untjim1995

GMG.com, I come before you as an incredibly amazed, yet also incredibly embarrassed and humbled, poster here. I severely underestimated Seth Littrell and this team. Never imagined we could get more than 2 wins--and now I am just astonished at the 4 wins we have so far, with 5 to go. I have no idea where this thing goes from here--because I obviously know absolutely nothing about football. I'm here to take my lumps and to recognize how wrong I was about this team and the talent on this team. The team that I watched on Saturday was easily the best MG effort I have seen from our team against a good G5 team on the road in years. I really cannot remember our last really good road win against a quality, bowl-worthy opponent. I don't remember one at anytime in the Mac era, Dodge era, Dickey era, or Simon era. I know that we won at Tech a couple of times, but I'm talking about a game on the road against a team that is on our level of play. Very proud of the Mean Green so far. Eating crow in a major way right now. I admit I had absolutely no faith in this thing ever having 4+ wins this year. After the Marshall win, I was stunned. Now, after this win, I'm just amazed to see their effort and improvement showing up so soon in Littrell's career. I'm completely embarrassed to come here and admit how incredibly wrong I have been about this year--but I also incredibly glad to come here and say it. We finally have some serious reason for hope and belief in the Mean Green for the future. For those who are religious, I recognize that I am the epitome of Doubting Thomas right now. So blessed are you that didn't see, yet still believed in the Mean Green. I guess, at this point, as a Catholic, I feel like I'm going to Confession now and asking for forgiveness and mercy...

Elvis Presley once said that Roy Orbison was the only artist he would not follow on a stage...that's enough praise for me to think it would be awesome to do. He certainly had a much bigger effect on rock and roll than Buddy Holly did...

Should be CUSA COY as the barest of minimums--national coach of the year at the g5 level. Dude is about to get paid big time within the next 12-15 months. I am hoping against hope he just loves Denton and just will wait until the OU job opens up before entertaining leaving. If I'm UH, he is at the top of my list to replace Herman when he gets hired by a P5 giant. And if Tech decides to spend the cash to buy out their mistake of extending Coach Bro foolishly, he has 4 years left on that contract at 3.5 million per year, I'm calling Littrell ASAP.

The MWC and AAC are going to get the leftovers of when the Big XII implodes--whether its as simple as just Baylor and TCU to the MWC and ISU to the AAC, or if KSU, Tech, OSU, and WVU get left behind, too. It won't be hard to see the MWC getting TCU and Baylor, along with Tech and OSU. And then see the AAC add WVU, ISU, and KSU, as well as a school like NIU. That gives each of those leagues 16 football teams. And if they need a 16th team for hoops, the MWC can grab Wichita State and the AAC could easily add George Mason, Richmond, or VCU.

Really, they--their Board--just hated paying for football. They love them some UAB hoops, though...

The Big XII has three pieces that other Power Conferences would like to add: UT, OU, and KU. You have revenue sports powers (UT and OU in football, KU in basketball), academic prestige at UT and KU (both AAU) and OU has the whole National Merit Scholar thing to trumpet, and they provide footholds into good to great markets--DFW, Houston, San Antonio, OKC, Tulsa, Wichita, and Kansas City. What I could see happen for Texas is contingent on how they want to keep the LHN. It runs out after 2031, or 6 years after the GOR expires. Don't underestimate the Texas hubris here--they can easily convince themselves to go independent until the LHN runs out, just to keep getting the extra cash for it. But that said, they are a Pac school in waiting--their academic leadership and liberal slant fit comfortably with the West Coast teams and are really only dealing with USC as the premier football brand out west (similar to what it was like when the Big XII formed and Nebraska was the top brand). To me, the Pac would score big time by going against the grain and making themselves into an 18 team league. Take UT, Tech, OU, OSU, KU, and KSU and make them a division. You play five teams every year in that division, two more in the Southern Division of Utah, CU, Arizona, ASU, USC, and UCLA, and two more in the North Division of Stanford, Cal, Oregon, OSU, Washington, and Wazzu. That's 9 conference games and then have a conference championship that features the top two teams in the league. That gets the Pac network some serious markets and time zones to work with, which it needs badly. And if Texas leaves, but takes Tech, they will have cut out the political issues that the privates in the state cannot beat by themselves, but could if Tech isn't moving up, too. When its all said and done, the real question is what the Power Leagues will do with the leftovers? Will they keep the situation as the status quo, where the G5s will be able to continue to play games in OOC play and bowl games? Or will they cull that down to just two main leagues outside of the Power Leagues, like the AAC and MWC? Or will they just cut them all out? Any of those possibilities are legitmate outcomes. Spare me the legislative bit, too--they control those networks, media, legislatures, and courthouses with their grads and their money. But I can see the least resistance for them being the idea of the AAC and MWC being the certified leagues to play OOC games against the power leagues. The problem is that the MWC and AAC are ging to get some solid schools to add them to their leagues, like TCU, Baylor, and Iowa State, as well as other schools in the Big XII that aren't guaranteed spots anywhere, like KSU, OSU, Tech, and WVU.

