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I get a little tired of members of this board ragging R.V. about his coaching hires. When D.D. left, we had a budget of about $250,000 for a head football coach. Rick took a risk with T.D., and it didn't pay off. It happens to most of us in business as well as life. With the new student athletic fee, we are now able to be competative in the market place, and I feel that Coach Mac will turn out to be a good hire, just like Johnny Jones and our previous as well as current women's basketball coaches. I admit that the verdict is out on Bedford, and now it is not positive. However,there is a lot of basketball to be played, so lets reserve judgement until seasons end. I have said before,and feels it bares repeating,that only those who have never made hiring mistakes are those who have never hired. It's not an exact science,otherwise there wouldn't be such a head coaching turnover in colleges. You need only to look at Texas Tech as a recent example.I was in health care sales and distribution from 1968 thru 2003,and using the same profile hired some of the best and worst sales reps in my industry. I am not looking at R.V.'s hires with rose colored glasses. Personally,I would have hired an experienced men's head basketball coach. However, I feel Rick's positives out weigh his mistakes in hiring. On another note,I attended NTSU from 1961 thru 1966. Until Rick arrived, the only dedicated athletic facility was a football administration building built during Hayed Fry's era. You youngsters may remember it as our old ticket office. In my opinion,and no one is perfect[ except some of us who post on this board], Rick,despite some misfires,is the best Athletic Director in our history. So lets cut him a little slack,and look at our cup as half full instead of half empty.Just an old man's opinion.

Hmmm, I can't wait until the practice facility is completed so this team can start practicing.

Saw Berglund for first time at FB Banquet--easy to recognize as he was the one with the large "S" on his chest

RV's performance has been a mixed bag just like any other AD. There are many things that you can put in the good and bad columns. IMO the big thing that has changed with NT athletes is the amount of support that the administration is giving athletes. That upward trend started with the retirement of Hurley who liked athletes as long as it didn't cost any money. I really think most of the things that RV is credited with, would have happened under any competent AD, but that is speculation at best. The AD over time is responsibility for the success of his athletic programs and in Texas really it comes down to football. RV has a very suspect record there. He could not control DD, not his hire. The Dodge hire was a fiasco and it doesn't matter how many fans thought it was a good idea; it was very risky and it miserably failed. The McCarney's hire at this point is questionable but far from the point of being called a bust. Men Basketball because of the very high profile of this year's team is almost as big a factor as football in RV's evaluation. Unless Benford turns this program around quickly, and it doesn't look good at this point; this hire could be a big problem for RV. RV isn't likely going anywhere soon, but if fortunes don't change quickly in the main sports football, MBB both in wins and support than he could be in deep trouble after next year.

Glad the team woke up in the second half, the first half was bad even the way they have been playing this year. Having a winless SWAC playing you even for 30 minutes is horrible. I am always sympathetic to SWAC teams though; Jackson State plays 11 away games non-conference. They have lost to Baylor by 31, Tulsa by 20, Tex Tech by 9 and Air Force by 29. At this point, I think Trilli is a better basketball coach than Benford at least on the offensive side. An out manned JSU played Mitchell almost straight and NT still couldn't take advantage for most of the night. Parameter defense is horrible. I did think Tony after coming in after the injury probably played as hard as he as all year. That dunk earlier in the first half, was fantastic. I don't know why he doesn't drive to the basket more often. Standing under the basket he is easy to defend, and every team like St. Louis will be happy to let him be a 15 foot jump shooter.

The only good thing that came out of tonight was TM's monster dunk early in the game

Dude. Benford is just terrible.

Sorry, Bill but with that perspective we'll never get a 4-star athlete and maybe no more threes. Hidden gems do happen but I'm not sure that either of us have enough time left on this earth to wait for that. Berglund had plenty of schools to choose from when he chose Kansas. We also know that he's a very good scout team quarterback. I think that he'll be great but we see so very few highly-rated players, particularly quarterbacks, that we're in uncharted waters.

Nah. I just happen to believe that Tony Benford would be every bit as good a football coach as basketball.

Do u have any other listings on Craigslist ?

