meanrob

Curious to how many of you are pissed at SL but are fine with RV in the HOF because RV is the epitome of a .500 (or worse) AD. At this point you/we have to become resigned to what the NT HOF is and not what we normally think of who gets in a HOF. I don’t have a problem with RV getting in but I won’t get the same fuzzy feeling as I do with others that are in.

Not sure this is going to calm your nerves but here goes- The big shakedown and NIL situation were going to happen and needed to happen so college football can get to a point where teams/conferences can see where they are in the landscape and act accordingly. Is it going to be a uncertain shitshow for a few years? Yes. We may not end up in a situation where we are in the same conversation with the UTs and Bamas of the college football world but there is a possibility that we end up better for it. I want to play more meaningful games at the end of the season and even if we go 10-2 right now, we still up in a half ass bowl. If NT ends up playing other G5 or lower P5 teams for some kind of championship at the end of the season, I’m here for it.

Honestly, why would you take Virginia Tech, Cal or Stanford? Only Stanford has been relevant in football the past ten years. Nope, they get relegated too.

The only metric for those left behind is not to be alone when the music stops. My guess is academics and past concerns are out the window. If this really goes to two “super conferences” of twenty teams there’s gonna be a lot of butt hurt west of the Mississippi. If the SEC and Big Ten shut the door, everybody else is minor league college football. Everybody’s been predicting this for years, kinda pisses me off the G5s continued to keep their head in the sand about it and not have a plan.

The PAC 12 is dead. Oregon and Washington will always be looking to leave even if they stay this round. No way they survive taking any combination of AF, CSU and Fresno. There’s just not enough options and good teams out west. They’re dead no matter what but after they lose ANY teams to the Big 12 you can get the fat lady warming up.

Kansas- Hey Big Ten, you want the defending national champs in basketball? Big Ten- Nah, we’re good.

Somewhere Larry Scott is in a bathtub of money that he fleeced from the PAC 12 still in denial that any of this is his fault.

It was McNeese State

Last point. During Dodge’s run, ULM won 18 games. Dodge won six. You’ll never convince me Dodge had less resources than ULM. Head to head he was 1-2 and his last team under Chico lost to them too.

I could be wrong but pretty sure Riley committed to UT before Dodge took the job. You mean he wasn’t very good at his job as a college head football coach? I agree.

You’re right, it’s basically impossible. So why’d he take the job? I’m the biggest RV critic there is but you don’t go 6-37 or whatever his record was and it’s all the ADs fault. You even admit you don’t know the whole story yet you give Dodge a whole lot of leeway. It was the Sun Belt. Don’t act like it was the Big 12.

This isn’t realignment, this is two conferences consolidating assets. This sounds dumb but there’s a possibility schools get dumped out of the BiG/SEC at some point.

I would never say he was overrated either but I will say I think he didn’t reach his full potential as crazy as that sounds. If he would’ve thrown the ball away sometimes or just taken what the defense was giving I think he would’ve been off the charts good. Maybe even Kellen Moore good. More like a Peyton Manning approach, he would’ve taken less hits. Then again maybe he was coached into that. You could also say that style won us a few games (UTSA) and led to some big plays. Certainly led to some great moments.

This take is so revisionist history you’d think Dodge was a plumber who got offered the head coach position, not one of the most successful high school coaches ever in Texas who also had college and pro involvement during his coaching past.

I agree with most of this and always felt we were close to turning the corner but never did. Ohio game was a gut punch. But starting his tenure with high school assistants was inexcusable and he lost a lot of believers those early seasons. That Rice game was Portland State level bad.

Was mostly focusing on the offense and qb situation. Hope things get better with a full staff. The grass may not always be greener (see Dodge) but you can’t build a program with 4-4-6 win seasons. Especially moving to a tougher conference.

Guess my point is that at our peak we had talent and infrastructure on offense. The last couple years we lacked infrastructure which may have affected our talent although I'm not sure Aune is the answer. Hopefully with infrastructure this year and possible new talent, we get back on track.

