rcade

If Littrell's salary is $1 million, he'll be the highest paid coach in CUSA. Rick Stockstill at MTSU earns $801K with another $126K in maximum bonuses, per USA Today.

Fans should be concerned that Littrell won't have the best chance to succeed with RV around. He's got a way of doing things that has not produced success on the field and has not built a strong base of fan support. I think the best course of action is to pair the new leadership in football with new leadership at the AD position.

I was hoping for that, too, but Seth Littrell is a step up from the coaches we've hired in the past in terms of his résumé. He has built exciting offenses at each stop in his career and has four years of Texas coaching experience (as a Texas Tech assistant) and an Oklahoma background that may help us bring some players across the Red River. It's a risk to go with someone young who has never been a head coach, but he's been an OC for five years and the numbers his teams have produced on that side of the ball are impressive. I won't say I'm 100% on board, but I like enough to stick around for next season despite the ass-whip of an AD who's still running the show.

I don't recall reading that Fritz said anything about the UNT job, good or bad. All that's been reported is that sources claimed he was interested in the Iowa State job: http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/writer/dennis-dodd/25388043/willie-fritz-interested-in-leaving-georgia-southern-for-iowa-state I like Fritz as a potential hire. He has Texas head coaching experience and has won everywhere he went. He would know better than most the challenges UNT faces to win in this state.

On the game broadcast, I just watched Mike Canales as the band played "Glory to the Green and White" after the UTEP game. His jaw was clenched before it began and he performed it alongside the team with obvious emotion. I'd share the video if I could get it off my Xfinity DVR. Say what you will about his job performance, but Canales had more love for this school on his way out the door than any UNT head coach I can remember. I hope he gets a head coaching gig somewhere in FCS. Update: Here's the video, filmed off the screen:

The fear isn't just about losing Littrell. It's about the message sent if the coach widely considered to be our choice ends up turning us down. If that happens, RV will have handed the school another black eye by letting his name get out into the press as our presumptive choice.

Given UNT's position in the FBS pecking order, it's in Littrell's best interest to not sign the contract until the day the hire is going to be announced. It keeps his options open as long as possible when an ACC championship win for UNC could make him more valuable.

Are we sure Seth Littrell is a good idea? UNT is better than UNC, and here's proof: North Texas beat UT San Antonio 30 - 23 UT San Antonio beat Charlotte 30 - 27 Charlotte beat Georgia State 23 - 20 Georgia State beat Troy 31 - 21 Troy beat Charleston Southern 44 - 16 Charleston Southern beat Citadel 33 - 20 Citadel beat South Carolina 23 - 22 South Carolina beat North Carolina 17 - 13 http://www.myteamisbetterthanyourteam.com/default.asp?sport=CFB&winner=North+Texas&loser=North+Carolina&year=2015&method=2

I didn't see any reports about him being on campus yesterday.

I liked Carlos. I thought it was a shame he ended his playing career on a total chump move, but it's not the end of the world. I look forward to seeing what he does at Throwing Deuces Keep Your Head on a Swivel Fashions.

Ask that question again when the Mean Green players have done something to be brash about. Nobody likes the showboat whose team is losing by 30 points.

If Cumbie is going to UT, TCU losing Meacham is a much bigger deal. I'm reserving judgment on why Meacham is taking his name out of the running, if the report is true. TCU could have pulled a money truck up to Meacham's house this weekend.

Did anyone get a good high-resolution photo of the banner flying?

Yes, as you've been told multiple times. But anyone who pays for a banner plane knows that it only will fly if weather conditions permit. There was never an absolute guarantee it would fly over a specific game. Nobody who donated had the concerns you've been expressing on our behalf for weeks.

You love RV enough to pay for a banner, but won't answer a question why? That's unexpected. I think I've posted a hundred reasons by now why I donated money for the "Fire Rick Villarreal" banner. I'm tired of having Toonces the Driving Cat in charge of our athletics program. At some point we have to ask ourselves, "Why the hell do we keep letting him drive?"

I wasn't expecting to hear much UNT talk on The Ticket this morning, despite both George and Junior being UNT grads. Junior treats his alma mater like a crazy ex-girlfriend he's afraid will come back into his life if he mentions her, and George acts like his feelings for UNT are the love that dare not speak its name. Are there any hosts in the massive sea of sports radio in DFW who would devote an entire radio segment to UNT?

As a former Star-Telegram reporter, I think you overestimate the amount of editing a print story is likely to receive today. A long series of layoffs and buyouts have left the paper with an extremely thin, overworked staff.

This is a sincere question: What do you love about RV that makes you want him to continue running UNT athletics? He's had 14 years to show us what he can do, and the results on the field have been dismal. The improvements in facilities under his watch are laudable, but the net result has been a sea of empty seats in a nicer football stadium and the Super Pit. Any coach who is competing with UNT for a recruit can one up us by showing crowd shots at our games. RV also has never hit his goals for Mean Green Club membership -- all the losing, the lame scheduling and long-standing PR problems like ticket delivery have been an ass-whipping to the fan base. RV had a chance to take accountability and show leadership after the McCarney firing. He could have admitted his mistakes and put forward his vision for why he should continue to lead athletics. Instead, he's still talking about empty seats at Fouts when he arrived in 2001 and saying that every hire he made was a good one at the time. Surely there's a point at which you would say that we need a change at AD. Why haven't you reached that point with RV?

Here's most of the 11-minute segment on The Ticket: http://workbench.cadenhead.org/media/musers-on-coach-hires-2015-12-01.mp3 They stop talking about UNT pretty quickly and segue into hiring situations in general. Dunham: "It has not been decided. ... Last I heard, they're still negotiating and still trying to figure out which way they're going. I think they may end up hiring Seth Littrell."

Yes. There has been more talk about Rick Villarreal's dismal performance as UNT AD in the press and social media than ever before. The banner and the stories about its purchase helped make that happen. Villarreal asked Smatresk for a public vote of confidence and didn't get it, per news coverage. Do you think Villarreal would have felt the need to seek a public vote of confidence without our fan mutiny?

His profession is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

So his family loves him. I'm happy for him. It would suck if they also thought there should be a change at AD. I think we should use the billboard money to fly a banner over SMU's campus during a school day: Hire Rick Villarreal It might get some national press. I'm not aware of another group of fans who have wanted their AD out enough to seek a new job for him with a rival.

Frost has no Texas ties as a coach. I'm glad he ended up somewhere else. UNT needs someone with experience recruiting here and an understanding of what it takes to compete in this state.

I think your logic is flawed. If you were offered a big job, the first people who would know about it are the members of your family. And they'd talk to each other.