untjim1995

This is so much worse than I ever imagined. We have allowed ourselves to be the Jimmy Johns of FBS athletic departments. Even the Southland Schools look down on Jimmy John's... Can we just join the Lone Star Conference? I hear that the Lone Star Card is very effective...

This post right here should absolutely shame the leadership at this school. While we are flipping over ourselves for getting SMU and Army here to pair up with spare FCS teams, Arkansas STATE hosts Mizzou, a team just to the north of them, and it brought in more revenue than any prior full season of ticket sales. It kinda makes you wonder what it would like if we talked to T. Boone Pickens about setting something up--but, of course, we would live those negotiations with a 3 for none deal, that pays us about 25% less than what powershouses like Arkansas State and Louisiana-Monroe can charge.

Here's what I think about Damarcus Smith. He's here at UNT for a reason--he chose to come here to play QB here, where the offense asks you to handoff and throw 2-yard passes. And he looked at it, and said, "Yep, that's for me". He went from being in the Top 11 Elite QB rankings to the third string at UNT, after having to go the JUCO route. In my opinion, he is just Brock Berglund redux until proven differently. Those mobile, big arm QBs cannot score well on Chico and Mac's paper tests. They take--gulp!!--risks on offense...just like we saw with Woody Wilson under McDickney Part I, those kind of QBs are not welcome in the 1970 Woddy Hayes offense. Smith was either not smart enough to see that the offense we run here doesn't fit his skill set at all or he knew that nobody else was going to give him a chance to "compete" as a QB in the FBS world. Nothing else makes any sense. So now, we have completely alienated ourselves to any below average or higher throwing QB in Texas high schools and are on the way to doing the same to the JUCO QBs that we are only able to go after these days.

There were like 12 bowls back then. Today, we have at least 35, correct? You cannot be happy right now with this futility. At some point, you've got to ask yourself why all of the losing continues, hire after hire, extension after extension, season after season, Apogee after Fouts, CUSA after SBC, etc...

TIGreen is dead-on--we aren't firing Mac anytime soon. Not this year, even if we go 0-12. Chico will get the blame. Unless we win less than 2 games the following season, we aren't buying his contract out for $1.3 million after 2016, either. He's going to be here until the 2017 season, bare minimum. The interesting thought is what happens after the 2017 season. If we have a losing season, I can see us letting him go. If we finish with 6 wins, I can see them letting Mac finish his contract and retiring after 2018 just to save the cash, too. The real dilemma is what you do if he wins 7+ in 2017--you are going to have to make a decision if Mac doesn't want to retire. You either let him lame-duck the next season (sending recruiting officially into the sewer, even below the awful recruiting we have already seen) that nobody will want to sign up to play at out of high school or juco or you have to extend him, at least a year or two. I'm telling you all that it won't surprise me a bit to see us have a 2013-type season in 2017 if Mac is coaching for another contract extension, even if its only a few years beyond 2018. You could see Mac sell RV on retiring after the 2020 season, which gets him one last contract extension.

Seriously, its our only hope at this point. #2 probably keeps me around to follow the teams passively for the next few years. #3 might would be enough to push me away for good. If Tony Benford is coaching here beyond next season, without a berth in the NCAAs or NIT, that will be unforgivable to me. I know this is the football forum, but our ceiling of competing to be a top program in this sport is probably being a top rated G5 team. But basketball, as it currently stands, is very different. We have seen Butler play for a national championship in back-to-back years. We have seen George Mason make a Final Four, as well as Virginia Commonwealth in the last decade. We have seen Western Kentucky make a Sweet 16. This sport just needs great coaches who can recruit and teach x's and o's--and that combo has the potential to turn you into a Gonzaga-type program in the future (see San Diego State right now). Benford cannot keep the talent he recruits here because he cannot coach x's and o's--at all. If he gets one day beyond this upcoming season as our coach without a NCAA or NIT berth, I'm out...

Pessimist...

