Harry

44- 41 UNT leading 3rd quarter.

As will we all but I have a feeling Nic Smith will help ease the pain...

New UTSA defensive line coach Bo Davis is no stranger to success. He helped put together some of the strongest, most dominant defensive line units in the country during his time at Alabama. How he put those units together is a question at this point. Davis resigned from Alabama last spring under curious circumstances. Davis was shown the door at Bama allegedly because of recruiting violations. Davis' lack of cooperation with the school sped up his ouster. 24/7 rated Davis as the number one recruiter in the SEC and number two recruiter nationally. Davis was investigated by the NCAA, however the investigation has not reached a resolution. His hiring at UTSA is a little surprising given that fact. Davis spent last season in NCAA limbo, waiting on something to come of the investigation. So he took a job driving a truck, making $18 an hour and waited. He's still waiting. The allegations stem from Davis' contact with recruits outside NCAA mandated time frames. Not exactly SMU from the 1980's type stuff. So UTSA may have landed one of the best recruiters in America, with a few strings attached. Those string haven't identified themselves yet. But this is what Frank Wilson has done at UTSA, enlist the help of some serious recruiting talent to help him build the program. read more: https://gardale-hatley-xort.squarespace.com/news/2017/3/6/tuesday-playcard?utm_content=bufferd5cd9&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

DENTON - In 2016, Jeffery Wilson had another great season at running back for North Texas, finishing just short of 1,000 yards with 936 yards rushing and 14 touchdowns. The Elkhart product is now 10 yards away from reaching 2,000 for his career and if things go well in his senior season with the Mean Green, he could leave Denton as the No. 5 rusher in school history. But don’t talk to him about numbers, at least not his own, because he’s not really interested. “At the end of the day, numbers are going to be numbers; I don’t really get too involved in it because that can send you down a selfish route,” Wilson said during UNT spring practice. “My dad taught me to never be selfish and always humble myself, so numbers don’t really matter to me. It’s good I guess (to have the numbers I do), but hey, I’m just here to win games.” Last season, Wilson had two of his best performances against Army, running for 166 yards and three scores during an October win at Michie Stadium. And when the Mean Green faced the Black Knights a second time in the Zaxby’s Heart of Dallas Bowl in late December, he had 127 all-purpose yards with two touchdowns in an overtime loss. In addition to his strong rushing numbers, Wilson also set a new career high in 2016 with 29 receptions for 247 yards. The offense of second-year UNT head coach Seth Littrell emphasizes running backs catching the ball out of the backfield, so Wilson welcomes the chance to further hone those skills in 2017. “We already knew with the offense coming in that we would have to deal with catching the ball more out of the backfield,” Wilson said. “Catching the ball has never really been a problem. I always loved catching the ball, so adding it in and putting it into the offense I feel was a great asset.” read more: http://www.etfinalscore.com/ET-Football/274615/numbers-not-elkhart-product-jeffrey-wilsons-concert-in-senior-season-at-north-texas

As the 2016 season concluded, one of the position groups that saw significant growth in year one of the Seth Littrell era was the offensive line. Admittedly, the big guys up front still have a lot of work to do to help the Mean Green reach the desired heights that Littrell and offensive coordinator Graham Harrell seek. One piece of that equation is gone. Now-former offensive line coach Brad Davis was snapped up by the Florida Gators right after signing day. North Texas saw marked improvement under Davis from spring of 2016 through December 27 at the Zaxby’s Heart of Dallas Bowl, and brought in a bevy of new additions on signing day on February 1. Enter veteran coach, Chuck Langston. Littrell made it clear that this position on his staff is one of the most significant, especially as it pertains to the desired growth of the offense as a whole. Simply, the quarterback needs more time to take advantage of the mismatches that this offensive system creates, and the running backs need the space to get through to the second level. “I was looking for a great teacher, a great mentor, a guy that can relate with the players and someone who does a great job understanding our scheme,” Littrell said. “I’ve known Chuck a long time and I knew he understood what we were trying to accomplish offensively. He’s not only a guy who has been a great offensive line coach, but has also called plays as a coordinator. With his vast amount of knowledge and experience, I felt like he’d do a really good job with our men. He’s a guy that will create good chemistry and I know they’ll have a lot of trust with each other.” Langston inherits an offensive line that ranked at the bottom of Conference USA in sacks allowed, at 43, in 13 games (3.3 per game). But he also inherits a group that has a lot of key returners, and several new, talented faces. The line was a huge focal point in the 2017 signing class, as Littrell and company inked five offensive linemen, four of which will be freshmen this fall. That position group accounted for nearly 28 percent of the 18-man class. Littrell describes Langston as a tremendous teacher, and the Beaumont, Texas, native has strong ties within the state and up into Oklahoma. He most recently served as the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at Lamar, the Mean Green’s opening opponent in 2017, and has years of experience at a variety of levels to bring with him to Denton. “I think the number one thing that attracted me to North Texas was coach Littrell,” Langston said. “He and I go back a long time and I believe in him. I’ve always believed this could be a special place, just driving by. My family is in Wichita Falls and up into Oklahoma, so you always drive by and see this beautiful stadium and the facilities they’ve built. They’ve brought in Wren [Baker] and Seth and I think Seth is an incredible coach and great leader. He’s always been a leader, even back to his playing days.” read more: http://www.meangreensports.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/030717aac.html

