untjim1995

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.

I agree here, Lifer. 2013 showed there is interest if we can build up a winner. Marketing from an AD who actually tried something might have helped us, but it goes back to not being associated with a winner. The thing that people don't realize is just how powerful the influence of others really is for going to college football games. People want to go to games that others will be at--in other words, most fans don't want to go to games where there are more open seats around them than full seats. Sure, there are diehards that go to our home games, rain or shine, hot or cold, FCS or FBS, etc...but the love of being able to tell their buddies that I've been to every game to watch us play since whenever loses its luster when there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately for us, since the Dickey SBC run was winding down, the light at the end of the tunnel ended up just being a train--Dickey wins 5 games in his last two seasons and burns every bridge he ever had built here, we hire Dodge straight from high school and we win 6 games in his tenure here. We hire McCarney, who talks a good game and takes Dodge's recruits and puts them into an actual college regiment and builds it up to bowl winner in 2013, only to watch it colossally end in failure just a year and a half later. And now we have Littrell, who looks and talks the part, but has to deal with almost no talent for his schemes. We sure hope the light we see is in fact, the sun, not a brand new train again, ready to bowl us over in another couple of years. I think Wren Baker is going to really make us feel better going forward, but he's gonna have to have a winner to help make this thing work. Even if RV wasn't a terrible and lazy AD, the product we have spoon-fed our fans in the last 11+ years has been absolutely unacceptable. No amount of marketing would have made the Dodge years any better, nor would it have made the last two Mac years any less embarrassing.

And shows his dedication to meanness by really getting back at posters with the power of DOWNVOTING!!! Snowflakes gonna snowflake...

And even if he did, who cares about down or up votes on your posts? Its not you are winning or losing anything based on your vote totals...

This is what some of us have been trying to say for awhile. Littrell's system is 180 degrees different from McCarney's and these guys were mostly low-rated recruits that came here to run his decrepit office. Just like we saw this week, with a great recruiting pickup of a guy that is damn-near a 4* kid, the future is only brighter with these kinds of roster additions. He's got to get talent here that fits his system. I think we can see that they system works when it has the right personnel. He just has to keep winning these battles...

This is exactly how you fix the locker room issues we had last year with the team quitting on the university. You get a fired up coach who makes it clear that if you'll go hard, Ill back you up. If you won't, you need to leave.

To me, this is where the university and Hayden Fry were short-sighted when it came to our big time college football aspirations. Rather than putting all of our eggs in the SWC basket, which had the state and the MEtroplex completely covered, we should have put the Big Eight in a position to fight over us with the SWC. If we had talked to the Big Eight about getting a foothold in DFW, opening up recruiting for all of their schools for TX HS kids even more than they already had at the time, and allowed their alumni bases to have a chance to see them annually in the Metroplex (Beyond just OU), it would have either gotten us in up there or it would have made the SWC stop and realize that allowing the Oklahoma schools, Nebraska, and Colorado to get into the state even further would have been disastrous for them. But instead, the SWC said no way, led by the privates up here in North Texas, and we flat out decided to basically give up.

I picked us to win 2 games this year, at home against BC and at UTSA. But, I'm going to swap out the win @UTSA with a win at Rice. Rice looks bad--I am glad this game is early in the season and that we are relatively healthy right now. I see us winning a shootout, 37-35.

THIS is a great win for us this year!! As Ive said, the scoreboard this year doesn't matter nearly as much as the Recruiting wins we get during the weeks ahead!! Great job, staff!!

The schedule is just a reality we have to accept going forward, unless the university pays to buyout contracts and pay for other opponents to get here. For a place that doesn't have that kind of funds, that easy million dollar check isn't going away. It's the buying out of FCS games that would change things here. The effects of RV's laziness at scheduling to a brand new stadium near DFW are going to be felt for years to come if nothing changes.

We were always going to be a 1-2 win team this season. Losing to Florida while getting a million dollars doesn't change that. Littrell, Harrell, and Fine are learning on the fly, with returning players who don't fit his system at all. Plus, he has had to already run off several scholarship guys who showed they'll quit on the university in a heartbeat. The rebuild here is colossal in its enormity. It's hard to accept as fans, but it's why watching the scoreboard this year isnt the way to gauge success here--it's ALL about the results we see in recruiting, meaning the biggest wins this year will be in the locker rooms and living rooms across the state, not on the field.

Earlier this year, I went thru two different G5 rankings to assess the best G5 conferences, based on overall average of the rankings of the teams in each league. The SBC was last, followed by CUSA, then the MAC. So far, this year, Marshall got pole axed by Akron, UTEP and Rice have been crushed by Army, USM got beat by Troy, and FIU lost to the team that many figured was one of the three worst in the country, UMass. From what I've seen so far, La Tech should walk away with CUSA West, just because the other teams aren't very good in the division, although USM is better than they showed tonight. And I guess MUTS and WKU are the teams to beat out East. But overall, the conference seems way down compared to seasons past.