untjim1995

If the BOR doesn't care about winning, then it isn't an issue how RV runs the AD, just as long as he stays within the budget and doesn't embarrass them with his words or actions. He has it made here...if you want to believe differently, you aren't looking at what RV has done to get these extensions. I don't even blame RV--if someone gave me extensions and a huge salary to just stay within the bounds of a budget, I'd gladly take it and keep on taking it as long as they wanted to give it out.

Before we get into answering these questions, how do you feel about that fee being on your tuition bill? Is that something you support or do you feel like it is a waste of money to be used only on athletics here at UNT?

He's already been given a free pass from RV on Year 1, when he blamed that season on the players, not the coach. Now that those guys are gone, this is Benford's team of players, so he is 16-16 as far as RV is concerned. Hell, he got UTA off the schedule so that we could replace them with teams like Langston and Wayland Baptist at home in the last two seasons. If you cannot go .500 with this schedule, you should get fired once that is not possible. Not here, though. All that will mean is that he will be certain to coach here in Year 4 of his contract. But a .500 season means Benford is affordable to extend for a few years. If Benford goes 16-16 again, he get easily be extended for another two or three years at a friendly salary for the BOR, instead of potentially buying out a year of salary in 2016 and then paying for another contract. You all know how the BOR looks at this stuff here. This just seems crystal clear to me, based on how things have always functioned here regarding revenue sports. I hope I'm wrong compeltely, but there is nothing from the past that makes me feel that it won't happen. That OOC home schedule is just putrid--if you cannot go 6-2 versus that collection of teams at home, than you are probably right and we won't be having this argument. But I have a feeling that .500 is very possible again--and if so, then we are going to be sold that Benford is very deserving of receiving an extension after all that he has had to endure on the job. Remember this--the big money is behind Benford right now, as is the BOR and the AD. That is a huge advantage at a school like ours...

Take out the bottom 4 teams of the SEC, just so you can make it 10 versus 10 in the SEC versus the Big 12. Now think neutral field... Mississippi State (#1) versus TCU (#6)--I could see TCU winning here Auburn (#3) versus K-State (#9)--already saw Auburn beat K-State in Manhattan, doesn't matter how bad KSU played that night, they still lost... Alabama (#4) versus Baylor (#10)--Bama would beat this bunch up on both sides of the ball, plus Baylor would never stop Bama's running game Ole Miss (#10) versus Oklahoma (#16)--This is one I think Oklahoma would win, since Ole Miss just lost their best receiver LSU (#14) versus West Virginia (#24)--I think LSU's running game and defense would be too much on a neutral field Georgia (#17) versus Oklahoma State (no votes received)--Georgia in a nailbiter--OSU is just too young. If Gurley played for UGa, I'd like the Dawgs even more... Mizzou (Receiving Votes) versus Texas (no votes received)--wouldn't be close, Mizzou would hammer them--Texas has no offense and their special teams are only special for the other team, unless they are playing... Florida (Receiving 1 vote) versus Texas Tech (no votes received)--Texas Tech is the worst team not named Kansas in the league, probably one of the five worst P5 teams in the country. Texas pummelled them in Lubbock...Texas... Texas A&M (Receiving 1 vote) versus Iowa State (no votes received)--A&M would score a lot of points on ISU, but would give up a lot of points. It would probably look like the ISU game in Austin from a few weeks ago, a close loss in a shootout Kentucky (no votes received, but a 5-4 record) versus Kansas (no votes received)--this should be a basketball game instead... This is not counting South Carolina at 4-5, Tennessee at 4-5, Arkansas at 4-5 (crushed Tech in Lubbock, yet to win a game in the SEC), or Vanderbilt at 3-6. I'd take everyone of these teams against the last 4 teams of the Big XII in head-to-head on a neutral field.

