untjim1995

ULL and Arkansas State are the only two SBC schools I'd like to see ever get mentioned for CUSA membership down the road. ULL, in particular, would be a nice replacement for Toolame. I hope Tulsa, Tulane, and SMU fail miserably in the Allover America Conference...

To me, recruiting at our level (outside of the top 40 programs in the country) is completely dependent on development. A coach like McCarney knows how to steadily develop a player, particularly a lineman, through strength and conditioning and through solid coaching. Patterson at TCU has done a fantastic job of this, too, up to the point where they now get higher rated classes. Interestingly, TCU's success in recruiting has been inversely related to their on-field performance--of course, the MWC vs the Big XII has a lot to do with that, too!! What we realize now is that Coach Mac just needs to get guys here that want to get better. If he gets that mindset here, there is a great chance that he will become a solid contributor, regardless of ranking. Its so different from the UT Recruiting rags in this state that have overrated any kid that Texas recruits because "they must be great to get UTs attention". That mentality has lead to entitlement and comfortabiility in Club-Med Austin, which eventually led to the fall backwards. Charlie Strong will have to get rid of that mentality to get UT back up to the top of the Big XII, but most likely, he will try to do just that with a lot of players that are overrated because UT Recruiting Rag Authors have gotten paid for their "content", meaning that they sold their readers what they want to read.

Mattress Mac just went way up in my opinion...only way he could be better is if he built his empire in the mean, racist suburbs of north Ft. Worth.

This is so spot-on, its not even funny. That school gets decent talent to go there because its in the big league of the state. But it will never get the talent out there to compete with the recruiting advantages of the other schools. They fired their one advantage they ever had--although I agree completely that Leach was a buttclown. He was an offensive genius and had developed a great reputation for offensive talent to go there. Now, they are left to throwing a Hail Mary pass in hiring Coach Bro to see if he can hack it as a head coach. As I said when tech hired him, it just reeked of desperation, both to reconnect the Leach backers to the university again and to hire someone who wants to be a head coach in Lubbock, Texas. Tommy Tuberville, a coach who was a great SEC coach in Auburn, realilzed quickly that he couldn't get talent out west to play defense the way he coached it, hated Lubbock so much that he left recruits behind at a dinner to leave for the airport to become the head coach at f'ing Cincinatti, leaving an AQ conference for a school that isn't in the AQ leagues anymore. That should tell you all you need to know about that place, not to mention that they house the worst fans in the big 12, according to a poll done a couple of years ago by the players in the league. They are a team that builds its record up on wins over bad teams, beats one good team each year, then gets absolutely seal-clubbed by every other good team on their schedule (see TT football results since 2002). I am jealous, though, that they got political favor with Texas--they have a great future ahead of them only because of UT. If UT goes west one day, almost certainly Tech will get to follow them, even though the Pac-12 wouldn't even consider them without Texas. The Big Ten already told texas that they have a "Tech problem" via an email between the B1G commissioner and UT's leadership, so that won't happen for them, but I think UT only drops Tech if they go independent, which they would do only to eventually go into the Big Ten a few years later. The leadership in Lubbock knows this, so we should all continue to expect more appreciation for all things Burnt Orange from those clowns in Lubbock. I cannot believe that the University of Texas finds themselves partnered up closer with Texas Tech than Texas A&M now. From academics to athletics, the Aggies and the Longhorns are much closer to each other than Tech will ever be. It is just another reminder of how politics really does make strange bedfellows...

PMG, I feel very much the same about UTSA. They have had a very impressive amount of support so far from the citizens of San Antonio. That is a huge and untapped market that wants a team to attach itself to. Its a destination city and has a huge stadium to host big teams and have connections with for bowl representation. UTSA has a lot of advantages, too, from a media standpoint, as they don't share their market with anyone else. Sure, Texas, A&M, and Tech have a ton of representation there, but they have that everywhere in this state. Houston is split between UH and Rice, and DFW is split up between SMU, TCU, and us. UTSA won't have that as a problem. I think what we have done here under McCarney has been absolutely what I thought we would do when we hired him. Get things rolling back in the right direction and make a huge improvement by Year 3. I expect that to continue. And I think he will be here for another 5+ years if he wants to be here. But I also think we will have to realize that UTSA just doesn't have to overcome nearly as much stuff as UNT does with its alumni and community. The Dallas bowl game was incredible--and I hope it lights fire in the DFW alumni base to follow us and support us more in the years to come. But I don't think that it will open any other conference opportunities that are higher up the ladder than what we have today because of the TV market issue, which is bigger than ever now. Schools like us, Texas State, and New Mexico State are stuck on the outside of the conferences that want exposure in those areas. The Big XII, the AAC, and eventually the MWC, will have the TV markets in the state that they want. I could still see a situation where the MWC expands by adding back BYU and getting three Texas teams to join in UH, UTEP, and UTSA. If that happens, I could easily see the AAC adding Rice to replace UH to join their private buddies in SMU, Tulsa, and Tulane again. This is all why I have just learned to enjoy a season like we just saw and hope that we can build on it enough to see more like them in the future. I think we are fine where we are anyway, and even if UTSA and UTEP eventually go to the MWC, for example, we would just replace them with Texas State and one of the following Belt teams (NMSU, ULL, or Arkansas State), which wouldn't be great, but it beats the hell out of what we had before.

1977 and 1978 were probably better than this one, but its real close. IN 2002, we went 8-5, beating Cincy in the NO Bowl, losing to Texas, Alabama, TCU, Arizona, and South Florida In 2003, we went 9-4, losing to Memphis in the NO Bowl, losing to Oklahoma, Air Force, Arkansas, and Memphis. IN 2004, we went 7-5, losing to Texas, Florida Atlantic, Colorado, Baylor, and Southern Miss. In every one of the years above, we beat Arkansas State, Louisiana-Monroe, Louisiana-Lafayette, Idaho, Utah State, New Mexico State, Middle Tennessee State, and Troy whenever we played them, going 21-0 against the SBC teams of that time. We also beat Nicholls State, Cincy, and Baylor. This past year, had wins over Ball State and Rice, both of whom were better than anyone we beat in those years, except for Cincinatti in the bowl game. That's why it was real close to being up there as our best year ever.

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...