Being the greatest AD at North Texas since the late 70's is about as good as telling someone that they are the friendliest criminal they ever met... Since 1979, you'll be hard pressed to find an athletic department that has been run more poorly than ours. And everything you can possibly list all gets doubled or tripled in its ridiculousness by allowing your football team to get dropped to 1-aa in 1983 and to stay down for 12 years, all during the heyday of the SWC. That single decision literally infected the program with an illness that is incurable--the apathy virus. No matter what else you point to, no AD here has been able to really make a huge difference as compared to the universities we want to be peers with. RV has become the #UNTADforlife because he was "smart" enough to open up tailgating at a university in the south and by scheduling a long-term series with SMU in football, as well as overseeing facilities upgrades that had to happen or we were going to have to drop down to a lower level of football again by playing at Fouts with poor fitness centers, dorms, and locker rooms. Does he deserve credit for all of that happening on his watch? Absolutely. Does he deserve blame for having a football program go .372 in his 14+ years as the AD, as well as having an overall winning percentage in all three major revenue sports of .455? No question, but for the reasons we know are present--that the BOR and big money guys love him--that deserved blame seems to just bounce right off of him. There's not another AD in the country who could've pulled off what RV has done for 14+ years--and probably never will be, either...

We will keep it close for a half, something like 20-13. Then Rice runs away in the second half. Rice 48 UNT 19

There are three scenarios to ponder with this hypothetical: 1.) Smatresk gets BOR approval and fires RV as the AD, having raised the funds to cover the remainder of his contract--maybe RV gets reclassed under fundraising or community development of something else, but we hire an AD. Benford gets replaced after this season and we hire an actual experienced head coach. We hire a new OC and Mac is told to focus on defense only by the new AD, hired by the Smatresk. Then we see if we can get any improvement for 2016 and 2017. 2.) Smatresk wants to replace RV, but the BOR connections won't let him because he #UNTADforlife. We still replace Benford, but RV chooses the hire. Mac gets rid of Chico, hires another OC, who runs the monolithic single-wing T offense that Knute Rockne that was too boring. Mac stays until the end of the 2017 season. 3.) Smatresk buys into RV's views, knowing he has BOR backing and the half dozen big monied donors' support to be the #UNTADforlife, and let's him continue running things as is. Benford goes .500 next season and RV extends him. Mac still replaces Chico (dead man walking right now) and hires OC to run the offense more like Army did in the 1940's. I'll place odds at 15% for scenario 1, 45% for scenario 2, and 40% for scenario 3.

I think, first of all, when we hired McCarney, we were just glad it was an experienced head coach from an actual FBS college. I wanted Franchione or Kragthorpe, but McCarney was fine with me, as well. And now that poor Steve Kragthorpe has to deal with his disease, that probably worked out for the best, for him. What we loved early about Mac was that he was optimistic and motivating when he talked to anyone about UNT, something we hadn't had in my 20+ years of following the program. It was a breath of fresh air to have a coach who knew how to take the talent he had on the roster and actually turn them into a winner. But then those players from Dodge's era graduated--and we replaced them with the absolute worst recruiting class in all of FBS football in 2014, according to Rivals. And then we heard in the middle of last season's debacle just how hard it is to recruit here, going full-Darrell Dickey on us. And sticking with a QB whose best attribute is that he can hand-off well and throw bubble screens, which also hits on his stubborn, Woody Hayes 1970 offense, it has all combined to make us believe that we are just stuck until after the 2017 season before we can see any hope. That's a long time from now, since we are thru one game of the 2015 season, but its the stark reality of our situation. At the time, though, as Franchione got hired by Texas State shortly after we hired Mac, I posted on here that it would be really interesting to see how things play out over the next 3-5 years when comparing both situations. Right now, 5 years into this, there's no doubt in my mind that Texas State made the better hire. He has recruited better than McCarney has, as well as a really nice win at Houston during his tenure. And they didn't get annihilated at Florida State to start the season, like we obviously would. Although Mac has a UNT bowl win over UNLV during his tenure, Texas State does have a bowl bid that they earned for the first time last year. Coker, by almost any measure, has been a better hire, but he has several advantages that McCarney and Franchione haven't had. UTSA gets way more local support and media coverage from San Antonio than both UNT and TSUSM get. UTSA gets marquee opponents at home to face, which helps in recruiting. And playing in CUSA with those advantages puts them above UTEP, UNT, and TSUSM. Coker has been a nice coach to build that program and I suspect that he will be there for as long as he wants to be in San Antonio. I think if you asked our fans to truthfully look at UTSA's situation versus ours, for the next three seasons, you guys are well ahead of us and will probably just create more distance. Its highly probable that we will have lost all 5 games we will have played against UTSA by the end of the 2017 season, which just galls us to no end, since you guys have played FBS ball since 2011 and we moved back up in 1995. But it is what it is--yall want your football team to be your primary window to the university. We don't...and never have--which is why we have around 15k fans in average attendance every year, even when our enrollment is over 37k and our local alumni (supposedly) exceeds 200k, while being surrounded in a metro area of millions. You UTSA guys have the very real potential of being a USF or UCF look-alike--if you decide to take advantage of your situation. All I can tell you is that it must be nice to be in that situation with your university.

