untjim1995

Actually, the problem is that it has been quite acceptable...

UTSA absolutely owns us in every revenue sport...

I am here because they are my team, nothing more and nothing less. I have learned that to have expectations of any kind of a winner here are basically useless until the BOR makes losing unacceptable. The only thing that is unacceptable is going overbudget. SO to say that even going 0-12 in 2015 would cost McCarney his job is baseless--the coordinators might get canned, but he won't. Simlar to what has been mentioned, 2015 is a "regrouping year" to me. See if you can find players for the next few years, see if you have kids that want to get stronger and faster and better, both in the weight room and on the field. We aren't going to win more than 5 games this upcoming year, based on the schedule and the personnel we have (or don't have) right now. Seriously, I think 3-9 is probably what we see here. You have to find a QB, but McNulty is going to be that guy this year and even if he improves, he is still a senior, so you got to find someone you feel good about driving the bus in the 2016 season. The reasons we haven't a good QB is that the two main coaches in that timeframe, Dickey and McCarney, prefer a run-based offense to a throw-it around spread offense. The one coach we had that liked to throw it around, Todd Dodge, put almost nothing into offensive line strength, so Vizza, Riley, Nathan Tune, etc...got their brains beat in. Now that we are back to the bus-driver du jour offensive mindset, combined with 95% of the Texas HS teams throwing, getting a really good play-making QB isn't going to happen. Scott Halll and Derek Thompson are both going to be your standard-bearers for the QB position here when the bus driver is all that is demanded from the spot.

The leftovers in the current CUSA are Marshall, Southern Miss, UAB, Rice, and UTEP. Two of which provide no TV market, one of which is private and already has a much bigger public school in its market, one who was about to die off as a football program, and the last one is too far to the west to have gotten into the AAC. CUSA added us to replace SMU, UTSA to replace UH, La Tech to eventually replace Tulane, Charlotte and ODU to eventually replace ECU, FIU and FAU to replace UCF, MUTS to replace Memphis, and WKU repalced Tulsa. La Tech and UTSA came from the WAC that died off, ODU and Charlotte moved up from FCS, and the rest (5 teams) were from the SBC. Its much better than the old SBC we were in, but not nearly as good as we had hoped when we took SMU's spot and thought we had ECU, Tulane, and Tulsa still in the conference. I'm just forever grateful that SMU got the invite to the old Big East that is now the AAC. If they hadn't left, La Tech or UTSA would've replaced us, meaning we would have been stuck in the SBC for years to come.

I think we will be ok here. The coaching staff develops linemen better than any other position on the team. Even though last year was a disappointment, I still think we will see a decent OL, even if its new. NOw, teh DLine, that's another story...even with the experience they got last year, they are still really undersized and not that great at putting consistent pressure on the QB.

And always comes in under budget!!

Let's say that we get good QB play this year. Like as good or better than DT in 2013...what does that mean for us? Look at the schedule and you'll see that it means we might get to 5 wins at best. It means we beat SMU and Portland State for sure, then we win games against at Southern Miss, UTSA, and UTEP. Maybe we steal another one, but I don't see where we have a defense or special teams play to get us above 6 wins against the rest of our schedule: Rice, @Iowa, WKU, @ Marshall, @ La Tech, @ Tennessee, and @ MUTS. To me, good QB play gets us to 5 wins. Average play get us 3-4 wins. Bad QB play gets us 2 or less. The QB has to make up for a small defense that needs lots of improvement, as well as to deal with a brand new OL. He's gonna have to make plays happen, often on his own. With that siad, now imagein everything I just desribed needing to happen at that position, then look at McNulty as your QB. That's how I think 3-4 wins is our ceiling and should be the expectation this upcoming season. And that's actually expecting to see some improvement from McNulty. The schedule is not Helwig-brutal, but its by far the hardest we have seen in a long time around here. McCarney and company have their work cut out for them, but he knows that even a 1-11 season won't cost him his job. It would cost Chico his, but not Mac's because of the buyout.

Mostly just sad...since UTSA has surpassed us in a very short time. I cannot believe that we haven't beaten them yet.

If we are, then we aren't winning more than a game all season

FIFY

Yes, it was a rare year that the SBC sent more than one team to the Dance. Most years the SBC champion was a 14 seed or worse. Now that we are SBC 2.0, I don't see that changing. The AAC is CUSA 2.0, just with UConn and Cincy as the leftovers to bolster that league enough to get more recognition. I seriously doubt that either of them will be in that league within 5 years.

Man, I don't even have time to PLAY softball...how in the world does anyone have the time to follow it?

It was geared toward CougarQueen, who you were replying to...sorry for the confusion.

