untjim1995

Nobody thinks we should even think about being in the same budget as Texas, Texas A&M, or Texas Tech. But is it too much to ask us to take advantage of the exact same fee that powerhouses like Texas State and Texas-San Antonio get to legally charge? I don't give a damn about the P5 budgets. We decided decades ago that we can't and won't try to compete with them athletically. We never will. But the other two Texas twins are probably going to be our peers athletically for a long time to come. We should be able to charge the same state-allowed athletics fee that they do.

I'll be the first to tell you that I'd take a 5 game home schedule right now if we get BYU, KU, K-State, Mizzou, Colorado, Utah, or another B1G team here instead of us playing 6 home games with one of them being a FCS school. No way I'll ever go watch Incarnate Word play us, just like I wouldn't go watch the Nicholls State game or the Texas Southern game. My time is more valuable with my family or friends than to watch a FBS/FCS game. I promise you all that way more people feel this way about UNT football than the diehards on here. For those that think this is the way K-State did it, you are missing one small bit of information--they had conference opponents to draw people out to their games, which made up for their OOC games against the Sisters of the Poor in Manhattan. When you had Nebraska, OU, Colorado, KU, Mizzou, Iowa State, and OSU every year to play in conference, you can take the hit on buying a few wins. When your conference mates are SBCUSA schools, you don't get that lucky. Your revenues aren't ever going to be anything special unless you whore yourself out to P5 giants, which we always do. I've always said that we should go after games with BYU, Okie State, Mizzou, Colorado, KSU, KU, and even Nebraska at Jerry World or the Cotton Bowl. Tech will never come here, nor will Baylor. Texas, OU, Arkansas, and A&M because of the JerryWorld games and the TCU/SMU SWC relationship. Won't ever happen. UH would be nice, too, to get a series with, but I'm not sure how open they are to that right now.

Marshall is playing a cream puff schedule and isn't even ranked by the committee that actually has sway in the college football world right now, the CFP Board. The Boise State model everyone talks about is not even one we could emulate, aside from playing weaklings, because they ALSO played a P5 team every year, usually beating them (see Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Geaorgia, Va Tech, etc...). Those wins got them the attention of the college football world. Marshall winning like they are this year isn't swaying anyone their way, especially if they do what I think they will in their big bowl game, which is fold up like a cheap tent like the last weak-ass non-AQ did with that kind of schedule (Hawaii under June Jones against Georgia in the SUgar Bowl).

What cracks me up is that we didn't get any announcement about this game from the university. Anytime we sign a contract to play anyone, it always gets announced. But not this one--its like it wasn't even worth the hassle to bring up to the public...

A couple of things--you forgot Texas State, who is having a nice season that should get them in a bowl, and Texas A&M was ranked at the beginning of the year, along with Baylor, as well as Texas and TCU in some polls. From where we all felt that they would be to where they are now and are headed, this is my list of exceeding versus failing in Texas: TCU--obvious UTEP--way better than anyone thought they'd be Texas State--solid year and headed to a bowl game Baylor--met the expectations of being top ten at the beginning of the year Texas A&M--met the expectations of being a top 25 team at the beginning of the year Rice--most thought they'd be a solid team again Texas--about where they should be, but they're Texas, so its probably considered disappointing Houston--lost to UTSA to start the season at home in their new stadium, lost at Tulane, but still having a decent year and will go bowling UTSA--started off nicely, but have fallen off the cliff since the calendar turned beyond September UNT--cannot beat anyone beyond the dregs of college football Texas Tech--gave Kliff Kingsbury a 7-year contract extension for $3.5 million per year, now getting pounded weekly by other P5 teams SMU--obvious

Well, it'd be nice if a coach in his third year as the HC wasn't struggling to get to OT against an NAIA school in an exhibition, but maybe that is just me...I know we were missing people, but that seems really sad to me.

and the fact that the Oline has severely disappointed us this year...

