untjim1995

My memory from last year reminds me that McNulty and Greer were both bad in the SMU game, but that opponent happened to be the worst FBS school in America, so our defense and special teams and running game just overwhelmed a team that had quit on their coach. I also remember McNulty being the safety net that Mac went back to after Dajon couldn't do anything with this offense against anyone better than your local JV HS team, meaning Minimac could actually bus drive better for Mac's liking than the other two guys. And in the 4th quarter against powerhouse FIU at Apogee, in his 5th start of the season, his redshirt junior year with the same coach and OC, they wouldn't even let the QB attempt a pass because he knew it would probably cause the team to lose. And that guy is your starter--all because he knows the offensive gameplan and the wishes of his coaches better than the other QBs on the team. Look, I think they both are brutal FBS QBs. McNulty is at best an FCS QB--Greer might be, at best, a Division-II QB. If that makes him far-and-away better in your view, so be it. Neither of them are turning this into a winner, in my opinion, unless the defense and special teams become great again. The schedule upgrade this year doesn't help them either. The scary reality is that Minimac is the very best QB that Mac and Chico have been able to get here to run their offense in the way they want it.

Sure, but could any of these obvious spares score well on a hand-written Chico test? McNulty can...

See, to me, I don't really see how we are that improved from last year--yes, Greer sucked, but McNulty isn't much better than him, so the WR position may be better, but do we have a QB that can get them the ball to make plays? Plus, our OL is basically starting over. To me, this game comes down to if our defense can stop them. If it does, we will win, maybe even comfortably. If it can't, we won't win a shootout. Our offense isn't geared to do that. If we score a lot of points, it will be because our defense shortened the field by getting turnovers.

I love reading this line from posters on here. Exactly why does he have to win this year? He has finished 1 year out of 5 on his new $650k per year contract, the largest the university has ever paid to a coach. If there was ever a year that he didn't have to win--its this year and next year. His buyout is just too much for the university to accept. Look at Tony Benford--the basketball attendance is about half of what it was in the good times under JJ, the W/L record has certain gone down hill, yet a buyout of $325k per year was deemed too much. It didn't matter that 1200 people show up for a game against FAU in the last couple of years. We could go 0-12 this year and Mac is totally safe, even if we got about 2500 for a game in the last week or two of the season at Apogee. I suspect that it would take him having a year next year of 1 win or under to possibly get fired after the third year of his contract, but I after watching Todd Dodge get a 4th year here after winning 5 games in his first 3 seasons, while making about $275k a year, it wouldn't surprise me to see Mac get a 4th year under that hypothetical. We want them to win this year and every year, as fans--the players and coaches do too, for sure. But its a lot easier to coach knowing that you have years left before your seat gets hot--the only way a seat has ever gotten hot for a football coach or mens basketball coach here is if his contract is expiring within a year or less.

I'll go with UNT winning 23-21. I think our ball control offense will pound them down in the second half. I wouldn't be surprised to see us losing--even badly--at halftime of this game, something in the range of 14-3 or even 21-6. But I think we will wear them down. The absolute best thing that could have happened to us was for them to have to play a game last week that required maximum effort. They showed a lot of heart--but the gameplan is out now. They put in a lot to beat Baylor at home--because they had to for several reasons: great opponent, first game of the coach, a team that their monied fans care a lot about. Literally none of those factors will be here this week. I thought SMU showed some real heart in that opener against Baylor. It'll be interesting to see if we see anything close to that this weekend against us, especially before they go play TCU in Ft. Worth.

This is the best thing that could happen for us. SMU is fired up to play Baylor, a school their fans care a lot about and they are obviously ranked high. They will hear all week how they are gonna be great with Morris, even if they lose. Then little ol' North Texas will come to town, with our motivation and hatred for them being on par with what they feel about their old SWC brethren. It'll be a tough game but we will beat them.

You're talking about opportunity costs--UNT only runs on known costs...

What if Smatresk can't get anything done on this point? To me, this will be where he really shows us his view on revenue sports here. Maybe we cannot buy out multiple years for a bad hire--but you can sure as hell fire the guy who put you in this spot. And get someone here in plenty of time to hire someone for what is sure to be a vacancy as the head basketball coach in 2016. Let's assume that we have a bad season in football--4 wins or less. And basketball just languishes along around .500 or under, as it has for Benford's entire tenure. If Smatresk doesn't feel that he AD needs to get removed, that will be very telling to all of us. But the bigger worry is that he will want to make a change and the BOR and monied donors won't let him change out the #UNTADforlife because he stays in budget and they just like him. If either of these play out, you are really going to have yourself if things will ever change here. Right now, Neal Smatresk is our only hope to fix this.

