untjim1995

It happens and is allowed to happen because the BOR and administration don't care. They'd get rid of the football program and use Apogee for concerts if it was their druthers. But there are enough fans, miraculously, that would leave UNT behind as soon as that football program got disbanded, meaning loss of KNOWN donors. Since we can't afford to lose any donors of a major level, the university instead has done two things over the years--1.) They just run it like its a ISD's program, just offering it as an option for students to attend even if it is poo-poo'd by the faculty, most of the student body, and most of the citizens of Denton. 2.) Now that they have major donors for athletics, so as to not disturb the apple cart, they basically are letting them run the program--and those 17 people have been sold a "vision" by RV, so they keep him in place, so as to keep their access to the program and to not have to admit that they got swindled by their buddy. And that's why you are dead-on about us having shame instead of pride.

I'll believe until the day I dies that Mac never thought for one second that it would be so tough to recruit here to UNT. I think he thought this was going to be exactly like it was at South Florida, where he went to coach just after losing his job at Iowa State. A huge public university, within a metro area of a recruiting hotbed, with a brand new stadium...I truly believed that he figured this place would sell itself. And I think he stuck with his Woody Hayes offense as a way to differentiate UNT from others when recruiting. But he couldn't get one (ONE!!) Texas HS QB to come here that could play at this level, meaning he had to rely even more on the running game. Obviously, McNulty as a starter was the gigantic mistake that couldn't be overcome, to the point that the whole team just gave up. But Mac thought he had found a place that would be the perfect spot to build up a program from the ashes and cash it into a huge retirement infusion--and he did with that 2013 team full of Dodge's skilled recruits. But when they left, the whole house began to crumble on the sand it was built upon. Once 2014 began to fall apart, his frustrations at being so wrong began to come out in media and fan interactions--and once that happens, you're done with recruiting victories for most recruits against your peers. Whoever takes this job has to overcome the overall apathy of the UNT family, the losing that recruits, Texas High School Coaches, and their parents have only known about UNT for the better part of 20 years as a FBS program, and the fact that you are the lowest FBS school on the totem pole right now with the media and the fans who still follow the team. And, oh by the way, a roster full of mostly low-ranked players that have openly quit and allowed themselves to get beat by 59 points in the worst loss in modern college football history with no decent QB to lead the team. This isn't even considering the fact that you have the worst AD in America to work for...its gonna take some serious time, like 3-4 years, to get this thing back to even a .500 record. Its highly probable that next year's team will be like Dodge's first squad here at UNT or how Chad Morris has done at SMU this year, where you win 1 or 2 games. This roster just has too many huge holes to expect anything different. Chad Morris is finding out the same thing at SMU, especially as their conference has had its best season ever because of the success that Navy, Houston, Memphis, and Temple have all enjoyed this year. Its gonna take them a few more years to get back up to where June Jones had the program before he quit on them, if then. I believe that same thing will be in play here, except for the tough conference schedule. CUSA is weak right now--its just that we are the weakest link in the group right now. That SMU-UNT game next year in Denton will be one of the few winnable games that either school plays in 2016.

What type of coach should we hire? Someone who can also handle AD duties...

Derek Dooley would be a great person to talk to about our opening. He's probably more qualified for this job than any of the P5 OCs we are talking about wanting. This guy won at La Tech, before falling down at Tennessee. There's no shame in that. He figured out a way to help La Tech win, as well as to stay within budget by assuming AD duties, as well. It'd be a huge mistake not to at least talk with Dooley.