RV isn't concerned about his job, pal... You watch--if he gets to .500 or better, he's gonna get a two year extension or more. We play Arkansas-Monticello, Nicholls State, Delaware State, Iona, Mississippi Valley State, Langston, Prairie View and Creighton at home--and that Creighton game is on 12/21 when there won't be any students around to come to the game. So, realistically, Creighton and Iona are the two most likely losses--the others are all probable wins. We won't win a road game at Arkansas, Okie State, SFA, or Texas Tech, so that gets us to 6-6 right there. If we go 9-9 in conference, then split a couple fo games in the CUSA Tournament, we go 16-16, which matches last year's record with what was the worst OOC I had ever seen scheduled here in a long time, like the pre-Trilli days. RV hates that Benford is looked at as a colossal failure. Another .500 season here is going to get rewarded. He will be promoted in the media by RV as showing that he is now understanding what it takes to be a head coach in basketball, now that he has three years under his belt. You'll see... It will take a win number under 15 to have Benford go into his 4th year (of 5) without a contract extension. And it'll take a win total under 5 to have even a remote chance at seeing him removed, although I doubt it...what in the world would make you believe otherwise? Frankly, I'm surprised you'd think an extension after this season in that hypothetical mentioned above wouldn't happen, knowing what you know about this place and RV's history here.

It really doesn't matter, in the big picture. Once the P5s fully pull away, any conference setup where the majority of your travel is beyond a 2 hour flight is going to be an ender. I will say this, again, one of the two biggest winners in the realignment game was TCU, along with Utah. TCU went out west, with Texas HS talent, and beat the hell out of the MWC teams often. They turned that league experience into two BCS bowl games, 1 Rose Bowl win, several ranked seasons, and the best prize of all, the spot in a P5 conference, which as of right now, is set to give them a spot in the upcoming playoff, according to cbssports.com. Even though TCU, Utah, and BYU are gone, they replaced them with Boise State, Fresno State, and Nevada, all of whom have solid programs and recent success of varied note. If things stayed remotely close to how they are now, the Texas schools that would've eventually been courted by the MWC would be setup to follow TCU's path, in my opinion. Plus, the basketball out there is just flat out awesome, between New Mexico, San Diego State, UNLV, and Utah State. CUSA is the best setup UNT has ever had in a conference in 40 years. I am eternally grateful to the Big East thinking that SMU would help their conference stay at a P5 level, opening up that spot for us. But I am not acting like CUSA is something spectacular for our fans, aside from having a few more recognizable schools to play against and travel to a lot easier. Going to Houston, San Antonio, El Paso, and Ruston are significant upgrades from traveling to Monroe, Jonesboro, Troy, and Mobile (really any SBC vista not in Lafayatte, LA). But the current environment in college football is changing so fast that the G5s are going to force to consolidate into conferences that are more regional, no matter how hard it is going to be for some to handle that (SMU to UNT, La Tech to ULM, UTEP to NMSU).

I'd be shocked if we stay within 4 points of them. Just don't see it happening with this team's defense and QB issues.

RV isn't going anywhere anytime soon--just like Benford and McCarney aren't either. It isn't worth the time to bitch about this--no one is gonna change this. RV has the BOR on his side, while Benford and McCarney have contract buyouts on their side. Trust me on this one, especially with the schedule that Benford has in front of him, if he finishes near .500, he's getting an extension after this season. That is how the AD will show you that he wasn't a mistake being hired as an unproven coach.