Ask yourself this question--then you'll hopefully find your answer. If Bogenshutz had come to UNT instead of UTSA, what are the chances that he would play in an offense that would give him the chance to rack up 350+ yards in total offense on the road against a Top 25 P5 team? Unless Mac decides to run an offense that is 180 degrees different from anything he has run other than the Seneca Wallace years at ISU, throwing QBs from Texas high schools aren't coming here. All we have are bus drivers --because that is what the offensive scheme asks for. Maybe we do have playmakers at QB that could throw for 300+ yards for many games this season, but I doubt I--and it's a moot point because we ain't running that offense anyway. McNulty is a Senior Bus Driver from Iowa whose dad was pals with McCarney. Greer cannot play football at this level, probably couldn't at the FCS level, with those happy feet and that weak arm. Damarcus Smith couldn't get academics together to be here until it was too late and he cannot get above a QB who might be an ok fit at a D-2 college in Mac's and Chico's eyes. Means is actually the guy that will probably get groomed for the bus driver role for the future. And we will continue to have to go the out-of-state juco route for QBs to fill in the gaps that not being able to recruit a decent Texas HS QB causes for the roster. Even if this is Chico's last year, as I expect it to be, the offense is going to get opened up more after he's gone because Mac wants a grind it out offense to compliment his defense. He would have to do what Patterson at TCU did--give up all control of that side of the ball to the OC who runs an offense completely unknown to Mac, whether its the spread or some hybrid of it. And the chances of that happening seem about as high as us buying out a contract before there's more than a year left until its expiring.

Actually, I think that whole board showed up at Apogee last year--all 50 of them...

Believe it or not, Ben, you're a good sport. I enjoy the banter. You keep up the good work--and I mean that, seriously. Just understand that decades of wanting more from our football and basketball teams than our leadership has wanted really does beat you down. If you are fortunate enough to see things completely turn around and we become what you believe we can, you better enjoy it fully--the alumni over the last 35 years sure haven't been as fortunate...

I wonder what the face value is on tickets for this game. Add in ridiculous parking costs and concessions--only a diehard would want to come and watch this game.

That's pretty much the best bodybag game we have played--with our best squad in at least 10 years before it, arguably the best we have rolled out since 1978...

I would include them in it now--since the late 90's, they are almost always ranked, with quite a few top ten ranked squads...

One day , Ben Gooding was walking along the muddy field in front of the Super Pit, contemplating his time at UNT. When he looked back at UNT sports, he realized he was walking alone, with just one set of muddy foot prints behind him. He then saw RV walking toward him--BG said "Why when I look back on my time here, when we usually sucked at revenue sports because of poor leadership and budget, why do I just see only one set of footprints? When I needed a lift to keep telling everyone that would listen how great this place could be, I was essentially on my own?" RV looked at him, sadly, and said, "Dear BG, when you walked by the Super Pit, in the mud, I was going to come help you. But then I got a call from the AD at Tarleton State about a ten-year series, so I had to leave you by yourself." BG looked him in the eye, tears forming, and screamed "STFU"...RV laughed as he got another extension from the BOR and headed off to visit flyonthewall's tailgate before the big Portland State game to rub elbows with all 6 of the big money donors he had created in the last 15 years as the AD.

I want to understand...I really do. But this is where my pea-brain fails me again..

How exactly does one, tactfully, tell someone to stfu, as you posted above, especially to someone who you are basically working for, in terms of a grade? I posted above about the reality of mentioning the other P5 behemoths first, many of whom they graduated from or are fans of, not to mention the fact that you might be missing by just a bit here--that the UNT faculty overwhelmingly has treated Football as a nuisance for our entire existence, with obvious exceptions. In a perfect football nirvana, the entire UNT Family would just be like those P5 giants and their loyal following--but we know we don't exist in that kind of scenario in Denton, not even close. What I would offer as advice for the students in those classes that profs talk up other schools is to offer them an invite to a home game with their friends and see what he or she says back. Hell, you might turn them into something they never imagined they would be--actual UNT Fans, even if its secondary to UT, A&M, Tech, etc...you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

This is the advice you would give to a student who has a UNT professor that doesn't talk up UNT Football but mentions these other schools, to tell them to tell the prof to stfu?

If we go 6-6, because of a win over Portland State, and it gets a bowl berth, I'll forever stop complaining about FCS schools on the schedule...

I wasn't around for those days--they were literally just before I got here. All I've seen from the P5 giants are games like this: Nebraska--1994--76-14 Anyone from 1995 Texas A&M in 1996--55-0 LSU--in 2005 -- 56-3 Texas in 2004 -- 65-0 Oklahoma in 2007--79-10 The only thing I've seen us successfully use these "opportunity" games since 1990 is pad the budget...

Apparently, we would rather play Eastern Washington--I'm told that our students don't know the difference anyway...

I probably deserve to get pushed into it--while getting shot... I'd ask him this--what does Neal Smatresk say to you about turning things around here in the revenue sports? Is there talk of extra funding to go toward athletics beyond the athletic fee increase this year, like, for example, to continue raising it as much as they can going forward?

How many of those schools listed have an attendance problem and a revenue problem like we do? Even if you can name a handful, we aren't legally required to be that stupid, too. We could have done something better than what we have done, but we didn't, so you and the vast majority of fans here get what you want. I am not a fan of playing FCS schools unless you are really good--we aren't, nor have we been, save for 2013, in the last 10 years. Beating Texas Southern did nothing for us in 2012, beating Nicholls State did nothing for us in 2014, and beating Portland State this year won't either, except keep us from going 0-12 if we cannot beat SMU in the opener. But, again, that's what is fine with you all, just like getting SMU for a longtime series, and opening up tailgating. The only problem with that line of thinking is that you give the BOR even more ammunition to keep RV happy as their AD. #UNTADforlife