rcade

Normally I hate uniform changes at UNT, since we've done so many of them, but we need to get rid of the Southlake Carroll-looking design and go back to having lots of green in the Mean Green.

A bowl bid in year one? Why are you badgering him to expect more wins from McCarney in one season than most fans here expected from Dodge in four? I'd like to see UNT compete for the Sun Belt championship in year one. I think it's ridiculous to expect it, however.

As a student and Daily editor during the days of President Hurley, I think he gets too much of a bad rap for our athletic travails. He started at UNT the same month that we were dropped to I-AA. It wasn't his doing that got us there. Though Hurley was not pro-athletics, he did manage to save football from a push to shut down the program. We could've been another UTA.

If DD had a better attitude, he would've had longer to right the ship. The four straight bowls and winning streak had bought him some goodwill. But what he did at UNT isn't as good as what McCarney did at Iowa State. Them beating Iowa was huge for that program.

He ended Iowa State's 22-year bowl drought, beat their most important rival Iowa five times, won a divisional conference co-championship and took them to five bowl games. That's how.

The Florida Gators were national champions when they hired McCarney in 2008 to be assistant head coach and defensive line coach. Do you think programs of that stature hire top assistants who are over the hill?

I'll grant you Fran, but Leach was never going to come here and never going to be hired anyway. He's suing another Texas school and the drop from the Big 12 to Sun Belt would be too steep. I can understand why UNT fans wanted him -- it would have changed the program overnight -- but I can't understand why people thought it was possible.

The way he keeps getting hurt, I almost don't want Riley to be the QB again.

I think you're overstating the fan dissent if McCarney gets off to a slow start. That new stadium is going to fire people up. If I was living in DFW I'd be bringing friends and family in to show it off.

No kidding. It's like we all had Justin Bieber tickets and he cancelled the concert at the last minute.

You wanted Canales because he wanted us? Dude. I hate to break this to you, but Canales said all of those things to get a head coaching job. He will say them to the fans at the next university that considers him for its vacancy. He didn't want us. He wanted a job!

Why wait? Here's your new team's message board: http://www.raginpagin.com/

"May as well have beat them," but didn't actually beat them. I hope like hell that under Coach McCarney we can stop celebrating moral victories. A loss is still a loss. Kansas State had one of the worst rushing defenses in the country. We had them 20-7 and couldn't finish them off.

Nice game, but ultimately so what? It is still a loss, and UNT fans are still claiming moral victories. UNT should be a program that beats OOC opponents in its stadium, not one that takes pride in playing them close. We hired a sentimental favorite and made the fan base giddy with Todd Dodge. It bombed. Maybe it was time to change the way we hire coaches and go for someone with head coaching experience, not unproven potential.

You are out of your mind. UNT won three games this season. It's not on the cusp of respectability. I'd like to see McCarney come in and win immediately, but to suggest that's expected of him in season one -- after how many years Dodge had to prove himself -- is a bit much.

I am excited about the possibility that McCarney is coming to Denton. If you can go into Iowa State -- in the condition it was in -- and beat Iowa five times, you're a hell of a coach.

I'd be happy with McCarney *or* Canales at this point. McCarney has proven he can coach in the FBS and Canales has proven he deserves the opportunity. If I was in RV's position and had to choose, I'd go with McCarney. But it would be a shame to see Canales succeed elsewhere when you passed him up.

You think there's "not much" demand for McCarney, the assistant head coach at the University of Florida? LOL.

That field goal attempt at the end of regulation by Boise State looked awfully close. Did TV have an angle that looked up at the goalposts as it went by?

If McCarney gets the job, I would be surprised if Canales had a better option available to him than being a top assistant at UNT. We have to be one of the only schools that is high on this guy, outside of USF. He did not distinguish himself here until *after* Dodge was fired, and even then his results have been mixed.

If it's McCarney, in what way is hiring him the norm? He has coached 12 years in the FBS and has five bowl trips. We've never hired a coach with that much experience as the top guy before.

North Texas isn't the doormat of the Sun Belt. We won four straight conference championships and had a record-setting conference winning streak. With our size and our new stadium, we should be one of the strongest teams in the conference -- and I think we will be under the right hire.

McCarney was brought in to beat Iowa, an in-state rivalry so intense that 15,000 Iowa State fans showed up just on the chance they might get scalped tickets to one of their games: http://www.usatoday....e-rivalry_x.htm He ended a 15-year drought against Iowa and beat them five times. That says more about the kind of coach he is than the school's overall record against the bigger, better-funded schools in the Big 12.

The teams that are left in the WAC are, at most, 10 positions higher in the Sagarin rankings than the Sun Belt. They may even be worse, once they lose schedule strength once the better programs are done leaving them behind. The WAC has become another Sun Belt spread out over three timezones with ridiculous travel times. Louisiana Tech would be better off in the Belt.

What WAC teams are they giddy about playing? Enjoy those road trips across two timezones and games that end after midnight Dallas time.