Go tell it to the UT boards or OU boards--you know the two schools that look down on you and won't let you in their conference...

Whoops... Don't worry about picking us to lose to Marshall...With all of your great predictions that you have made that the Big XII is going to invite you guys real soon and never fold up and that Tom Herman will be staying as your coach, I'm sure that you feel a lot better knowing that losing at Navy surely won't cost you these two things you've assured us will happen...oh wait...

I'd be willing to bet that if they asked the Green Brigade to move to the end zone, they'd feel insulted, get the NT daily on their side, and just stop going to games.

Delusional is a bit strong--I'd just call you a homer, which is fine. We need homers around here...but realistically, we won the games we are probably going to win this year. Maybe we will still one against the Texas twins, but even that is going to be hard when the reality of only having 68 scholarship players finally starts to hit us as we get into November.

Exactly. But it is truly the sad truth that our students and alumni care as much as about big games featuring Texas and A&M as they do ours, if not more so. Its better today than it has been in probably forever, but its still there. I'm glad that this game isn't starting close to Texas-OU, but I also bet you that some people won't come because of the top ten game between A&M-Tennessee game being on at 2:30 this afternoon. I imagine that this game will have about 17k in reported attendance...

I know that many think differently, but Littrell is showing us that he is taking the long-game here and just implementing his offense for the betterment of long-term results, when he can get some decent talent here. What he inherited here is low-level FCS on the offense. He has had to find new QBs that were light years ahead of what he found was here when he took the job. That was easy for him to do. The OL is whole other argument, though. You cannot fix this kind of mismatch in talent and scheme in one season. Again, you cannot have the worst recruited class in FBS two years ago and not have it kill your team's overall performance. Yes, his last class was ok, but overall, Mac's give-up in recruiting is what you are seeing now. Littrell knows it--and he is smart enough to say the opposite, but deep down, he knows that this thing is bad--as in terribly bad, actually. He also knows that he has already made us significantly better in every way than last season. Our mindset in the locker room is better, our offensive philosophy is waaaaayyyyyy better today, our recruiting is already better, and the development of the players to his scheme is already showing signs of being a lot better than Grandpa Metamucil's was. Enjoy the little things you see in improvement on the field. The scoreboard really shouldn't even matter to you if we lose. The fact he has already doubled up last year's record tells you that we are moving upward. The nadir for all of us was the Portland State game last year--we have already shown we are above that. Now, its all about seeing who SL and company can bring in to keep this thing going in the right direction. And I have full belief that they know what they are doing. If our reputation within Texas HS circles can improve, SL and his staff will be the ones to get it done. Its yet to be seen if that is possible-- and its entirely possible that it isn't because of our past. But if they can, this thing will build up to a bowl contender in 2018 and beyond. If not, its highly probable that our FBS playing days will be over once the future culling occurs in the highest level of play within the next decade.

You forgot helmet stickers, too, doofus..

