untjim1995

Starting?? That started in Year one of the Bumford Era...

I have a strong feeling that Dillman will be our starting QB in 2017...give him time with Harrell's coaching and Littrell's offense and I bet he shows up as the QB a lot of people wanted him to be at Nebraska.

Young Ben, we have been trying to tell you this for multiple years now. The leadership at this university will never look at sports the way you want them to. They care a ton about UNT-Dallas or UNT-Frisco, as they know its easy money to get more students to enroll. Winning at revenue sports has never mattered here one iota. Never. There are literally decades of figures from w/l records, attendance, fundraising, etc..to look at to back this up. Just now, we have 17 alums, out of hundreds of thousands of UNT graduates, who care enough about UNT sports to fund it at a "big" level. And how does the BOR and administration look at them? Like they are god-sends, because they don't have to put any emphasis on even caring about something they don't want to care about. Hence, we get UNT-Dallas from Lee Jackson. We get UNT-Frisco, which Smatresk seems giddy about.

There a lot of things RV is terrible at. We don't need to manufacture $hit to enhance that--which is what is happening here. All of this, RV being the AD, hiring coaches that cannot make a dent in recruiting or have no idea how to coach a college football team, having absolutely no sway in Texas HS Coaches or recruits minds, and having very little media and fan interest--it all stems from two things: apathy from the university's leadership being funneled down to the students, faculty, and alumni, as well as the gut punch that almost killed the program by dropping down to 1-aa for 12 freaking years in the 80s and 90s. You are literally dealing with a program that no more than 2% of its potential students and alumni base even follow--the coaches and recruits only know us as a loser, even if they don't know much else about us (see the Aledo kid earlier this year that said he had no idea about UNT as an option). Its gonna take a special coach to rebuild this thing up. Somebody who can coach up low rated and unrated kids to beat CUSA programs, while not getting completely defeated by the fact that UNT is difficult to recruit to (see McCarney's evolution from rah-rah guy to bitter, old man coach in 4 years). Littrell is next in line to try this. And maybe he can do it, when the previous coaches since Dickey's SBC run ended in 2004, couldn't. But even Dickey pulled that off by miraculously pulling in some very solid recruits--not getting kids that had only one FBS offer (us). Littrell's job is one that is damn near Herculean. If he pulls it off, he will have earned every single cent that he will get paid after this monumental achievement. We thought Dodge left Mac with nothing, but it was more to the point that he couldn't coach at this level, since there was some very developable talent here then. I don't know how anyone can look at what Littrell has inherited and think its even closely similar, from a talent standpoint, to what Mac inherited. Its like looking down a well and realizing that you can't even see water. That's where we are right now. Its gonna take a monumental effort just to get water in the bucket, much less to just get it up to the top of the well.

What helps RV with the declining attendance is the fact that CUSA TV payout has been better than anything we had before, although that is about to decline significantly. That helps to keep the BOR focused on the things they want to focus on, as MGT noted. Of course, scheduling big payout games in football and basketball still covers a lot of bills, too, which he has going forward for the next 5 years or more. MGT is right about the day of reckoning being about being out of budget. But that will happen because of the bigger revenue streams we currently get thru TV and bodybag games, not because of declining attendance. Again, that attendance drop in both sports would have already cost him his job if that was the case. Its not and that is why he has it made as long as 17 people will continue to fund the department over and above what the UNT BOR budgets.

Couldn't agree more, DeepGreen. Only thing that brings people like us back in the fold is winning OR firing RV. I'm like Littrell a lot, but I don't have much faith for him to get this turned around with the "leadership" that RV provides and the BOR demands of him. If Littrell does turn it around here, getting us to .500 or better at anytime in the next three years, he will be coaching somewhere else as one of the hottest coaching commodities in college football. I hope he gets that opportunity--he seems like a great guy and a real family man. But it remains to be seen if he can be a head coach that produces wins on the field, not just in the locker room and with the community. Dodge and Mac were great in the locker room and with the community--yet failed miserably here. Unless Littrell can make it happen on the field here, with improved recruiting and an actual college football playbook and strategies, he will unfortunately follow in the footsteps of the coaches before him here. And that will continue to fall on the footsteps of the leadership here--which has proven over and over that they don't know what they are doing...

