TheTastyGreek

But if you're wrong, will you take your lumps?

I took a shot at you just like you took a shot at a friend of mine who fits into the blanket condemnation you threw out there by starting this thread. Unlike you, I didn't call anyone a bad fan or question their dedication. Anyone who shows up and buys tickets (even if they're wearing UT apparel, the poor confused bastards) gets a thumbs up from me. If they want to leave early because it's raining or because it's 30 degrees cooler than it was when they showed up or because they're scared of the dark or WHATEVER... At least they showed up. I made a joke at your expense because you were calling out people who were actually there. You've got your reasons for not coming. The point was that maybe you should stop a moment and consider that if there's a legitimate reason for you to not come to games, maybe there's a legitimate reason they didn't feel like sitting through the chill. It's inappropriate for me to tell you how you ought to spend your money just like it's out of line for you to condemn ticket holders for not wanting to sit through weather they found unpleasant. You've got your reasons, they've got theirs. If you don't want me to make a joke, then don't call out people for leaving a game you didn't show up for. I don't know what's going on in your life, just like you don't know what's going on in mine, and just like neither of us knows anything about anyone who hasn't chosen to confide it in us. I didn't call you a bad fan, I teased you about not knowing first-hand what you were condemning other people over. You're free to not show up for whatever reason you choose. But when you take a shot at others when you yourself didn't show up (for whatever reason), I find that ridiculous. And I will ridicule it. Without any hesitation or guilt or remorse. As for the website... I don't know when or where we've ever said we're experts on any topic, least of all football. I've got my opinions, Quoner has his opinions, and just like every other jackass in the free world, we can post them on the internet. We've always said we're amazed at how many people bother to read anything we write, much less enjoy it as much as they tell us they do. I also love how you constantly rip us for our humor and our opinions... But you've repeatedly used a term WE COINED ON THE WEBSITE. If you don't like it, don't read it. It's not like we write very often these days, anyway. If you don't like my/our sense of humor, if you don't share my opinion on something, if you don't agree with something I write and research... Fine. I don't claim to be an expert. I'm just another random idiot jackass with a keyboard. Just like you. Just like everyone here. You don't like me, I get it. Get the hell over it already. And don't get righteous and indignant because you think your excuse for not coming to a game is worthwhile, but someone else's reason for leaving after they showed up isn't.

Can we have a "Space Camp" group, too? Because I really like tang.

No, I did not go through game logs for all 119 D-1A teams to find the relevant scoring drives, remove them from their totals, recalculate, and rerank. I'd wager that we're more affected by those sorts of scoring situations than the average team. Assuming that, it would tend to depress our ranking, even considering that the same situations do happen to other teams, too. Though, if you'd like to take on that sort of research project to find out precisely whether we'd be 105th or 109th... I'll pat you on the back and give you a +1 when you've posted your findings.

Okay, let's talk about that 114 ranking. I'm assuming you're talking about Total Defense? First off, it's 113, not 114. Second, adding up the numbers, it appears that point total includes points not scored against the defense. When a rival defense returns a fumble or an interception for a touchdown, or returns a kickoff or punt... That's counted in this point total allowed by the defense. So that means that this year's defensive stats, per the NCAA, are including: The interception returned for a TD by Ohio The interception returned for a TD by ULL The blocked punt returned for a TD by ULL Anything else like that I'm not remembering Take those points out of our Total Defense ranking, and our PPG drops by a field goal per game. and we're almost out of the 100s, smack dab next to SMU. Out of the bottom 20 isn't exactly something to hang your hat on... But it's encouraging, given where we're coming from and considering that we've played Alabama and just gone through our worst defensive performance of the year last weekend. That's not even looking at the drives where the offense turned the ball over in field goal range and the defense allowed points (including at least one where the defense pushed them backwards and they still kicked a field goal). That's not even stopping to consider that another 10 points came in overtime, and those count towards the ranking, too. It's not perfect, but it is getting better. And it is reflected in the numbers. And when the season is over, that improvement will be even more apparent in those numbers.

