untjim1995

Of course the coaches want that--it means their kids are probably getting some or all of their college paid for and it helps with their own resume. The biggest problem that UNT has with recruiting is that Texas HS players and coaches only look at us as a fallback school. They look at the old SWC schools as the top-tier places to get kids to go, for athletics or academics. Then you get the public G5s--Texas State, UTSA, UTEP, and UNT. Right now, the programs at the other three are bad, too, which helps, but they all have very good talking points to make in attacking us while recruiting the same kids. UTEP has scoreboard on us for the last two season, gets solid OOC teams on the schedule to play in El Paso, and show off their school at the Haskins Center in El Paso during recruiting in the new year in front of large crowds. UTSA doesn't have scoreboard this year--and that is huge for us--but they do get very good programs to San Antonio for games at the Alamodome. San Antonio, for some people, has a cool vibe, too, because of the tourism angle (not me, but others view it this way). Texas State has the biggest hurdle to overcome in SBC membership and a poor set of teams to play regularly. We shouldn't lose any battles to them or UTSA, in my opinion. I'd go after their commitments or those that they offered and hammer them with Littrell's OU playing career, Tech coaching career under Leach, and his UNC play calling this past season. I'd also go after any Texas kid that has committed to a team in the SBC in Louisiana or Arkansas.

And high school kids knew all about Todd Dodge. Seth Littrell will have to get his name out there over the coming months just to get ready for a decent class in 2017.

When it comes to the NCAA, if the application reads like this, north TEXAS, there is a real chance it could happen.

I always think its good to have an apples-to-apples comparison when you look at the progress of you coach versus the other applicants. It is very similar in a lot of ways to the Mac vs Franchione vs Coker triumvirate...

The 8 team idea that is open to everyone is the right way to go. By opening it up to one G5, they will help keep the current FBS status quo in place for a while. What makes sense is 5 P5 conference champion, top ranked G5, and two wild cards. This year, you'd have Clemson vs. UH, Alabama vs. Ohio State, Michigan State vs. Stanford, and Oklahoma vs. Iowa. That would be a nice starting point, played at the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, and Peach Bowl, with the winners playing at the Cotton Bowl and Orange Bowl, and the final game being in Arizona. Doesn't change one thing about the other bowls, either.

Ben Gooding would be a fine addition to our athletic department right now. RV would probably have him deal with everyone but about 17 donors. We need to make this happen, ASAP.

They also have a coach who has shown that he is a good one at UAB...

This is what I figured would happen. So we know that our schedule next year looks like this: Bethune-Cookman, SMU, La Tech, Southern Miss, Marshall, and MUTS at home Florida, Army, UTSA, UTEP, Rice, and Western Kentucky on the road. That is just brutal for where we are right now, but it also adds to why 2017 and 2018 should be when we see more wins come around.

Trilli really was a terrific guy. You'd want him to be your neighbor, church member, insurance salesman, etc...he was a hard worker and intensely positive. He just couldn't coach x's and o's above a below-average YMCA coach. Todd Dodge and Vic Trilli ended up having a lot in common.

You should expect to see effort improvement in 2016. You should competitive improvement in 2017. You should see a team that hopefully can contend by 2018 for at least a CUSA West Division Championship. If it happens faster than that, tip your cap to Littrell. If it doesn't, the hole that he has to dig out of was just too deep to recover from in three years and he will probably either get fired or have a 4th chance to prove he can make this team into a winner. I'm of the belief that you have absolutely bottom-of-the-barrel talent here overall, full of guys who have no idea how to play a spread offense in college, nor do we have a QB. Add in a small defensive front seven and a slow defensive backfield and combine it with a very short recruiting period where Texas HS Coaches are saying they haven't seen our coaches in years, its gonna be real tough in 2016. My expectation for next year is to win 2 games. If its better than that, I'll be amazed. Then, in 2017, let's see continued improvement and get to 4 or 5 wins. And finally, by 2018, get to 7+ wins. This isn't Mac taking over Dodge's talented recruit and using actual college coaches to get them to achieve a good season. This is a brand new head coach taking over a team with less talent than what Dodge took over in 2007 from Dickey. Mac didn't leave the cupboard empty, he basically hammered the thing into pieces. Hopefully, Canales built the cupboard again and it will be usable to begin stockpiling players here. That speaks to the character and attitude of this roster that quit on the university on Homecoming. Littrell's first job in the coming months is to just see who has leadership skills and eager attitudes and who doesn't. And then use the spring to see if there is a QB around here that can work in his offense or if he is just better off bringing in someone brand new and just rolling with the new guy from a high school or JUCO.

I hope he uses the Littrell offensive nuptial proposal instead of the Benford approach...you know, "Hey, I can't do anything fundamentally right, and I know your talent is the best its ever been, but I plan to lazily take advantage of that and draw a paycheck for the next 4 years until you financially decide there is someone better than me that will come along. Plus, if I was really that great, my ex in Lubbock would have married me years ago anyway...Whadda ya say?"

So ridiculous...that is what happened when one mega donor held the AD hostage with their donations. Now that AD has insulated himself within 17 people so that we will eventually get the equally ridiculous RV Athletic Department Offices to overlook that field. Meanwhile, Hayden Fry, Odus Mitchell, and Mean Joe Greene have nothing named after them. Makes perfect UNT sense...

Who stole my idea?

Our defense didn't fall apart because of Skladany and Joseph leaving. It fell apart because the players we lost were replaced with much less talented guys than what we had in 2013. Our defense in 2013 was one of the best at turnovers--neither of the last two have come close to that. That's not coaching--that's a severe lack of playmakers, from the undersized DL to the slow secondary. Its gonna take a couple of years to get the pieces together on BOTH sides of the ball to get anywhere close to our 2013 team, which along with our 2003 team, were the best squads UNT has fielded since 1978.