A few things: 1.) Brett Vito's blog really, really suggest that he has no insight about this opening being filled at all. For some reason, that just seems pathetic, since he is the only person that covers us in the media, but that's how things seem to roll around here. 2.) Chris Thomsen fits the description perfectly for what we want--previous head coach, current P5 assistant head coach, someone who specializes in coaching linemen, which Mac was supposed to be great at, as well, but just mailed it all in after he got his extension. The OL is the only part of this team, besides RB, that I think we have solid potential in developing decent talent from the current pool of players. Nowhere else on offense, nowhere on defense... 3.) Lincoln Riley had great success at G5 East Carolina, so it should translate to us if he came here, right? Not necessarily...ECU is probably one of the dozen G5 schools that would easily transition to P5 status if they were given the chance, like UH, Boise State, UCF, USF, Fresno State, SDSU, and others. They have awesome fan attendance and support. We are basically the exact opposite of ECU in just about every way imaginable right now, in terms of G5 programs. 4.) Why no mention of Sonny Cumbie in all of this? Has he made it clear he is not interested in coming here from TCU? That guy is a great offensive coach, turned Boykin at TCU into a Heisman hopeful, and has some solid name recognition in this state from his QB days at Tech under Leach, as well as his job as the co-OC at TCU right now. 5.) I just don't see how anyone can believe that RV will get this hire right. I can't believe that there are people in leadership that are allowing him to make this hire after the last 10 years of mostly epic levels of suckitude, culminated with the $2.1 million dollar buyout of McCarney because of the 66-7 crushing on Homecoming against FCS Portland State. .

Maybe RV told Frenchy that he is the Dean of the College of Music when he called about landscaping at his home??

If Benford's job gets saved, it means he's getting extended after this season...think about that for a second.

Can Frenchy let RV advertise upcoming games on the side of his orange trucks? #helpthebudget #ADthatgetsDenton#UNTADforlife

Its definitely worse today. Apogee really looks like a gigantic waste of money to the 98% of the UNT Family that hates/doesn't care about football, not to mention that we play teams in this new stadium that our decrepit toilet bowl easily hosted with room to spare. We were told that a brand new stadium would change our lot in FBS life--it has done absolutely nothing to help us get any better than we were when we played at Fouts. CUSA was supposed to be our end-all-be-all conference to gain admittance into, because of all the regional foes that we have always wanted to get affiliated with in a conference. But we only get our chance because SMU leaves, along with UH, to the new AAC. That was tough, but hey, that's how it goes, because we still have Tulane...err...Tulsa...err..I mean we don't have to play in a conference with schools that sound small like Florida Atlantic...err...Middle Tennessee...err...Western Kentucky...oh, never mind. So, yeah, we got Rice, UTEP, UTSA, and La Tech, which is good, but many of us believed it would be Tulsa and Tulane with them in the West, while the CUSA East would be East Carolina, USM, Marshall, UAB, FIU, and Charlotte. Instead, we got SBC 2.0. People paid lots of dough on season tickets, MGC contributions, and even suites at the beautiful new stadium and they got rewarded with a conference slate of teams that are still fairly blah, but at least have some Texas connections (thank God!!) Then, we schedule OOC games after the initial season that are at best unmotivating to fans, unwatchable at worst. And when we finally have one good season in the last decade, our idiot AD extends that coach for 5 more years, not 2 or 3 that would have been reasonable at that time, especially when his offensive strategy not only does nothing to attract recruits with any talent, it doesn't get more butts in seats. Which led to the absolute hurricane of ineptness that washed over Apogee in October on Homecoming. That single loss cost us so much...a head coach that was bought out for $2.1 million, pride of the players who absolutely quit that day, people who made their way back for Homecoming for their one game a year that will probably not come back again anytime soon to watch a football game again, many donors and season ticket holders who basically said that the line in the sand has been crossed and we aren't going back until RV is gone, only to see the BOR, President, and UNT 17 ride to his rescue. And losing basketball and Tony Benford haven't even been brought up once yet...even though they will most likely see him finally get fired for ineptitude at some point this year, too. The thought of RV getting this turned around seems as believable as the Easter Bunny bringing you a basket full of eggs. But I cannot imagine how anyone can expect RV to hire the right guy for football--or basketball, for that matter. The two main revenue sports have endured the two worst losses in our school's history with the two most recent RV hires--Benford's 2011-2012 team with all the talent to be included as a top mid-major to watch, loses to Division-II Alabama (Huntsville), and McCarney's Homecoming Massacre this year against FCS Portland State, 66-7. That's consistency, if nothing else, from your athletic department's money makers. And through it all, RV keeps his job. #depressing

I'm usually right there with you, UNT90, on your rants...but this one is either a master troll or your falling for "average is UNT awesome", which I doubt. That defense and that special teams play, along with a bruising running game, gave Senior QB DT the chance at having a Scott Hall-type performance against teams we should have beaten with average QB play. Both were tougher than nails and are about a million times better than almost every single QB that has played here since we moved up to FBS in 1995, with an extra million thrown in this year for the gap between our QBs now. Every single QB at each Denton high school can throw better than ours can. As Quoner mentioned, being better than this QB collection is not really anything to brag about. It reminds me of CougarQueen coming on here and bragging about how much better UH is than we are. That ain't exactly a real high bar--its basically a curb-high step to most people that know anything about college football in Denton. Yet she comes on here and scoreboards us, which is the equivalent of going to a pee-wee game and yelling trash talk at them the whole game. Eventually, most people roll their eyes and stop listenting to you, even when you have very valid points.