That is awesome!

DENTON - Barring something completely unforeseen, this will be Andrew Tucker’s last experience with spring football at North Texas. And that’s something the Chapel Hill product doesn’t take lightly. “I’ve just got to make sure that I calm down and give it everything I got because I know I’m going to miss it,” said Tucker, a redshirt senior running back. “Going into the fall, I’m going to do a little bit of extra work with my boys. It’s my last spring but I’ve still got a lot of springs left (in my life).” Last fall, Tucker appeared in 11 games for UNT and ran for 153 yards and two touchdowns. The seasoned upperclassman also scored another touchdown on a blocked punt return. At times in 2016, he shared the Mean Green backfield with another East Texas product, Jeffrey Wilson of Elkhart, who led UNT with 936 rushing yards last season. And even though they play the same position and are both seniors, there is no competition between Tucker and Wilson. Instead, it’s quite the opposite. “We came from the same area. We were all born and raised the same way, so we know the area, which is just surrounded by trees,” Tucker said. “We ride horses and do the country boy stuff like wear cowboy boots. We’re both hard-working guys, having fun out here, grinding, making each other work.” Tucker might not get the repetitions and carries that Wilson does in practice or in games, but second-year UNT head coach Seth Littrell knows Tucker’s greatest value within the program lies in his ability to be one of the Mean Green’s strongest leaders. read more: http://www.etfinalscore.com/ET-Football/274536/sense-of-finality-at-unt-as-hit-chapel-hills-tucker

“Generally speaking, mid-season coaching changes – other than making some fans happy – do more harm than good,” Baker said. “Less than five percent of coaching changes are made mid-season. It’s more destructive the constructive. It rarely greatly changes the trajectory of a season.”

You get better by making good hires. That goes for conferences, too. We talk a lot about potential and markets and history and geography and all sorts of factors that go into improving as a group, but the straightest line between where you are and improvement is, simply, hiring good coaches. Some of the large changes you see are due to conference realignment. The Big East got raided, changed names, and dropped. The Mountain West lost Utah and TCU and dropped. The Pac-12 added Colorado at its most dismal and dropped. Conference USA (and, to a degree, the Mountain West) took on a bunch of start-ups and fixer-uppers and dropped. Et cetera. That said, a lot of these upward and downward trends have to do with the coaches walking in and out the door. Conference USA has been pretty dismal for a few seasons now. It rose in 2014, but that was primarily due to a surge by Marshall. After peaking at an average S&P+ rating of minus-3.3 in 2008 and nearly matching that in 2011, the conference has been demonstrably worse. There could be a surge coming, though. And if it happens, hires are predictably the reason. Two have earned quite a bit of recent attention: Butch Davis at FIU and Lane Kiffin at FAU. This duo could drastically change recruiting within the state of Florida and beyond. But if this rise occurs, it began last year when UTSA brought in Frank Wilson and North Texas hired Seth Littrell. read more: http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2017/3/7/14814744/north-texas-football-2017-preview-schedule-roster

Sounds good to me!

