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Uh oh, the streak I mentioned in another thread...well, that's over now. While he may be of questionable character, we'd be crazy not to take him. One would have to hope he's learned from this mistake and would be happy to have a second chance. However, the question isn't would we take him, the question is would he come here? The answer is - unlikely.

and added another former Stanford assistant from the Harbaugh staff, Mike Sanford (who spent last season at Yale), to his staff as well. WKU Adds Three to Football Coaching Staff Clayton White Named Defensive Backs Coach Stanford will lose at least five assistants Surely, Western Kentucky doesn't have a larger coaching budget than UNT?? I made this post for three key reasons: #1 It certainly appears the team in which we can claim 3 of our past 5 victories against is getting stronger, by way of coaching staff. #2 A successful program, no matter what conference or level it belongs to, will always be susceptible to losing coaches promoted to other programs. #3 Something's seriously wrong if Western Kentucky can afford to pay their coaching staff more than UNT.

Thanks BV for following up with Riley. Mean Green blog As for the apparent lack of interest by UNT, I have nothing further to say.

footballscoop.com Tennessee: ESPN is now reporting that the reports may have jumped the gun and Kevin Sumlin is still in it. ESPN says the deal with Dooley is not yet finalized. And there you go...as I said...someone's crying wolf again. I won't believe Tennessee has hired a head coach until about three weeks after they have officially introduced him.

It wasn't a knock on you, just that this isn't the first time reports have surfaced claiming Tennessee has made a hire. First, they reported Troy Calhoun was ready to call a press conference to announce his hire. And, then all the local news stations were reporting yesterday that Cutcliffe was all but signed...now Dooley?? What in the world is going on in Knoxville??

Well, I think of Riley as much more than Matt's Muleshoe buddy, but it may be Matt's relationship with Riley that has him interested in the first place. Other than the Alamo bowl, we really don't have much other experience to cite that would qualify Lincoln for the OC position. However, he was the closest thing TTech had to an OC and I think that, by itself, should address your second factor. He's already proven that he can work with, arguably, one of the most stubborn, controlling head coaches in college football. I'm not sure Dodge would have to immediately turn over the entire offense to Lincoln Riley but, rather, utilize his knowledge of Leach's system to mesh the two ideologies and bring a different perspective to Dodge's offense. I think that has been a big problem over the last three years because Ford's only knowledge of the spread came from Dodge. Additionally, Riley has proven to be an effective recruiter - no reason why we shouldn't expect him to bring to element to UNT. First, I don't believe LR would bolt after just one season, but that's just an opinion I have, based on my knowledge of his character. Secondly, I really don't care if he bolts after one very successful season. Practically, every one on this board has had the assumption that Dodge would leave for a bigger program if he found success at UNT. I don't really see that as a problem because UNT is no more than a stepping stone on the path of college football coaches. But, I'd much rather take a chance on hiring a young assistant with a LOT of potential than going after an FCS coach that got fired because his record sucked or, even worse, trying to find another HS coach to make the jump to college. I think that's been thoroughly proven to be a disaster. As a fan, I'm really tired and irritated by the constant reminder that we don't pay jack for our coaches. As an alumnus, I am embarrassed by that same fact and #1 I'm not convinced that we don't have a larger budget for coaching salaries (it's highly suspicious based on what other universities, with similar circumstances, are paying their staff). #2 I'd certainly be willing to contribute to a coaching fund similar to what SMU did for June Jones (20 pledges for $100,000 each). Now, I'm not going to fork over $100K but we have a much larger alumni base than SMU and we could certainly develop a plan that would work. $1,000 each x 2,000 pledges = $2MM, $2,500 each x 800 and $5,000 each x 400 get you to that same $2 million mark. Now, I could be coaxed into one of those if the administration is willing to show a big commitment to the continuing success of Mean Green football by bringing in a top-notch head COLLEGE football coach and his highly qualified and college-experienced football staff. These last three years have been the biggest embarrassment I've ever experienced as a UNT alumnus. It has also eliminated any and all relevance to FBS college football we may have gained during our SBC Championship years and made us a laughing stock for those who still know who we are. I do not blame the entirety of this embarrassment on Coach Dodge. I've always had confidence in the fact that he has the passion for the job and knows how to coach, win and gives 100% effort each week. I think he's just out of his element in the college ranks and he's either too stubborn or too proud to admit it. But, it's happened to many great coaches over the years - Lou Holtz, Steve Spurrier and Pete Carroll are just a few of the college coaches who failed at the next level. It's taken Carroll 9 years to build up the confidence to try it again, while Holtz and Spurrier just accepted their places in college. Now, Dodge has been given a far longer leach than any of the aforementioned coaches were ever given, so it's entirely possible he may yet find success at the next level - for the sake of our program, I sure hope he gets it figured out soon. Sorry for the tangent, I'm just really frustrated and disgusted by the current state of our program and our apparent lack of involvement in the current coaching carousel just sent me over the edge. Ford's sudden departure left us in an ideal situation to go after one of the quality college coaches who has recently found himself unemployed. Being content with a coaching staff that has compiled a 5-31 record over the last three years is just absurd.