Congratulations on some great results in non-revenue sports. I'd rather win those than lose in them, too, like we do in revenue sports, so that is a good accomplishment for the AD. To me, RV has the few monied alums that contribute to this place on his side, as well as the BOR and administration, both of which want him to keep athletics cost-friendly and to never publically complain about the way things are here, culturally. He will be here for as long as he wants, barring anything criminal, health-wise, or making statemetns that would force him to leave. He has the best job in the world, as far as I'm concerned. An ADs job at every single FBS school in America is to get as many people to actually attend the best teams you can field at your revenue sports, of which there are just two at UNT--football and mens hoops. In football, we have 4 conference championships and 2 bowl wins in that period, as well 4 teams that had winning seasons...since 2001. Assuming 2014 ends the way it looks like it will, that will make 10 years of losing UNT Football, out of 14. The total record is 62-104 in his time here. In mens hoops, he has seen our program have 7 winning seasons, 0 regular season conference championships, and 2 NCAA apperances as a 15 seed that ended in double digit losses. 6 seasons finished at .500 or worse. Attendance at UNT Football under RV, in a great year, will average over 20k, while in a bad year it will average around 15k. In basketball, the best average was in the 3000s, while the worst is around 2000. That represents 50-67% capacity at our football stadiums, as well as 20-35% capacity at The Super Pit. After 14 years as being the AD at a school that has gone from about 29k in attendance to almost 37k in attendance, has now seen a local alumni increase to over 200k, and the local town increase by tens of thousands in population, which doesn't even count the increase in the population in Denton County, much less the DFW area. With all of this, RV received extensions in May of 2010, February of 2012 and last year in October, with a contract that runs until 2018. Cumulatively in football, since he got extended the first time in 2010, our football team has had three head coaches, went 23-32 (.418), and we had 1 winning season that led to a bowl win over UNLV. But he did open up tailgating, got us a football series against hated rival SMU, and was the AD when UNTFlyer decided to run a stealth campaign thru the SGA that got the vote to approve Apogee being built. And our non-revenue sports are apparently doing well. Another extension is probably in the works in the next few years by the BOR, of which I have no doubt he will gladly enjoy as the AD here well into the 2020s.

McNulty is Mac's guy--he plays football with minimal turnovers, knows the offensive gameplan that Mac wants him to run, and he doesn't cause any trouble off the field. We all know that he is extremely limited, that he will never lead you to any wins without a great defense or strong running game, neither of which we have this year. But Mac would rather "develop" him and give him reps this year and sell it as this being the same way we "developed" Derek Thompson in his senior year. I don't agree with this at all, but it really doesn't matter, since Mac is gonna do what he believes in as the head coach. He just better be right on this, or next year will look like a repeat of this year. Gosh, this season feels so much like 2005, it isn't even funny. The recruiting never picked up before that year, we had a bad Qb situation, and the defense had stepped back greatly, while the offensive gameplan never changed. What followed was more boring defeats in 2006, followed by catastrophe under Dodge. What I truly fear is that we may be getting into that situation again here, that we are going to look at 2013 like we did 2002-2003, where we thought we were ready to step up as a program, only to fall back into the abyss that has described UNT Football since Fry left in the late 70s. McCarney is here, no matter what, unless he quits, until 2017, at the earliest. At this point, we just gotta hope he hasn't been so beaten down that he just collects the check. The uber positive and energetic McCarney that we have seen before this season must come back for this thing to turn into anything above a 4 win team going forward. If that guy doesn't appear again, and we are stuck with Dickey Part II, you will see about 12 more wins between now and until the end of 2017, where we just run out the clock against teams we are collecting a check from, have an offense that runs about 75% of the time, and we beat the dregs of the SBCUSA, all while bitching about this being the hardest place to recruit to and coach in America. We have seen how this story played out before our eyes within the last decade.

Mississippi State didn't start the season off as a top ten team, like Baylor was. Also, playing Alabama, Auburn, LSU, A&M, Arkansas, and Ole Miss is way more stout than playing this year's Big XII. MSU could afford a weaker OOC schedule when you play in the best division in the country.

It's too bad the head coach feels about 180 degrees differently about DW as the starting QB here. He will never start another game here, barring an injury to McNulty. I wish it was different, but he is done here, I'm afraid.

I told you that McNulty will be sold as being the next Derek Thompson--a senior QB that has struggled along the way , but he will be a true leader just like DT. Just wait--it's already happening with the lone beat writer for this team already blogging about no new QBs in 2015. The bigger question should be from Vito to Mac, why would any QB in this state come here to run this offense when they throw the ball 50 times a night in the spread offense they run in HS? Somehow, I doubt that question will ever get asked.

