Aquila_Viridis

Bower should not be hired; however the current Southern Miss coach Fedora would be a fantastic choice.

Nice article but from the title I was expecting a new Muse release. They are, by the way, a heckuva show. Now I don't know it is reasonable to expect our school will right now blow it out for $600K+ for a real coach. Maybe though they went and already lined up the money somehow. If they did and they have it together then I will be astonished in such a way that I would definitely increase my support. I am sure others would feel the same. The time has come to make things right!

If so I sure hope he's right!

Not sure what that last part means, but I agree: to any who are saying 'we don't have the support', you should instead be asking 'why don't we have the support?' and 'how can we get the support?' Do you think that the support base for other schools spontaneously appeared? Our administration seems to have been thinking that for years.

It is not initially on the AD, or on the alumni in general as others have said. It has to be a commitment at the highest level to lead groups such as the alumni in the right direction. I have never heard the senior leaders of the university come out and say, 'we have to have a lot of money for a great coach'. Until you hear that specific commitment, this isn't going anywhere, regardless of the stadium. Yes it is unfortunate that this is the most expensive time ever to make such a commitment, but it will only get more expensive. The good news is, this will cause the less dedicated to falter, eliminating some competition. As a university, NT can either commit itself to the cause, or falter. If you are a leader of a university you are charged with elevating the university, even if the challenge is steep. They like to hold the stadium out as an accomplishment in itself, but it only has value if it promotes the positive recognition of the university. It will not promote the positive recognition of the university if there is a consistent loser playing in it. So the stadium is a giant waste if they aren't committed to getting a big-time coach. So why don't they have materials that talk about how the stadium fits as part of a winning PROGRAM and what the other essential parts are of such a program and how to get THOSE parts? It is a lack of leadership. Won't someone whose day (and night) job it is to promote this university rise to this challenge and make a plain and public commitment that NT WILL have a WINNING Division 1 FBS program by marshalling the forces of our community, alumni and students? Think about the proposition of a million or more North Texans identifying with our eagle symbol and caring about how it measures up to symbols associated with say, Houston or Louisiana or California or anywhere else. With the right commitment, this is assured. It is not a risky proposition. Yes I know you have the Cowboys up there, but with 6 million people there are plenty to go around and plenty of people who care about comparison in the college game too. You don't have our leaders going out in the community going 'you see this symbol - it represents you, and it sucks, so help us fix it so you don't suck.' That's ugly, but in case you haven't noticed, the situation is ugly, really terribly ugly, and this is the only way to fix it. There is no other way. And when it is fixed it will be really tremendously beautiful. Our eagle can rise to heights that hardly anyone else can, it just takes a commitment and leadership to get there.

UTSA's whole vision was based on salary projections that turned out to be WAY off. Coach salaries, and now assistant salaries, are going through the roof. You look where NT ranks in salary, we are playing at a predictable level. The extra two points to get past Rice are $125,000 per year. To avoid getting whooped by Army: $375,000 per year. WAC offers no value. We pay considerably more for coaches, we win and get into a real conference. Hoping for a value miracle got us in deep doodoo. Let's learn. On a separate note, I'm disgusted that the UT system would consider tossing the citizens' money into a program that will not amount to more than UTEP. UNT on the other hand represents one of the nation's premier metropolitan and economic regions, in a way that SMU and TCU do not. Our state should be making wiser choices about the investment of state dollars, than even thinking about Division 1 football in San Antonio, so close to the flagship that is such a heavyweight of college athletics anyway. What a wasteful and meaningless diversion that would be.

I would be happy if we joined the other 9 schools in a new conference.

It is illustrative, but it saddens me, that you guys are so beaten down that you are happy to wait around for other schools to grow up. Maybe you would have us go back to SLC so you can play teams in state. Didn't we just play a team in state? (Wow that was a great time.) Get some dignity.

Houston should be NT's biggest rival. We should play them every year. You guys should be jumping at the chance to get that started.

This will make perfect sense when the University of Texas moves to its new home in St. Louis.

Change in the success of the program will not happen just by changing coaches. Hope for this program lies only in change of attitude in the highest level administration of UNT or change of such administrators to ones who have the right attitude. I am not just some football nut who doesn't care about the other missions of the university. I am seriously worried that NT is generally adrift. The woes of the football program are only one symptom of that. They will point to various signs of success and there are some, but I don't see this leading to greatness. I also realize that long-term coaching stability is very important for building a successful program. However, I have seen enough games where our team is inept against inept competition to know that this is not leading to greatness either. Now maybe the administration would like to come on here and show us all the 'big picture' they have. Have you seen it?

We either have foxes or blind turtles watching the henhouse. I cannot otherwise explain how they fail to take ownership of this program and reach out. Yes, there has been progress on the stadium, but it has never been a BOLD effort. Why don't they go out to EVERYONE who has some connection to NT and say we've got to do something about this and we NEED your help????? Why don't they come on here and say 'Here's the plan. We're committed! Here's how you can help.' There is NO leadership. SICKENING.

Maybe if our school actually had some leadership they could raise this kind of support.

Dodge will be back unless they find someone worse. The idea that he will be replaced with someone better is based on the assumption that the administration cares whether we win or lose. What have you seen to demonstrate that they care?