I love it when we talk about the band in a thread about our football team and its performance on a football field in a conference game... Our football team didn't lose because of the band's choice of songs or their march into the stadium...their march into the stadium isn't bringing in any fans to the game. Them playing Hey Baby or Fly Like An Eagle isn't causing people to leave the stadium, either. Maybe it would fire up the 5k-15k that are still at the stadium in the second half of a game in a better way if they change something up, but a better way to fire up the crowd would be to actually win a few games against teams that aren't rated below 100 in the college football world. I know, just a crazy thought... Anyone who comes to one of our games that isn't a UNT fan usually loves our band's performance. I have never heard one bad thing about our band by an actual fan at one of our games--I've only been around since 1991, though...only on here does the Green Brigade's performance get ripped.

vs. Sul Ross State W at Texas Tech L vs. Drexel L at Rutgers L vs. Niagara L vs. Hartford W vs. Texas College W vs. UT Arlington L vs. Delaware State W at Sam Houston State L vs. Southeastern Louisiana W vs. San Diego L Predicted Record: 5-7 Except for when UTA plays here, the Super Pit will not have 2000 people inside the building for any of those home games, not even 1000 for Sul Ross or Texas College. One of the most embarrassing schedules I've ever seen the Super Pit host--which is really saying something. RV told the potential season ticket buyer that the biggest game we can schedule here is against UTA. Although I wouldn't have put it past him to have tried to say we are playing TEXAS (college) & San Diego State!!

FIFY

He's playing with guys who were recruited to play a power offense that didn't throw downfield. The growing pains are real. This is the byproduct of terrible recruiting being meshed into a modern offense.

It's what a lot of have been trying to say. The whole season is not about wins and losses, but learning the system, implementing a new mindset, and, most importantly, improving recruitment. So far, that's what we have seen--we have two wins, which has already shown improvement on the wins and losses. But the recruiting looks improved so far. And the mindset is light years better. This was THE perfect season to play the tougher East CUSA teams. Next year, we are gonna be a better squad to handle all of our conference mates.

A few things: 1.) I hope now that this report is out that you all can see why I always said before that this place only cared about costs. It may still be that way, but they are sure showing a different tone right now toward athletics. RV was the BOR's and UNT 17's boy. That relationship was obvious to anyone who looked at it. The BOR told RV stay in budget and don't complain, so that's what he did. RV told the UNT 17 they'd get preferred treatment for donations. Basically, BOR cared about costs only, RV cared about job security only, and the UNT 17 cared about access only. None of this involved winning, above lip service. 2.) UNT90 should be lauded for his ongoing battle and rant against RV and the UNT17. He was proven right, especially with that banner, which got plenty of attention in this report to represent how unhappy the few fans that were still around and tried to care had become with the constant losing, lack of care, and lack or communication from the AD's office. And his point about Hank being an absolute disaster as the next AD is dead-on. If Hank wants to keep broadcasting and still be the face of UNT athletics behind the scenes with the Denton Chamber of commerce and other civic groups, that's fine--but he needs to have NO responsibility in running anything in the athletic department. The same goes for 99% of the AD employees that served under RV. They learned laziness and incompetence and never even tried to do anything different. 3.) I feel like the recruiting part of this isn't bad at all. Kids want to play and earn a degree. Parents want to know the coaches will take care of their kids. High school coaches want to know if you are going to win. All of those are still available, no matter what this report has publically brought out what a lot of us already knew. 4.) Costs are going to have to be increased on the MGC, season tickets, and individual games for football and basketball. Until we get more butts in seats, the revenue has to get raised on the people who will pay for it. If you are paying for any of this now, you have shown that you will pay for it pretty much anyhow. Meanwhile, the new AD staff will have to identify ways to attract people to be interested in our teams that have never really shown to be very interested--and they have to do it without have anything to really hang their hats on from a winning standpoint. That's gonna be tough, no doubt, but if we are to move forward, its a must. And its entirely possible that our culture that caused this mess may not be changed--its going on 50 years of not giving 2 $hits about sports and having the leaders of the university, faculty, and within Denton that have openly opposed athletics in every way possible. Its what Wren and company have to defeat or else this thing has no chance to stay at the highest level of play in college athletics when the final realignment occurs and the Power Leagues and their affiliates pull away from the lower level G5s and FCS for good.

The networks have made it clear that they don't want to pay for G5 teams to join the Big XII. Boren wanted BYU, but politics killed that. Without BYU, the networks don't want any AAC or MWC team to move upward. UH needs to be on the phones ASAP with the PAC and ACC. Sell them on the fact that Texas has the LHN and a massive ego that tears apart conferences. If you want the Texas TV market for your conference networks, then call us and we are good to go. They can offer all of this is one easy swoop.

