowed them to beat Texas (or in A&Ms case, would beat them). Mack has done a very good job at Texas, turning them around in a way that Texas fans hadn't seen since the Royal and Akers years. But 15 years is a long time and the program appears to be on a downside slide that won't be tolerated much longer. The Cotton Bowl between A&M and OU is a no-win deal for Texas. Oklahoma wins and they continue getting top Texas HS recruits to look north of the Red River. A&M wins and they have all of the momentum now with Texas HS recruits. In a weird way, it might actually benefit Texas MORE if OU wins the Cotton Bowl, since they already recruit evenly with them and they lost to them again by 40. If A&M can say that they beat OU on a neutral field after OU prison-raped UT (again) on a neutral field, the Aggies are going to clean up in recruiting. Its gonna look like its 1985 all over again in this state.

You mean Vince? /euless'd

Did any of them replace a coach who won 6 games in 4+ years and had only been a high school coach before taking over? Not trying to be a Mac apologist--flame away if you think I am--but he's already won 9 games, where the previous regimes won 13 games in the 6 years before him. We all want a winner here, but you gotta get a qb that can play and lines that can block or pressure the other team. McCarney's recruiting and development can really be judged as we move forward here. But the 2nd season, at least in my opinion, is his last honeymoon year here--going forward he knows that the expectation is to have winning seasons or he won't be here beyond the 2014 season.

The will jump out early, our offense will struggle. They'll be up 15 ten minutes in. We'll be down 23 at half and keep it around there for the remainder of the game. Benford will talk about how we improved in the second half and how there are positives to build off of.

It's not really what he was coming out of high school, it's really more about what he had turned into by his Junior and Senior years. I see nothing wrong with questioning our coaches judgement when the guy has been chased around by NFL teams ever since the end of his Senior season. If I remember correctly, it was his tryout numbers shortly after last season that initially attracted the attention of NFL scouts, and you have to wonder why one of the worst teams in FBS football apparently didn't take notice of his size, speed, strength, and overall skills while he was still on campus. Hope it works for him.

Don't worry about it Kram. I think we can all see how trying to defend a coach as inept as Benford would make a guy do some crazy things. We know you didn't mean it.

Makes you kind of question our coaches ability to judge talent. I guess he didn't practice well.

LA Tech's AD could really use one of those watches.

You know, if Olawale does well as a Raider, a lot of us are going to be asking one question: wtf weren't our coaches seeing that the professionals did? I really think he could be good in short yardage situations, maybe be useful in scoring within the red zone. I guess no team I follow has needed those attributes, though.

It's like picking up women at the bar. Sometimes there are 3 ways it plays out 1) You can take the sure thing home 2) You can pass on the sure thing in hopes the hotter one from earlier in the night will accept your invite, even though the sure thing's saying she's ready to go back to your place now. 3) You pass up the sure thing hoping for better, who ends up leaving the bar with someone taller, richer, and better looking then you. And leaving you alone at the end of the night explaining to your friends why you passed up the sure thing.

This idiot writer should realize we need to give Benford some time.

I heard five NT fans were attending. Strangely they all intend to walk around the perimeter of the building all night and never go inside.

I think it's the same piece. He just over-edited it and the constant word substitution made the whole thing go negative. Maybe that's where you were going.

He might have been at the end of his rope even without the gambling scandal. The alumni up there are not happy about the state of the C-USA, and the money element has been trying to force a move to the MWC.

Madrid! Seriously, I hear it is so awesome, people visit it for a few days and end up never leaving. 2 years and counting...

I do agree the buck stops with RV. I never countered that point. I disagree with calling for his head.

And then getting a new "Son of Bulldog" logo

He's not 30.

Go to Las Vegas Bowl. Come home with nothing. Sounds about right for the many trips I've taken there.

I'm thinking about the 4 or 5 star running back that transferred to Ark St. from Auburn, but wasn't given an exemption to play right away last year. Maybe he will transfer back to Auburn?

You are missing the point. How do you know the "coaching" is not ever present? This is what I cannot understand. Everyone on this site must not work and literally devote their time to stalking this coach and this team. I have a life and a job. When will all of these people who go to practice and have conversations with the staff and players post more information on here? Until then this is all speculation. Some believe it is the players while others believe it is the coach. This kind of argument occurs in a lot schools around the nation when alum get upset. Time always tells which side is correct. I am going to give it more time.

Condensed Statement - We got cocky and ended up with nothing. Not only did we miss the Bowl we missed the extra practice time that comes with it. P.S. – No matter what you hear this had nothing to do with ULM (we just knew the bigger bowls would want us) Bottom Line – La Tech administration (not the fans) looks like a complete group of idiots and that they were scared to play ULM – SPIN IT HOWEVER YOU WANT

Count me in the camp that doesn't feel bad for them one bit. The amount of crap they talked about how great it was, and how Malzahn really loved coming home and he would be there for years. LOL.

Weren't they in on Canales at one point before they nabbed Malzahn?