I have come to believe that Dickey was a miracle worker. When he said he was up against it every day we poopooed him. We should have listened. I think what happened is somehow against relentless opposition from other parts of the university he managed to let us have some fun but then it caught up with him. The university won't stomach what is needed to compete today. The stadium is a token or distraction. It won't change things. It could help, but a lot more is necessary. I do believe it has gotten so insane to be competitive in Division 1 that maybe it's not even worth it all. It's ironic that places like TCU and SMU don't even need to do this yet they are having success at it. I don't even know what North Texas is trying to accomplish and I'm going a lot futher back to not caring about it. I always said this football thing could be like a lightning rod for North Texas but it is pretty clear they don't know what to do with lightning. I guess they think we alumni are supposed to get all excited about this other stuff they put in the 'North Texan' but that is very unrealistic. Maybe they are focused on becoming a Tier 1 Research University but I'd really like to see the plan for garnering a $400 million endowment. My plan was for them to raise $10 million over a few years for coach salaries, give themselves a shot at respectability and then use that to promote the kind of image that had a prayer of raising that kind of endowment. That is not the plan that it is being carried out. Maybe there isn't a plan. If there's not then all this football foolishness doesn't make much difference. I feel bad for the players and their families caught in it. I am not proud of North Texas right now because the university has refused to address the fundamentals of the situation head on. It is an ongoing sickening and I don't even want to mention any connection. You can call me a bandwagon fan or whatever. I don't like where that bandwagon is going. I can't believe I came to a game after last year and the year before and the year before etc...... I'm not even going to say that people necessarily should be fired. We just need people running the place who know what to do and aren't sort of waiting around for something to happen. I'm not seeing much evidence of knowing what to do from the current group, but they are welcome to present such evidence at any time. Otherwise, who can fire these people?

That is funny what he said about a mass meltdown in the next post. My wife had asked me what I thought would happen. It was just before I saw that post and my answer was that if it's 110 degrees you don't really notice if it goes to 111. Besides I don't think we have enough of a mass to have a meltdown!

What's TWU?

When I graduated and left Denton, I went straight to Charlottesville, Virginia, which when you consider all the factors of what you look for in a college town, is arguably the best college town in the country. While there are some stark differences there are also some basic similarities. Let's contrast these with Austin, which is a great city, but can hardly be considered a college town anymore. It is more of a big city that has a university in it. On the other hand, when I go to Denton it does have a sense of being removed from the main part of the metroplex, and this sort of separate place is still very much dominated by the presence of the university. The day will likely come when many families in the region see UNT as the best option for their students, not a fourth or fifth resort. By the way, I could have gone to college wherever I wanted with the possible exception of the Harvards or Yales of the world. I chose to go to North Texas and with the sole exception of this lifelong football inferiority I have never regretted it. I enjoy going back to Denton despite its shortcomings.

I have to give the administration credit on this one. When I saw the bios of the Board members I did not expect it to pass; plus the other two construction items were more politically appealing. Credit goes to the Board also for making the right decision for the North Texas region and the state. This is a real accomplishment and goes with some other significant non-athletics achievements for the university this year. It is an encouraging sign, and I hope they capitalize fully on the momentum.

Right they would set it up and then let it sit there empty waiting for someone to do something with it. Apparently they think that someday the thousands of alumni that they didn't develop a relationship with in the first place will spontaneously get an idea that North Texas having a terrible football program is unacceptable, despite the longstanding acceptance of it.

Passage is the right thing for the people of Texas. The North Texas region, being so important to the rest of the state, needs a major public university. The stadium and a successful football program are important parts of making UNT a major university.

You not giving support is not going to change anyone's mind. You trying to raise funds in your spare time is not going to attract enough money. So the question is, what really would influence the school administration, trustees, congresspeople, etc. who can actually affect the outcome? We don't have real money. They don't love or even desire us (alas). What's left? Fear?

All those same qualities can be obtained at a lesser salary level. Like I said, it is not a guarantee, but do you really think we have a chance to be say in the top 75 teams when we are paying a fraction of what those teams pay? What exactly would be your plan for getting to that level paying what we are?

What's new? Anyone expected this game to be close? I agree we need different coaches, but not because of this game. Glad to see some people waking up though. TCU had a plan; look where they are now. North Texas' 'leaders' have never had a plan. I think they find the situation acceptable. I said this when they got rid of Dickey. If they're going to pay the successor at the same level, they'll get about the same results. Nothing will change until NT decides to, and figures out how to, and ultimately does, go out and get enough to pay a new coach more like $650K. No that does not guarantee results, but on the other hand, it is almost certain that continuing to do the same thing will produce the same results. It all starts with a decision, to do something substantially different. Then they need to commit to that decision, by announcing that intention and THEN building support. Not the other way around. That takes vision and leadership. We'll see if NT has that.

Things started really going downhill when Steve Miller cursed us. He came to Memphis a few years ago, he played like an hour and a half. We were there in the POURING rain the whole time. He never played Fly Like an Eagle. I decided it was time to leave Memphis. Even the Neville Brothers' version can't remove this voodoo. If Steve Miller will come play Fly Like an Eagle on campus, then things will turn around.