I actually read your comments this time. As hater of most things NT; you support RV which is a little strange. A lot of fans of all teams have unrealistic expectations, however not many expect NT to compete with programs with a lot more resources. NT has and always has had budgets at the top tier of the Belt. So your argument that NT doesn't have funds enough to hire competitive coaches is flawed. In football, there have been successful coaches at a lot of Belt schools as there have also been in MBB. It didn't take JJ a long time to turn MBB around, he did it in one year. It took him longer and a weak oc schedule to have continued 20 win seasons. Not sure what your reference to Aston is far. Good coaches leave for better opportunities, it happens everywhere and the lower on the athletic food chain the harder it is to keep coaches. Few if any blame RV for losing JJ and Aston. RV didn't have AD experience when he was hired. That is like saying Benford had HC experience because he had been an assistant for decades. As far as him leaving after the Presidents were fired, why should he? You may think AD jobs at 250k are growing on trees and RV could pick and chose. I doubt it. The Administration upgrade in athletic support along with the student vote for additional funding is what has driven NT to new heights in facilities. It sure has not been RV's fund raising. Being an AD at any lower resource school is tough, no argument there. However, to suggest that other good candidates for one of 120 to 130 jobs which pays over 250K a year don't exist is silly.

RV isn't perfect but he's done more than I ever expected in his time here. Our athletic department has come a long, long ways in RV's time here.

Something compelled me to look up the 1990 NCAA 1-A football standings a few days ago. I was astonished that there were 26 independent teams. My guess as to why that changed, why independence ceased to become an viable option, was the lifting of the NCAA restrictions on television. Suddenly, everybody was clamoring to crawl inside Craig James' pants and get ESPN television deals. Big time college football has always been corrupt (cough...Southwest Conference...cough). But instead a a few big conferences, it's the entirety of the sport now. It's off putting, and it's bound to collapse under its own weight at some point.

Which is why none of us get to make 6 figures to be an AD of a FBS university. Just because the fans want this or that and an AD caves doesn't justify that decision. If anything, it justifies the argument that the AD doesn't know how to make a proper hire. RV should not get a break on the TD hire, just like he should get credir for the JJ hire. It's RV's job to hire coaches that run the athletic programs here, not yours and mine. The problem is the timing of bad hires throughout UNT's history (and, of course, the complete lack of commitment to athletic success in our past is a big contributor here, trying to go the cheap route instead of dong what needed to be done to produce a winner) has been critical. Always the wrong hire at a critical time. No matter what happens in basketball this year, a huge opportunity has already been lost because of this hire and the terrible showing on a national stage in the preseason NIT. Maybe Benford eventuially turns into a quality coach, but that won't matter because the opportunity lost at a critical junction in UNT basketball history will take years from which to recover. You only get a 5 star player like Mitchell once every 30 years at UNT, and the opportunity to build something meaningful fan base-wise from having Mitchell is on the way to being wasted. No matter what Benford does in the coming years, wasting this opportunity to engage potential new members of a fan base and losing others because of the disappointment that this season has wrought will damage the program for years to come. Hope I'm wrong.

No, we beat them last year.

I can't wait to see the carpet they choose for the floor!

My guess is the MWC doesn't want to expand, but it lining up contingency plans if any more realignment takes place. They are still holding their breath that the Big East won't work out and they get another shot at schools like Boise, SDSU, and BYU. UTEP is the next logical applicant. NMSU and Idaho will always be available, but if they wanted those schools they would be in by now. The folks on this board who scream about UNT needed to head West have no idea what they are talking about. The Big West was a complete failure for us and there is no reason the MWC would be any different. Higher travel cost, no return fan travel, unlevel recruiting, and time zone changes. No thank you. The small uptick in cash and prestige wouldn't be enough to overcome the forementioned obstacles. A small regional footprint, with games against schools 18 year-olds have heard of is the way to build our fanbase and build our program.

I wanted to be there but....

North Texas fandom is a double-edged sword. It's a bad program that we all HOPE is on the rise. Should we be supportive? Should we raise expectations? Was this the right/wrong hire? We can debate everything forever. But why the separatism. The petty arguing on here is stupid.

Good News, they have started Bad News, it looks like they just started

No doubt that Benford has showed some signs of WTF out there, but he is our WTF at this point and he isn't likely to be going anywhere soon (unless some of you plan on $tepping up), so don't see the point in tearing him down. The players had a large role in that lackluster effort in the first half. Actually kind of encouraging that Benford was able to somewhat motivate them at halftime. He may not be the HC that JJ is at this point in his career by any means, but he will improve as he learns (or he will be gone, eventually). I am more focused on his ability to recruit players that can replace the ones we currently have, to keep this from being a "one shot deal".