Wolf?? Really?? I don't believe you.

I'm not feeling very optimistic that Lincoln Riley is even being considered at this point, and that's a shame. Take it how you want, but Vito's recent blog seems to indicate as much. I'm not sure a Texas Tech official is keeping up with all of the fired coaches affairs, but it doesn't look very promising to me. Dodge will probably hire the SHSU guy, without interviewing anyone else or go back to the high school ranks for an OC. Given how long it took to hire Dodge, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it's been 4 days and we haven't even identified a leading candidate. It's not like the OC is an important position anyway.

Knoxville CBS affiliate, WVLT, is reporting the same news. I guess the dominoes on this trail will stop here - I don't see Duke hiring a big name coach but I could be wrong. However, we may still have the dominoes falling for the ECU job. It will be interesting, from a Mean Green perspective, if they go after Stockstill as charlie nt73 mentioned in another thread. Don't forget, former Troy OC, Tony Franklin, is currently MTSU's OC. I guess he could either be promoted to HC at MTSU or take his old job back at Troy. Or.....it seems like I know someone else in need of an OC....

For more on Riley's recruiting prowess at Tech and quotes from kids he was recruiting, this is a good read. Prized receiving recruit still committed to Tech, keeping options open

You beat me to it...I just revised my last post. It looks like no one wants to go to Knoxville. Wow!! Even Fulmer has declined returning (not that he was "officially" offered). Former football coach Fulmer calls Kiffin's departure 'embarrassment' to Tennessee Fulmer, who does analysis for CBS College Sports, released a statement Thursday morning through the network. He also said he would not seek to return to his old job, something athletic director Mike Hamilton denied would happened on Wednesday anyway.

Nothing against George, but maybe he'd like to follow Ford? If so, there's no better time than now (from UNT's perspective) to make that decision...

Thanks OGG. Knowing that he's interested, I will be extremely, EXTREMELY upset if he is not even contacted/interviewed for the position. RV - I hope you're reading the forum today, as well as keeping up with all the latest coaching changes around the country. Now, is not the time to be resting on our laurels.

Reports are starting to surface that Air Force HC, Troy Calhoun, will be named the new Tennessee HC as early as tomorrow. *****Edit, this now appears to be untrue. LOL at Tennessee - no one wants to coach there. What's Fulmer up to? Maybe they can bring him back to the rocky top?? Still, you've got to imagine some relevant FBS coach will eventually accept the HC job at Tennessee and, once that happens, you'll have more staff moves.***** This is one crazy coaching carousel that is going on right now, right before national signing day (February 3). There are so many quality assistant coaches in flux right that we'd be foolish not to go after some of them.

South Florida hires Skip Holtz

THANK YOU!!! I second that motion...wait...I think I firsted it!! Anyway, I totally agree this kid's got a ton of talent, knowledge and ambition. He was adored by the Raidernation and they are livid that he was released (last I checked, there was a 14-page thread on his dismissal). In addition to his knowledge of the spread, he was highly regarded as Tech's top recruiter. However, we have to move quickly if there is any hope whatsoever in landing Riley, because he's already started the interviewing process.

KRAM, oddly enough, I've been in agreement with many of your posts lately, and this one is no exception. With all of the recent coaching staff overhauls at successful FBS programs, the timing for Ford's departure couldn't be more perfect. But, if we just sit back and don't contact anyone we'll never know if they would consider coaching at little ole UNT, or not. There is a massive game of musical chairs going on right now amongst the FBS coaching staffs and everyone is looking to grab a seat before the music stops. Otherwise, they may be out of a job until college football firing season opens again next fall. Assistant coaches are much more willing to accept pay cuts, than head coaches, simply because they make less money and are less capable of building up their savings account (for those inevitable periods of unemployment) than HCs are. I still wish we would go after Lincoln Riley because I believe he's got a ton of potential. I read that he's already interviewing with Southern Miss (I've also heard Rice is a possibility), but it didn't say for which position. He's young and this is probably the first time he's been fired, so he doesn't know how to cope with it. He's looking to prove himself as an OC and, eventually, a HC somewhere down the road. But, because he made $197K at Tech, everyone wants to dismiss him as unattainable. Well, he's making $0 right now. If these other schools are offering more money, but as a position coach, I still believe Riley would have to consider less pay at UNT for an OC title on his resume. I've seen a lot of talk about Eric Russell and, since I don't seem to recall much about him, I'll just accept the consensus that he's worth bring back. But, back to the money, I totally agree that everyone has to stop dismissing the thought of interviewing someone because "we can't pay that much". I have no idea how much money could be allocated to the coaching budget but, It's absolutely embarrassing that we are paying coordinators in the same range as high school head coaches. If we truly can't afford to up our ante, then we shouldn't be building this new stadium. We should have had a coaching fund drive before we started trying to raise money for a stadium. One more relative little tidbit I've recently discovered - Texas A&M-Commerce hires Guy Morriss as head football coach I did a quick search of GMG for news of Guy Morriss' hiring at Texas A&M-Commerce and came up empty, so I'm assuming most GMG posters are unaware that he coached out at Commerce last season. While he didn't have much success at Baylor, no one can argue that he brought legitimate college coaching experience with him. He spent a little over one season in the SEC at Kentucky and five seasons at Baylor. In addition, he spent several years as an NFL assistant. And just look at the well-experienced staff he was able to put together - at TAMU-Commerce!! Now, do you think Texas A&M-Commerce is paying Guy Morriss anywhere close to what he was making at Baylor??? Do you??? By the way, he finished this season 5-5, winning 5 of the last 6 games and going undefeated in Lone Star Conference games.

