untjim1995

The problem with playing Texas or A&M is that they are the two big schools in the state and they just beat the snot out of you ever having anything to look forward to after the physical and mental beating they apply. Texas beat us badly last year--in a season where the best wins they had were over West Virginia and Okie State, as they finished 6-7 with a whopping 59 yards of offense in their bowl loss to Arkansas. And that loss completely took all the positive air out of the bubble we had going after the HoD Bowl. It was just same ol' UNT again. And we went on to beat three dregs of FBS and a team in FCS that Denton Guyer would have pounded, while losing to every other FBS team on our schedule. But we got track and field, soccer, volleyball, softball, golf, and cross country paid for by those generous and thoughtful Longhorns in Austin!!

​FIFY RV and UNT are just lazy when it comes to this stuff. Seriously, it is so easy to find a SEC or Big XII team to pay for our non-revenue sports. They are paying out huge money for one game to cover all of this. I always complain that all that matters at UNT in regards to athletics is "known costs". In this case, its "known revenue". Lazy and a complete lack of desire to win, just pay the bills to keep the athletic department from running under budget in a simple fashion. But its never going away here--ever. RV publicly advocates this position. He will then buy a FCS game to give us 6 home games or if times are tough, he will find another bodybag game, just like this year and just like in 2012. Honestly, if we are this desperate for funding, I'd rather play two bodybag games like we are this year if it means never playing another ridiculous FCS team, yet in both cases of 2012 and 2015, the only OOC game we get is an FCS opponent. Just once, try to abandon the bodybag game and the FCS game in a couple of seasons and see what happens. If we are in the red, then go back to what is easy to do. But just try it--this crazy term called "opportunity cost" is just sitting here waiting to be tested. Hell, if it doesn't work and we cannot get people out for games against FBS teams only, then we all will finally know that higher-level college football just isn't what UNT's family even cares to find interest in and we can start looking at what needs to be done to drop down again. This current methodology of staying in budget as the main goal of the AD is unsustainable for two reasons--the P5s will finally pull away completely and not play anyone else anymore and it just perpetuates the fact that UNT isn't worth following closely because we don't care about winning. And we wonder why so many UNT students and alumni are fans of the schools that buy us for the pleasure...

​I think Dodge's offense--as was his entire approach to his tenure here--was just o high schoolish. From handing off in the shotgun 7 yards behind the line of scrimmage on 3rd and 1 or by using timeouts frivolously, he was in over his head against legitimate FBS competition. His staff was not seasoned at all for the college game when he first got here, then the marijuana testing that got rid of a ton of players just confirmed that he felt like the same approach at Southlake Carroll would work here. Obviously, 6-37 and 4 years later, we saw the results. But that offense got kids here that would never dream of setting foot on the UNT campus before or today. I am not a huge advocate of the spread, it just seems that way because the 3 yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust offense went out of vogue in most Texas High Schools about 10 or more years ago. In true UNT fashion, we failed at the spread offense because we had a high school coach running it. So we go back to the incredibly exciting Dickey Ball that got us 4 SBC Championships and now has a HoD Bowl Championship to its credit--yet we get a similar amount of people to support the program in attendance and in dollars that we saw in 2001 (see Cerebus' report on MGC members, season ticket holder drop, and attendance figures that are in-line with any other SBCUSA game of the past 14 years.) We recruit against SMU, Tulsa, Rice, La Tech, ULM, ULL, Arky State, UTEP, UTSA, and Texas State for the most part--almost every one of those teams brings about exciting QB-driven offenses. No wonder they beat us for good QBs and that we have to go after grade-risks. We run an offense that Odus Mitchell ran... Here's my dream for UNT Athletics. Neal Smaetresk gets complete control from the BOR to take care of athletics the way he wants, within decent reason. He demands a winner in revenue sports. He tells them he wants to be able to buyout contracts when he thinks they need to be done, hire someone that can be compensated like the schools in the AAC or MWC, then hires experienced college coaches that have gameplans that look normal in today's game, not that of 1985 or earlier. Then, finally, he gets decent OOC games here to serve as litmus tests for the program. I figure that costs the university about $5 million, maybe more, to get this all going and running continuously in the first few years. But it would be looked at as an investment, not as a cost. If that investment pays off, the whole university feels the payday. And then I wake up and realize its just a dream.