Suit guys....

We do, that's why we then have to look to the coach to figure out why the hell were seeing what were seeing.

My problem with Benford is that it seems like the team is not prepared for every game. It seems as if there is no plan or scheme to get the ball down low and make high percentage shots or get fouled with some of the awesome talent we have in the post. The team is too content to take poor, long range jumpers when they have not been making them consistently.

Please explain to me why Benford is bad? There was a guy a few rows up from me who seemed to complain about Benford the whole game. Like he did not even watch the game. What is it with people wanting to jump on the coach so much that they do not even watch the game? He complained about every little thing. "Yea Benford keep yelling and clapping you sure are coaching".... watch the game people! We should have won by more then 20 but I will take the win for sure.

It's going to be a long off season...

NT 83 Jackson State 65 Final This post has been promoted to an article

regardless of how this game ends up, it's been an extremeley disappointing season so far

In the first half he sent Patton in and then called him back before he got to the scorers table...short sub even by Benford standards!

So if Benford no shows the post game what are the odds it was because the shanice in a suit was chasing refs?

was pushed, no call, of course - not the main issue of course. I really, really hope for Tony he is OK. He put so much on the line for UNT and this team for one more season.

+1. Players leave programs all the time due to coaching changes and (at least) perceived changes in the pecking order of recruits who committed to the previous regimes. If we can't take a flyer on guys with this kind of potential, unrealized as it may be, we'll never get the rewards from taking risks.

Glad to hear the Crew was lively tonight. I worked, but I'll be at the rest of the games. Planning on scripting some heckling.

I noticed that the student section had papers in the seats before the students arrived. Is Flyer back in business?

Just the picture Edit: Clarification. I didn't take the picture. I just uploaded because the man from whose teet I suckle didn't know how.

If you want to carry on your inane rant, great...hardly anyone reads through these piles of dodo anyway when you get on one of your patented rants. But, if you are going to do so by insulting someone, get a new routine. All you are doing here is copying the other usual suspects with the same childish and immature stuff that is getting old. So, if you have so little of substance to say that you must result to personal insults, at least man up and get an original routine. Have fun with the DJ gig....

I got their players and their coach (and the water girl) to respond to me.

Pit Crew was good tonight

Root canals might be more fun.

I can't wait to get out of this league. These SBC refs think they are the stars.

They are freaking 0-5. Please.

Benford is breaking all kinds of school records....Just not the ones we had hoped before the season.

I don't see RV in his usual seat...

+1

I paid for a jackson state length national anthem and got the aretha franklin super bowl length version.

Should be a blow out, but with the way we have played, I'm sure it will be a nail bitter and go down to the final shot... I seriously hope I'm wrong, but I don't know how I can predict anything else based on past performances.

But you don't know if JJ would have done the same thing. Trey wasn't able to compete at the Sun Belt level, much less CUSA. A tough conversation would have been had with him, no matter who the coach was at the tome Be mad about the timing if you want, but to think Benford is the reason Trey transferred is just completely ignoring his inability to compete here. .

Seems to me Benford was give a lot more money than JJ when he arrived here. Benford rode JJ success because UNT is much more attractive place to coach than when JJ arrived. RV thought per Benford's resume that he was ready to make the jump from assistant coach to head coach. That hasn't turned out to be the case....LOL!!!! Now UNT is screwed unless RV takes immediate action by firing Benford and hiring another coach. See my long post on page 10 of: Fire him (Benford). Benford is destroying with lighting speed what it took JJ 10 Years to build at UNT!!! This is a tragic situation for the Mean Green Nation!!!! This makes me sick at my stomach every time I thing about it. It's like the Todd Dodge era all over again, but 100 worse. Much better UNT team with right coach in place, and all of us and the Mean Green Nation have seen this before referring to Todd Dodge hire. RV, do something, or just shoot us all in the Mean Green Nation. If you leave Benford as coach you'll just be killing all of UNT's fan base with a 1,000 paper cuts and letting us bleed out slowly to our death's. Do we really deserve a slow death. Just shoot us with a 44 Mag. and let us die a quick death!!!!