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Do you think you could have come up with a less provocative topic title? Damn, I thought something bad happened to him.

GO MEAN GREEN!

More like Tom McBaitin'

Now open:

Shamefully.... I have only watched a bit of the Office. In fact, I have watched more of the British version (in college and pre-American Office) than our own version. I really need to start from season 1 and binge it.

Thanks for telling us...

Haven't spent a dollar at Dick's in almost a decade, won't start now.

This is the replacement for Josh Kirkland who served as the DPP last year. This is the same position with the addition of the NIL part. Not a new position....new title

Name them. This is positive, in my book. Still hate NIL, but at least we're not standing pat and doing nothing. That's better than where I thought we were, literally, yesterday. Now, hope this guy can fundraise like the last SLC product we had in here. Dodge couldn't win, but he dang sure could recruit (players, donors, excitement).

Hiring Dodge wasn't the problem. Allowing him to bring the entire HS staff was the issue.

RV went for the free advertising for the program. Dodge was a Texas high school coaching legend and media darling. We had LOTS of media with his hire...before he started losing. 10X more than any football HC hire since.

It’s a great show, please do

I heard they were a bunch of dicks

My son goes to UCF. It does have Orlando to itself, but the main reason they fill the seats is because students turn out in huge numbers and make the Bounce House a scene. With 69,000 students and their level of fan support, UCF has the potential to become a football power as they graduate and keep supporting their school.

That was year 1 on Freshman difficulty. I haven’t played a football game since Madden ‘04 so I had to start out easy. 😂

You should definitely make a side trip up to Oakland, or down to Compton. I hear they are nice that time of year.

Hiring an in-house leader for NIL is a must at this point. To me, it signals that UNT is embracing the change and looking for ways to remain competitive. I see that as a good sign. However, I fully agree the AD needs to invest much more heavily in Marketing and Community Relations to drive attendance.

In all the years I have watched UNT football, I never saw a coach look more outmatched all the time than Todd Dodge. That first game was a sign of things to come. Allowing him to bring his high school staff along with him, instead of putting coaches with long college football experience under him to help him adjust, was a catastrophic mistake by RV.

I wanted to share, I should have 2 club seats available for most game this season with the exception of the Army game. My kids are hit or miss on attending games. I am looking for $170/ticket and do not plan to include parking. I may on occasion throw parking in if no one from our side is attending. I am trying to avoid giving up my seats as I enjoy supporting and enjoy when the family can make games. Thank you in advance!!

Abner Haynes and teammate Leon King broke Texas college football color barrier when they suited up for North Texas State's freshman football team in 1956. After Haynes death in July, head coach Eric Morris and linebacker Jordan Brown remember the impact the pair still has today. https://www.texasfootball.com/article/2024/08/07/abner-haynes-may-be-gone-at-north-texas-he-s-not-forgotten

He left football to pursue other interest

https://goutsa.com/news/2023/12/13/utsa-athletics-sees-record-breaking-fall-attendance-and-ticket-sales-figures seems we need to do whatever UTSA’s marketing team is doing…. Or maybe going 23-5 over 2 seasons had something to do with it

I've said this before but the best marketing person for UNT football is the head coach, period. Winning is and will always be the best marketing tool for NORTH TEXAS. how do I know? because we've tried everything under the sun except win (really win, not go 7-5 against mediocre competition). We've never had an 11 win season. ever in 100+ years.... The pic in the post above of packed Apogee said it was 15% marketing and 85% winning. I disagree. It was 98% winning and 2% marketing. It was 98% being on ESPN, to 25 mentions, national attention, being 4-0, feeling like we belonged in the college football world. When that happens, the benefits of our size and numbers start to bubble to the surface. As for "other G5s that do it" we always bring up the fringes and someone even mentioned SMU. That's 9 or 10 schools out of 65? 70? in G5? For every ECU I'll bring up Boise St. For every SMU I'll bring up UCF. If a G5 wins and doesn't get attendance from it, it is an outlier, not the norm. If North Texas went 12-0, got ranked in the top 25, season tickets would be much more difficult to come by. And to use this same argument, why can't North Texas do it? Other G5s have done it...