Having one Bodybag game to cover the non-revenue programs is pretty normal for most G5 programs, so it doesn't bother me to play a team like Iowa. What bothers me is when we play a team like Tennessee...or Florida...or Alabama...or Texas...or LSU...or Oklahoma...or Clemson...or Texas A&M...or Georgia. It infuriates me when we play one of those southern powerhouses in the same year we play another P5 program, too. I got that that had to happen when we played at decrepit, toilet-bowl Fouts. But, today, we have now had two seasons where we played two P5 OOC games (2012 and 2015) and gave our fans the reward of watching FCS teams like Texas Southern and Portland State. This year, in particular, would have been the perfect year to have a strong home opponent in OOC, since you played an "alternative home game" in Dallas at SMU. But nope, we are going to schedule a FCS team that nobody has heard of and won't bring 50 people to a game---and its the only OOC game at home. So when you add to that sheer idiocy by getting completely and utterly crushed by said FCS no-name by 59 points on your Homecoming weekend, it sort of tells most people that major changes need to be made--and the head football coach shouldn't be the top of the major change totem pole. At almost any other school in America, FBS or FCS, a loss like that PSU game would have seen the AD removed ASAP, maybe even the President of the university. That would have happened because those schools have chosen a revenue sport(s) as their primary window to the university. We just don't do it that way here. To me, the ideal schedule is playing one bodybag opponent from OUTSIDE of the South. Iowa is fine--in typical UNT fashion, we schedule the right type of bodybag opponent in the year we are the worst we have been since we moved up to FBS in 1995 and Iowa is having their best year since Hayden Fry roamed the sidelines. But the point is that scheduling B1G teams, Pac-12 teams, northern ACC teams, and northern Big XII teams gives you at least a chance of not having your fanbase just leave you to be t-shirts fans of OU, UT, A&M, etc...because you got pounded 85-0 in the first few weeks of the season. Plus, in most seasons, we might have a chance to actually compete with a northern school from the P5s. Then, play three OOC home-and-homes series with G5s--absolutely no more FCS teams. If it means 5 game seasons, then that's the price of being poor, but there is absolutely no gain for our program to host and pay a FCS team, especially now that one of those teams came in here and gave us the worst loss in modern college football history. Use that SMU game like we did this year, as an alternative home game, and match it up with another G5 program here, as well as another G5 program on the road. Play at bodybag, "at" SMU, at BYU, home to Army. Next year, at bodybag, home to SMU, home to BYU, at Army...again, that would require effort, which the BOR doesn't demand and the UNT 17 don't want to effect their relationship with their good ol' pal, RV...can't hurt their access to this awesome program, since it is EXACTLY the same as their Aggie and Longhorn buddies getting the same treatment with their respective ADs for millions more than you get here at little ol' UNT. Scoreboard, Texas Exes and A&M 12th Man members!! As most of us that can breathe already know, nothing will change here for at least 5 years ahead with the schedule and your AD has been on record that he won't change his style of scheduling. He just has to pick up the phone for a regional P5 powerhouse and they schedule us on the spot--they get an easy opponent that people have heard of in this region, plus we give them the RV Discount compared to powerhouse programs like Arkansas State, ULM, ULL, and others...and then we turn around and give away half of the payout to host FCS spares that bring absolutely no one to Denton from their own school, as well as potential fans around here, both living near Denton and actually attending UNT. You get what you deserve and what you demand--and that is us right now, in a perfect sadsack nutshell right now.