Thank you for the new link--I just finished reading it and I feel like my view on UNT adding baseball was validated in that they felt baseball needs to be placed on a back burner for an indoor facility. We don't need another drain of a program that sucks always valuable resources from football and basketball.

RV was the symptom of the overall apathy toward athletics that festered here for so long. Frankly, I can't believe Smatresk has pulled off what he has so far, just because the BOR and administration went so long with just really not giving a damn if we won at revenue sports. I still wonder when these anti-athletic leaders still in places within UNT will pounce on him and get him run out of town, but so far, that hasn't shown its ugly head yet. When you don't care about anything but cost, an AD like RV was able to exist perfectly within the university hierarchy. He found 17 donors to insulate himself and it worked for a loooonnnngggg time. And if we don't get prison-raped by Portland state last year, on Homecoming, in the worst loss in modern college football history, sadly, both RV and DMac are still here today. But the level of embarrassment was so high after that debacle, the university's leadership was left with no choice but to change their view on the entire athletic program. Basketball will be next and then the entire leadership of the main parts of the AD will have been rebuilt. There's a long way to go--we are in a mountain of dogshit that we have to dig out from underneath. And it's so great not to have RVs buddies coming on here to tell us how awesome he was because of tailgating and facilities, just so they could keep going to practices and events with him, since that's what their Longhorn/Aggie buddies couldn't do with their ADs. I think that was just as embarrassing as the rest of this stuff. The New Denton slogan brings a lot of smiles to our faces--mostly because of the stuff above. Let's just enjoy it as much as possible, before the apathy virus gets any strength again to attack the program.

I think that Miles will be in a media role, also. That said, I can also see him coaching again, too. If Gundy ever leaves OSU, I can see T Boone buying Les Miles back to Stillwater.

Not by themselves, they don't. The B1G is all about the AAU membership that brings in research dollars. Only Nebraska in the B1G is not AAU, and they lost that accreditation just AFTER gaining membership. Currently, in the Big XII, UT, ISU, and KU are your AAU members. Kansas may suck fiercely at football, but they bring the academics, basketball revenue and pedigree, and the KC market. They will find a home when the final reshuffling occurs. I still think the most likely scenario is the Texoma 4 go west, KU goes to the B1G, along with another AAU school, probably Mizzou, who wanted B1G membership and fits more closely with the B1G than the SEC culturally. That gets you to 16 in the PAC, and 16 in the B1G. The SEC probably just replaces Missouri with Kansas State, West Virginia, and a school in a new market like East Carolina, which gets them into the North Carolina TV markets. I think the ACC will invite cincy to be their 16th member, which includes notre dame staying affiliated with them. Thats your Power Four. I believe the power four will allow the next level of schools to still play them, even throwing them the bone of being able to have access to a non-playoff big bowl like they do now. I believe that the teams that will be allowed to fit in this category will be in two main conferences--a western based league and an eastern based league, each with 16 members, as well. If the AAC loses East carolina and Cincy, and if UConn goes independent in football but joins the Big east in hoops, which i believe will happen, the AAC will be down to 9 teams. The MWC has 12. BYU and Army will get included in this group, which gives you 23 teams. That leaves 13 spots to fill from the ranks of the MAC, CUSA, and SBC. The belief is now that we appear to be getting the right leadership in place, we can get into this collection of non-power FBS teams.

The problem is that the team he scheduled as a "should win" for many years ahead bring nobody new to the game to see us beat someone we should beat, and if we lose, its terrible for a school in our situation. We suffered the worst loss in modern college football history with his scheduling, surrounding that loss with even other disastrous losses. And there is a reason Wren Baker is trying to fix the schedule--it is not good to only get SMU or Army to join a FCS as your home opponents in a stadium as nice as this in a location this advantageous to recruits. RV's lasting legacies are that he opened up tailgating, had 17 big money guys do what he needed to do funding-wise above the university's funding, couldn't hire a revenue sport coach to save his career, and scheduled as poorly as an AD could do with Apogee as the stadium to host the games.