I mentioned this the other day, but from the few coaches that I do know, they actually like Mac. They think his staff tries harder than anyone UNT has brought around ever, they like his positivity about coaching, and they think he is a decent man. They just don't like his offense--they thensleves call it boring and outdated. Kids love the spread in Texas. Has that hurt the specialty of tackling at the high school and college leves? Absolutely. And not running the spread, but pounding the ball down your throat 75% of the time does have appeal to the few RBs that get to run in that offense, as well as linemen. But the problem is that it has zero appeal to a throwing QB. So unless your defense just kicks ass and collects names and your special teams is just great, the offense that Woody Hayes ran just doesn't really move the needle much, especially at a place like UNT, where recruiting has generally sucked anyway because of the losing and the apathy associated with our history in the last 35 years. Our only hope, IMHO, is that we build up our lines to get back to a 2013 level again, find a workhorse back and a bus driver QB that can actually throw downfield a few times a game to guys on our team, and then get hard hitting LBs and DBs to create turnovers, as well as a great return game. That recipe got us a 9-win, HoD Bowl Champion season. The only problem I see is that we are probably looking at 2016 at the earliest for this to occur, more likely 2017. Until then, its gonna be rough around here--like ever year around since 2005, sans 2013.

The more things change, the more they stay the same...read above's OP to see if you think Mac's name could get changed out for the offensive gameplan we use. Only differences I can see between these two are that Mac has fire in his belly and can actually talk to people in a motivating fashion. Dickey was as dull as dishwater...

Look, Army and SMU are fine opponents, but why couldn't we schedule Kentucky, too? You know, since teams like them were specifically mentioned as opponents that Apogee would be able to bring into Denton. It doesn't have to be an either/or, people. Playing Kentucky is just a bit better than the following OOC opponents that Apogee has hosted, since it is brand new and can apparently handle the overflow crowds that come to Denton to watch Texas Southern, Idaho, Nicholls State, Portland State, Incarnate Word, Lamar, and Abilene Christian. I've always thought SMU and Army are fine ooc opponents to schedule a series with, but not if they are treated as the Big Game on the schedule. Army is a great historical program and play in a wonderful venue, but we are playing them for one reason only--they have fans that will come here to watch them. Having SMU and Lamar as OOC opponents in a season at Apogee, or Army and Incarnate Word as home OOC games in a single season, are not good OOC schedules. They aren't and never will be--because SMU and Army should be the backup to that equaton, like it was in 2011 with UH and Indiana coming to town. SMU and UK or Army and BYU would be awesome OOC schedules. SMU and Ball State and Army and Colorado State would be solid OOC schedules. Playing a G5, of which Army is barely, and then playing an absolute dreg of FCS is what I expected from us while playing at Fouts in the SBC. Instead, we close out Fouts as a SBC member playing K-State and Rice in OOC, a year after playing Army and Ohio at Fouts in OOC, followed in previous years with OOC games against Tulsa, Navy, and SMU. Our OOC home schedule at Apogee as a CUSA member is WORSE than our OOC schedule was at Fouts as a SBC member. How in the freak can that even happen, much less be accepted by so many people around here. I won't waver on this--I will never set foot in Apogee when a FCS team is playing there. It takes up too much time and money for a game that Denton Ryan would serve as a better opponent. If that makes me a bad fan, sobeit. I can barely sell people to go watch us play our SBCUSA mates, often going by myself or with my small children. Even I cannot convince myself to give up those hours on a Saturday to watch us beat Nicholls State 77-3--and it just kills me when I read others post on here that so-and-so looked just awesome today against the FCS-dreg we played, knwoing full well that the next G5 opponent we play will be infintely better on offense, defense, and special teams. FCS games are a complete wastefor a program like ours--and that is with us beating them. Imagine what it will be like if Portland State comes down here and beats us, which is sadly very possible? As if recruiting can get any worse here, lets see what it looks like to struggle in beating an FCS team. Its hard enough to get fans interested here in a winner (see season ticket decline in 2014 after a HoD Bowl win)--if we go 2-10 this year or worse, we are screwed--because Mac ain't getting canned here for at least another 2 seasons beyond this one. If the season turns into a 2-10 record and somehow features a loss to Portland State, it won't hurt Mac or RV, neither of whom will get fired. It will absolutely kill any recruiting battles we could even try to get in with other SBCUSA teams. To me, getting beat by Kentucky is still better than beating Lamar by 90, if for no other reason than casual fans may come out to watch us play them, UK will bring more than a dozen people to the stadium, and the local media and high school coaches and players will see us playing somebody they have heard of, like with Indiana, which still serves as the greatest win at Apogee in its short history, since there were more than 15k actual people in attendance to see it happen.