Ive never been a big believer in experience. I am big believer in development. As we are seeing with the entire team, an experienced OL doesn't make the offense any better since its leader is a bunch of non-developed QBs. On the defense, the developed talent is just not there. We just have to hope that the developed talent shows up next year from the disaster that this year has offered. We don't have any choice here--we have to give Mac the time to fix his staff issues, give these guys more time to get stronger and smarter, and pray it gets better. Because if it doesn't, we are not just gonna have a losing season this year--its gonna be every year until Mac leaves, which won't be until 2017 at the earliest. If we know anything around here, it is that we aren't buying out any contract for more than a year with the kind of salary McCarney draws here. No way the BOR will pay over a million dollars to buy anyone out. And, frankly, if we did that, we would probably hire someone like Chico to be the coach, an unknown assistant that wouldn't cost much. We know that recipe doesn't work here at all...

Kansas will always be P5 because of their basketball program and because they are the main school of the state that has AAU membership. The P5 schools that will eventually get dropped would be your small private schools--Wake Forest, Baylor, TCU, Vandy, and maybe a school like Northwestern, although I doubt that the B1G will let go of the Chicago market team that they like playing every year. Duke will always be P5 becuase of their hoops tradition as a national power, as well. Those other four are looking down the barrel of a gun, especially Baylor and TCU. Those two are basically stuck when the Big XII breaks up.

Baylor's OOC is terrible--they are getting what they deserve by scheduling SMU, NW State, and Buffalo. TCU beat Minnesota, K-State lost a close game to Auburn, and OU beat Tennessee. Hell, West Virginia lost a close game to Bama and Okie Lite played FSU tough in their opener. Playing the sisters of the poor in OOC never helps you gain ground when you are competing for top bowl slots or now, playoff slots. It never helped Tech when leach was there, it never helped K-State back when Snyder only played non-AQ schools in OOC, and it killed Auburn when they had a perfect record in 2004, but couldn't jump OU or USC in the polls becuase they played someone in OOC. As far as the SEC, I hate them as much as anyone, but I also understand that Alabama, Auburn, Ole Miss,and Miss State are all probably as good as anyone else in the country. Those top SEC West teams (including LSU at home) or just better than most others out there right now, The rest of the SEC gets credited with being associated with those 4 right now, but that's how it usually goes in these things. Any of those teams are undefeated in the Big Ten, Big 12, and maybe the ACC right now. Florida State hasn't shown me one reason to believe they would beat one of those SEC power teams on a neutral field. Nor have Oregon, Michigan State, Notre Dame, TCU, or K-State. Mississippi State has been, to this point, the best team I've watched this season. Auburn has the best road win this season in the country, even if you argue that K-State gave it to them. They still won in Manhattan on a Thursday night on ESPN. And Bama appears to have gotten their wheels back on as they prepare for home games against Miss State and Auburn, along with a road game at LSU. I'd be willing to bet that when it is all said and done, though, the committee is going to spread this playoff to 4 conferences, not three, if just to keep everyone as happy as possible. If I was guessing right now, I'd take FSU, Alabama, Michigan State, and Oregon as the Final Four. As I have thought all along, the Big XII is probably the lone man out, at this point, unless KSU wins out and Auburn does as well. Baylor had to go undefeaeted to get in, which didn't happen. And OU was ranked high enough to start that they could've suffered a loss and still gotten into the playoff because of their name, but with two losses now, they are done. I suspect that KSU will lose at TCU or Baylor, though, so they will be out no matter what. And I suspect that TCU will lose at West Virginia to knock them out. And Baylor can win out, but that OOC schedule just dooms them. This is UNT Football related because we have gotten big paychecks from some of these teams mentioned above in the last 20 years...

This. If he has offers from Okie State and Tech, among others who may get involved still, I'd just advise everyone to be cautiously optimistic here. Maybe its the Battered Mean Green Syndrome I suffer from, but I am not counting my chickens just yet...