I love you, too, LonJim. I know the defense had a bad game, I'm not blaming the YPC on any other unit. BUT, in terms of the ultimate objective of a defense- keeping the other team from scoring points... They did significantly better on the drives where they didn't have to defend a 40 or 60 yard field. But, like I said- It was a bad game for the defense.

"You stupid nerd! He's trying to save you money on long distance!"

I've got a list of assistants and lower division guys I'd like to see considered if the day comes when we are looking for a coach, and Franklin would certainly be worthy of consideration. I just meant that he wouldn't be worth the risk of firing Dodge in the near future. If we need a coach a year from now, I'd definitely love to see Franklin interviewed... But I think we could do even better if we go the assistant route. That's not to diminish Franklin, that's just an opinion on the caliber of local BCS assistants who haven't been able to get their shot at a head coaching gig.

It's why they've only got two wins this year. Wait... ONLY two wins? What am I saying? Lucky bastards... QUIT SHOWING OFF, EVANS!

Three weeks to early signing period. Any word on whether he plans on committing then? Or is he going to wait until spring? Edit: I mean, give a commitment to any school, not necessarily sign with us. Though I am optimistic.

Fran went for the San Diego State job that wound up going to Brady Hoke. I think his buyout ends this year, and he's itching for a chance to get back into coaching a D-1A school. Given that he has almost more than he can reasonably spend in the rest of his lifetime, I'd wager that salary isn't the driving force behind his pursuit of a new head coaching opportunity. Given that he wanted the San Diego State job, I doubt it's institutional prestige. Right now, there's a pretty damn good coach out there that's unemployed and aggressively seeking a new job. He's already taken a metroplex school that went 1-10 the year before he got there and turned it into a 7 win program in YEAR ONE. That same school hadn't seen 8 wins since 1984, and he got them there in his second year. He has 10 years as a head coach at Texas colleges, so he knows how to recruit this state. He can point to numerous former players in the NFL as examples of what he's done for previous recruits. If that's not enough, he can point to the wins he had over Texas in his last two years at A&M. Since starting at TCU, he had exactly two sub-.500 years out of 10, and one of those was a 5-6 season. In his first year at TCU, he beat Iowa State, USC, and Vanderbilt. Can he succeed at a moribund metroplex school? Yes. Can he turn such a program around quickly? Yes. Can he win OOC games with a lower division school? Yes. I wouldn't fire Dodge for Tony Franklin, Franklin is still a bit of a gamble. But I'd certainly fire Dodge if I knew Franchione would take this job for a price we could afford. Fran probably wouldn't stick around more than two or three years, but he'd have to win during that time to punch his ticket out of town. And I'm very comfortable with the idea of shopping for a new coach if we're fresh off a bowl season or two, with a fancy new stadium to play in.

As was said last year, when you asked this same question about half a dozen times, there are some pretty good reasons Mendoza deserved to be fired while DeLoach didn't, and there are a lot of pretty good reasons to have faith in DeLoach despite not seeing an immediate, overnight renaissance. But that was last year, and this is now. So... Going into this game, we had the top defense in the conference (per comments by MeanGreen61, who's been tracking overall rankings all season here and on the SBC board). We had a bad game. Half of the scores came on drives that started either on our side of the field or within 10 yards of midfield. The defense doesn't "stink". The defense had a bad game that was made worse by miscues on offense and special teams. But welcome back. It's been 7 months between posts... Maybe if we lose a game or two, you can start the "Fire Johnny Jones!" campaign you were running in the year we wound up going to the NCAA Tournament.

The other option that avoids a complete transition/rebuild and avoids a significant increase in costs would be to promote a current member of the coaching staff to Head Coach for two years, until Dodge's contract/buyout would be over. That way, there's as seamless a transition as you can possibly get and we're not paying out the nose for a new outsider head coach. If the powers that be decide within the next two years that Dodge just can't lead the team to success, but that the staff and the philosophy are in place to succeed with our available talent, we could promote a capable member of the current staff to run the team.