Well, there are plenty of recently available, quality college coaches that may be in the beginning stages of desperation mode out there right now. I'm sure one or two of them are delusional as well. I hear where you're coming from but I don't view our situation as that dire. Most assistant coaches don't have multi-year contracts. In fact, most assistant contracts are for one-year terms anyway, so I don't understand why job security would be a big concern for a position coach looking to put the title of offensive coordinator on his resume. Besides, I'm not sure I want a coach who isn't confident he can come here and make an immediate difference. Salary, on the other hand, will be a huge factor in who we are able to land. According to the coaching database USAToday published last fall, Ford was making $93,000 as UNT's OC. If we can't increase that salary to a minimum of $150K, we're going to get crap for an OC.

It looks like he was fired just before Thanksgiving of 2009, after finishing with 5-6 record. Sam Houston State fires Whitten 5-6, sounds like our guy!

From footballscoop.com

Could UNT be after Lake Travis HC, Chad Morris? Tulsa certainly appears to be. From the article - Rumors have abounded about Morris, who reportedly also has had talks with his alma mater Texas A&M for an offensive assistant position as well as another Division I school.

Huh? That statement doesn't make any sense.

Damn, it's hard to be a Mean Green fan. Why do we even bother trying to play FBS football if we can't even afford to pay an OC the kind of money other schools are paying position coaches? Why do we have fans/alumni/supporters that continue to follow the program when they have zero confidence we'll ever get serious about bringing in and paying for real coaching talent? What a joke this program is. Let's just quit pretending we want to field a legitimate football team, dismantle the program and redirect all of the funds towards basketball or softball or soccer. And let's do it now before we spend any more money constructing a stadium that will never see a winning UNT football season.

I'll go ahead and start this inevitable thread, not because our input will be considered, but because it's fun and exciting to dream. Please post a bio link and add any comments you wish to support your choice: Tony Franklin, OC MTSU (current salary $103,000) - Has been running the spread for 10+ years and I think he's within our budget. In addition, it could help up by making one of conference opponents weaker. Steve Axman, OC Idaho (current salary - $116,605) - mentioned by Side Show Joe in another thread Lincoln Riley, former WR coach, Texas Tech (former salary $197,500/current salary $0)- although very young for an OC, he's my choice as I stated in this thread. I'll add that, since Riley currently has no job, he'd might accept our measly salary offering. Dana Holgerson, OC Houston (current salary $187,200) - At more than double what Todd Ford was earning, his current salary is probably too high for us to be able to afford to lure him away from Houston. Mike Canales, OC USF - (current salary $202,600) With Leavitt's recent firing, his job may be in jeopardy too. What he lacks in spread offense experience, he more than makes up for in overall collegiate and NFL coaching experience. He'd have to take a big pay cut and/or have virtually zero offers if USF's new head coach decides not to retain him. Dave Schramm, OC Utah - (current salary $160,000) - Again, it would probably take a substantial salary increase to lure him away from a successful program for the same position at UNT. UNT hasn't shown a willingness to pay that kind of money to hire top coaches. But, he did spend one year at Texas State and he held the title of Recruiting Coordinator for 15 years, so he has a lot to offer. Aaron Roderick, WR coach, Utah - (current salary - $130,000) - Another option from a successful Utah program. He may view an OC position at UNT as an upgrade and an opportunity, even though the salary may not be indicative of such. He held the positions of OC/Recruiting Coordinator at Southern Utah for two years, prior to being hired on the Utah staff. However, he's a born-and-bred Utah guy, who played at BYU, so he may be reluctant to leave his home state. Ok, so maybe this isn't a "short list" but, at the minimum, guys I believe are worthy of a phone call.

Add another name to the former Texas Tech assistant coach list, in RB coach, Clay McGuire. Although both articles mention Riley and McGuire being fired, Russell and Mitchell are missing. Tech coach Tuberville makes more staff changes Riley, McGuire let go in staff shakeup