The Tech game was the worst--because Tech matters in this state. more than anyone not named Texas or A&M.We would've beaten them for the 4th time in a row in Lubbuttocks...just so North Texas to find a way to lose that one. The game you mentioned about the spike was actually in 1992--we were playing NW State at Fouts in an early season confernce game on Homecoming, so we actually had our one game a year that got over 10k in attendance. We are losing in that game 31-28, but we are driving for a score to win the game. Maher completes a pass that is in bounds and short of the first down deep in their territory and Parker screams to Mitch to down the ball--on third down--with about 20 seconds to go, IIRC. He does what he is told, then they decide to kick a FG to tie it rather than try for the first down/TD to win. Then, in almost amazingly stupid fashion that truly proved he was a HS coach in waaaaayyyy over his head, Parker calls for an osides kick with about 15 seconds left, which NW State recovers. They complete a pass and call TO to set up a 50+ yard FG, which their kicker absolutely drills down the middle with room to spare at the buzzer.

So let's say the G5 said to the P5, thanks for the opportunity to get a BCS Bowl slot against your worst team, but we are gonna create our own system to reward the best teams in our leagues. Instead of bowl games for the top 8 teams in our 5 leagues, while you all are practicing for your one bowl game, we are going to create a playoff system that involves our 5 league champions, plus the three best non-champions, and put together a fun three weeks that will end in December. This year, ECU, Marshall, Toledo, Colorado State, and Georgia Southern are all in line to be in the playoff as champions of their leagues, with ULL, Boise State, UCF, La Tech, and NIU all still in the running for the remianing three spots. The top 4 champions, based on rankings of our own committee, will host quarterfinal games in the second weekend of December. The semifinals will be held the third week in December in Las Vegas and in Orlando. The championship will be played on December 28th in San Antonio. While you P5 guys are preparing your 6-6 teams to play in the Sun Bowl in a game that doesn't matter to anyone in the country beyond your own fans at the end of December, we will have already finished our season, except for the championship game, which will be great because we were able to create a great system that gets college football interest from fans and media that don't have anything to cover during that time beyond practice. And, oh by the way, for those teams behind our 8 teams in the playoff, they are still bowl eligible still, so they can play in bowl games in Albuquerque, San Diego, Hawaii, Tampa Bay, etc...

Marshall has a solid reputation as a winning program at this G5 level. They love football in the small, college town known as Huntington, West Virginia. They send kids to the NFL, as well. And the G5 programs they are competing against for area-wide recruits are mainly MAC schools, whom they left behind years ago. To me, that is apples to oranges between us and them.

McCarney is a smart and positive man. But losing gets the best of us and we all say things we shouldn't say in moments when we are upset, whether its at home or at work. The losing has just gotten to him, that's it. I fully believe that he felt that we would be much better than we are, that he would have a QB on the roster that wouldn't be the backup at Denton High right now. But that hasn't happened, the defense has been dominated, and the OL has massively underachieved--all of which he is ultimately responsible for and it is just killing him that the team has regressed so much, especially when the program apperaed to be turning around after the HoD Bowl win. In his frustration, he said soemthing he wishes he could take back and is trying to move away from. Its just that losing exacerbates those comments, no matter how flippant they may or may not be. I believe in Mac--he deserved the extension he got. He deserves the chance to get this thing turned around--and even if he didn't deserve it, his contract status now makes it prohibitive to do anything it. But he also deserves the criticism he is getting right now because that statement is atrocious, both in timing and, especially, in tone. If he is complaining about what was left from the Dodge era, he shouldn't be complaining anymore about that since it has been 4 years since he has been gone and his recruits were the ones Mac built into a winner. But, worse, if he is insinuating that this is the hardest place to recruit to, then his comments are Dickey-esque, which is unacceptable to make in light of the facilities and pay improvements. Yes, this place has major hurdles to overcome--and he may not be able to do what he figured he could get done here because of the instituiional issues that he has had nothing to do with in creating and sustaining here, but the negativity killed Dickey with the little fanbase we had then and if it festers within McCarney and keeps coming out in his postgame comments, he will lose the bigger fanbase that exists today than we ever had under Dickey. But I don't think Mac will do that--because I do think the real personlaity he has is very positive and he is a smart, experienced head coach. He won't let this happen again, at least I think that right now.

