untjim1995

Realistically, Benford has two things that will happen to him at the end of the season--he is either fired or he is extended by a year or two. No chance he goes into the last year of a contract...too much instability for the entire program. You easily get tune-out from players when losing starts, knowing the coach is a lame-duck. You get no recruiting done at all for recruits beyond 2017. And you probably lose recruits you have lined up already for next year, knowing that the coach they signed here to play under will be gone. In a dream world, he will get canned as soon as a winning season is no longer possible, and we hire someone who knows how to actually be a head coach. In a nightmare world, we extend him, without ever having a winning record, while playing in a conference that has lost all of its basketball luster, due to the realignment exodus of the teams that went to the AAC. Look, his teams win a game or two they shouldn't every year, while losing 3-4 games a year they shouldn't. Creighton last year, La Tech this year, that's how things tend to go in college basketball. But its the Alabama-Huntsville, ULM, Prairie View A&M, and Rice losses over the years that serve as a reminder that you shouldn't get your hopes up that some corner has been turned. Of course, the pesky "above .500" hurdle is the ultimate proof, as well...

My alltime favorite passive-aggressive comment about our usual suckitude in football: "Well, all I know is that if we had to play yall in a music performance, yall would kick our ass..."

If you felt that way with your 9-year old nephew, imagine how you would have felt with your 29-year old buddy or your 39-year old neighbor or co-worker...especially if those adults went to a P5 school somewhere. I learned a looonnng time ago that a UNT home game is best attended with fellow alums or alumni of FCS/D-2 schools. Its better with Apogee, obviously, but if you want to talk about embarrassing, imagine taking an adult that went to a P5 giant with you to watch a UNT game played at home against a SBC team played at Fouts...I did that exactly once, only to hear nothing but laughter at neighborhood parties afterwards for years, as he described going to watch us get spanked by a Florida "Airport", in front of about 6000 people, sitting on a bench seat that felt like he was a mile and a half away from the field...just a bit different from his days at Auburn.

Pretty much. I really think Littrell will get us to that 2013 type level again in 2018.

No worries...caring about -1s or +1s on a message board doesn't seem terribly important, but to each their own I suppose.

Man, that same thing has happened so many times over the years...in both football and mens hoops.

Fair enough...but all I know is that playing at Rice has never produced a close game for our team in the last decade. We have gotten beat anywhere from bad to "OMG, are you still a FBS program in Texas?" bad (77-20, 2008, when Rice literally quit trying after the 3rd quarter and never scored again...). But you are right, UTEP may just be better than Rice. I don't see us winning either game, but we have been closer to UTEP recently, than we have Rice...

I hate that school--everything about it. The location sucks, their weather sucks, and so does their student body/young alumni. They have earned every bit of their reputation as being a wasteland of Texas HS kids. But I will also admit a lot of my hate for them is jealousy that they got included in the SWC/Big XII club because of their $hitty location and being a bigger public school that UT can easily control. Not to go all CougarQueen, but Tech provides almost no competition for recruits the way UH has done when they have been really good, just because of their location. But UH's academics and location are all more threatening to UT than Tech, so the Red Raiders get by on bowing down at the Altar of the Longhorn, following their directives at every turn, hoping that UT keeps them around when the next realignment occurs.

Who do you see as sure wins, possible wins, and probable losses (not including Florida)? I see one sure win against BC, possible wins over SMU, @Army, @UTSA, and @UTEP, and the others as probable losses. With our track record on the road, as well as a dearth in talent, in no way could I feel comfortable predicting more than 2 wins, but I certainly don't think that we get more than 3. That schedule, for our current G5 program, is brutality. Should it be? No. But it just is, right now. Its also a bigger reason why I feel like we will see improvement in 2017 and 2018. We will have SMU, Army, P5 bodybag, and FCS bought game, plus the CUSA West, and three much weaker teams from CUSA East (some combo of F_Us, Charlotte, and Old Dominion). Now that's an easier schedule for us to compete against in the upcoming years.

