untjim1995

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.

This thread has to have had some of the dumbest posts ever recorded on gang.com.

We already are left behind. We are clearly third in the DFW area and 11th in Texas (thanks Texas State). The MWC won't call on us because they have many better performing programs with much better attendance or name recognition in Texas already to choose from. The AAC already has the two big G5 Texas teams, including the one in DFW. If they added anymore in Texas, it'd be UTEP or UTSA if UH is still there, or Rice if they aren't. We are in a conference that we should be able to compete in but can't right now. Try to enjoy us winning games here, even if the remaining teams we like being associated with leave eventually. Fortunately, too, our conference isn't considered the worst in FBS, either, so we have that going for us, even if some of the SBC teams are better than us now and could easily move up and compete right away in CUSA.

How in the world can anyone look at OUs team right now and declare they suck? I mean anyone above an average intelligence of 50...

To the 98% of the UNT Family, this is what matters most...it sure as hell ain't sports.

The MWC is probably just planning on the chance that a member or two might go to the P5s (Boise, SDSU) or go independent (Hawaii). Pretty smart on their part to do their due diligence. As for us, we are stuck on the same spot of the conference totem pole if we stay in CUSA. The AAC will never take us with SMU and we are very content with the SBCUSA. It is what it is.

Exactly--teams like Marshall, Southern Miss, La Tech, and Western Kentucky are sort of stuck. They are good, even known nationally. But they have no TV market to bring to the table, so unless they move with some big TV markets at the same time, it just isn't going to happen. Schools with large metro areas will be the G5s that move upward on the conference totem pole. Unfortunately for us, SMU blocks us from the AAC and the majority of the fanbase would rather us stay in SBC 2.0 because they might stay up for an extra two hours one time a year. If UH ever moves up, Rice will take their place, for sure, because of SMU, Tulane, and Tulsa backing them. But the MWC might be greasing up the skids to get UTEP by talking to another Texas school, in Rice, knowing in the back of their minds that UTEP might be willing to move if another acceptable alternative, like UTSA, moved with them, instead. That wouldn't surprise me, either.

So you'd rather enjoy an 11am kickoff at Charlotte or Old Dominion?

It would horrible to us if we lost both schools. It would give two more teams an implied leg up on us in recruiting by being in a better conference, not to mention that the Eastern CUSA schools may not want to replace them with another school in Texas. Adding Arkansas State and ULL would be acceptable, but nobody in DFW cares about them, at least compared to Rice and UTEP. It would be a very bad day if this occurs.

By ourselves, there's no doubt you are correct. But if it was with three other Texas teams, it would be completely wrong, in my opinion.

Its 2015 and we have been referred to as the North Texas State Fighting Armadillos this season by a former college coach in the NFL now, and then this. But I bet the composer of the NYC Orchestra knows that we are the University of North Texas, so we got that going for us...

Yeah, above that, after I edited my response above before I noticed this reply, I mentioned Marshall being a program the East would want...see above. I am not sure if that was a 'righteous' response, though... The AAC would be smart to look their way--no question.

MUTS gets you Nashville , a market you don't have any presence in, and they have solid football and basketball. No Florida school will do because of the current schools in USF and UCF. Neither F_U has any attraction above CUSA level.

The big thing is that the MWC and AAC could easily follow the current 14-team model for football and add two more teams to their mix. MAC teams and CUSA teams would be the places to get pulled from to get them each to 14. For the MWC, it would be UTEP and Rice. For the AAC, it would probably be MUTS in the east, along with NIU from the MAC. If each league wanted to bump up to 16, its very possible that the MWC goes after UTEP, Rice, UTSA, and La Tech, while the AAC could go after NIU, MUTS, Marshall, and Ohio. If that occurred, we might as well fold up shop...

I am sure that Fritz wanted back closer to Texas, which this accomplishes, while also getting into a higher profile league and deep-monied alumni. Good move by Tulane, good move by Fritz.

There is no reason for the MWC not to expand to Texas--they have way more to gain than to lose by coming this way. UTEP is a no-brainer for this, especially if the get Rice with them. When you compare the leagues, CUSA has one advantage for us--its cheaper to travel because of the Texas schools and La Tech. The G5 conference hierarchy is the AAC and MWC, then CUSA and MAC, and then the SBC. Rice gives the Houston, UTEP gives them El Paso, and the UTSA gives them San Antonio, and us DFW. If the 4 of us were in a division with UNM, Colorado State, AFA, and Utah State, that is a collection of 7 conference games that blows away what we have now in the revenue sports. Play two extra games a year against the MWC Western Schools, home-and-away, which is Boise State, Fresno State, Hawaii, San Jose State, San Diego State, Wyoming, Nevada, and UNLV and you have crushed it out of the park compared to games against CUSA East playing ODU, Charlotte, FAU, FIU, WKU, MUTS, and UAB. Not even close. Probably one game a year in the PST.

I think he will end up at OU. He has a close buddy there from HS that plays WR, they will have Baker Mayfield next year as a senior, while he sits out, and then he will have two years to start.

Davis Webb is the type of transfer I could see coming here. Closer to home (he's from Prosper), fresh start, and a system that he probably knows very well. Knight will go to a P5 or a higher-end G5 that is closer to winning than we are right now. I imagine that Knight's spot at OU will get filled by Kyle Allen from A&M.

Poor attendance at functions and games, lack of media attention, and a poor reputation with Texas HS Football Coaches because of our acceptance of losing for so long.

I thought this video was great. I really want him to succeed here--their family seems like a Norman Rockwell creation. Very nice representation for our school. But every time I watch that video and see RV, it brings me right back to the fact that Seth Littrell is stuck with a horrible AD. If he can overcome that reality, then the sky is the limit for his coaching career. I want to believe Littrell is the right guy for the job--and he has certainly gotten off to the right start here, PR wise--but he has never dealt with limited resources and support as he currently has here now. He does seem like a pure coach, focused solely on the x's and o's and recruiting, so maybe he will just keep his nose to the ground and not let the stuff that drove McCarney insane eventually get to him to.