untjim1995

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.

Buffalo Trace--and almost every bourbon that comes from that distillery, is pure greatness... You've got pretty good taste, for being a Paschal guy...

SMU looks at us the way we look at UTSA, when it comes to rivalry talk. SMU will ALWAYS look at TCU, for many reasons, as their ultimate rival. And they should. But they also have UH, Tulsa, and Tulane, as well. We aren't their rivals, but they know we view them as ours. It all goes back to the college football totem pole. The AAC > CUSA > SBC. Since these three conferences house the 7 G5s in our state, we know that UH and SMU view the rest of us in CUSA as beneath them, even if they play us. And the entire Texas CUSA contingent looks down on Texas State, but it doesn't mean they won't get to play someone hire than them in the Texas G5 world. I still go back to the fact that the SBCUSA teams really should realign themselves into geographically oriented divisions, with the exception of Idaho. That's 24 teams. Nobody cares about playing NMSU in Florida, nor does anyone in Texas care about playing Charlotte. NMSU, UTEP, Texas State, UTSA, UNT, Rice, La Tech, ULM, ULL, Arkansas State, USM, and UAB USA, Troy, MUTS, WKU, Marshall, ODU, Appy State, Charlotte, FIU, FAU, Ga St, and GA Southern Champions play each other in a bowl game...

It's brilliant, when you look at it from RV's standpoint. He won...by insulating himself within the web of 17 big moneyed donors that like athletics, while being at a place that administratively doesn't care much at all about them, RV has created the ultimate force-field of ever getting fired. Smatresk either couldn't get him fired or doesn't care enough about this to fire him. Either way, its status quo, from a leadership standpoint, and RV will win that battle every time going forward. I congratulate him on the win. Several fans have quit on the program under his leadership, but there is absolutely no doubt who won. And that is why the Rick Villareal Athletic Department is as much of a certainty as the UNT 17 taking care of their buddy to continue to get access to their pet projects. #UNTADforlife

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.