untjim1995

Yeah, I know. But it just, again, proves the point of how hard it is to succeed at a place that literally is surrounded by a large majority of people, both inside and outside of the university, that flat out don't give a crap about UNT Sports. That mindset does not exist ANYWHERE else in this state for a FBS school. Frankly, its seems difficult to see how that mindset ever changes enough to make things work any differently than they have for the last 40 years. I respect that others fell and hope differently, but the history of apathy here runs VERY deep. The accepted losing and the lack of care about woeful attendance sort of proves that point.

could we possibly have a better example of why we fear for Seth Littrell and whoever takes over our hoops program in 2016? Terrible AD and we play in a town where the ISD cannot even get a simple date right with the university for what was a fairly easy field trip. Pathetic...

Littrell and Trice would have the Stoops connection, as well. He'd be a solid hire as a DB coach or ST coach.

All I know is that Pol Pot was the worst...

Awesome pickup!!

I think he's a great hire--he is a great representative of the university by his pedigree, success, and his family. But now he has to recruit kids here. Now he has to deal with the worst AD in the country who isn't going anywhere soon. Now he has to deal with apathy that has never existed at one school he has been a part of before. And now he has to deal with limited resources compared to the places he has been before. I think he is a coach who will be here for a 3 or 4 years--either as a humongous success to be hired away or as another coach who just couldn't get things going here because of the institutional issues above him and/or the job of being a head football coach at a college is just too much for him. Basically, those two reasons sum up every coach we have hired and fired since Hayden Fry left. Maybe Littrell is different and he turns this thing around faster than anyone could imagine. But a lot of us are just skeptical.

In an ironic twist on the headline, the few remaining fans left are mostly in favor of the coming execution of Tony Benford's coaching career here at UNT, as well...

Fair enough. And you may be right about Damarcus Smith improving greatly under Littrell's guidance. I just think he has a lot to prove and that the talent that surrounds him is suspect at best. Heck, he's still a question mark here. I think the thing that worries me the most about him is that he couldn't get his academics in place to be here last spring. Once that occurred, it was beyond obvious that McCarney would never start him ahead of McNulty, which basically spared us to death. If that happens again, his career is over. In many ways, he is probably the difference between a 1-11 season and a season with 3 or more wins.

We have a coliseum that seat 10,000 people. There are 36k students who go to school here. There are 200k+ local alumni within an hour of the university. ANd hundreds of thousands of people who live close by and could feasibly go to a college game. And we have a product that filled all of 700 seats for a game between two powder puff teams.

I posted something awhile back that USM was who we need to emulate on our way back up. And that is including the very real possibility that next season involves less than 2 wins like this year did. As you mentioned, the roster, as a whole, is woefully lacking in talent. Beyond the obvious issues with having no FBS QB on the roster, the defense is small and slow, and the OL needs a lot of improvement. Mix in the sad reality that the schedule next year is still very difficult for where we are right now. More than 2 wins would be a GREAT improvement--I see us beating BC at home and I'll pick an upset win at UTSA. Everyone else is just better or wayyyyyy better than we are right now.

as in one victory...

Why can't we play Nicholls State every game going forward? In every sport... of course, Denton High could say the same thing, too.

On this, I completely agree. Same with the Florida Airport schools, too. People can handle directional schools being good, when they involve one (and only one) direction that is actually on a map. "Middle" certainly doesn't fit this definition.

I think ArkState Fan has it right--those schools have probably made it known that they would be interested in moving their way to the MWC, since the AAC probably isn't adding either of them anytime soon. But the MWC TV deal probably isn't getting reworked anytime soon, so there isn't anything pressing about adding two members for a while. But when the time comes for a new TV deal for the MWC to get drawn up, just know that TV sets in Texas would attract some dollars that they wouldn't get normally. Nothing outrageous, but if enough, the league would jump on Rice and UTEP for several reasons--big TV markets, bowl cities, UTEP history in hoops, and Rice academics and baseball. I don't know who we would replace those two with if they left. Since UTSA would still be here, Texas State won't get approval from anyone in the East because of market overlap. It might be just as he noted earlier, that CUSA just may stay at 12. You move UAB and MUTS to the West with USM, La Tech, UTSA, and us, leaving the East with Marshall, WKU, ODU, Charlotte, and the F_Us. Almost amazingly, the biggest winner in this hypothetical would be the Sun Belt Conference, which wouldn't lose anyone and have to run down to FCS to talk a few more schools into moving up to their league.