That's a tough thing...//Jimmy Kimmel shake-voice

If Benford is their coach, they won't be good...I've got the better part of four seasons backing me up on this. But, yeah, a new coach will have talent here, assuming that we don't have a mass exodus after the season. This isn't the same as football--we aren't in a talent pit that will take years to climb out of. Benford will have left us some athletic players because of his recruiting prowess--its just too bad that he couldn't keep us at the level where he inherited us.

The absolute hardest thing UNT has to overcome--apathy among fans and media in DFW. It has been that way for decades. Maybe it was different when Fry was here, but the I-aa debacle of the 80's and early 90's still seems to be the hurdle that this program cannot overcome. Even in winning SBC titles in the early '00s, as well as after the HoD Bowl winning season, we just never have been able to really get much momentum going for fan support or media coverage beyond what we normally get. I still cannot believe that we actually saw a DECLINE in season ticket holders after that 2013 season and HoD Bowl victory. Seriously, that is almost impossible to accomplish after finally having a really good team the year before, arguably one of the best we had rolled out since the Fry days of the 70s.

Spot on... Littrell is a breath of fresh air, for sure. If his attitude can change this team, it will be a great year ahead, even if we go 1-11 again. We won't be bored to tears as we watch two running plays into the line, followed by a bubble screen pass that may or may not get completed, and then a punt. If Morris can stay healthy, this thing should score points against every opponent not named Florida. That will help in recruiting circles, just showing that we play an offense built for 2016, instead of 1916. Littrell's way to success here is really pretty simple. Change the attitude of the locker room, open up the playbook and see if there are players here who can fit into his schemes on both sides of the ball, then recruit kids to come here that will have the right attitude and fit the needs of their position. In the first few years, its going to require a lot of coaching up of the roster. If he can do that, I'd be willing to bet that in his third year, we are bowling and competing for the CUSA West title, at a bare minimum. But we have to give him lots of time to find a QB that will be here more than a year and can actually play FBS level ball. I still believe that Dillman will get every chance from this staff to be just that guy--and it won't surprise me at all to see him as the starter in 2017, under Littrell's and Harrell's leadership.

I'd be shocked if that game starts anytime after 6pm. I actually think it will be an early afternoon game again, as CUSA will use it as a showcase game on Fox Sports, like they did last time they played here in 2014. If the series doesn't continue beyond 2017, it will only be because SMU cancels it. And they will only cancel it if it doesn't help them. Right now, it is a major help. They get a game that they believe they should win, plus its an easy game to travel to for their fans, as well as getting a huge amount of UNT fans to go to Ford when we play there. They need winnable games and well-attended games. I believe they have TCU at home this year and UNT at home in 2017. That's one OOC game that will be well-attended, in theory, every year for them, which helps when the closest teams you play are tiny Tulsa and UH, which doesn't travel that great.

Portland State isn't playing here this year...that, by itself, is awesome news for us.

Just a brutal schedule for where we are currently sitting. We will have one game, as of now, that we will be favored to win--the home game against FCS Bethune-Cookman. I figure that we will beat them and I think we will upset UTSA. After that, the other possible wins include SMU, Army, and UTEP, but two of them are on the road and one is the opener against a team that appears to be a little bit ahead of us right now in SMU. Seriously, if we go 2-10, that would be colossally better than last season when it was a damn miracle that we didn't go 0-12. That would be a great sign for Coach Littrell and the fans if we can just to 2 or more wins this year.

Well, when exactly is UNT going to do much better and decide to try? I'll politely wait for this to happen... It really doesn't matter. The damage is already done, both previously and in future OOC scheduling. We aren't buying our any of those deals, so Incarnate Word, Lamar, ACU, and Bethune-Cookman will be games that Apogee will host. I was just advocating a way that the schedule could have been improved with SMU, Army, and P5 bodybag giant all still being played annually. That's how I would take advantage of playing at SMU to get a better team in here for the fans and the program. But it doesn't matter because its not going to happen until the 2020s, if even then. Probably by then, the P5s will have pulled away and our OOC games will be other G5s and FCS games like these going forward. Until then, enjoy your club seats for FCS and CUSA home games, while seeing RV on the sidelines and the UNT 17 and BOR having a great time in the suites. Because these are the teams you are getting to see and this is the AD that will still be in control.