So far, since Apogee has been built, we have hosted or scheduled the following teams to play in Denton at a brand new stadium: Houston, Indiana, Texas Southern, Idaho, Ball State, SMU, Nicholls State, Army, and Incarnate Word. In the previous 3 years before Apogee, at decrepit-ass Fouts, we hosted Tulsa, Ohio, Army, Rice (back when weren't conference foes), and Kansas State. I love Apogee--but I continue to wonder how long its gonna be before people who hate athletics around here are going to ask why we spent $78 million dollars to build a facility to play opponents that Fouts hosted, especially when we are in the new i-aa again, after the P5 split away. Wouldn't it be ironic if Lee Jackson and the BOR got replaced because they allowed a huge expenditure to get made on a football stadium?

FIFY

That website just depresses me...as does playing Incarnate Word in anything. How does that game help you at all? Just as the Nicholls State game showed, these games do nothing for you, except give you a win and to see what it is like to be on the other side of a bought victory. Nobody wants to go watch these games, the results show you nothing about what your team will do against your regualr competition, and they don't even bring any fans with them to help you at the gate. If youre gonna play FCS teams, schedule SFA or SHSU, for goodness sake...they at least have alumni who will go watch their team play that numbers more than 20.

No one seems alarmed that we gave up 100 points to a NAIA school...

You're better than me, then, because I thought the Benford hire was at-best questionable. I wanted an experiecned head coach, as well. Someone like Shields at UALR or the head coach at ULL that used to be at Sam Houston. I liked the Fraschilla idea, too. But, if you went the assistant route, then Coach Forrest from the previous staff under Johnny Jones would've made more sense to me, just for continuity. Going forward, I'd go after Brad Underwood for sure, but he's probably not going to be available by then.

That's my point--we do battle them for recruits. They want to take advantage of home games with us to nnot only win, but to do it in front of recruits from Texas that we are all recruiting.

#slowclap

Benford showed up??

I think we will beat FIU at home, but I don't see us winning either of these two games on the road. UTEP is just a better team than we are right now and they are playing at home, which we have shown that we cannot even compete on the road for 4 quarters. UTSA and us are equal, but they will also be at home. PLus, you cannot forget the recruiting factor that both coachers at UTEP and UTSA want to take advantage of by getting wins over us, especially UTSA.

I think they have joined Baylor in offering benefit$ that aren't publi$hed... In Waco, its called a Bible full of cash...In College Station, its probably a Corps Boot full of cash.

Its hard for me to post that I am willing to give this thing a new shot, especially after the last two years. I think he has a schedule to make some hay at home in OOC, but I just don't see us beating anyone who has a chance at making the NCAA Tournament. As I posted the other day, I see us going 6-2 at home in OOC play, 0-4 on the road in OOC play. CUSA has some good teams at the top, but its still a one-bid league, probably La Tech's or UTEPs to earn. I see us winning 7 or 8 games in conference play (including the conference tourney). That gets you to a record of 14-17, which I think is about the best we can expect for. If we get to 16 wins this year, that means we are guarenteed .500 or better. With this schedule, that's possible. And with this AD wanting to show everyone that Benford wasn't a complete failure, I'd expect RV will be ready to extend Benford out another year or two, which would give him 3 or 4 more years to coach here. If Benford wins between 5 and 15 games, he'll be back with a make-it-or-break-it 4th year to coach, which would require a winning season to get him an extension. Under 5 wins would probably mean that Benford gets fired--I think...after watching Vic Trilli and Todd Dodge get 4th years after 3 awful seasons leading up to that 4th year are the examples of why I cannot say it would be a certainty.

This. When Johnny left to go back to LSU, we should've hired an experienced head coach, or at least hired a coach from Johnny's staff to take over and keep some continuity going for the players. What was a bad idea was to hire an assistant coach from outside the program that has never been a head coach. What was a worse idea was to hire one who was known to be a great recruiter, not an x's and o's coach, just like Trilli was when we hired him. What was the worst idea was to hire one who was an alum of a giant P5 school in the state, so if he was any good, he would've been Tech's head coach wihihn a year or two. And if he wasn't any good, we were stuck with him for 4 years. We went the worst route possible...

Or Nicholls State?