In 2013, Rivals rated us #118 (in a tie with Akron) out of 123 FBS schools. In 2014, following the HoD Bowl win, Rivals had us rated 123 out 123. In 2015, we moved up to #90, out of 129. This year, it would be a shocker to see us anywhere out of the 120s. But again, just to reiterate, this year's ranking in irrelevant. Littrell is brand new, has two commitments from the previous staff, and hasn't even finalized a staff yet to help him recruit before February. And its not like he can bring a bunch of recruits out to a packed Super Pit to watch our basketball team win in front of a rabid fanbase, like many of our SBCUSAAC peers can. This is the retrenching year, starting from last week. Whether its recruiting, strength and conditioning, on-field results, or off-the-field rebuilding of the character of the roster, the next year is all about building up for 2017 and beyond. His squad will be accomplishing something gigantic just to get this team to more than 2 wins next year because of the schedule and the current roster. 2016 doesn't matter--not the class ranking, nor the w/l record. Littrell has to get the mindset fixed around here, just like Morris has had to do at SMU. If that means we go 2-10, like SMU just did, than that is the cost of a retrenching season. Morris will never get a pass for a season like this past one ever again--and he knows it--but he also used it to just fix the program's recruiting, playbook, and expectations. This is what Littrell will have to do here thru 2016. The only things I want him to focus on for 2016 are strengthening our contacts in recruiting at Texas and Oklahoma high schools and to run off anyone in the locker room that refuses to get onboard with your plan. We have your back on this, Coach. The guys who absolutely quit on the university and gave us the embarrassment of the worst loss in modern college football history better work twice as hard for you as they did for your predecessor, just to show you (and us) that they will fight for our school. Because if Bethune-Cookman comes in here and whips our ass, that will be the only thing on the field next year that will cause severe disappointment and make your honeymoon year less than comfortable. Otherwise, there is nobody else we play that a loss will surprise us on the side of being completely beaten down if we lose.

I really wouldn't even focus on the final team ranking. We all know why it is where it is. He'll need a full season to get in front of HS talent that will actually look at us as something other than the last option. Now in 2014, coming off a bowl win the season before, to finish dead-ass last made zero sense. It really just screamed give-up by McCarney and his staff. I truly believe he never imagined that recruiting here wouldn't improve on its own, especially after going 9-4 and winning the HoD Bowl. That class and this class upcoming will both be among the worst in college football, when compared to other G5 programs. Its understandable that a brand new coach just hired would have a poorly rated class--its a whole different deal to have a recruiting class that was rated terrible and now provides you with upcoming juniors and redshirt sophomores for 2016. That is what is known as leaving the cupboard barren , Dan McCarney, not what you complained about when you got here and inherited Todd Dodge's team that just wasn't coached very well. He left you Derek Thompson to be the QB. You brought in and started Andrew McNulty as a FBS QB for the better part of your career here--a guy that was given preferred WALK-ON status at Iowa as a DB. McNulty wouldn't have even been the backup QB at one other FBS program, yet he played significant games here in 2011, 2013, 2014, and 2015.

To get to 4 wins, that means you beat 4 teams out of this bunch (SMU, Bethune-Cookman, @‌UTSA, @‌UTEP, and @‌Army). The others are all way ahead of where we are right now, as opposed to these 5 teams that are just ahead of us by various smaller margins. I see us beating Bethune-Cookman at home and one of the road games. Maybe we sneak out another win somewhere, but 2 or 3 wins would be giant improvement from this past season. We miraculously won A game in 2015 because UTSA couldn't keep their 4th STRING QB healthy here in Denton and we eked out a 7-point win. The schedule is a killer for where we are as a program. Ironically, this isn't RV's fault--CUSA following the normal procedure of playing the other divisional teams home-and-home in b2b seasons is the killer. Florida is what it is. SMU and Army are potentially winnable, but I doubt we win either of them. Bethune-Cookman at home SHOULD be a win. After that, Marshall, MUTS, La Tech, and Southern Miss are all 2015 bowl teams that will come to town. None of them are winnable. Rice and WKU on the road are not winnable games, either. That leaves at UTSA and at UTEP. Both are bad teams, too. I think we will split with them, probably beating UTSA. 2017 should be the year to see us get back to 4 or 5 wins. We play @‌SMU, Army, Lamar, and @‌Iowa in OOC, then we play the Texas triplets at home, play at La Tech and at USM, and the three CUSA East teams of FAU, FIU, ODU, Charlotte, and UAB. 2018 gives us the same teams in reverse, while we add Incarnate Word at home and play at Arkansas.

This. He ain't leaving his alma mater for a position that is light years worse than his current one, when he can make significantly higher $$$ at many other schools well above ours in the NCAA hierarchy. Don't be a bit surprised to see him at an AAC school or Big XII school. Memphis might not be a bad place for him, same with Oklahoma State. Maybe even Arkansas or A&M, if things go bad for either of those teams in conference play in the SEC.