It’ll be a sad day for LSU basketball when Jones’ tenure ends because he seemed the right man for his dream job when he was hired five years ago. A DeRidder native, he had been a key player for four seasons as Brown was building LSU into an SEC power and he was Brown’s assistant for 13 seasons. Jones got his head coaching chops at North Texas, where he took the Mean Green twice to the NCAA tournament before returning to Baton Rouge. His first LSU team showed significant progress on its was to 19 victories. His second team went to the NIT and won a game, his third went to the NCAA tournament. Then came the arrival of the No. 1 high-school player in the country — Ben Simmons — and the Tigers seemed likely to return to the NCAA tournament and maybe make some noise in it. But it never happened. The entire 2015-16 season was a letdown and the Tigers finished 19-14 and 11-7 in the SEC. The NCAA tournament had no interest in them and they had none in any other postseason tournament. And, as expected, Simmons left for the NBA after one season and Jones was left to compete with a much-less talented roster. That’s not always bad because often times in basketball less talented teams are able to produce a sum greater than their parts when more talented teams produce sums lesser than the sum of their parts. Remember Brown’s chicken pox team going to the Final Four and a team with Shaquille O’Neal, Chris Jackson and Stanley Roberts failing to get anywhere near it? But with much less talent than last year’s team, this year’s LSU team was an even bigger flop. The season is going to end this week, perhaps as early as Wednesday. And then it will be time to search for someone to replace Jones in a job that frankly isn’t all that attractive to coaches with skins on the wall. The end of this season will be a relief to anyone who has followed this team. But it will also be sad. read more: https://sportsnola.com/inevitable-end-johnny-jones-tenure-lsu-will-sad/

There are fewer than three weeks remaining in the college basketball season, as Selection Sunday looms on March 12 and the NCAA tournament begins with the First Four two days later. The dwindling days mean that speculation season is in full bloom around the sport, as intriguing jobs like NC State and South Florida have already opened. This projects to be a busier than normal year on the coaching carousel, as at least 35 jobs are expected to open from firings alone. As one industry source succinctly put it this week: “It’s going to be bananas.” Some of that has to do with the inevitable wave of high-profile firings, as vacancies at LSU, Missouri and Illinois have been considered forgone conclusions for months. A high volume of jobs also means reverberations from sitting head coaches leaving for other jobs, especially if projections are correct and multiple high-major coaches make later moves. Names like Indiana’s Tom Crean, Baylor’s Scott Drew, Cal’s Cuonzo Martin and Wichita’s Gregg Marshall have gained significant buzz. “There’s going to be a lot of trickle-down,” said another source. “It’s rare this early in February to know so many jobs open with reasonable certainty.” Here’s our annual projection of potential job openings with information culled from interviews with coaches, athletic directors, agents and search firms. read more: http://www.si.com/college-basketball/2017/02/23/nc-state-indiana-coaching-carousel

You state this as it is fact but have no proof. My sense is this job will have a LOT of interest.

Good info @SilverEagle thank you very much.

Good stuff. Thanks @Brett Vito

I just hope everyone including the pro-Johnny faction of fans will get behind him 120%. I never felt like Benford was able to get the fans who admired what Johnny did on board.

I wouldn't say Izzy is laying low - he's turning a lot of heads from my understanding.

1). Hey we all understand including Benford that it just didn't work out. He was classy through the whole thing, never pointed the finger at UNT or the fans. This is not Blackshirt Darrell Dickey stuff. So you let him finish out the season and you make the break as amicable as you can. That way you give yourself a better chance to keep the talent we have here. Benford is a good recruiter and it won't take him long to find a good assistant job. Why give him any reason to poach? Not saying he would even do that but in my view if you play this out nice guy you give yourself a better chance to hold on to some pretty damn good young talent and signees so this thing is not a complete 4-5 year do over... 2). The best coaches won't come available until after the tourney anyhow. Wren most certainly has a list and is doing work behind the scenes right now. 3). Let Wren keep his word. If you were going to get mad about this decision do it back months ago when he says he's going to give him the season and evaluate after. To expect Wren to turn back on his word now makes him look dishonest. This is not a Portland State type of crisis moment. Sure we suck but its not something that can't wait a few more games and firing Benford now is not going to fill up the Pit or give the players any more incentive to play better. gmg

we know gramps we know.

Last week’s announcement that University of Texas at San AntonioPresident Ricardo Romo suddenly had been placed on administrative leave left many in the community shocked and bewildered. The only communication from the University of Texas System came from Chancellor William McRaven in a Feb. 14 email, which said Romo had been placed on administrative leave “pending a review of allegations related to his conduct.” No other information was provided, and university officials have refused to comment on the nature of the allegations in question. One week later, no further clarification on Romo’s status has been provided. Coming just months before his planned retirement, the matter raises questions about whether Romo’s successful tenure as president will end under a cloud. read more: https://therivardreport.com/nirenberg-on-romo-more-questions-than-answers/