Great point and I think you are right about the defense figuring out the up-tempo offenses, too. Hell, Saban tried to get the rules committee to change some of the rules regarding the no-huddle offenses on the grounds of "safety", but that was easily seen as benefitting the defense, which was his main reason for doing it. But he (or someone like him) will figure it out, I'm sure. And it will be awesome to go back to real football instead of glorified tag football at the schoolyard.

At a school like ours, you're just going to have to develop these no stars, 1-stars, and 2 stars into 3 and 4 star type players, particularly in the front seven on defense and on the OLine. We always have a solid stable of running backs and we usually have a decent corps of WRs. But its the front seven that will determine if the secondary is great or putrid (there's generally no in between here) and its the OLine that will determine if your running game will give that defense the rest it needs. Last year, we had all of that, in Year 3 of Mac's tenure. Then we lost a ton of starters. Now, we are basically in Year 1 again, based on the results we have seen--the question is if it will take just a year to rebuild or if it will take 2 or more years. One thing is for certain, though. It won't be because of the QB. Since we moved back up to Division 1-A in 1995, we have had one QB who could've been a legitimate passer for an entire season, Giovanni Vizza. He had the size and the arm--he just got beaten up so bad during games in his freshman season and beaten down so much off the field because of the Dodge-coached program he got involved with here that he didn't have the heart to keep going, so he quit. Other than that, no other QB we have had since then was a QB that you could look at and say that he had the potential to lead a conference in passing or win a game with his arm. Its just how it has always been here--Simon, Dickey, Dodge, or McCarney--three of them couldn't or didn't recruit decent throwing QBs, while Dodge did, but he was incompetent at actually running a college program. That is why we know that the only path to success we have seen here has been thru the busdriver-offense route, which rode the coattails of a great defense and special teams, as well as a dominant running game to keep the clock rolling and keep the defense off the field.

I agree, but even Alabama has had trouble with that offense in past years, with losses against Texas A&M and Auburn. All that said, you're right in that those teams have the athletes to at least hold their own against it. I just think that the Texas HS offenses running this spread actually stunts some defensive development because of practices that aren't full tackle contact (see Todd Dodge here). Unless you have a coach who can teach defensive skills, like Patterson at TCU seems to do better than most, you have to take the good with the bad and try to develop them into decent players over time. At some places, Baylor or Tech or A&M, defense is just given a token amount of coaching and the focus is on offense. And even at places with coaches who are good at developing defensive teams, like TCU and even here with McCarney, you can still get caught up in track meets because of the rules and the immense amount of offensive talent that exists on rosters in the state of Texas. Schools like Texas and Oklahoma are finding out that their defenses are not equipped, for varying reasons, to stop the spread offenses. Whether they go full bore at being offensive-focused teams like Baylor and A&M right now or find a defensive scheme that can stop those offenses enough to beat them regularly is the biggest question they face. The problem, again, though, is that the majority of your recruits play this glorified flag football, so you've got to be able to teach how to hit and tackle very quickly, which is obviously easier said than done in today's college football world.

To me, the point isn't DT--its Coach Mac. This is his offensive gameplan. H eloves the Stanford model--beat you up with a strong running game a great defense, mixed with solid to spectacular special teams. The QB is a busdriver. This year's team has a porous defense against anyone with a pulse on offense, the special teams is decent, and the OLine hasn't played well for the most part, except against three bad to they-may-be the-worst-team-I've-seen-in-decades-bad programs. Next season, these two things determine our success--whether our defensive front seven improve strength wise so as to put more pressure on the QB, and if we can develop a new OLine since so many guys will be done. If so, then we are a bowl team next year. If not, we win 3 or 4 games at the most in 2015. McNulty's play (or Greer's) won't determine that anymore than it has this season. Who Dan McCarney needs to find and get here is a Scott Hall type QB--one who is gritty and just comes off as a leader, but can be a solid busdriver, too...

Count me in, as well, as someone who thinks the spread offense is glorified backyard football. I don't know how or when, but some defense is going to figure out how to punish that offense and it will end it for good. Just like the wishbone and option football got dealt a crushing blow when defenses figured out that you had to get quicker LBs at DLinemen to stop it, someone is gonna figure this out. I like the 20-13 game way more than the 82-27 game.