untjim1995

FIU is about to get some serious FCS teams from anywhere but Florida on their future schedules...

I agree, but then that delivers the 5 game home schedule here with the bodybag game on the road every season. I don't have a problem with this at all, ESPECIALLY if we keep playing SMU every year

I love this look...would like it even more if the green matched, but that's another subject

In other news, we need oxygen to breathe...

It just stinks that the schedule is that set in stone for OOC that you are probably stuck with FCS games here. I know Army is a team that brings in some fans, but I just think it would be cool if we weren't playing them as long as we are. Not much we can do about it now, but if you keep the SMU series, plus bodybag and FCS spare, it would be really nice to have that last OOC game be rotating between several other programs, not just one. I know Memphis replaces Army in the early 20's sometime, which is a good series to have scheduled. I just would have like the Army series to have been home-and-home for two years, then have the flexibility to get another solid OOC name to play...

So did Chris Simms afterwards--he said they couldn't stop him.

When Mac got here, he was so full of positivity and really talked up North Texas. He really thought we were a South Florida starter kit, where he went immediately after getting fired by ISU and before moving on to Florida. He saw USF rise up super fast as a program within a talent-rich state and within a large metro are. He had no idea what kind of apathy he was about to face when he got here. By the time he realized it, it was pretty much all over. He almost overnight became the Dickster 2.0, bemoaning how hard it was to recruit here and how our reputation was so bad within the TX HS ranks. The way things ended, albeit quicker than most assumed it would, was almost predestined after the HoD Bowl win and all of the Dodge recruits graduated, especially Derek Thompson. I will say that RV's laziness didn't help Mac's situation--seeing our season ticket numbers DROP after finally having a great season in 2013 must have been incredibly disheartening to all involved on the coaching staff. Littrell is such a breath of fresh air--and I'll admit it reminds me of how I felt when Dodge got hired and he was so well-known for an exciting approach to the game. Obviously, Dodge had no idea how to run a college program, but his reputation helped with recruits and it did help us get Apogee built, as he held the university's foot to the fire on what was promised to him when he took the job. Littrell seems to understand what modern college football looks like and how his offense can thrive with the right parts, both players and coaches. Time will tell if he can turn this around, but even if he can't, I still feel like he will have built this thing back up to a level that isn't bottom-of-the-barrel like he inherited. He has a bright future in coaching, especially if he turns this thing around within the next three years.

I think we crossed midfield once in that 2002 UT game. But Booger absolutely owned their offense that night.

Or for the program to get killed altogether. Worst idea ever...hell, Penn State, Miami, Florida State, and Pitt all realized how important a conference relationship is versus being independent.

We aren't going to get rid of the bodybag game, just because of the money and exposure they provide. I'm sure he is looking at buying out the FCS spares that RV saddled us with and fix that. Seriously, there are exactly two FCS teams that would be worth scheduling here--SFA and SHSU. They are decent, bring fans, and our fans wouldn't mind playing them. Instead, we have seen Texas Southern, Nicholls State, Portland State, Bethune-Cookman, Lamar, ACU, Incarnate Word, Houston Baptist, and Rhode Island make our schedules. You will never get people out to watch this group beyond the diehards. But the bodybag game helps to pay for these buyouts of the spares...hopefully, Wren can do something about this. He might not be able to and we will just have to ride it out, but it is very refreshing to see an actual motivated AD in place, versus a lazy one who took the first call and first offer from every single P5 school and then turned around and shot a dart at the US map and found the nearest FCS spare next to it and called them up to play here.

That's true--but they do get their SEC schools and host FSU every other year to balance it out. My Aggie buddies basically say the same thing--yes, they hate playing Prairie View A&M, and other G5s, but they know that they will play Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, and another SEC East team to come to College Station every other year. My Texas buddies are the ones who aren't real happy with their home schedules--1 big power conference team, 2 G5 opponents, then the Big XII teams sans OU. This year, for example, they got Notre Dame, but follow it up with UTEP, Iowa State, Baylor, West Virginia,and TCU (day after Thanksgiving). If it weren't for Notre Dame, they aren't playing anyone that their fans really care a ton about.

Almost miraculously, these hires almost seem as if we know we are moving upward (conference-wise) very soon...

I agree on the need for the body bag game to pay the bills, as its a necessity for most lower level G5s. But the FCS home game is what I hate. I just think its a colossal waste of time and money. I still go back to this, but if--and its a huge if at this point--SMU stays on the schedule, they provide us with the absolute best outlet to take advantage of the schedule. Sign BYU to a home-and-home, as well as our game with Army. When you play OOC games, you play SMU at home, at bodybag, @Army, and a home game with BYU. Next year, you play at bodybag, at BYU, home against Army, and what is basically a neutral site game in Dallas against SMU. Just seems like a pretty good use of location on many levels to get a great OOC opponent here to play us.

I agree. Now that we run an offense that looks a lot like what 95% of the TX HS offenses run, we should get better QBs from the HS ranks. Vizza came here because Dodge ran an offense that was made for him--Vizza just didn't realize that the OL here was going to get him beat to a pulp in a stadium that was below the level of what he played in at Alamo Heights. Give Fine time--and I mean years in this system. It wouldn't surprise me to see him be the current version of Scott Davis, Mitch Maher, or Scott Hall--all UNT QBs that played a lot as freshmen and showed tons of heart in the entirety of their careers here.

The logos that I really like are Air Force, Navy, Army, Michigan State, LSU, Notre Dame, North Carolina, Texas, OU, Kansas, Colorado, Texas Tech, Baylor, Penn State, UTEP and our very own Flying Worm 2.0 that we now use. I think that Mizzou, Alabama, K-State, Iowa State, UTSA, Purdue, Okie Lite, Oregon, Washington State, Arkansas, and Kentucky are anywhere from bad to just terrible...

I think K-States logo is weak, actually.

Of course Mac wouldn't have offered him. He's not from that hotbed of QBs known as Iowa City and his dad isn't one of his buddies...

OTOH, we'd like for you to keep smoking--near gasoline, propane, dynamite, bombs, etc... Or just chug bleach...

OK--we have the shortfall. Then don't spend 400k or more to buy a FCS spare to come here. Play 5 home games one season, 6 the next. Don't spend 40% of your body bag $$$ on FCS spares that nobody cares about and don't help your team compete against other FBS teams.

Great take...//serioussportscaller

loose: lose :: bear:bare

UNT--$1,000,000 UF--60 points

Its funny--we saw Southern Miss fall to the bottom of FBS in basically 2012 and 2013, then SMU in 2014, and then us in 2015. It now appears that Rice might be the biggest loser in 2016, based off of their start and playing under a coach who tried to leave in the offseason, like SMU basically did with June Jones. Just as we have seen USM run back upward quickly with the right hire, as well as the progress SMU has shown under Morris and the way that Littrell has reinvigorated Denton, if Bailiff gets fired soon, we can look at Rice as the next school that needs to find the right hire to rebuild up from the ashes...

And how realignment may affect our conference, as well.

I agree completely here. We have two teams left that are possible wins (Rice and UTSA), in my opinion. Rice looks like the best chance right now, just because its early and they have looked absolutely horrible. I fear that the UTSA game will be at a point when our depth issues start to really show up, not to mention their revenge factor from last season's ridiculous loss to us. But, again, if we pull off both of those two games on the road, and that gets us to 3 wins, I'll pronounce Seth Littrell as the best hire we have had here since Corky Nelson. Because if he pulls that off from what he inherited, it will be a great sign for our short-term future and his long-term future...