Really great article

DENTON, Texas – UNT Athletics is partnering with Influxer to provide Mean Green student-athletes the opportunity to create personalized co-branded merchandise as an additional NIL offering. “We are committed at UNT to offering the best resources to our student-athletes to maximize their NIL opportunities,” UNT Vice President and Director of Athletics Jared Mosley said. “This announcement with Influxer places another important tool at their disposal, and aids in our goal of Building Champions and Preparing Leaders.” Influxer is an officially licensed vendor, creating co-branded apparel customized with players' names and numbers. Through this partnership, Influxer will provide education and training on marketing, entrepreneurship, and personal branding. "The NIL landscape is constantly evolving and working with Taylor Bryan has been an amazing opportunity to see the vision they have for the University of North Texas providing great options through Influxer for their student-athletes,” Influxer vice president Keith Miller said. “They see this as not simply a transactional opportunity, but as an opportunity to develop long term skills for life.” Each of UNT’s student-athletes will have the opportunity to create his or her own personalized gear available for purchase through Influxer’s platform. Influxer is currently partnered with more than 330 schools. In addition to the online store, the Influxer team oversees all fulfillment and customer service, while collaborating with North Texas and its student-athletes on creative elements and marketing. The partnership with Influxer adds to UNT’s robust portfolio of NIL options for its student-athletes including the Mean Green Exchange, Influencer, and group licensing with the brandr group.

How did I miss that Scrappy was missing!?! I’m embarrassed.

UNT, as the only large public University in DFW, also has a unique market in DFW. The other two schools are small privates, with exclusive fanbases. DFW is also 4 times larger than Orlando. We could be in worse places as an FBS program.

UCF moved up to I-A exactly one year after we did. They’ve been able to finish in the top ten, win BCS bowl games, and move up to a power conference. UCF has an entire market of a big city to themselves, sharing Orlando with a basketball team. UTSA is most like them in this regard and we have seen them zoom by us, too. its sad, but the reality is that we just have never recovered from the nuclear decision of dropping down to I-as and staying there for 12 seasons. Even when we moved up in 1995, it was because we wanted to be able to make more money as a bought win. Today, we are looked down on by CFB fans and media, as well as our own alumni. Heck, we can’t even sellout our own 30k stadium. Our location is supposed to be this huge advantage, but for football, it’s a giant disadvantage, as we are buried behind the DFW coverage of the 4 pro teams, the P4 teams, and other sports like golf. It is what it is.

In addition to the cannon, we’re also missing Scrappy. But I agree, they nailed the game day experience. Band sits where the band sits. Visitors section is in the correct place. Giant wooden chair is in the corner out on the concourse. Wind generators in the background… they did a phenomenal job.

What I find bizarre is that Littrel retained after a fluke home weather aided victory against a program that was born after 2000. You can't hire that magical coach if you over pay extend contracts and retain mediocre head coaches too long. We perpetually aim low when the jump to P5 coming from being a BAD I-AA/FCS program is a monumental task in the shadows of the Longhorns, Aggies, Sooners and Dallas Cowboys locally. Maybe my perception is off compared to your average college sports aware person living within the DFW area. But I don't think it is. I think if you conducted a poll of just DFW area college sports fans you would be surprised as to how many believe the leadership, and most passionate boosters aren't "all in" when it comes to winning here. I know there is HUGE potential here. And in my opinion we should never be super excited to extend a coach that doesn't have the team ranked at the end of their 3-4 year..... But now that the dynamics with the transfer portal, and NIL has completely changed how you build a program. We are leaving an era of college football when upward mobility was easier. Leadership squandered all the PR momentum Dickey's run through the Sun Belt generated.

If there was ever any doubt how much Pitbull was in love with himself....

Have to get one of the new consoles to play it first

FYI, this position was already in place previously. Just a new face.

I did. And the Bradley head coach liked my tweet. Which basically means we're just waiting on Ross to accept.

Ehh, I kinda gotta disagree with you here. I wouldn’t say it’s “far more important”. Just look at SMU. Do they win? Decently. Do their fans show up? Not really. Even when certain teams are bad, fans will still show up due to the atmosphere/brand/culture. UNT’s stadium placement definitely does not help its chances too. UNT is really bland when it comes to pushing their football program. I think trying to create a better brand for UNT could go a long way. When us as fans admit that UNT football isn’t the most appealing, what makes a recruit want to come here?

