gangrene

Didn't say it was intentional. It was misleading, nonetheless. Jones is our primary QB target only because we lost out on 6 others that we wanted more than him. What's so hard to understand about that? The point is Canales is and has been recruiting QB targets all season. That's part of his job. So far he's zero for six. Why does the fact that he's now recruiting our 6th best option at QB make him any more appealing as a recruiter or HC?

Agreed. Let's not lose sight of the long-term objective. After what we've endured the past three and a half seasons, it's very easy to get excited over a 33-6 win over 1-7 W. Kentucky and a close loss to 4-3 Troy. To my knowledge, Canales isn't exactly in high demand for any HC jobs at the FBS level. I love the passion Canales has and I think he may eventually be a solid FBS HC, I'm just not sure I'm willing to hedge the future of Mean Green football on an inexperienced HC (and, yes, he's inexperienced as a HC) at this critical juncture in our program. And, no, hiring a "big name" coach does not guarantee success at North Texas. Nor does Canales come with any guarantees he'll win here. But, I don't have the risk tolerance for an unproven HC, with so much riding on the outcome of next season. I'd much rather invest my money in a proven commodity.

Actually, Greg Gregory was the USF Bulls Offensive Coordinator in 2007, when USF was ranked #2 in the BCS. Canales was Pass Game Coordinator and QB Coach that season. He was not promoted to OC at USF again until Gregory was fired after the 2009 season.

Does the fact that USF named their RB coach interim HC (and not OC, Mike Canales) when Leavitt was fired concern anyone? How about Canales referring to his "25 years of notes" for advice on how to be a HC? Or the fact that he's remained with the same organization for longer than three years only twice in his 25-year career?

I agree that having "Texas ties" is not as important as some seem to believe. However, comparing the North Texas recruiting scenario to Texas is absurd. Texas football sells itself because of past success, history and tradition. Texas can afford to take a gamble on coaching hires. North Texas football is laughed upon and does not have the benefit of the reputation and respect that Texas commands. Do you think HS kids are proud to tell their friends and family that they're going to play football at North Texas? Outside of Blake Dunham, very few HS football players grow up wanting to play football at UNT. That's why we need someone with better name recognition and a better reputation for winning at the FBS level than what North Texas currently has. We need someone that can instantly restore credibility to North Texas football.

Sorry you took offense. I wasn't spinning anything. You used the word "primary" which is defined as I found that to be misleading when taken out of context and the context is that we've already lost out on 5-6 other "primary" QB prospects that were also being recruited by Canales. Cooper Jones may prove to be a great QB over time, but that won't change the fact that he wasn't even in our top 5 QB prospects for 2011, nor does it change that fact that he's not being highly recruited by other FBS programs (I think Harry answered the questions about Air Force very well).

And you know this how? That theory doesn't exactly agree with Canales' history. He left USF for Arizona and only went back to USF because he could not find work elsewhere. Personally, I don't have a problem with Canales, or any other coach, using North Texas as a stepping stone and I think we should embrace that. For North Texas to be a stepping stone to a higher profile and better paying head coaching job means that HCs have been successful here and that, by being successful at UNT, get recognized and respected by top FBS programs and/or the NFL. I'd much prefer that to seeing former UNT coaches taking HS jobs or former HCs taking coordinator positions at schools like Utah State and New Mexico.

Good point!

I prefer to deal in facts rather than wild speculation and what-if scenarios. The fact is Leavitt has expressed interest in North Texas so he should be called and interviewed. He's making $0 right now so whatever UNT would offer is more than his current salary. Additionally, Leavitt doesn't exactly have a lot of options available to him at the moment. You must have missed the article in which Jim Leavitt was quoted as saying he'd been contacted about a few HS jobs for the 2010 season and had strongly considered taking them just so he could be coaching football. Jim Leavitt reflects on life after USF I bet that would have really blown your mind had he done that? Or, are you going to simply dismiss that comment as more posturing by Leavitt's agent? It's not ALWAYS about the money.

Everything that USF is today is partially due to what Jim Leavitt did. Without Leavitt, USF would have not been in the financial position to hire Skip Holtz, nor would it be likely that Skip Holtz would have even wanted the job. Leavitt built USF into a football program that prospects aspired to be a part of and he put USF in a position to be successful after the Jim Leavitt era ended. Did he have great assistants on his staff? Yes, he did. Who do you think hired those great assistants with "utter professionalism?"

Dumb and wrong. Leavitt has already expressed interest in the position. He has an idea of what the position pays. More importantly, he knows what the position could potentially pay if he can win here and increase attendance and interest in the program. That's what he did at USF. He started from the bottom, worked his butt off and built the program into what it is today. Skip Holtz is reaping the benefits of Leavitt's hard work. Ironically, similar dumb comments were posted about Canales accepting a pay cut to coach for UNT when he was being considered as our OC.

