untjim1995

Exactly--I know that the previous coaches complained about the strict admissions for SMU before, but when June got there, the admissions were softened. I just think June Jones wants to get paid as long SMU will keep paying. He'll leave there and have a job in Hawaii waiting for him as soon as he wants that job again.

I, too, felt the same way about Coker at UTSA. Always thought they hit a home run on that hire and they have used every single advantage they have as a school in San Antonio to get built very quickly. I still feel like they are the second version of USF. I love Dan McCarney, too. He has enthusiasm and a great presence about him. But he is facing the hardest enemy to beat--a culture that accepts losing and mediocrity. He has done a great job so far in trying to beat it down, but there is still a long way to go. I just hope that over the course of the next 12 games (yes, including a bowl game) that we can duplicate our success from last year. I have us at 8-9 wins this year and I still believe we will ge there. But this past weekend's effort at Texas was just Dickey-esque in its patheticness--just run out a vanilla gameplan to run out the clock and collect $875k with as few injuries as possible so as not to show the rest of the schedule anything on tape--so that has me questioning that prediction. But I'm gonna assume we will do what we did back in 2006--lose bad to Texas in the opener and then beat SMU at home in the next game.

I hate SMU because they are soooo Dallas to me. Sit in University Park/Highland Park and have the $$$ to do anything they want, but only appeal to those folks with $$$. I grew up in FW, so I've always had a dislike of all things Dallas and really still do, except for their pro teams. When I got to UNT in 1991, I'd heard about the SMU game from the previous season in 1990 that we won at Fouts and how it was our largest crowd ever at home. Hearing the things that happened in that game from our players and the things that were said by SMU fans leading up to that game just made me hate them more. Then, getting to learn about the fact that Hayden Fry's North Texas teams in the 70s were so good and that we wanted into the SWC only to be defeated before it really ever got started by the SMU-led block of private schools just made me hate them even more. Then, finally, we start having some success on the football field in the SBC early in the 00's, while SMU couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag, yet CUSA won't take us in their league because SMU throws their support behind adding freaking La Tech, who would've given their league absolutely no value. Of course, CUSA sees that and invites UTEP instead, while we get stuck for years more in the dregs of the FBS until SMU leaves and opens up the spot we now claim in today's CUSA. ANd as soon as we get into CUSA, they get their old private buddies, Tulane and Tulsa, to immediately bolt to the AAC, leaving us with adding Western Kentucky and Florida Atlantic. That's why I hate SMU. And because they still get SWC coverage fromt he DFW press when it is not even close to being deserved...

UNT--27 SMU--17 Crowd of 27k

Rice, TCU, and Baylor all manage to get talented kids into their private schools...to me, that's not an excuse for SMU anymore.

I just saw Vito's tidbit about RV getting a bonus of $100k for being our AD--it was a retention bonus, apparently, which was met yesterday. It was his second bonus for the same amount and he is scheduled to receive another one on Sept.1, 2015. Apparently, those $100k bonuses were raised by private donors, according to Vito's blog. So to get this straight, our big-monied alums and fans didn't raise this large amount of cash for a Benford buyout or to help us avoid the bodybag game that we lose every year. Nope, instead we paid the AD, who has already been extended by the BOR, with private donor bonuses. I guess the joke is on me...I truly don't get it.

No doubt, Eagle1855...