"As of August 1, 2024, NCAA Division I schools can help student-athletes with name, image, and likeness (NIL) activities if the student-athletes disclose their NIL arrangements. This assistance includes identifying NIL opportunities and helping student-athletes make deals with third parties. However, student-athletes are not required to accept help from the school and must still control the terms of their NIL agreements." DI Council approves NIL reforms, permits school assistance with NIL activity https://www.ncaa.org/news/2024/4/17/media-center-di-council-approves-nil-reforms-permits-school-assistance-with-nil-activity.aspx

How many seasons did it take you to build up your recruiting? Surely you didn’t do that in year one?

So...East Carolina is what you've got. That's the one school on your list that supports well while historically not winning. Navy numbers are confusing as they probably get to count the Army-Navy game that draws 65k+. The rest of those are not what I'd call drawing good attendance. Better than UNT? Yes. Good? No.

https://www.d1ticker.com/2023-fbs-attendance-trends/ North Texas = 17,761 = 5-7 Rice = 20,542 = 6-7 Navy = 30,804 = 5-7 UAB = 21,543 = 4-8 Tulsa = 20,187 = 4-8 East Carolina = 35,115 = 2-10 UTEP = 18,160 = 3-9 UConn = 24,659 = 3-9 Utah St. = 19,282 = 6-7 Colorado St. = 26,509 = 5-7 San Diego St. = 24,832 =4-8 Ga. Southern = 21,480 = 6-7 Marshall = 23,198 = 6-7 Southern Miss = 23,275 = 3-9

Got it and love it, so far. They have done a remarkable job of nailing the gameday atmosphere at DATCU. We even have the chants included....both the North Texas Fight and plain ole great North --- Texas! Fans do the claw and crowds look almost identical to real life when we play the smaller, more unknown schools. Looks like both the new unis and all the odd combos we've had over the past few years are included, as well (except the flying worm 😞). Only thing really missing is the cannon after we score.

With NIL coming in house this could become a very important position. Congrats!

Started an online dynasty with some friends. I'm UNT on AA and threw about 30 picks season 1 haha. Finished 7-6 and 5-3 in conference. Memphis ended #13 and lost in the elite 8 of the playoffs.

GM of football? Glad we can get another old a cush salary on the backs of 18-22 year olds... Can we just start paying the players a salary?

The next week after the OU game, we played at SMU and lost. That was SMU's only win of the season, while we beat ULM and winless WKU for our only two wins all season. While an entertaining game, that UNT-SMU game was between two weaklings. SMU fired Phil Bennett and hired June Jones, who built SMU back up from the ash heap fairly quickly, only to eventually fall apart, too, a few years later, when a UNT blowout of SMU in Denton showed them just how bad things were and he quit.

He had a great QB in Gio Vizza, who was a strong-armed freshman. But the beating that the guy took, most of which was on the concrete turf of Fouts, just crushed him. The dude quit football entirely after that one season.

I agree, and am not blaming Rick for swinging for the fences. However to get Dodge he had to take his high school staff plus wait until high school state playoffs were completed . These were Dodge's terms for employment which in hind site [vision always 20/20]should have been rejected. However Rick was trying to jump start our program and if memory serves we had a record crowd at Dodge's first spring game. Also, I have watched UNT football since my freshman year of 1961 and Riley Dodge had more guts than any player that I have ever seen. He was undersized for a D1 program but there was no quit in him. In summary, I am a big fan of Rick. While he was AD we added our great new stadium, which was the first dedicated athletic facility UNT constructed since Fry built a 3,000 sq. ft. AD building that sits in the north parking lot adjacent to the Super Pitt. Our athletic program has always been underfunded , plus Rick went thru a handful of presidents who each had their own vision of what our athletic program should look like or had no vision at all. No, he wasn't perfect, but give him his due.

Agree that Dodge was a monumental error but keep in mind, Rick had a fraction of the budget we sport today.

Well Rick made a mistake when he brought Dodge on and allowed him to bring his staff, which was in way over their heads. However he recruited well and coach Mac won the First Responder's Bowl with those players. I think Morris is a good coach but our poor defense let both Navy and Memphis off the hook, especially the Tigers, and we could just off easily gone 7&5 instead of 5&7. I respectfully disagree with Keith regarding the players Morris inherited. We still had a terrible defense which amazingly got worst as the season went on . We were luck to get Rogers as QB from ULM.With the transfer portal and NIL programs like ours are rebuilding every year and last season was no exception. We are ranked preseason 9th in the AAC behind Rice. While most of our posters disparage UTSA, the Roadrunners have built a some what nationally recognized football program while UNT continues to be forgotten, especially by its students and the 100,000 or so zombie graduates in DFW.