untjim1995

Can we all agree that this is probably the new low point for UNT Basketball? I'm probably alone on this, but I give the blame to RV for this catastrophe. We don't even run into this situation if he doesn't hire a "recruiter" for his first head coaching gig, which he has shown to be woefully unprepared for in every way, which now includes failing at dumbing down the schedule. Fran Fraschilla. Danny Kaspar. Bob Marlin. Scott Cross. All were available to bring here for the job with the most talented team in school history. And we hired Tony Benford, because he could recruit, i.e., BS people to follow him. He must have had one helluva binder in his interview with RV...And even if Benford had been what RV thought he would be as a coach, there is exactly zero doubt that he would've been Tech's coach right now, instead of Tubby Smith. At no other school in America would the AD survive something like this situation with Benford, especially on the heels of the Dodge hire in football and the Stephens hire in womens hoops. RV owns the worst three hires in the school's history in all three revenue sports. Its unreal to me that he keeps his job, much less getting any kind of extension.

What a waste Berglund has become since his Senior Year in HS...

I miss LoveMG's hard-hitting and positive posts...something like this: "We suck at life" That dude may have had a heart attack from reading Andrew/Skiver's eternal optimist posts.

This. UTA has to be enjoying this immensely. UNT90's bet against KRAM on 10 wins this season just got a lot of help...we are gonna be back to 8 wins, with two of those over those non-D1 giants, Northwood and Wayland Baptist. I still like Kram's odds, but it really won't surprise me if UNT90 wins this thing...and I cannot imagine how crazy UNT90 will be when Benford is back as the head coach for 2014-2015.

Literally, he's the worst poster on this website--and its not even close...I'm glad TFLF seems to have him on the ignore list. I encourage others to do it, as well.

Thanks!!

I'd be all for leaving FBS if we have to start paying players stipends. A scholarship at a university is huge--its to help them get a degree while playing a sport they love. We aren't a minor league team for the NFL. Sure, most AQ powers are just that, but we aren't. I love the game of college football, but I hate the powers that rule college football. Its the most self-serving bunch in the history of sports.

The 4 teams in each district making the playoffs and separating who goes where simply on enrollment is the worst. Its all about maximizing profit (playoff games generate extra money) while trying to appease the "GIve more kids the opportunity to feel good about themselves" mentality. Some of us remember when just the district champion made the high school playoffs--I actually liked having the extra team be eligible to make the playoffs, as well, but it should have never gone beyond two teams for any sport. I lost all interest in high school football when they separated into the two divisions of playoffs. Very stupid idea.

Can anyone verify that these guys are certain to play here? In other words, have they signed LOIs already, or just given verbals? Seriously, I am wondering if they are here for sure.

Maybe the Southland Conference could make SFA forfeit their game against us? Since we have played several non-Division 1 schools, of whom we have struggled mightily against, maybe they could force SFA to give us that one back, too?

If we were to lose out the rest of the way, there's no way this place is paying off 3 more years of Benford's $390k contract. No way. After next year, its possible, about 50/50 at best. If we fired him then, buying out two years of the contract, the next coach isn't getting paid anywhere close to what Benford has gotten paid, simply because of budget. Just remember, even with the humongous strides we have made in supporting athletics over the last decade, as compared to our history before that, one thing we have never done is to buyout more than two years of a coach's contract in a revenue sport. We have brought back Vic Trilli for a 4th (out of 5 years) year after a disaster that is worse than Benford's short tenure, which got a 4-22 record for his last year. We did the same thing with Todd Dodge in football, which got him a 4th (out of 5 years), and he responded by winning one more game before getting canned in mid-season. We can all hate it--and we all do--but Benford will be here again next season, and probably the year after. When you are 100% completely serious about athletic funding, you build the best facilities (or remodel) them, you hire and pay for good coaching and ADs, and then when the leadership proves to be failing, you make changes--NO MATTER HOW COSTLY THEY ARE!! Western Kentucky--not Kentucky, mind you--gets this. Southern Miss--not Mississippi State--gets this. But those schools have seen what athletic success has meant for their entire university and town. Here in Denton, we haven't seen that fully yet. With football's first taste of legitimate success as a FBS program in 10 years or more, maybe that success will get felt at a huge level in Denton and on campus, enough to cause bigger changes. But, until that happens, basketball costs money...and we are always about value first. Just look at what we promote as a university and you get the idea very quickly.

That's a program that will not be playing FBS football within 10 years.

Orr and Chancellor were my two favorites to watch. Orr was a wrecking ball on defense and you just always felt that Brelan could take it to end zone anytime he touched the ball. They will be very difficult to replace.