You are wasting your words here on this guy. Does UH have better history, resources, and media coverage than UNT? Of course...they always will, too. We didn't give a damn about athletics for many decades while they did, they played in the SWC, we played in the SLC. But here's the rub to all the UH (and fellow AAC-mate SMU) fans--YOU ARE EXACTLY THE SAME AS US IN THE BIG PICTURE OF THE COLLEGE FOOTBALL WORLD!!! Houston and SMU will never play in a P5 league. The only P5 conferences near here don't need anymore exposure in Houston or Dallas. Their UT, A&M, OU, Tech, LSU, Baylor, Arkansas, OSU, and TCU alumni in those cities already have those markets locked in for good. Frankly, TCU pulled off the miracle of miracles getting into the Big XII when the Aggies left and the northern Big XII schools demanded another Texas conference mate to add quickly, all while TCU had built themselves up to a Top Ten team in the rankings. That was the only chance for any Texas G5 school to jump up. The Big XII won't take them, the SEC won't take them...if the other three conferences want into Texas, they'll wait out the Big XII's GOR and pilfer them. The Texoma Four will go West, KU will go north, KSU and WVU will find a spot in the ACC/SEC. The private schools in Baylor and TCU will probably be forming a new SWC again in ten years, along with UH, SMU, Rice, Tulsa, Tulane, UTEP, UTSA, La Tech, Southern Miss, and Memphis. So congratulations for surpassing a music and fine arts school that literally hated sports for decades and just recently even tried to care about them. You've really accomplished something there with all your money and resources.

So much truth here, FFR. How anyone can think he won't start in Dallas seems like you are really just blindfully hoping against it. McCarney already tried to get away from McNulty starting last year and ended up going back to him for the last half of the year. He was the only QB who he trusted to drive the bus. That's what his offense demands--a bus driver, nothing more, nothing less. Having an experienced QB as a busdriver is much preferred by Mac than any freelance QB. Dajon Williams has the most talent on this team, but he will never play because he cannot drive the bus--its not who he is as a QB. Greer would be a solid i-aa QB. The others aren't anywhere close to being ready to beat out McNulty as the Busdriver. He's a senior and will get tons of Derek Thompson comparisons in the media over the coming months. We don't have the defense or special teams that Derek Thompson had in 2013, nor do we have the schedule. Schedule alone makes me think we could improve ands till have the same record as last season. Factor in below average play at QB, a new OL, a small defensive front that still is relatively young, and a new DC, its just hard to see more than 4-8, with 3-9 as a very real possibility. If we lose at SMU, I think Portland State could realistically be the only win we get in 2015.

SMU is going to be just terrrible next year...it will be a combination of June Jones' 1st year and last season. I just don't see them winning more than a game next year with what is returning.

This. I will say this--I wish these listings would rank G5s by themselves and P5s by themselves. Saying that we are 99th best in college football is probably still too high, in my opinion, with what we have returning at QB and what we are losing on the OLine, but I want to know how we look compared to MAC, CUSA, AAC, MWC, and SBC teams. I still say we go 3-9 or 4-8. SMU, Portland State, and one or two more home conference wins. Bought losses at Tennessee and Iowa, lose at home to Rice and someone else, lose all conference road games. I'm telling you that winning at SMU won't tell us much, just like it didn't last year, but losing at SMU will. They are going to be truly horrible again--just like they were under June Jones in his first year. They have almost no returning talent on that team.

I disagree--the other P5 leagues love that the Big 12 is being marginalized on two fronts--that they don't have a conference champion and that the best schools in the league aren't Texas or OU right now. The other leagues are just fine, knowing that a Big XII champion is really easy to get left out in the playoff system.

Great post, Westie.... The orange seats were here until Trilli's second season as coach. He went out and secured the funds to get the seats green, IIRC.Trilli also painted some rooms in the Super Pit (maybe the locker room or a coaches room?) and would go and talk to any community group anytime. He was magnetic that way with people and getting stuff done. He also was a terrible basketball coach and sunk us into a hole that took years to dig out of. Recruiters are often that way as a head coach--they are people-oriented, but the x's and o's often suffer badly...

To me, Texas will get BYU into the league eventually, basically when the need for a 12 or more team conference outweighs the money that 10 teams currently split. I still believe that the big 12s best chance at long-term survival is to expand into a larger geographic conference with big G5 names. Get BYU and Boise State out west, add Cincy and Memphis in the midwest, then add UCF and USF in the southeast. That gets you to 16, with added TV markets of Tampa, Orlando, Memphis, and Cincy, plus Boise State out west is huge right now, and BYU is a national brand. It could look like this Boise State, Tech, KSU, OU, OSU, West Virginia, Memphis, and UCF in one division with BYU, Texas, ISU, KU, Cincy, UCF, Baylor, and TCU in the other. Set up automatic annual rivalries from the opposite division every year, so it would look like Texas-OU, KU-KSU, WVU-Cincy, UCF-USF, BYU-Boise State, Tech-Baylor, Memphis-TCU, and ISU-OSU in both main sports.