He is really a perfect fit as an OC. He doesn't have to interact with the media or fans as much as the head coach does, plus he can use his time to focus on installing offensive schemes that the head coach wants him to implement. He also can't let the outside influences of the situation cause him to build an offense around his personal views of the situation, but instead focus on what the head coach wants.

It was probably the best thing Parker ever did. We all had to learn the alma mater and sing it everyday at lunch during two-a-days. That way, all the freshmen had to learn it, too...

This. The year SMU just endured under Morris was a retrenching year for them. Them getting two wins was just gravy. Just getting a head coach that seems to know how to run an offense and talk to high school coaches in Texas was the biggest thing SMU accomplished in 2015. Everything else that occurred--their two wins, the playing experience, the changing of attitudes in and around the locker room--are all secondary to getting a guy in there that can turn the thing around possibly in 2 or 3 years. Everything you just read above, change SMU to UNT, change Morris to Littrell, and change 2015 to 2016.

There's not much sunshine to pump these days, but hope springs eternal... Littrell has to overcome A LOT of hurdles, but maybe he can achieve something good here. He is hamstrung with a terrible AD and culture of apathy, both of which will be very hard to defeat. But he might just be the guy to do it. Its hard to imagine that he will, based on the previous 35 years worth of football coaches, but I hope he does and I wish him luck.

Nah, if they have their 4th string QB stay in the game, they probably win over us. And if we played them in San Antonio, we would've gotten run over. No way we weren't the worst FBS team in the country this past year. You don't lose 66-7 at home against a team from FCS on your Homecoming and not be the worst team. We are somewhat lucky that Texas just happens to have 4 other FBS dregs in the state to recruit against in SMU, UTSA, UTEP, and Texas State. If Littrell can find a QB for his system in the next few years, he can easily vault us over these four squads and up to a level that Rice and La Tech are at right now in CUSA.

1.) First goal needs to be to analyze the roster and see who has talent to stay, as well as not having bad character flaws that have obviously hurt the locker room. 2.) See if you can get Dillman to be a QB in your system. If so, let him compete with Damarcus Smith for the starting job. 3.) See what you have on the offensive side of the ball to get a better idea of the players who can play in your wide-open system, versus Mac's Model T offense. 4.) Run off anyone who shows the propensity to quit during practice, conditioning drills, or going to class--not to mention if they cause any problems at all in the locker room. Run off whoever you deem necessary--the university's fans will understand, without even batting an eye. Everyone that quit on the program and caused the worst loss in modern college football history should have to prove they will never quit again. 5.) Use this first year wisely--its the only time that you'll get a full reprieve for terrible football. You are inheriting the worst FBS team in the country. The best recruiting class you are inheriting finished 90th out of 127, including one that was dead-ass last in 2014 and one that will probably be close to that this year, only because of the changes made now and the small window available for recruiting. This is time for character development, strength and conditioning, and gaining playing experience. If it comes with a 2 win season or worse, sobeit. 6.) Don't mention that you won a national championship at OU when you are being interviewed about North Texas.

If someone can photoshop this truck with green instead of blue, with our logo, that would hit it on the head...

TCU is the miracle here. They got great at the perfect time--when the Big XII falls apart from its original membership and the Aggies leave to go to the SEC, creating an opening in the conference. The Northern Big XII schools who depend on Texas recruiting give the mandate that A&M must be replaced with another Texas school, preferably one that is really good and can help get their alumni in DFW an easy game to watch. TCU, with its small enrollment, gets the nod over UH, all because they got a great football program before UH did. As for us, well, its really hard to imagine us moving too much further up the food chain. As was mentioned, SMU has the dollars, the tradition, the DFW media, and the location of being right in Dallas. They blocked us from CUSA for years until they decided to jump up to the Big East, until that turned into a fancier version of their previous conference. That allowed us to move up to their slot in CUSA, which has also turned into a fancier version of our previous conference, but gave us actual Texas schools to compete with for the first time in a FBS conference since the 60s. I think this is the perfect place for us right now, playing schools we should be able to compete with each year, hopefully being able to win.

UH is a great story this season--but their location is the killer. The Big XII and SEC don't get anything extra from adding UH. The Pac-12 might be their best bet, or the ACC, but I expect that the Texoma Four will go west to the Pac, when the GOR for the Big XII expires in 2025. The Big XII is DOA. It doesn't have the TV sets that the other conferences have, nor the prestige. The B1G, ACC, and SEC will choose from the carnage. KU, WVU, and possibly K-State will find homes in the other leagues. Iowa State, Baylor, and TCU have their work cut out for them. My guess is that the P4 will break apart, but they will throw a bone to those G5 programs that are better than the P4s bottom teams, programs like UH, Boise State, Memphis, etc...They will let them be a BYU-type possibility--be independent, still get considered as a possible contender, and treated like a quasi-Power league member. It won't surprise me at all to see independents in football come back into vogue again, like they were until the early 90s. Houston, Baylor, TCU, Boise State, UCF, and a few others might just follow the lead of BYU and kick it old school again, just to have some hope of getting some P4 $$$, both in regular season games, as well as possible bowl games. Right now, BYU has scheduling problems that they somehow are able to get resolved. But if they got some of the programs to follow suit, these schools could easily play each other, plus 3-4 P4 games a year. It won't surprise me if this has some of this programs hang on for awhile, to see if they can make it financially and competitively--assuming that they still have conferences to be a apart of, like BYU does, for their other sports.

As predicted, Rob Evans will be our interim coach at some point in early 2016. Once a winning season is out of question, Benford will get the Dodge treatment...