This thread is another reminder of why we will always be small time...how people that have built up wealth thru good careers put up with this embarrassment of an athletic department and its revenue sports is damn near unbelievable. As a matter of fact, if it hadn't been for the last 15 years, I wouldn't believe anyone that was a MG fan if they told me even half of the BS that they get fed and readily accept. It is what it is, though. The UNT 17 and the BOR have the power and they have their buddy/puppet in RV. To give one more dime to this athletic department is a waste...sorry to hurt feelings here, but you can give to the general scholarship fund of the school or the individual college within the university. At this point, just help the academics here to get better so as to help your degree's value continue to get stronger. It's obvious that anything directed toward our current athletic situation is just blowing money away.

The person who has done the hiring in the last 15 years is still going to be hiring the next coach in football and mens hoops in the next 6 months. And then he will probably get to hire the next set of coaches after that, because he is completely shielded from expectations by the BOR's apathy and the UNT 17's friendship. There's no way we get these next hires right with the current AD picking them. He's proven that over 15 years of hires in the three revenue sports , he cannot do it. You can think that "this time he is gonna get it right" like some Cubs fan would think about them winning a pennant someday, but 15 years is quite the feat to be here with the losing he has overseen. Expecting anything different--after so many disastrous hires under his watch--just seems very ostrich-like when factoring in the reality of the situation. I know that you feel the same way, Cerebus, based on your research and posts, concerning the poor job RV does. I just don't see how its ever going to get better with RV having that kind of job security around here. That's why my UNT fandom ends until he is gone, so basically I figure that I won't see another UNT game for at least 10 years, if not longer.

Definitely would be a good person to interview...

I don't believe Georgia paid us that much. IIRC, it was $850-$900k....

The BOR makes is perfectly clear what your choices are: accept it or go away. Either way, they do not care one bit... shocker on the clueless UNT student/alum

Miami will either go with Butch Davis again or Mario Cristobal. I actually think Cristobal will get this job. He'd be a great pick, too. A former Hurricane player, turned FIU around from worst FBS team to a bowl winner in just 3 years, and has all of that experience at Alabama as the OL coach, where he coaches NFL linemen every week. Miami, though, needs to do something even more dynamic for their program. They need to build a stadium on campus or find something closer than humongous Dolphins Stadium. Its not as if they don't get enough $$$ from being in the ACC and getting P5 TV and bowl money. Miami is one place that the right hire could springboard them to national champion contender, due to close talent, NFL history, and conference affiliation. Cristobal would be a great hire to connect all of that together.

All I know is that since 1995, we have had 21 seasons now to compete at this level. We are a whopping 84-163, probably headed to 84-167. We did have three seasons, from 2002-2004 where we had winning seasons and won conference championships, even beating teams like Cincinnati and Baylor, as well as close losses to TCU, Arizona, and Memphis during that timeframe. We even gave teams like Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado games to fight thru for 3 or 4 quarters. And it didn't propel else anywhere but to the basic equal, record-wise and talent-wise, to where we are today. Texas HS coaches, recruits, and their parents only know us as the absolute laughingstock of Texas FBS football. No NFL draftees, no team that finished ranked, and no media coverage in our own state, so little actually that many people think we are on the level of schools like SFA and SHSU or are still called North Texas State... This is a fanbase that has witnessed 4 winning seasons in those 21 years, with two teams going 9-4 in 2003 and 2013, as well as two bowl champions in 2002 and 2013. We also saw two teams lose their bowl games (2001 and 2004). Those 5 teams combined to go 40-26. Two other teams, in 1996 and in 2011, won 5 games. That means two-thirds of the teams we have rolled out have won 4 games or less in those 21 years. Those other 14 teams have combined to go 34-123, an average season of 2 wins and 9 losses. That covers 5 head coaches, but the bigger issue is that this entirety has covered all of 2 ADs, including the current one for the last 15 years, and all of 2 university chancellors. IOW, two chancellors who didn't and haven't asked for anything better out of the university's football program, giving the BOR the message that it doesn't matter, which has clearly resonated with them. We have been unbelievably bad for the better part of 21 years, including today, where we are the worst that the FBS world can offer as a program right now. How anyone can look at the current situation, from the chancellor and BOR, to the AD and the UNT 17 threatening to leave if their buddy even got moved from being the AD, and combine it all with our current standing in the Texas HS recruiting picture and all of that losing that has been condoned and accepted, to believe this thing can turn around anytime soon seems incredibly optimistic to a lot of us. Maybe our next coach is going to be Hayden Fry 2.0 or the next Art Briles, but both our history and our current "leadership" suggests we are going to find another Dan McCarney/Darrell Dickey/Matt Simon, someone who will average about 4 wins a year in his tenure here.