​Who cares what the fanbase thinks? The fanbase that has watched NT Daily report year after year how much football and athletics costs the university and how nobody even cares about it? That fanbase? I think most of us recognize what garbage we have been served in the decades previous by those awesome "journalists" at the NT Daily, Keith7, obviously withstanding, since he is one of about 3% of UNT alumni who still follow our teams.

​MattressMac gave us a Million Dollars because he liked Darrell Dickey and went to school here in the 70s. We fired Dickey, he threatened to get his donation back, then made us name our practice field after a coach whose overall record is 42-64, while Odus Mitchell and Hayden Fry have no mention whatseover around our facilities. It sucks, in that we did the right thing by firing Dickey, and even got that donation to stay in Denton, but we lose a mega-donor that only loved the coach here, not his former school. Maybe that has changed in the last ten years with his involvement or contributions to UNT, but I really doubt it.

​You know, then, that you are completely in the minority in the fans view, right?

I hope this shows how low on the totem pole SMU really is...they aren't relevant, won't ever be again, and are just as lowly as all the other G5s are. Doak Walker, Don Meredith, Eric Dickerson, and Craig James are bygones. Their post-death penalty is filled with "greats" like Ramon Flanigan and other spares...They think of themselves as being peers with SWC compadres like Arkansas and Texas. Meanwhile, they can only schedule home-and-home series in the future with North Texas and Arkansas State. And when TCU and Baylor see no value in playing them, they'll get dropped even further down the totem pole. They snubbed us forever from being in theri conferences. Now that get to enjoy being on our level, even if they won't ever be our conference mates. It serves them right.

​But McNulty is "just like Derek Thompson" and this is our "alternative" home game? How can you miss this kind of awesomeness...never mind, don't answer that.

He will fit in quite comfortably in Denton, especially at the NT Daily... Maybe he can go cover a hugely entertaining Art Exhibit and tell us how the tens of people there are the diehards that make UNT special...

​I stopped reading after this...no offense, but that is reason #2 that I think this season is going to be painful. Reason #1 is the brutal schedule.

​Actually, this year's FCS team isn't too bad, from what I understand...so we have that going for us!! #soldoutApogee

ShaneB seems like a real fun guy to hang around...

​Yes, that's exactly who I'm talking about.

​Gotta have someone to throw it to them, though. I agree on the RBs, but they are used to being in a spread offense for the most part, so a bruising pound-it-down-their-throat running game is basically the opposite of what they are used to. Not exactly the easiest thing to get used to...

Just ot make sure no one gets the wrong idea from the post, its just asking who else you like or root for when you aren't watching UNT. Obviously, we gmg posters all root for the alma mater no matter what, even if the university is full of students and alumni who are t-shirt fans of the other P5 giants around here. Just wanted to make sure that was clarified--as was mentioned earlier, the constant ball-kicking that is being a UNT fan is enormously hard sometimes, but they are always going to be ours.