At this point, if going winless means that Tony Benford is jobless, then that will be the biggest win in 4 seasons...

So appropriate--Dead Man Walking for those who don't know. Rob Evans is about to get all interim'd up in our bidness within about 3-4 weeks, if not sooner. Predicting this back in the summer was the equivalent of predicting grass to turn green in the springtime--its always been just a matter of when... If Smatresk tries to fire RV at some point in 2016, it will be interesting to see how the UNT 17 handles that. I'm still of the belief that Smatresk can't get this approved by the BOR because the UNT 17 control it and they want nothing to do with the athletic department in general, but maybe Smatresk is the new Godfather in Denton and heads will roll no matter what.

We could have saved a few words on this thread and just posted "Canales and Co missed..."

I think that's his point--he will sell SMU's exclusivity, its private education, and its location in Dallas, along with their history and some will buy it. Recruits, fans, media, etc... But until he proves differently, he's nothing more than the next iteration of Mike Cavan or Phil Bennett to the rest of us.

I'd give it a C. He's average until we see better or worse from him. He's a young guy, great background, great pedigree, but he's never been a HC before, never coached at a G5 before that is about as bottom barrel as you can get, and he has the F- of ADs to work with. Its very possible that Littrell comes in here and doesn't succeed enough over the next 4 years to stay as coach, but gets the program's talent and recruiting back up to a place where the next coach benefits from his time here. That won't surprise me a bit. He's taking over a garbage roster. No QB, maybe a few pieces that can be cleaned off to be usable, very questionable character, and offensive players that haven't played in a wide-open offense in college before. And then in recruiting, he's walking into a situation that probably cannot get much worse than it currently is with the Texas HS Coaches, recruits, and their families. If they know anything about us, its that we suck immensely and are behind every team not named Texas State in the pecking order of FBS football in this state. I think if Littrell gets us bowl eligible within three years, he's coaching somewhere else--and we all should be fine with that. And if he doesn't, he is probably done coaching here after 4 years, if not sooner. And the best that we can hope for in that case is what I listed above--that he was able to turn us into an actual roster of players built for today's college football world, not Grandpa's 1950 game, while making strides in recruiting. Grandpa Mac left us a lot of debt on the farm and no inheritance to really speak of. Its Littrell's job to see if he can get the creditor's to write-off those losses, while also going out and seeking new credit lines to try and rebuild the farm.

This is tough. I do think there are about 5 schools every year in the G5 that can whip a lot of P5 teams, but the P5s have the $$$ and prestige, as well as the political and media pull. Is UH better than many of the Big 12's bottom half, including Texas, this year? No question, but they don't have a program that year-in and year-out that you can say that about. At some point, the question becomes how do you build this up to give the premise of everyone having a fair chance, while balancing out the realities of the cash cows of the P5s? To me, the best way is to make a playoff system of 8 teams, one of which is the G5 team that can meet these qualifications, like UH has done this season--conference champion and ranked in the top 20. The other 7 are available to the P5s or even another G5 if certain things played out--i.e., Boise State was awesome again at the same time UH is. That said, I'd get the best teams in the playoffs--no matter what conference they are in, but they cannot have more than 2 teams per league in the playoff. This year, that would've looked like this: Clemson, Alabama, Michigan State, Oklahoma, Iowa, Stanford, Notre Dame, and Houston. Clemson versus Houston in the Peach Bowl (Game 1) Alabama versus Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl (Game 2) Michigan State versus Stanford in the Rose Bowl (Game 3) Oklahoma versus Iowa in the Fiesta Bowl (Game 4) Game 1 winner versus Game 4 winner (Orange Bowl) Game 2 winner versus Game 3 winner (Cotton Bowl) Championship Game This would alleviate a lot of problems with a system like this. But that said, UH getting in leaves Ohio State, Florida State, North Carolina, TCU, Ole Miss, Northwestern, Michigan, Oregon, Okie State, and Baylor as P5 teams that don't get invites because of the G5 rule. Its one thing to give them a chair at the family table to play one of the others in a bowl game that means nothing in the playoff picture. Its a whole other thing, though, to give them a chair at the playoff table while some of the teams mentioned get left behind. That doesn't seem realistic, to me. And in reality, more media and college fans by a huge majority, would rather see Ohio State or Florida State playing in a playoff than Houston or any other G5 team.

This. Littrell might be the perfect coach, but our AD is the worst in the country. Same will be true with the next basketball coach. We hire people like Ryan Munthe to work there. Nobody should be surprised when we suck at these sports. We have no leadership for a FBS program. RV having a job still confirms this. Some of us just can't reward this stupidity anymore. I'm quite prepared to not visit Denton for a home game for many many years until he is retired or dead. We suck because we choose to suck, nothing more, nothing less.