Its funny, I feel like we are in the exact opposite place. of where we were in 2011 when McCarney got hired and APogee was opening, as well as in 2014 after winning the HoD Bowl and having the coach get an extension for winning 9 games in 2013. I feel like our position to win is as bad here as it was when Dickey left, talent-wise and reputation-wise. I know, Fouts and SBC make it look much worse, but Dodge came here with a strong reputation as a great offensive mind--only to find out that there was not much here to work with and quickly began changing out players. He failed miserably because of the high school coaches he was allowed to bring aboard because of salary limitations and ego. I'm afraid that the next hire will endure something very similar next season. I just don't see enough talent here to change that, especially if we go to an up-tempo offensive scheme with a roster full of guys built for 1970 Big Ten play. The poor recruiting class rankings from previous years are very telling to all of us now, which is how its almost miraculous at this point that we beat anybody this year.

Mario Cristobal was a pretty good hire at FIU. And then there is this guy: Pat Hill, the former Fresno State coach, who doesn't appear to be coaching anywhere. Wiki shows he is the color commentator on Fresno State football broadcast now. That dude was a very solid coach. Fresno was a team you never wanted to play. He had one bad year, going 4-9, and got fired--after going 108-71 in the previous 14 years there. Fresno State went to 11 bowls from 1999-2010. I had no idea he wasn't coaching anymore. He deserves a call, at the bare minimum.

As I posted yesterday, Tennessee can name the score here. We won't score more than 10 points, they won't score less than 50. It really won't surprise me if this is a Portland State style ass-kicking. Their starters will be out before the 2nd quarter. Their backups will be out of the game for the second half. Their third string will be out of the game in the 4th quarter. We MIGHT score on their 4th and 5th string guys (walk-ons). My guess is 70-7 Vols, maybe worse. This is one where the best things that can happen are that no one gets seriously hurt and that the wired funds to UNT clear their bank easily.

I haven't lived in Denton for 15 years. When I first graduated from UNT in December of 1995, my first job was at the DRC's business office. I worked there for 4.5 years and my view of Denton is no doubt out of date from where it is today. Back then, to find anyone civically interested in helping the city grow or to help UNT Athletics get support was extremely difficult. Today, it sounds like its different, but I don't know how much, especially when I hear about the Denia residents hatred of all things UNT sports or when I saw the vitriol spewed from UNT students and Denton residents after the stadium vote passed its almost stealth-like campaign. Maybe a convention center/hotel will be a huge success in Denton, but its a different city for sure, with its liberal, hipster culture that stands out from the surrounding area. Usually, in the past, major endeavors like this didn't typically succeed, whether in the planning stages or after it was built, but maybe this time will be different...

Then the other team's coach asks the recruit, "Do you think Dan McCarney, Todd Dodge, and Darrell Dickey ever said the same thing to a player like yourself in the last 10 years?" Player: Yeah, probably...Other coach: "We don't schedule FCS games that we can lose by 59 points--nor does anyone else that I'm aware of...except, of course, for one school, who has lined up the murderers row of Incarnate Word, ACU, Lamar, and Bethune-Cookman in the years to come...it would sure suck to play on a team that lost to anyone like that by even one point, much less 59. Here at ______, we need you for our team right now. We will play teams you have heard of in OOC, many times at home in the future and I know you will help us to compete against (insert P5 team of your choice)..." All I'm saying is that the recruiting game is stacked against the new coach because of this season's ridiculousness. The new coach will have playing time immediately to offer--and he better hope that someone who can be actually developed into his scheme will come aboard. Because if all things are equal, being dead-ass last in FBS won't really attract many people your way. Its been obviously difficult to get kids with talent to come here with much easier situations in the past 5 years to recruit them to Denton (new stadium, new coach, and new conference). To think its going to get magically easier now that we are below the ground right now to get decent recruits here seems pretty homer-ish to me. Its extremely conceivable that next year's record will be in the same 2 or less win vicinity that this year's has been. SMU's blueprint is what we will most likely follow with the next hire and endure in his first season here...