He could say it 30 times, and it would still be true. I wish he'd say it 70 times... (Here's to you UNT90)

Its typical SMU fandom talk, but they aren't going to get out of the series for at least the first two years, probably the first four years as well.. They'll need the gate that a home game against UNT will provide in 2015, for sure. Beyond that, as I have said before, I doubt that series makes it too far out into the distant future, unless, of course, we go back to sucking. Over the last 25 years, UNT has wanted to SMU anytime, anywhere. SMU has played us when it was painfully obvious that they needed us on their schedule. Think 1989, 1990, and 1992, when they were a glorified i-aa school and they needed a few home games. We gave them that in a 2 for 1. We didn't play again 2006 and 2007, when SMU was desperately hoping to prop up Phil Bennett and get him a winning record (that was hopeless). We cost them a bowl bid in 2006 and gave them their only win in 2007. They agreed to play this "series" with us when UNT looked like death warmed over and they looked like they were ready to rise up to somehing great under June Jones. BUt Dan McCarney has started to do what Dan McCarney has always done--build up a program thru its strength& conditioning regiment and by developing the lines. June Jones, on the other hand, decided to go after the Arizona State job, only to get shafted in the end, and leaving SMU with a coach that might as well be lame-duck with his players, coaches, and fans. And to top it off, they were stupid enough to extend him!! SMU money will probably save the day if they need it to, but while these two teams do play, we need to remind everyone in the DFW area that SMU is a dead horse. Their SWC media in DFW can try all they want to convince us all otherwise, but that program has been on life support for the better part of the last 25 years. Even after its last resuscitation made SMU look like they had something going again, the doctor who brought the patient back to life, by all intents and purposes, appears to believe himself that this patient cannot be brought back to anything close to what its SWC alumni believe it can be. And, to be honest with you, he's correct. That ol' grey mare ain't what she used to be--even from two years ago. I still won't be surprised at all to see SMU give up scholarship football one day in the near future when the AQs eventually breakaway. It will just be too tough for them to swallow what has finally happened to them. No amount of Doak Walker, Don Meredith, Eric Dickerson, or Craig James highlights will ever bring that program back to national prestige and prominence. That barn burned down decades ago--from the cash that was being illegally spent on their payroll.

Probably, but who cares? I remember when the Aggies hired Mike Sherman to take over for Franchione in 2008. Their first game was a home game against the powerhouse SBC team, Arkansas State. The Red Wolves promptly ran A&M into the ground and beat them. Not saying that's gonna happen, here, but we have just as good a chance of pulling off something similar if UT isn't ready for us and if we can run the football. Their QB situation is still gonna be terrible, IMO, next year in Austin. We'll see... I think we will probably lose big, but I also believe this is our best chance to compete with them since we played them in 2002 and lost 27-0.

OU's offense coordinator that season was none other than Kevin Sumlin, head coach at Texas A&M now.

La Tech got drilled by Okie State, 70-55. That would have been the league's biggest win by far if it had actually happened.

I don't remember anyone thinking Darrell Dickey should have stayed here, but your points are valid...

I thought all year long that our S&C program showed its worth in a great fashion...I've never seen a North Texas team look that much stronger than the competition in the 4th quarter of games, even the teams from the SBC run of the early 00's. To me, this is where you can credit Dan McCarney's expertise for developing linemen--he knows how to coach 'em and he knows how to build 'em up too!!

Dude, this is just plain wrong... They mostly work at Domino's...

Yes, Hutch Black Jersey Night summed up Dickey's last few seasons here perfectly. Its up there on the list of Embarrassing Moments in UNT Football History. Of course, Todd Dodge also didn't run off with any TVs from the athletic department, either, so that MFer had that going for him, too. DIckey was a better head coach than Dodge, obviously, but he was nothing to brag about either. Any coach that got the SBC in its early years with the defensive talent and running game we had would've have duplicated that success, at a minimum. Our OOC games were just brutal during those glory years, except for the Baylor game in FOuts in 2003. McCarney is just such a breath of fresh air compared to anything we have had here since Corky Nelson, and really, since Hayden Fry. A guy who can coach, develop talent, connect with the fanbase, and make strong recruiting in-roads with Texas HS coaches are all attributes that very few around Denton have had since 1979.

Todd Dodge did one great thing for UNT--probably his lasting legacy. He made it public that he was promised a new football stadium when he was hired and he never stopped bringing that to light. It was a great way to keep the BOR and administration honest about this. We aren't playing in any bowl game this year if we are still at Fouts right now, in part because McCarney woul have never agreed to coach here with that toilet as our home field. To be a real player in college football means you have legitimate facilities, coaches, strength and conditioning programs, and funds to pay them with.

He's the worst poster on this site...and its saying something, although GL2Greatness and Froggy Style were right there with him until they disappeared. Just use the ignore function.

Can you imagine how much Brett Vito has enjoyed the ride up the roller coaster this year? The man had to endure Darrell Dickey's last two seasons, then got the Todd Dodge disaster years, followed by two years of McCarney trying desperately to rebuild this thing from the ashes. Its no wonder he told me earlier this year that if UNT cannot make it up the mountain with McCarney, they need to seriously look in the mirror and ask themselves if this is the right level of football for the future. He must feel like he has climbed Mount Everest with the last decade of covering this beat for the DRC.