I had a meeting today with a client's son who is the head football coach at a local high school in Frisco, so we got to talking about football and colleges that recruit their players. He mentioned that the school's QB got offered a full scholarship a couple of years ago after his freshman year to Clemson--a guy you may have heard of, Chad Morris was the OC at Clemson back then. For obvious reasons, an SMU offer is now being looked at. So that led me to ask him about UNT and Coach Mac. The dad said something really good, but also vey telling--he said, the UNT coaches are visible and they are very engaged, but the only kids that have any interest in looking at them on offense are the linemen. He said his son and the coaches like McCarney personally, but the only skill kids that have any interest in playing in Denton are those who run non-spread offenses, of which there was one in their district. He said it will always be tough to convince kids to play in an offense like that because coaches and players today think its just flat out boring. I told him that the fans think its boring, too, unless the defense and special teams make up for it. Granted, this is one coach's view in the Metroplex, so you can take it for what it is worth, but it basically confirmed a big part of what we have thought about our QB issues--we can't get decent QBs here that can turn into something, in part because they won't come here, or because they won't get the chance to be developed into anything other than the busdriver. We just gotta pray that Mac's strength of developing linemen and solid hard-hitting defenses will show up in the upcoming years. Otheriwse, the next three years are going to be a lot like the other years around here for the last 10 years, sans 2013.

Just for something interesting, are there any other programs you like or root for besides UNT? If so, break it down like this along with your reasons: Other G5(s) you like: I like Air Force and Boise State--US military academy and the little guy that built itself up to be a badass P5(s) you root for: Kansas and Notre Dame--love the Jayhawks, primarily because of hoops and family, and I'm an Irish Catholic... G5(s) you dislike the most: SMU--obvious P5(s) you dislike the most: Baylor and Texas Tech--two schools who epitomize the term "tick", who also happen to have the most idiotic fanbase (Baylor) and a very trashy fanbase (Tech)

​That ain't changing anytime soon, either. We now how this story goes--we watched it under Dickey until the 2006 season ended. Old school coach that believes in running the ball and not throwing it down the field very often, unless you have to. Hence, you get the FIU game last year where McNulty throws a pick-six in the second half, then literally doesn't throw another pass the rest of the game, which we held on to win by less than a TD. No throwing QB worth his salt is going to look to come here, unless they are a grade-risk or have no other options as long as this is the offense.

​I just hope that RV knows he feels this way. I suspect that Mac knows it, too, and will be ready to gameplan for a win over the Ponies in Dallas, in our "alterantive" home game this season!!

​I'm reading your bio listed under your photo--interesting stuff. Just for the sake of posting something interesting on the board, I disagree with your saddest day in UNT FB history being Jerry Moore replacing Hayden Fry over Bill Brasher. Although a poor choice, nothing is worse than allowing our program to wallow down at the i-aa level from 1982-1994. The timing of doing it, coinciding with the SWC being a top conference in its day, with $MU buying all of its players and TCU quickly following along here in the Metroplex, as well as the fact that Arkansas, Texas, A&M, Baylor, Houston, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State had good to great teams during most of that time, just buried our program. If we ever fully recover from it, I will be shocked. The perception of this school when it comes to sports is still so sad in the eyes of Texas media and fans, which is why recruiting perpetually sucks here compared to the otehr schools in the state.

​In bold, do we really need a media outlet in Houston to give a synopsis of where UNT is located and a very brief description of our program? I doubt that the DFW media needs to do that for UH. If it is needed, how freaking sad is that for the 4th largest school in the state?

​I guess we buy what we want to buy... Seneca Wallace was an NFL QB he got to come to Iowa State. He got them into the top 10 at one point before the old Big XII just grinded them into a pulp. He had Sage Rosenfels, there, too. But here at North Texas, going into his fifth season as the head coach, the only QBs we have seen that get to play with any regularity in his offenses here are busdrivers. Derek Thompson, Andrew McNulty, and Josh Greer. The other QBs that have failed to get meaningful playing time of more than a few games are Osborn, Berglund, Dajon, etc...all known during their recruitment as QBs who were dual threats or had big arms, which come to think of it, sounds exaclty like Damarcus Smith. Look, I want you to be right about this--I think McNulty is below average for a FBS QB. I think anyone who can make plays should be the QB, not someone who cannot throw consistently downfield. The track record at UNT for Mac, though, says completely the opposite will happen.