I've posted this before, but it must really suck to be a fan at SMU. You were once at the Big Kids Table, only to get knocked hard to the Little Kids Table. Now, granted, SMU did it to themselves by earning the Death penalty and then following it up with putrid ball for the next 20 years, but nonetheless, they've watched a program with the heritage of Doak Walker, Don Meredith, and Eric Dickerson play great teams in the old SWC every week. Now, they are permanently stuck at the G5 level, playing teams that their fans don't care about much at all, leaving y'all never to be relevant again. Sure, some of the old guard in the DFW media scene still fantasize about SMU actually mattering still, but for the most part, as time goes on, its very apparent that they just don't matter anymore. Now before any SMU fans get all high and mighty about North Texas' place in college football, I actually agree with you that we are well below you on the totem pole of college football, that we are stuck in the extremely watered down SBC if you guys hadn't jumped ship to the AAC to give us your old CUSA spot. In advance, I'd like to say again, thanks for doing this. What I am saying is that we at UNT have always been used to having to eat at the kids table, teh reasons wy are variable to the posters on this site--some of us believe you have kept us at the kids table, some believe it was the UTs and A&Ms that kept us at this table, while I believe it was solely our own idiocy that has kept us at this table--to the point where we are f'ing stuck to the damn kiddie chair and it is now viewed as unremovable by any medical staff out there (P5). But you guys have all this history and all this money and sit in the middle of Dallas and...it just doesn't matter. You, too, got welded to the kiddie table chair. Both Baylor and TCU beat you to the punch and kept you from ever moving upward on the conference ladder of relevance. So, today, just like us and UTEP and Louisiana Tech and any other G5 team located in the Southwest, you have become one of our kind. The question is what you do about this going forward--keep throwing money at having what is increasingly the new i-aa level of football, drop down to non-scholarship football, or just quit. Its not hard for me to imagine any of those scenarios for your program ten years from now. That is one calamitous fall from grace, SMU...

FIFY

Have we ever seen Ben Gooding and UNT_Playmaker together? Just curious...

If we wanted to use just one post to summarize this university's issues, we would start here.But just focusing on athletics for now-- we keep Tony Benford as the head basketball coach after two horrendous seasons because it would cost too much to fire him. The man who hired Benford, Dodge, and Shanice Stephens, all of whom have been the worst coaches in the school's history for each sport, was RV, who promptly got an EXTENSION before we made the HoD BOwl last year--meaning the BOR and Administration fel tthat RV had done such a great job here that he deserved an extension and a raise. Is it any wonder that Lee Jackson would also get an extension under these circumstances?

This. That guy built them up from absolute Dodge-like garbage to a bowl champion. Then, after he stays at FIU instead of going to Pitt (huge mistake), he has one bad year and gets canned. Pathetic... I think the mistake was adding FAU after you already had FIU for the Miami market. ULL made a lot more sense, at that point.

It really doesn't matter in the long run. When the P5 makes it to where there are no OOC games against non-P5 teams, we won't deal with this anymore. At that point, we could really be one of the best G5 teams in the country. Granted, the normal 15-20k will be all that cares, but I suspect these scheduled body bag games within five years will need to get rescheduled. Just my $.02.

TFLF, I don't always see eye-to-eye with your views, but I always enjoy reading your posts. And this post is one of your best, on all fronts. From where the NCAA is not at, to the place that big colleges chose to go with football and other revenue sports to get ahead, all the way to the place where we at UNT refused to go with athletics because of various factors, your post just about covers it perfectly. College athletics, as we have known them, is about to get drawn and quartered. If this guy's plan gets put into law, the whole landscape is gonna get nuked, basically. You would basically have about 20-30 schools that would/could participate in a pay-for-play deal with big enough fanbases to appease the networks and media outlets. And the biggest losers in that scenario are gonna be those P5 schools who have built new stadiums and facilities to try and compete with the big guys. Your Baylors, TCUs, Techs, ISUs, etc...talk about a colossal waste of money and energy. Spend hundreds of millions on this stuff only to become a AA team , while the powerhouses get their AAA status upheld.

That helmet came in 1994 with Matt Simon...

I tend to agree with you, but the Ivy League is full of the players you talk about and have all that history and no one even pays a bit of attention to them beyond their fans. I just cannot imagine a college football world that involves HS kids getting signing bonuses and salaries...at least legally (see SMU)

This game is exactly why we need to thank our lucky stars that SMU chased their Big East dreams and left CUSA. Otherwise, we are still in the SBC, but without MUTS, WKU, or the Florida Airport schools. Imagine how fun that would be--to tell your buddies that we have an exciting team this year that will host Georgia State, South Alabama, Idaho, Arkansas State, and New Mexico State for our 5 games at Apogee...