The BOR and administration may not be able to use school funds for athletic spending, but they can influence donations to actually go toward the athletic nightmare instead of some other projects going on right now. And seeing how the university for decades wouldn't even let the athletic department have a list of donors that gave to other areas of the university, that's seems like the very least they could do to help rectify the situation if buyouts are needed, which most of us feel like they are, just to start fresh again. And that doesn't have to be Mac after this season if that is deemed to be too high. But RV should be gone before any other hire for a revenue sport needs to be made--that means between now and the end of basketball season.

The problem, as I see it, is that RV giving McCarney the extended contract until 2018 allows us to have a head coach who thinks Andrew McNulty is the best QB available without any repercussions. Smatresk may not be happy, either, but he's not the one who decides if anything changes--the BOR does. Let's now make the fairly easy assumption that we win 2 games, max, this year in football, followed by a typical Benford year in hoops. To fix this all completely, as in right away, the university's leadership will have to fork over $2 million for McCarney, $750k for RV, and $325k for Benford, and then turn around and hire a new AD, HFC, and HBC, which will probably cost us at least something similar in salary for the next group. My math tells me that we are looking at $6 million to get this going. And my experience tells me that we are gonna spend $325k in the spring of 2016 to make a change at the helm of the mens hoops team + whatever salary we pay for the next coach and $675K at the end of 2017 to get a new head coach in football + whatever we pay the new coach, both of whom will be replaced by hires of our #UNTADforlife, who ain't getting fired here. The BOR will see Smatresk go before they let RV go, just as they did Norval Pohl, Gretchen Bataille, and Lane Rawlins.

The first bolded sentence is 100% fact. The second one is 100% opinion...as in 100% of the DFW SWC media feel this way. But the reality is that is nobody's fault, but our own. That 1-AA drop permanently dropped us down or out of the minds of media and fans all across the state. Maybe we have given them something to ponder a different belief about us at certain times, but mostly, its just been us doing our thing. When we get blocked from joining the SWC club, we just quit. When we move back up to I-A in 1995, we do it on a shoestring budget, with a stadium expanded from glorified Reynolds Wrap, while getting slaughtered against almost every team that people care about around these parts. Today, we hire people for years and just wait until its considered affordable to replace them. It isn't any surprise that fans think we are a "lower division" team--that's how we portray ourselves to everyone not associated with UNT. There's a reason that people know us for our renown music programs--its because we are great at them, better than anyone else in the state. Until we do something drastic to change people's minds in regards to athletics--like firing underperformers and hiring winners that people have heard of, instead of inexperienced assistant coaches or experienced losers, what we hear from these people will, deservedly, continue.

I think this game is going to get ugly. Rice will want to make a statement against a team that they sometimes recruit against, but is also needing to get better. I don't see us scoring too may TDs this week, but Rice will. This game may be close for a half, but I think Rice will duplicate what they did last year against us, which is just run away in the 2nd half. No offense, fellow MG fans, but this want might end up a 48-13 type game. I'd be awfully surprised if we keep this one close...

Its been my experience that $$$$$ > conscience... To resign would mean giving up a guaranteed $2 million for Dan McCarney at a bare minimum and $750k for RV. The reality here is that known costs > winning to those in charge at UNT.

So basically just passing out...

1.) How awesome is it to know that you are getting paid $650k per year until 2018? 2.) Could you have ever imagined that when you got hired here how easy it would be to get paid handsomely and receive an extension for having one good season? 3.) Does RV like Grey Goose, too? What about FlyontheWall?

He reminds me so much of a bigger Darren Sproles, just a guy that gets it done and helps your team win. You gotta have guys like that on your squad in the NFL.

I wonder where these marching competitions are and if they are with several other bands or just one other school. I apologize for my stupidity on this--its never even crossed my mind as to how any of this works. I don't think I've ever watched the marching performance closely even once in my time at Fouts/Apogee.