And none of it matters. RV isn't getting fired. If he was going to be replaced, it would have already happened. RV has the full backing of 17 people who love the access and laughs they get from the AD. And the BOR is fine with that. Benford will get fired as soon as a winning season isn't possible...just like Dodge did. By "saving" 325k extra, we have been rewarded, just like we were with Vic Trilli and Todd Dodge, with a 4th year of lots of losing. But we don't care about attendance or donations. We care about the known costs, and we know that buying out Benford last year would have cost $325k more than it does now.

Looking at Benford's track record, I'd be willing to bet he would finish closer to 9th or 10th...even if only three people entered said contest.

Morris could very well be the best QB we have had here since we moved up to FBS. Vizza, from a pure talent standpoint was the best we have had, with Scott Hall's grit making him number two on that list. Vizza just got the $hit beat out of him too much on the hard Fouts turf and decided that this place wasn't for him. With a real college coach and line, he could have been really, really good here, at least on par with everything Derek Thompson did. I figure Morris' pedigree of being an Allen HS QB and earning a scholarship to Bama has to give him some respect from the UNT fans. It would be damn near impossible to be worse than what we have seen the last two years with 4 FCS or lower QBs.

That was that real high scoring game...like 7 OTs produced 27 points for a Dickey-coached team in his last two seasons!! On a different note, but one that was not good news on the national scene, was when our football team got caught stealing hundreds of towels, sheets, and blankets from a hotel in Logan, Utah...that one made USA Today and CNN back in the mid 90's...

Its a very interesting question. The litmus test would be to pick Joe College Football Fan or Joe College Basketball Fan and ask them if they knew anything about North Texas. I would imagine some older fans would remember Fry's teams from the 70s, but that would be a select few. When the USA Today had both Cobbs and Jamario on the cover, since both were national rushing champions from the previous two years, in 2005, that probably weighed in on the national public, to some degree, but then we fell off that mountain and landed in the ocean, then sank to the bottom of the ocean. Even on a regional level, the only three things that come to mind are the HoD Bowl and our two NCAA Tournament teams. But in each case, we followed those high points with some of the worst team performances in school history.

I am so glad to see that they are going to be paying at the NAIA level. Otherwise, well you all know...

I have Four Roses Single Barrel, Makers Mark, and Willett in the cabinet at home. Just finished off some Old Forrester 1897, which was very good, too. Not counting my Pappy pours of the 10-year and 12 year, the best bourbons still are Blantons and EH Taylor. Willett is also very good. For the money, from a value standpoint, Elijah Craig 12-year is easy to find, not very expensive, and good on ice or mixed. Eagle Rare is also a decent value, as well. I had a pour of George T. Stagg once (not junior) and it about burned my esophagus off--proof was 141. But after it sat on the ice, it was still very good. Stagg, Jr. wasn't my favorite, though. Four Roses is kinda like that to me, as well. Good, but not my favorite--certainly not as high on the proof as GTS Jr...

All I know is that Aqib Talib was the best player on a Kansas squad that went 12-1 and won the Orange Bowl in 2008.... Kansas When he left Lawrence, their entire program fell apart.

Creative...

In yesterday's article from SBNation about why the Mean Green are always bad, they used their simulation to look at 2016's upcoming season and to see what our chances of winning each game would be. The only one we were favored to win in their program was against Bethune-Cookman. 2016 Schedule & Projection Factors 2016 Schedule Date Opponent Proj. S&P+ Rk Proj. Margin Win Probability 3-Sep SMU 98 -7.7 33% 10-Sep Bethune-Cookman NR 7.3 66% 17-Sep at Florida 18 -35.9 2% 24-Sep at Rice 119 -7.9 32% 1-Oct Middle Tennessee 90 -10.1 28% 8-Oct Marshall 75 -14.8 20% 22-Oct at Army 124 -5.9 37% 29-Oct at UTSA 116 -8.2 32% 5-Nov Louisiana Tech 84 -11.9 25% 12-Nov at Western Kentucky 45 -27.0 6% 19-Nov Southern Miss 72 -15.2 19% 26-Nov at UTEP 126 -4.4 40%

Greer was a massive bust. Truer words have never been posted about a JUCO QB making his way to UNT. From the first snap at UT, it was obvious that the FBS game speed was waaaaayyyyyyy too fast for him. It is almost inconceivable to imagine that you could say this about any QB, but Greer was the one who made McNulty not be the worst QB in FBS the last two years. Think about that for a moment....