+1 As for how using a Riley transfer as negotiating leverage might affect our pool of interested candidates... We fired our last coach less than 4 weeks after he had a heart attack, and that didn't seem to deter many people from pursuing the job. Using a precedent established by the coach as a negotiating chip in reaching a settlement? That seems far less ruthless to me.

If you'll note, I started and finished by saying I DON'T think we should fire Dodge and just bring in someone else. DON'T. I'm NOT saying we should do what you're jumping on me about. However... There are one or two guys that I think we should contact discreetly to gauge their interest in the job and the accompanying salary/budget. If one of them would take it, fire Dodge and hand the program over to them. If not, don't just throw the door open for another coaching search... We may as well grit our teeth and hope for the best next year. Unless we know that we can bring in an available coach who can get the job done for what we can afford to pay, I don't think now is the time for a change. If we were going to admit defeat and start over, the time to do it was last year. At this point, we may as well just gut it out and hope the pieces all come together next season. The talent is certainly there.

It's understandable. Basketball starts in 23 DAYS. Hang in there for that.

Not agitating for a Dodge firing, but the same "we can't afford it" rationale was floated when people were screaming for Dickey's head. And we fired him, with 3 years left on his contract. Those three years are up after this season. So wherever our buyout money was coming from to pay off Dickey, it's been freed up now. And I'm confident we could work out some sort of agreement with Dodge. His contract allows the AD's office to transfer him to any job so long as his pay stays the same. I doubt he'd want to spend two years off the coaching radar. Plus, I have a feeling that a Todd Dodge-less team would lead to a Riley Dodge transfer. And if you'll recall from the Vizza situation, Todd didn't have any reservations about initially refusing to let Vizza transfer to ANY other Division 1-A school. That precedent gives us a hell of a bargaining chip. Option 1: You can stay here, do nothing in a dark basement corner of the Athletics building, and we'll refuse to release your son for a transfer. But you make a little under half a million bucks over the next two years. Option 2: You leave, get half that money spread out over those two years, your son can go play for the Longhorns or anyone else that's not on our schedule during his college career. You can immediately snap up a high school job where you'll make somewhere in the low to mid six figures, start rebuilding your coaching reputation, and ultimately come out of the deal with the exact same amount of money (if not more). Which one do you think he'd choose? If your guess is the same as mine, we'd only be out a quarter of a million dollars, at most, spread out across the two remaining years of his contract. Which is less than a third of what we get for a typical money game these days. Again, I'm not saying we should fire Dodge. But the argument that we can't afford it doesn't make sense to me. Firing Dickey was more expensive that firing Dodge would be, and we somehow got through it AND had fewer paycheck games than ever this year. And there's no way we're paying Dickey another cent after this season is over, assuming we haven't settled that account already.

Ezra.

Now it's an italicized statement. No need to elaborate on my account, though.

Seriously... It gets a little chilly, and our fans show their complete lack of dedication and half-assed support. Walking away from the game? What's that all about? You people make me SICK! A true blue fan makes the trip up to Denton and stays to the end, through thick and thin. Stuff like this says a lot about our fan base. Besides, it wasn't really even that cold! Was it? I mean, *I* wasn't there, so somebody needs to tell me. But still... OUTRAGE!!!!

Made a joke about it elsewhere. I'm surprised nobody mentioned it until now.

It doesn't matter... The Denton Record-Chronicle would just post some "photo" showing empty seats and draw certain inevitable and obvious conclusions. Damn newspapers. And internet.

Are you counting toilet stalls? Because technically, people can sit in there. That's at least a few dozen more, right there.

It's built like an airplane hangar... So if you go by cubic space, they've got nearly 50,000 capacity.

fKNlcwBFfTA Really puts an interesting spin on that "Turn it out" line, doesn't it? Break yo' self, Socca Girls! Don't make me get my cane!