Last year during a game Aune went back to pass and bounced a third down pass in the middle of the field to a covered WR to end a drive. As the players jogged off the field one of the announcers remarked that there was an open WR going up the sideline and Aune had missed it. Just as he was saying this the camera caught a frustrated SL talking to Aune on the sidelines. He looked exasperated as he pointed out where Aune should've thrown the ball. From all that was going on it seemed SL had called the right play but AA had made the wrong throw. Not the only time this happened. Back to this later. I don't buy the idea that things fell off when GH left. Sure, having him here was a positive but I think having SL, GH and Mason Fine here along with future NFL WRs and RB was the biggest positive. I never really felt that we were watching some genius coaching staff constantly outscheming the opponent. It felt like part of it was the scheme/playcalling but a lot of it was having good talent execute the scheme. Those 2017 and 2018 offenses were very good, but even so we only scored fourteen points against an okay 8-5 Iowa team. We'd bog down for long portions of a game then hit long tds. Fine would chuck it downfield to WRs who know where he wanted to go. It seemed like we scored a lot of points on big plays, not moving the ball up and down the field. Having said that, the Fine to Guyton short to mid pass where Guyton caught it while sliding was super effective. Wonder how much of that was scheme or just two players knowing each other's strengths. Then GH and Fine were gone. No doubt big losses but it went downhill fast. And here's my thoughts on that- I think SL is very good at schemes. I think he's probably pretty good at playcalling (inside the twenty can be debated) but I think he thought he could keep the ball rolling without a QB coach and without a incredibly smart quarterback because he had confidence in his schemes and it burned him. Having a quarterback coach allowed him to tend to other on-field coaching duties but still have his quarterback get the instruction and reinforcement of what he wanted. Maybe Fine only needed to be told things five times but another quarterback needs to hear it consistently. Take that away and trade a Fine for an Aune (sorry to pick on AA so much here) and you get the quarterback throwing to the wrong area. Or throwing an INT in the end zone instead of throwing it away. Which is why Gunnell (or whoever starts) might not need Bloesch to be a quarterback whisper, they just need him to constantly be there coaching them on the schemes and right things to do. Littrell just might not be the best hands on coach, he just creates the offense and needs another coach to teach/coach his quarterback. That has been missing for a while now. I don't know if all this can happen with Gunnell showing up in the fall. Fall camp is going to be very interesting. Here's the rub. It doesn't matter what SL is good at. It doesn't matter if he called the right play. It's on him to get the right players to do the right things being taught by the right coaching staff. He's not the offensive coordinator. He's the CEO of North Texas football and it all falls on him. And it hasn't been working lately. The more I think about a full staff and probably a good staff the more I'm getting hopeful for the season. But pointing where the ball should've gone and being frustrated on the sideline won't cut it this year.

Wow, my guess would’ve been 5.5. There’s five games by my count we’ll be touchdown dogs right now.

Without knowing what we’re getting from the QB position, game by game predictions are tough but I’d agree with this except WKU. Rice may depend on what’s on the line that game. Here’s my over the top prediction- everything depends on the UTEP game. We show we can go on the road and beat a decent team I think it sets a tone. Lose and we’re staring down five wins max.

Arroyo is 2-16. We may very well lose that game but hyperbole much? There’s nothing in his two years that says he wins that type of game. Littrell drives me nuts but he’s not a disaster, he’ll win some games. My guess is 5-7, maybe even better if we get good QB play. I just don’t think we’re at the top of the division much less conference. Kudos for putting your prediction out there but almost none of it is football related. We’re going to win or lose games on our QB play and if our front seven improves, not because of a loss back in 2018.

As much as I’m down on Coach Mumbles, and that comes from more than just wins, I shouldn’t let that bum me out about our other sports. I remember when SUE used to post how long it had been since we had won a post-season game (not a bowl) and that streak was soooooo long. The streak is history after the past two seasons and I’m stoked when our APR is fantastic as well. We need to keep improving but with the move to the AAC and our non FBall doing well, things aren’t as bad as a post-loss mumbles press conference. GMG!

I didn’t draw it out hypothetically. I used the numbers you provided to show you that according to the rankings I saw, 55th would be fourth in the current AAC. I agree that being at the bottom in recruiting in your conference/division is a bad thing, but 55th isn’t close to being bad for a G5, just pointing that out. I never said anything about a seven-win bar, you said the bar was ten games. That’s unrealistic. If we win eight or nine, he’s going nowhere unless he wants too. And not a single NT fan I know would “jump off the fence” if we win eight or nine games. Im no Littrell fan. I’m tired of his inconsistency, mumbling, arm-folding on the sidelines, lousy pressers, inability to field a complete team, bowl losses, yada, yada, yada. But good luck with your “If Seth doesn’t win this…” opinions. Just admit they’re your own and not some mysterious fence-riding fans.

I’m as done as anybody with SL but if he goes 9-3 with Aune at quarterback (or 8-4 for that matter) he’s deserves praise and anybody who jumps off in the “I’m done with this” side of the fence is more anti-SL than pro-UNT. I think there’s almost zero chance we win eight games but it’d be a pretty good season. Right now 55th in recruiting gets you the fourth best class in the AAC although the top three are the three leaving. I’d bring flowers to SL myself if he got the 55th best class. Currently we are 117th. Not sure why we have to draw lines in the sand. The season will probably play out like a lot of us think it will. If nothing happens after that, then it’s time to get out the pitchforks.

It says if things fall in line we should be in the AAC in July 2023. Also, La Tech will be playing the likes of Sam Houston, Jacksonville State and probably Eastern Kentucky and Tarleton State. Good luck with that. Better start schmoozing the Fun Belt.