rcade

"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.

You are probably right, but it makes me wonder something: Why is it the head football coach's job to sell the world on UNT's athletics program? Shouldn't that be the AD's job?

North Texas ended the 1977 season ranked No. 13 in the UPI poll. http://www.gomeangreen.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=37310

Leach isn't going to win a libel suit against ESPN. He's a public figure, and the standards for proving libel are much higher for public figures. He would have to prove that ESPN intentionally reported false information to harm him.

If it could happen to USF, it could happen to us.

If we hire McCarney, I think he'll be the second UNT coach in our history to have college head coaching experience at the time of his hire. The first was Hayden Fry.

Diet Coke boy was a student assistant whose job during games was to carry Coach Dickey's Diet Coke. Because of this job, he has claimed a spot in UNT lore alongside Hector the Eagle Dog and the albino squirrels.

I am surprised. The guy has a reputation for being a genius. Filing all these suits does not seem like a smart move for a guy who would otherwise be on the short list for primo coaching jobs.

Mike Leach has filed a new suit against ESPN and a public relations firm hired by Craig James, accusing them of libel and slander: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/fb/fbc/7310120.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+houstonchronicle/topheadlines+(chron.com+-+Top+Stories)

That's a nice shot of the great Odus Mitchell.

That's a nice shot of the great Odus Mitchell.

I don't know what you've been posting on this. I just didn't think the comparison of USF experience is that useful. My main criteria for the head coach is that he have significant FBS head coaching experience and be someone the fans and media would get excited about. I didn't want to see another coach come in and have a long learning curve like Dodge. McCarney fits the first part of my criteria great. Over time, I've become somewhat excited about Canales because of the way he's fought to win the job and embraced the community, even though he has no head coaching experience yet.

That's an extremely weak argument against him. The reason half the BIg 12 members go to bowls is because the caliber of the conference has produced that many bowl-worthy teams year after year. There were around 40-46 bowl spots available in McCarney's time at Iowa State, which means his bowl teams were in the top 40-46 in the country for five years. If he produced a top 50 team at UNT for five years it would be the best job anyone has done coaching here since Hayden Fry.