I'm not sure how anyone missed this or hasn't replied, but AV, this is one of your best posts ever. The totem pole is just so damn high--and we are so damn low on it. AV's point is that we aren't ever going higher on that totem pole as a program unless the leadership here decides they want to do that. And that has been proven over the decades that it doesn't matter who the coach is--if they cannot get held accountable to a winning standard, by being rewarded for winning and fired for losing, instead of being held accountable to their contract's buyout costs, then our place on that totem pole, and the inherent issues that come with them (poor recruiting, dismal reputation with parents and HS coaches, apathy amongst the potential fanbase, etc..) will never change. The only time in the school's history that it ALMOST changed was in the 70s with Hayden Fry, but the administration crushed that into crumbs by not only discontinuing his success he had put into play within the program, but by pulverizing it down to nothing as an underfunded i-aa program for 12 freaking years. And even when we decided to try the I-A thing again, we just put lipstick on the sickest pig and sold it as a healthy animal. Obviously, by doing everything at the cheapest way possible, our place on that totem pole has been as predictable as the sun coming up in the morning. My other post on this site was about the parade of QBs we have had here since 1995--the only ones that have had any success here (basically, 2002-2004 and 2013) had amazing defenses, running backs, and special teams to lean on. We have never had a QB since we moved up to FBS in '95 that was a great throwing passer that turned that into great results in the win column. Maybe that has more to do with coaching--ahem, recruiting, as well--but with the spread offense basically being the choice of gameplan on 95% of Texas high schools, our system that we currently run not only has zero appeal to those QBs that currently run that offense, the pool of QBs we can feasibly expect to choose from that don't currently run the spread is very minimal. Maybe we can develop a QB to run it well, like DT ended up doing, but as with every other piece of the team at this school, development takes longer on projects and it means you have to have experienced talent to win here. Right now, we have no developed QB at all and the experienced players we do have are not as talented as we all figured they would be by now. And that is completely on McCarney and his staff. At this point, though, all we can do now is pray he is the man of character we believe he is and that he will bust his ass to fix this embarrassment, instead of bitching about this place being so hard to get talent to come play here. If not, welcome back to 2005--because we are about to endure a lot more losing again.

TO me, the best QBs we have seen play at UNT since moving up to FBS were Scott Hall and Derek Thompson in his senior year--because they both knew their role on the team and didn't force the ball into traffic that cost the team field position. Of course, they had a bad-ass defense to lean back on, too, as well as strong special teams. So, basically, since 1995, we have two effective bus drivers and...well, that's it. Vizza and Riley both had their moments here, but they were set up to fail by the offensive scheme. Vizza was probably the most talented QB we have had in that timeframe, but he just got the hell beat out of him because our line was putrid, which basically led him to quit. Riley knew that offense perfectly--but that offense at the college level was never going to make up for the fact that he was too small and fragile for FBS football. Andrew Smith could've been on the list above, in either category, but we will never know... The others, Jason Mills, Josh Gulley, Damon West, Jason Attaway, Richard Bridges, Daniel Meager, Matt Phillips, Woody Wilson, Nathan Tune, Josh Greer, Dajon Williams, and Andrew McNulty have had decent games or moments, but none of them made you feel like they were a solid FBS QB that could lead you to a winning record. Some of them were flashes in the pan, some were just not meant to FBS QBs, but none of them made you think we had THE guy at the position.

That has zero chance of happening, even if we go 0-12 next year. He will be here until 2017, unless he leaves on his own. No way we are buying out a $600k per year contract for two or three years. We wouldn't even buyout Todd Dodge's $300k contract for more than a year. Nor will we buyout Tony Benford's contract before he only has one year left, just as we did with Trilli.

I agree completely on your last part, but what have you seen out of Dan McCarney that makes you believe that MiniMac won't be the starting QB next year? If Means could play, he'd be playing right now, in my opinion. Maybe he improves in the spring and over the summer, but until he shows me anything different, MiniMac is gonna get the nod as the starter. McCarney trusts him more than he does all of the other QBs on the roster, combined. Its ridiculous, but that is clearly what is going on at this program right now.