rcade

Yeah, we're just a bunch of irrational haters. Our desire to see RV out the door has nothing to do with his won-loss performance in football and basketball, the five home-game seasons, his broken promises to bring notable schools to play at Apogee, the poor attendance at games, the 2015 Homecoming FCS massacre, or the failure to build a Mean Green Club membership commensurate to our alumni base. If you have objective facts on RV that suggest he hasn't created a factory of failure, post them. Don't just declare yourself the only fair-minded person in the fan base.

Yes, Dickey had many faults. I don't claim otherwise. But to suggest no coach could do worse than him at UNT is crazy talk. If McCarney did as "bad" as Dickey the fan base would be ecstatic. Winning those four conference championships under Dickey meant a lot at the time. You can't get anywhere in football without first being strong in your own conference. Boise State was once our Big West conference mate. Look at where they've gotten by winning consistently at each level since then. The other NFL players who played for Dickey are Brian Waters, Adrian Awasom, John Baker and Phil Armour.

Cool. One RV criticism has been answered. How about explaining why RV is bringing Bethune-Cookman and Incarnate Word to Apogee while our in-state CUSA rivals are getting Arizona State, Arizona, Texas Tech, Stanford and Houston?

It's too early in the day for that mental picture. Sweet Texas love ... that's where you keep your boots on, right?

Your premise is that RV will hire a great coach and UNT's fan base will hate it because that helps RV stay employed? Get real. We're a pack of whipped dogs. It only took one win over a 1-6 team to make a lot of fans call for hiring Canales. If the next coach wins, the fans who didn't quit when RV made the hire would be overjoyed.

True, but letting RV remain as AD hurts all of the "kids" in football and basketball. Nobody wants to play for a college that loses all the time. It's an ass-whipping to have your friends at other schools see you in the bottom 10 rankings and give you grief about it.

I had the same thought, but did anyone say on the record that Canales wouldn't campaign? Some misinformation was spread the weekend McCarney was fired, such as the idea there would be co-interim head coaches. I don't mind him campaigning after a UNT win. I hope he can campaign again after this weekend.

Our banner got the media writing stories about whether 14 years of losing under Rick Villarreal ought to bring a change at AD. I'd say that was money well spent. It's great you like Canales, but face facts: If he was OC anywhere else, his team's win-loss record in the last six years would get him zero consideration for a head coaching job. The only way he should get any for this one is if the team beats Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee State and UTEP. You must have developed amnesia during the Dickey years. His team won 26 straight conference games, beat Baylor and Texas Tech, won our first bowl in decades, won four conference championships and produced seven NFL players.

Dickey's doing well in Memphis and should get another head coaching shot, but there's no way it should be at UNT. Remember the black uniform stunt and the other bad blood that took place upon his departure? If you're one of the fans who hates it when a UNT coach makes excuses for poor performance by saying it's too tough to recruit here, Dickey was talking like that on the way out the door. He's one of the best coaches we've ever had, and should be remembered for the conference winning streak, first bowl win in decades and the way he handled the tragic death of Andrew Smith. But I wouldn't want to risk another bad-attitude coach running this program.

Any prospective head coach is going to know that (a) RV asked for a vote of confidence from the school president and didn't get it, and (b) RV has a contract that expires in February 2017. So if an unstable AD situation is going to keep a coach away, that's already happening. It would be better for RV to have nothing to do with the hire than to let him make the choice when he's gone in 15 months. A bigger knock on UNT is sucking at football and basketball. Nobody wants to play for a school that makes them a bottom 10 laughingstock. Grading an AD on facilities instead of wins is miring us in mediocrity.

Yes. If he can't make that move for financial reasons, create a new position outside of athletics for RV and park him there until his contract expires. Form a committee and pick the new coach without his input. Letting RV make the hire locks us into 3-5 more years of his approach to the top sports. It's a factory of failure.

Thanks for the info. A pity we couldn't keep him from those velveeta-colored devils in Baton Rouge.

Nice excuse! You should see if RV is hiring assistant ADs. UTSA has a home game with Arizona State in 2016 and Baylor in 2018. UTEP has a home game with Arizona in 2017 and Texas Tech in 2020. Rice has a home game with Baylor in 2016, Stanford in 2017, and Texas A&M and Wake Forest in 2018. We have a home game with Bethune-Cookman in 2016, Army and Lamar in 2017 and Incarnate Word in 2018. RV has been a total failure at bringing well-known OOC opponents into Apogee. He promised big to get students to pony up millions and didn't deliver. The caliber of opponents we're getting are no better than they were in Fouts.

Maybe Smatresk wants the ability to take credit if the hire turns out good or deny responsibility if the hire turns out bad. So he talks publicly like the hire is being made by RV, but in reality has the final say. Then if RV is out when his current contract is up -- 18 months, by some accounts -- Smatresk can say whatever he likes about his role as we see how the coach does.

Seems perfectly harmless to me. You know when you're holding an open house that some people might just be looky-loos, particularly when it's an expensive house. McCarney had time to remove his sex dungeon, the stuffed African lion he shot on safari, indoor marijuana grow lab, empty datebook of recruiting trips and the to-do list where "sign a quarterback" was never crossed off.

Canales isn't acting like someone who is gone no matter what. But maybe that's just because he's dedicated to his job and these players.

"You suck so bad you used to lose to us" isn't much of a taunt.

I don't see what's misleading. We compete in CUSA. Our salary is fourth in CUSA. There's no reason to believe we can't hire a coach who can compete in our conference at the present salary. That's a reasonable expectation for a coach -- not a lofty one that might require $1 million or more in salary. Coaches turn around programs in the FBS for less than what we're paying. Boise State went from being our Big West conference mate to a big program through smart coaching hires within a budget that was once paltry.

RV hasn't made any good hires in football or basketball in 13 years. The last was Johnny Jones in basketball, assuming he was hired in 2001 after Villarreal became AD the same year.

Dallas-Fort Worth is 6.9 million. Houston is 6.4 million. No. 4 and 5 nationally, behind New York City, L.A. and Chicago.

UNT pays the fourth-highest salary in CUSA, and that might go up for the next hire. We have a good stadium and are located in DFW, the largest metropolitan area in the South and the No. 5 TV market in the U.S. These are all selling points. There's no reason to believe, as you appear to, that nobody good would want this job.

That was fantastic. I need to find a wall to run through for Canales.

In order to keep UTKFC from being changed to UTKFC, you have to hit Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C, Shift-R, shut down your computer, drive to Best Buy and purchase a new one. No, wait. That didn't work either.

Has Canales ever made a poor-me comment about how hard it is to succeed at UNT?

For the moment you can watch it on Periscope, thanks to UT San Antonio fans: https://www.periscope.tv/w/1YpJkXQDELBxj