I just fear the contract extension for "leaping" over the back-to-back .500 seasons "hurdle"...

I am with GE on this one. We could improve rather significantly and still finish 4-8 because of the schedule. I think the best this team will finish is 6-6, but really think 3-4 wins is about right if we are improved. If we are worse than last year, its 2 wins or less, for sure. I seee wins against Portland State, @SMU, and 1 or 2 other wins at home against UTEP and UTSA. Don't see us beating Rice or WKU at home, don't see us beating La Tech, Southern Miss, MUTS, or Marshall on the road, and just pray that the checks don't bounce from the Iowa and Tennessee games. 2016 is the season I'm hoping to see us get back to .500. And, by 2017, hopefully we will get back to challenging for a CUSA Title. I figure its gonna take that long to get solid QB play in this offense and to get the defense strenghtened up to a level that would look like 2013's did.

It didn't suck when we crushed Baylor at Fouts that season--we set the record for highest attendance for a UNT game in Denton, with over 29k in attendance. Cincy was a bowl game in NO--which featured a fairly good traveling party for us, many of whom found it easier to go all the way to New Orleans than it ever was to make it Fouts for a game... Just winning against low level teams doesn't move the needle enough with attendance--2001-2004 proved this very clearly, as did 2013. The following seasons never saw a huge uptick in attendance. We have to beat someone that people care about beating. It would be awesome to do that in a game in Denton, just as it was when we clobbered Baylor 52-14 in 2003, which remains the highest point that a UNT fan has ever enjoyed at Fouts/Apogee. Do I think you can get Baylor, TCU, or Tech to play here now? No chance. And since it appears as if the P5s are really going to drop playing G5 road games in the future, it won't get any better on that front. But BYU, Boise State, UH, UCF, and other stronger G5 schools can be played here. A win (or evne a close loss) to those kind of teams in the G5 would help increase interest and attendance more than plowing over Nicholls State did, or certainly more than struggling with Texas Southern. I really hope yall enjoy the Portland State game, the Incarnate Word game, and the Abilene Christian game at Apogee. It just doesn't move the needle at all for the rest of us...

Good point--if we had done that in 1978, maybe things would be different in 2015...

SO this guy thinks that UH will get funding cut in a legislature full of Horns, Red Raiders, and Baptists that have Baylor ties? Not even counting A&M, who would be smart to try and partner up with UH to get them in the Big XII just to create an even bigger albatross on the necks of UT, both on the field and politically, I just don't see any way this could happen. The conference has 4 teams in Texas, two of whom are private. The other 6 teams are in Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, and West Virginia. They don't want to share any of the ir money with another school--hell, TCU and WVU still aren't getting full payouts yet. And if and when they do decide to increase their membership, the Big XII is gonna look at other markets they don't already have. I know that TCU got in, so that blows out of the water the previous sentence, but TCU got in for three simple reasons: the other Big XII schools in the midwest wanted to still have another Texas school to replace Texas A&M, the Frogs had become a big winner on the football field, and TCU could easily get into the conference without costing much and without any delay. But now that TCU is in there, UH doesn't have any logical fit for the conference now. If they were to ever get a place at the P5 table, it would be the longest of longshots to get into the ACC or the Pac-12, but I realistically think the chances of those leagues inviting UH are below 1%, even with their size and academic standing. SMU and UH will accept one day what Rice knows and what UNT and UTEP learned decades ago. The Big 12 has no interest in smaller programs that don't win, don't have much appeal beyond their alumni, and don't offer a market they don't already have a major presence in. UT ain't taking in UH--they barely took in TCU, and that was because they really had no choice--they had to get to 10 teams to keep their TV contracts going. If the league expands, Cincy, Memphis, USF, UCF, BYU, and Boise State are your options. I figure that two or four of these will get in eventually--BYU, Cincy, USF, UCF, Memphis, and Boise State is the order I think has the best-to-worst odds. Even then, I really see the Big XII jsut sitting at ten teams until the GOR is about to expire and the Texoma schools and KU and WVU bolt, making the Big XII basically the Big East 2.0, dropping those left behind into G5 status. I think that's a big reason taht TCU and Gary Patterson didn't bitch much after they got excluded in the playoff. They know their place--they are still getting way more money and prestige in the Big XII than they ever got in the MWC. He doesn't want to rock the boat and not be politically disconnected from Texas, knowing that the only chance they have to stay P5 when the GOR for the Big XII expires is to get included with the Texoma schools to go out west. The Pac-12 might be willing to take TCU, since they are not as outwardly religious as Baylor is, which would never play with liberal West Coast schools. I think that Baylor, UH, SMU, and TCU will all get to be conference mates again--just not in the setup that any of them want. Welcome to SWC 2.0, boys...would you mind throwing a bone to your old teacher-friends in Denton when this comes around again? We have pined to be a part of the SWC for decades--we would be excellent conference mates, I promise!!