This isn't that surprising, sadly...

No way. UTSA's situation of talent is not worse than ours--not even close. When they can come up here, playing there 4th and 5th string QB, and only lose on a late TD, while not a god sign for them, it still shows how far behind we are to even them, talent-wise. If we had played them in San Antonio, we lose that game by two TDs, minimum. I never thought I would type this in my life, but Ben Gooding is right. Seth Littrell took over the worst program in America, by a long shot. Hopefully, he knows what he has gotten into here. But to expect that he was going to walk into Texas HS coaches offices and sway people to UNT that had other offers for FBS schools was far-fetched, IMO. It appears that he got some decent players for the situation he inherited, but its going to take years to build up any kind of decent repoire with Texas HS coaches, partly because they don't know anything about him, partly because the recruits barely know who we are, and partly because the people who are aware of us only know us as colossal losers that are completely apathetic about football. UTSA hired a guy who is basically Tony Benford as a football coach. Being LSU's lead recruiter, he has ties everywhere in Louisiana and SE Texas. Not to mention that they already had some recruits from Coker's staff. So they had a guy who could keep kids at UTSA and get some to come aboard. But its my belief, just as it has been with Benford, that recruiters usually make awful head coaches. UTSA will find this out, in time, which is why I feel better about our future than theirs. But that doesn't really raise the bar very high. Until Littrell can show that his schemes will work at this level and that he can be a successful head coach in the locker room and on the field, none of us can really be sure if he is the answer. I sure hope he is--I like the guy. He fits the part for what we need. But the reality that very, very few want to face is that, institutionally, there may just be too many hurdles to overcome here for him to turn it around. We have 4 winning season in 21 years of FBS play. We are near or at the bottom for recruiting HS talent in the state that produces a ton of college players. And our program is currently sitting at the absolute bottom of a deep pit. Hell, UAB didn't even play last year and they are way better off than we are right now, just to illustrate the current place we are sitting. All we can do is hope that Littrell has the ability to be what RV and Smatresk hope he can be as a head coach here, an din time, he will get us back to being a team with a chance at looking like 2013's team again. IF we use USM as a barometer, which I think is fair, 2018 is when we should expect to see that occur. But just as they saw, Monken's first year was a 1-win season. His next year, he got them up to 3 wins. By his third year, he got them up to winning CUSA West and being in the HoD Bowl. And that was such a great job of coaching, he got hired away--this time by an NFL team, not a P5 college. If everything works perfectly here for SL, this is probably what we will see happen. IF not, 2019 is probably it for him--unless he is Dodge-esque, in which case the UNT 17 will probably buy him out early, something we never had on our side until this year...

Like it or not, SMU still has cachet in DFW and in Texas, due to its private status and its SWC pedigree, as well as its location in Dallas. Their coaches and parents know all about them and can play teams they have still heard of while getting a supposedly better degree than the public schools (debatable, but clearly is what a lot of people think...). it also helps that SMU paid big time for a hoops coach and facilities and that it has paid off greatly--this is what recruits come to watch in January when looking at the school. SMU shows a top ten school playing UConn or Cincy, with HOF coach Larry Brown in front of a sellout. We are showing recruits our campus during hoops season, bringing kids to watch us get crushed by Louisiana Tech in front of 2000 people, with Benford coaching in his 4th season. The fight between us and SMU will never be fair--they have the dollars, the history, the local media, and a better conference. Our only hope is beating them on the field when their overrated class gets coached down by coaches that are either inept or have quit. Chad Morris has a ways to go to prove that he will be either of those at SMU, but it will happen. He will either get fired in the next two years or he will be coaching at a P5 somewhere very soon if he can finally get SMU up to .500, especially considering that in 2014, they were the worst FBS team in the country, which is where we ended up being in 2015. Not sure--just saw they had us at #128