So how are you going to get the BOR to agree to buyout the remaining three years on his contract, beyond this one? Otherwise, this is just pissing in the wind. And now that we know that RV has three years left on his contract at $375k per year, you can basically forget that, too. Unless the BOR does a complete 180 on how they've looked at contracts in the past, which they haven't ever shown even an inkling of doing (see Tony Benford and Todd Dodge as recent examples), this is going nowhere. Even watching attendance drop by half or more at the Super Pit for mens basketball games literally didn't even register with the BOR to do something other than let Benford get to that penultimate 4th year of his 5 year contract. Then, and ONLY THEN, will UNT buyout a contract. IOW, McCareny ain't going anywhere until the end of the 2016 season, but much more probable is that he won't get relieved of his duties until the 2017 football season, which is, you guessed it, the 4th year of his 5-year contract. Expecting anything different here from the BOR and administration is insane...

Basically, in a nutshell, think of everything you like about watching Art Briles' Baylor teams of the last 5 years...then imagine the exact polar opposite of that. That's what your first UNT game will feel like, at least inside of the stadium.

Yeah, that is what I'm afraid its come to...otherwise, I just don't know what else to do to feel any kind of connection to our alma mater Does he know anything about hiring successful people?

So I have been very unfair to our College of Music over the years--feeling jealous that they got more attention and funding at the expense of athletics. I got called out about it on here for my negativity about them--which was deserved, since I have been such a negative poster about it over the years. But, now, I realize it was really my jealousy talking. I just never understood why music mattered so much here while athletics didn't. So I decided to start actually looking into the COM at their website and on the internet and get a better idea of how special it is for our university. I don't know diddly-squat about any of this, so its been an eye-opener. http://best-music-colleges.com/university-of-north-texas According to this, we are #1 in the state as the top music, the second best in the South, and ranked 13th in the country right now. Our football team, in comparison, is dead-ass last in the state's FBS programs, and probably ranked in the 120's right now in FBS. At least at football games, we have the Green Brigade, who I have never truly appreciated, even when the drumline has been mentioned as the best in the country in previous years. I am going to try and turn over a new leaf, going forward, and spend halftime watching their performance, taking in their impressive talent and direction. It used to irritate me to no end that we had people who would only to the game to watch the marching performance and leave after halftime, but I am finally starting to understand why they have been so closely followed over the years. Again, this is all really new to me, which sounds ridiculous since I started following UNT in 1990, but I have decided to make it a point to give them the time and interest they deserve. So my next question is kind of dumb, I'm sure, but does the Green Brigade only perform at athletic events or do they have other performances outside of the games at Apogee? I honestly have never taken the time to find out, but I'm gonna try and see what this is all about, just to see if I enjoy it like I should for such a highly ranked program. I am a guy who has always just been a sports fan, one that truly wanted my university to care about winning the way I did. Now that I am beginning to look at this from the other side of things--as in "What does UNT excel at in the eyes of the country?"--it has made me realize that I'm the one who is going to have to change my views on how to connect better to my alma mater. I cannot change the BOR and administration or the culture around Denton that involves winning at football or basketball, so maybe this is a "If you can't beat them, join them" moment, but this might be the only way I can try and "connect" with my alma mater. Because the other route has caused great cynicism and embarrassment for most of the 25 years I have been following this place.

#UNTADforlife has three years left on his current contract at $375k per year. There is absolutely no way that the BOR here is going to authorize a buyout of that contract this year or next year, then turn around a pay a salary out to a new AD. That is not the UNT way. Look, I think the guy absolutely sucks at being an AD for a FBS Football program. The football program, since 2001, has gone 64-108 for a .372 winning percentage. If you take away 2002-2004, when Dickey's team had their three winning teams in his tenure, and then start at 2005, we have exactly one winning season, going 40-93, for a .300 winning %. That span covers three head coaches--all of whom were either hired and/or extended by RV, including the worst hire in the history of the program, Todd Dodge. And with all of that to endure, the BOR has looked at RV's record here and said that winning 30% of your games in the one sport that brings in revenue in the last 10 years, not to mention the utter failures at hiring basketball coaches, and the BOR said, very clearly that the best thing to do here is EXTEND RV. Until something tells me otherwise, #UNTADforlife is the best title you can give to RV.