Green Lantern

Recency bias is a real thing in college sports media & fandom. Most are idiots. UNT beats Tech tomorrow and Wyoming in 2 weeks and all of a sudden we’re a “top expansion target”, on our way up, hired the hot upcoming coach who Tech’s gonna hire away, ect. I like Texas State’s coach & they’re playing tough - reality is he’s probably gone after this season. Maybe one more if they’re lucky. Can you hire again successfully? Harder than it seems. Such is the life of a “have not” in this sport.

Glad we got the W. Said in the other thread that if we only scored 35 pts in this game that I’d be very disappointed. And I am - with the offense. The 3rd string center being in there is brutal and caused all sorts of problems tonight. The snowballing of bad penalties with lack of discipline was hard to watch. Defense is still bad, but not AS bad as last year’s version, which was historically atrocious. Like last week, they have some moments and find a way off the field in some key situations. There are some positives to build on. Turned the ball over 4 times and still could/should have scored 42 pts - kneeling it out at the 2 yd line. Tighten up offensively and we can win the next 2 if we play the way we are capable.

Not gonna lie. If we only score 35 pts in this game after what we saw last weekend out of Morris and crew - I’m going to be very disappointed.

Totally agree. Flew under the radar a bit due to Morris and Ward both having explosive performances. He did a great job stepping up yesterday, plugging in seamlessly. Very impressed.

The offense was impressive to watch today. Morris is so poised out there. Ward and the WR group was fun to watch. Defense managed a few key plays. Still concerned on that side of the ball. Happy with a big road W to start the year!

What’s the story with Sides being out? That sucks.

They’re about the only exception to this in FBS. I also don’t care about those other programs. I care about North Texas and that’s it. My point is you’re saying that we make all kinds of excuses for struggling with attendance - I’m pointing out the obvious and ONLY reason/excuse that matters in regards to this. We haven’t and don’t win at a consistent enough level to warrant it. Almost all G5 programs have pretty poor support overall, so I agree with you there. Having 3,000 extra fans a game inside the stadium last year wouldn’t have made a difference in the W-L record. Doesn’t matter if we all cheer extra hard. Blaming the UNT fanbase that exists and supports this mess throughout the years is ridiculous. We don’t hire the bad coaches or play the games. But I do support $$$ and consume the largely poor product.

So no examples. Got it. I’m tired of excuses too. But the ones I’m tired of are the lack of performance on the field, poor coaching, choking big moments away, ect. Others get it done with way less. Sick of blaming our fans who may be the some of the clearest examples of sports masochism you’ll ever encounter.

K. Show a bunch of G5 programs with sustained losing records for approximately 20 years that have “impressive” attendance. Can’t wait to see this list.

How bout we try putting out a sustained winning product for a change and see what happens?

Don’t you start with me 😂😂

Honestly I think it’s this simple. He either looks like a genius for riding with Caponi in year 2 if the 3-3-5 works with new personnel and we all come on here and happily eat crow, OR he digs his own grave if the defense amounts to anything resembling last year. I hated everything about the 2023 defense.

Would have preferred a “splashier” more sure thing hire than Morris when they moved on from Seth. Especially given we’d just played in the CUSA Championship game (“we don’t care how you get there folks, just get there”) Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t part of the selling points for Morris that he was taking less salary up front to have a larger assistant pool? Then hired Caponi at one of the highest assistant coach salaries in G5? All to watch the defense crash and burn - ruining the chances of a promising season otherwise? Can’t believe our fanbase isn’t fired up for the season.

Definitely. Easily the least interested I’ve been in the team since I started following them in 1997. It’s impossible to keep up with the roster changes. No continuity. Used to it was fun speculating how your returning players could be added to from the high school ranks and developed. Now it’s all just a mercenary portal grab crapshoot.

That ought to pack em into the Pit 😬

Both of your posts in this thread are right on. Only time in the modern era we were on track for a “special” season like you described our peers having that would have catapulted our support and perception and we spit the bit against La Tech. Even if you want to be generous and count our two Conference USA Title Game appearances - we got smoked in both deflating the fan goodwill that was building.

Gross. Pretty much encapsulates the current state of college athletics. Prepare for the vampires to hollow out anything good that’s left.

Why? Who cares?

I’m using the communal “we” in our folks rationalizing a very underwhelming, under-qualified hire at the time. I didn’t like that hire either and he was more disappointing than I’d even originally thought by the end of his tenure having focused all his energy on the useless UNT Dallas project - something I still loathe. This new guy may be great. Just cautioning those expecting stroke in Austin. I’ll believe that when I see it. Would be great for UNT though.

Didn’t we say that about Lee Jackson when he was hired as Chancellor???

It isn’t doomsdayers though. Look around GMG alone. It’s just normal, committed fans that are being beaten into submission to the point of total apathy over all this. It’s horrible for the sport at large - and the Top Tier P4 programs won’t realize they’ve completely destroyed the sport and college athletics in general until it’s too late. Pure hubris. To your farm system idea. Just no.

2 - Ready for some fun tailgates though.

Everything about this sport just keeps getting worse and worse. No wonder everything here on GMG is crazy apathetic. I can barely muster caring about it anymore. Just ready for Saturday tailgates with friends. Who cares about the rest of this shit?

It’s 100% the Portal and NIL. I watch what happened to the basketball roster in the off season, basically a completely new team. And bigger than that, almost all the significant AAC talent across the league transferred out. That sucks. Not sustainable. I’m at UNT’s Spring Football game and there’s like 55 new names on the roster. Who the hell can get invested in and keep up with all this? That sucks. Not sustainable. At least in the pro game, there are contracts that reward the players AND protect the team. You can plan and roster build based on those protections. Fans can buy in with some level of security. At bare minimum in a forced trade situation the team/organization is getting assets back. This NIL hellscape has none of that and no adults in leadership across the sport to figure this stuff out in a comprehensive, equitable, and sustainable way. The morons who have the power are cooking the golden goose and they don’t even realize it.