Agreed. No one wants to be a Head Coach in Waiting at UNT anyway...what's the lure/attraction of that? HCIW is something top 25 programs use to placate assistant coaches in hopes of retaining their services and keeping them from interviewing elsewhere.

That's inaccurate. Two of our top QB targets signed with South Florida. Canales was recruiting both of them but they elected to compete against each other rather than try their luck at UNT. We lost three more QB prospects that were higher targets than Jones to Purdue, Oregon State and Mississippi State. Cooper Jones may be our primary target now, but only because we've already lost out on 5-6 others and the number of uncommitted QBs for 2011 is quickly dwindling. Up until just a few weeks ago, Cooper Jones was unrated by Rivals and has been largely unnoticed by FBS schools. In fact, we're the only FBS school that has extended an offer to Jones. Our main competition for Jones is Stephen F. Austin and other Texas FCS schools. Now, nothing against Jones...I think he's a sleeper much like Derek Thompson was, but let's not start heralding him as a top QB prospect and use that as an attempt to prove that Canales can recruit top talent to UNT - nothing could be further misleading than that claim based on this recruit. Of course Canales was recruiting him along, he was the OC and that's part of an OC's job.

MeanGreen blog Cooper Jones Also see his profiles in the offers and offensive playmakers threads within this forum.

I just hope they don't forget the hurricane shelter.

UNT students march for marijuana legalization I wonder how many of this group were opposed to the athletic fee?

Oh no!! They're going to have to tear the whole thing down and start over. I knew we wouldn't have a new stadium for the 2011 season. :lol: I'm really starting to get concerned about the mental health of some of our posters.

Charley Walters: Former Kansas State President Jon Wefald says if K-State can do it, so should U Please click on the link to read the full story. Below, I've quoted portions that I found interesting and/or relevant to North Texas.

Can we afford Tony Robbins or Zig Ziglar?

Wow, anything anyone ever needs to know about why UNT is where it is today can be found in this thread.

Good list but I'm almost certain it's incomplete. Maybe add these to it: ...is loyal to UNT and will stick around for 10-15 years even if schools like OU and Texas offer them 10x the salary ...can clobber Western Kentucky ...will be solely responsible for increasing season ticket sales and selling out every game at our new stadium ...will get us into the Big XII(ten) within in two years ...get us ranked in the top 10 within 2 years ...killed Jack Bauer at least once ...refused to be interested in the most interesting man in the world ...knows how to prepare football players to be good fathers...oh, wait...nevermind

Where's he going to go? I'd be really surprised if the interim HC of 2-6 North Texas has his phone ringing off the hook for interviews, even for an OC position. He took nearly a $100K paycut just to come here because no one else wanted him. Their loss = our gain. He's worked for Leavitt on two different occasions and they seem to have gotten along fine. I don't think a third reunification is out of the question, especially if we give Canales the pay raise he deserves as a FBS OC. And, even if he doesn't want to work with Leavitt again...so what? Leavitt did OK when Canales left to try his hand at N.C. State, NY Jets and Arizona. Leavitt was 8-3, 9-2, 7-4, 4-7, 6-6 and 9-4, without Canales, as USF moved from I-AA to CUSA to the Big East. Canales left USF as OC in 2001 and returned in 2007....as Pass Game Coordinator and Wide Receivers Coach. It wasn't until he'd been back at USF for two years that he was promoted to USF's OC. Canales has had a roller coaster of a career with many ups and many downs. So, we're going to pass up an opportunity to hire a HEAD coach (whether it's Leavitt or some other guy with FBS HC experience) just so we can keep our OC/interim HC who has been a Head Coach for a grand total of one game? Seriously? What if Todd Dodge had still been the HC on Saturday? Would everyone suddenly rescind their demands to fire him because he beat Western Kentucky? No offense to Coach Canales but, if we're going to consider top FBS Offensive/Defensive coordinators for our next HC, his name doesn't exactly top my list. In fact, there are at least 10 people I'd rank ahead of him. Now, I like Canales and I'm not opposed to hiring him as HC...just not now, the timing just isn't right and I think we'd be setting him to fail.

I'm trying really, really hard not to laugh. The team played well today and Coach Canales deserves some credit, but let's take a step back here and look at the big picture. Our "big" win came against a team that's won what...two, three games in the last three years? Before we go anointing Canales as our savior lets put this into the proper perspective. I don't want to take anything away from Canales because I like him and I want him to be our OC next year, but let's not forget he learned a lot of what he knows from Jim Leavitt. Canales is a passionate guy? Well, Leavitt is even more passionate. Let's not be so easily appeased. It takes an entire staff of good coaches to be successful year in and year out. Let's not settle for good when we can have great. Do we still need Leavitt - are you kidding me?? We'd be absolutely crazy to not hire Leavitt if he's willing to take on the challenge of being our head coach.

28-14. Wait a second, at 2-3 are we mathematically eliminated from winning the SBC this year?

LOL, yeah I thought the same thing when I read it, but I've gotten used to seeing things on the blog that originated on GMG.