I feel completely opposite of you. Abby plays DT in front of much bigger guys. Why? Because he can play the game better. You can add size, you can't add talent, so give me the faster, quicker lighter player who may add size over the huge guy that doesn't have the fast twitch muscle fire that is needed to play the college game, even at DT. I'm talking in general here, not specifically about this recruit.

Soccer fan? See a European soccer match. Not a soccer fan? See a European soccer match.

On a 3 out 2 in motion offense, remind me which one is the center and which one is the forward again? They keep switching spots and ending up at similar spots on the floor so much, I am having trouble telling them apart.

First...No one is game planning to stop Roger Franklin. He is not seeing even a fraction of the attention of Tony. Rog is a high motor tweener player who doesn't need plays or an offense run around him to get his type of shots. Tony Mitchell is a Center in Benford's "offense." If you're disappointed that a center is not getting the ball at the top of the key or elbow and creating his own shots like a guard or small forward... Then you're basically disappointed in Tony for not 100% ignoring the "offense" Benford is trying to force on this team and going rouge.

Like Harry said earlier in the post, I'm still behind Tony Benford cause he's the coach of UNT BB and it's too early. Now the early results are bad and things need to change quickly or the most talented team in UNT BB history will make headlines as the biggest bust in UNT history. However, what I'm most disappointed in is our defense and rebounding. These two stats are about want-to and athletes. We've been told this would be a priority, but have not seen any evidence to confirm this. It's not that we don't have the athletes to defend and rebound, so what's the problem? Defense wins games for you when you're not making shots. Rebounding gives you second chance points when you're not making shots and limits oppenents opportunities when they miss. It also allows you to run the floor and fast break which is what this team needs to be doing. He can blame the poor shooting, but in my mind it's not about that - have I mentioned it's rebounding and defense?

Fair question here...how is it that Roger Franklin can get open and get the ball in the middle in traffic and when being guarded closely and Tony can't? Am sure the experts here can tell me what I am missing, but seems to me if Franklin can do it surly a potential "NBA Lottery Pick" would be capable of doing it as well. No? Just asking....

We're not going to score a TD every time we're in the red zone. However, we should at least get FG's. If the red zone FG's were hit (all 5 of them), we would not be bringing this game up. I definitely wont argue with you about overthrown balls. Those were happening everwhere, not just in the red zone. That is not on Canales either though.

The good news is in a Tony Benford rotation he's only been out 15 days.

I'm sorry Andrew I don't know who you are and I'm not trying to attack you personally, but you really don't have a clue if you think we can sit here and "enjoy UNT basketball," in it's current form. It's just not fun to watch, be it the coach's fault or the players. Especially when what has taken years to built is not being torn apart brick by brick, but by a swift push of the dynamite plunger. We just have to disagree. I'm am glad you don't take NT sports as seriously as some. I guess I have to get to the point so many alums have figured out, forget about it all and abandon the program. It sure make life easier not having to worry about how one's donation dollars and ticket dollars are spent. I hope this thing turns around. I really do and I'm sincere in saying I hate to see people lose their jobs, unless its because unscrupulous things have been done, which I can't say things haven't been shady. I really do for the players' sake.

Mike Gundy would disagree !

I was gonna say, I don't feel like a grown ass man at 34. But yeah, 18 or 20 is not a grown man. You might be legally an adult, but most aren't "grown ups" in any real way.

A year ago people threw a fit when Jordan and Chris failed classes. They were men then. Now all of the sudden we get a new coach and they not? I liked Johnny and I like Benford. It is/was neither mans job to baby these players. The players are not hustling plain and simple. Blame the coaches blame the players. Let's just stop whining and enjoy unt basketball! We are turning into the players pouting because we are not happy. Bigger things occur in the world. Have a little faith people. We are a long way from the end.

It wasn't broken until he broke it. I wouldn't have dreamed Tony would have 0 offensive touches 9 minutes iinto a game against a conference opponent. This has A LOT to do with the coach. It may not be over, but we will be 3-6 after the butt whoopin that is coming in 2 days, and we have very little chance to beat Lehigh at home. LaLa beat us on our own court. So I would say it is far closer to being over than being turned around, considering defensive, rebounding, and to a certain extent, offensive problems have not been fixed. Couple that with the fact that Benford doesn't even know who or when he will substitute next from second to second, and I just have a terrible feeling this thing is headed for 12 wins. I'm not saying Benford should be fired just yet, but it is really clear to see that he was a terrible hire for this situation, no matter how bad your vision may be.

Ask, if he is worried that our slow start might cause our commits for next year to question his ability as coach.

Isn't this the guy that made his team watch him poop in a bucket?

Excuse me for not sending meaningless internet condolences to a family that will never see it, and never care to see it. Jeez.

I think you may be wrong. If all things break right our offense could be mighty potent. Who is with me? GMG

If you think Dodge left the cupboard bare, just wait until his players are gone. Y'Barbo, Fortenberry, A. Johnson, Feeley, Anyiam, Byrd, Chancellor, Teegarden, Miller, Prior, McCoy, Abbe, Cantly, Obi, Bellazin, Orr, Phillips, Wright, Jackson...