The people who put that poll together are embarrasing and are weaklings...

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/28/sports/jeffrey-kessler-envisions-open-market-for-ncaa-college-athletes.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpSum&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0 What would this do to collegiate sports? This would blow the whole thing apart, in my opinion....

Someone attending a university and not liking football is acceptable. Rooting for another school against your own alma mater that you earned a degree from, that is the unacceptable part. I get the UT-Tyler, UT-Dallas, UT-Arlington grad that feels a kinship to UT and financially support them, since they didn't have football. But to go to a UNT game anywhere and cheer against us, while holding a degree from here, is just wrong in my book...

I was there from 1991-1995, 5 full football seasons working for the athletic department. TFLF is so right about the bolded line above. One thing, though, about those two opponents was that we usually had a decent crowd for both opponents, since it was the opening home game of the season, usually. The worst games were at home in November against the SLC teams from Louisiana. In 1992, we played a night game against Nicholls State on a November Saturday late in the season. Counting the band, we played the second half of that game in front of about 200 people. At that point, looking back, we were playing at Fouts Field, as a 1-aa team, coached by a HS coach (Parker), against a podunk Louisiana SLC school, and we were both terrible--it was the low point, to me, as a student, when I think back to those days. We had one more dismal season, in 1993, going 4-7 again and Parker got fired. We hired Matt Simon to lead our team as the school tried to qualify for 1-A status. The UNT community actually responded and we were able to achieve this move upward, since we played in front of big crowds (for Fouts) that year. When I think back on those days, that when I realize just how far we have come in the last 20 years...

From the comments section: Also, I personally know some UNT grads that will be joining me in rooting for us, which is hil-arious. They DO NOT appreciate music school money being diverted into football…even if it is kind of working (came close to a Championship game last year I think). So there’s that. I did not realize they had any legitimate talent on their team. This changes my confidence level approximately 0%. If we aren’t crushing them at half…I’ll be surprised…and a bit queasy for the rest of the season. I say 49-17-ish? After they score a late TD against our second string. by e1 kabong on Aug 26, 2014 | 3:48 PMreply Sadly, I really believe this poster about the UNT grads that will be with him at the game. The greatest irony, to me, is that these idiots hate that the music dept isn't getting more finanical support because of football at UNT (not sure how you get to that conclusion) that they will go watch a football game featuring UNT and root against us with about 100,000 other people. Talk about selling out...

If we win this game, it will be because we run for over 200 yards and win the turnover battle by a +3 or more...we will need to throw th eball or setup designed QB scrambles, but we have to keep the clock moving to have a chance here. Still think we will win if we knock Ash out of the game, too...

TCUs dance card will fill up real fast, too. You get a non-confernece game in Texas against a team that appears to be in way over the head right now. Utah and Colorado will be popular, too, just like KU and ISU will be, as well.

Except the 5000 fans they have won't convince any P5 league they are worthy of being in a conference with them. They are done. IMO, nobody has had a bigger fall over my lifetime than they have. From being ranked #2 in the old SWC, then get the death penalty, then come back as a whiipping boy for the rest of the SWC, get drop-kicked out of the SWC to the WAC while Baylor gets to stay with the SWC schools people actually followed, watch rival TCU fly by them at warp sepped and now be in a P5 league, end up being in a far-flung league full of teams that no one in the Metroplex care about except for the few that care about UH, and now see the P5 basically close up shop on the rest of the G5. It won't shock me at all if the P5 makes it to where they never play G5 schools again (and I think they will) to see SMU just drop football at a scholarship level instead of admitting that they are bascially a 1-aa school now. Oh well, you'll always have your NFL-lite history of paying players...