I think that there's a very real chance that we may well be the worst team again, but our offense won't be the worst in the country. We will score points, assuming Morris can run this offense--and I bet he can. But our defense is what will keep us at the bottom of FBS. We don't have any size or speed on that side of the ball. It won't surprise me to see this year look like a Dodge-type season, where are offense puts up lots of yards and points in garbage time, but the defense will not stop anyone. I have us winning 2 games this year, against Bethune-Cookman and one of our Texas opponents (most likely UTSA). There is a reason we aren't favored in any game, except Bethune-Cookman and that we are ranked dead-ass last by ESPN right now. The talent just isn't there and the coaching staff is as green as a freshly picked banana. We just have to accept that this is a year to re-start the program. And its a very real possibility that we can only match last season's win total because of the pit that Mac left us in. The wins and losses that matter the most in 2016 aren't on the field--they are in the homes and locker rooms of Texas HS recruits and their coaches. If we go 1-11 again, but have a class that ranks above 90 overall, then this will have been a year where improvement was made in a very tangible fashion. Littrell is learning on the fly--and it will be his recruiting that is the easiest way to influence where this program goes in the years after 2016.

He either doesn't care about athletics, which is why he got hired here by the BOR, or he does like it, but the BOR and others made it clear to tone it down. My guess is the former, but the latter is just as disappointing. Maybe Smatresk will get stuff done, from a leadership standpoint in regards to athletics, but I think a lot of us felt that replacing the AD would have been the best way to show that. Since that hasn't happened, and RV was allowed to be involved in the hiring of the football coach, as well as either receiving an automatic extension if Benford gets retained or being involved in yet another revenue sport hire, the status quo seems to be in full control in Denton.

Its really hard to argue any of that post. I think we all felt that way when we moved up to Division 1-A in 1995. I know that I thought the SBC run was a the trampoline to move us upward. Instead, the trampoline broke. We hired two other guys to bring their own trampolines, but Dodge's was broken from the start and McCarney had one that might have worked, but he refused to jump on it. It is amazing how bad we have gotten, especially being in Texas as a university that has fielded a team for 100+ years. We will be favored, most likely, in 2016 in one game, as the post showed, against Bethune-Cookman. Maybe we do win 3-4 games, as that suggested, but I think that would be an outrageously optimistic thought. Just don't lose to Bethune-Cookman and win another game somewhere else--that would be a good sign for us, basically equaling what SMU did under Morris in his first season, after June Jones last team went 1-11.

True. SMU fans are a rare breed--as in you rarely meet one--outside of North Dallas. But they got money, location, and media. But they also have just a big enough name to get donkey-punched by the NCAA for cheating. Never punish the P5 big boys, but find a big enough name just outside of that group to place sanctions upon. Some might even call that "Nasty"...

He's quoting the prim-and-proper North Dallas crowd at SMU. They think Denton is nasty and hate that their school even plays us in any sport in Denton--which is why they won't come up here for a game (see 2006 and 2014).

Damn...Pappy at $18?? If I find it for under $30 a pour, I'm interested enough to consider it. My dad came across a bottle this Christmas that his friend at the liquor store held out for him...needless to say, it was a very Merry Christmas that night for he, my brother-in-law, and myself...

This and Blanton's are my two favorites--both aren't cheap, but they are the best that you can find--usually--on the shelves at most liquor stores or in the back where they keep the good stuff.

There are some good Texas whiskeys out there, but I prefer the Kentucky Bourbons myself. Garrison Bros, is a Texas outfit and it is expensive, but very good. There's actually a Lewisville whiskey that I tried over the holidays that was not too expensive, but was really good on the palate--Witherspoon's was what is was called. But Buffalo Trace, Eagle Rare, EH Taylor, Blanton's, Weller, Stagg--those are some of the labels of Buffalo Trace Distillery.