This has been my point all along for Coach Littrell. This roster is almost completely devoid of talented players. Maybe he can turn some of what is here into productive players, but his roster is full of offensive players built for an offense that is the polar opposite of his offense. His best QB of the future is seriously probably Dillman, nobody else on this roster. And the defense has no size or speed. Its gonna take a long time to fix this. The class he just signed is ranked last by rivals for a reason. He just had to get what he could get for now, even if these guys end up just being practice guys. We are so far down in recruiting circles for HS talent that it's going to take this whole year just to get TX HS coaches to even know his name and what we are trying to do. If we are REALLY lucky, by 2017, we will see some decent HS recruits make it to Denton, kids that have multiple FBS offers, not beating out FCS and D-2 schools like he just had to accept this time. The hole Mac left us in is probably twice the size that Dickey left Dodge, talent-wise and in recruiting circles. We just have to be patient and understand the pit he is trying to dig us out of. Littrell has his work cut out for him and he is gonna need all the help he can get.

Rivals shows us dead-ass last again, at 128. What do the other sites show us rated?

Its a moot point, because the AD knows that the P5 bodybag is the easiest way to fund the non-revenue programs...and we will take advantage of it until they dry up and go away. When you are running your department to breakeven or make a profit at our level of G5 play, the P5 bloodbath will always be necessary. What amazes me, though, is how the SMU series could easily be used to avoid the FCS bought game. Those games in Dallas are neutral site games, at worst. That leaves you 5 games to make up a better schedule at home. We play Army at home with 4 other CUSA games every year we play in Dallas, plus an FCS game. Its too late now, but the strategy I would have implemented was to use the SMU game as an opportunity to sign a deal with someone like BYU or Boise State to come play here in a home-and-home series. It would have looked like this: 2017--@SMU, @bodybag, Army, @ Boise State + 4 CUSA home games 2018--SMU, @bodybag, @Army , Boise State + 4 CUSA home games 2019--@SMU, @bodybag, Army, @ BYU + 4 CUSA home games 2020--SMU, @bodybag, @Army, BYU + 4 CUSA home games At worst you have 5.5 home games in the odd years, 6 home games in the even, of which none are FCS games that nobody wants to attend and give nothing to your program, ESPECIALLY IF YOU LOSE... Instead, you'd give the fans, particularly the season ticket holders a very nice set of games to bring people to and might just get the attention of some locals who would like to see Boise State or BYU play us, not Incarnate Word, Bethune-Cookman, Lamar, or Abilene Christian. There are many of us who will never step foot in Apogee when the AD gives us a home game against a lower-level team like Nicholls State or Texas Southern--and that isn't even counting the nightmare that the Portland State game provided. We may never get over that loss, as fans or with recruits, when being compared to other G5s in our region.

There cannot be a more simple example that RV could show us about being self-serving than to extend Tony Benford even one day. Benford cannot coach. He can recruit. But he has no x's and o's and has no idea of how to manage a team during a game. I'm sure practices are no different. But, just for the sake of reading this message board basically explode, can you imagine if RV extends Benford, automatically extending his own contract? It would be epic...

To those of us on gmg.com, we want the culture to change when it comes to winning at revenue sports. We are the minority within the community. The community, as a whole, just doesn't want that to be the primary window to the university. They look more fondly on sports today than they ever have, but its in an ISD-type fashion--"We offer students the opportunity to watch FBS/Division I athletics". If the MGC numbers are any true indication of UNT Sports followers, there isn't much demand as we added less than 2% of the total UNT graduates to the MGC since 2002, IIRC. Culturally, you cannot force change upon people who don't want the change. And UNT's administration, students, faculty, and alumni overwhelmingly don't want to put any priority on winning. Having the same AD over all of those years kinda proves this point...