untjim1995

There will never be another death penalty issued again for an AQ program. SMU's death penalty changed the game after seeing the results that SMU endured afterwards. Not saying they didn't deserve it, but there is no way the NCAA is going to let Miami or any other program that is a big name fall that far again. College football is a great sport. But everything that surrounds it, directs it, supervises it, broadcasts it, and covers it really, really, really sucks...

Problem with that is that most state legislatures, congress, and lots of members of the judicial branches are graduates or highly connected to those Big 5 schools. Think about here in Texas--obvioulsy, UT and A&M are the truest power brokers, with all their PUF money. They are both so protected that even the next layer of college powers (i.e Tech, Baylor, and TCU) just try to leach off the big two the most they are allowed to. Tech, UH, UNT, and Texas State all rightfully deserve some of that PUF money. It was setup for higher public education . Just because they were only two school systems around at the time the PUF was started doesn't make it ok that they are the only ones who share all of that wealth. But that PUF money never goes away from those two achools--because they have so much power in Austin and across the state. This same setup is what ECU faces in North Carolina or what FAU/FIU face in Florida. Heck, Arkansas State is the only other FBS school in that state besides Arky and they never even play each other in anything. La Tech, ULL, and ULM will gladly tell you all day long who has control of their state (LSU). Most non-AQs in these states are just way behind the 8-ball when it comes to power, both in $$$ and in legislatures. To me, the only chance you have is to somehow get in front of the college football media and convince them to do your bidding for you. The power of media coverage is very persuasive. Make your college football story comparable to the NCAA Tournament's Cinderella story. Maybe that gets enough media sway to take on this issue. But, again, most of the college football media only follow the AQs, so I'm not sure how feasible it is to get them to carry our water for us.

I voted 5-7. I think we have two wins for sure over Idaho and UTSA. Then we will get 3 other wins over the rest of the schedule. I see probable losses against Rice, Tulsa, Ohio, and Ball State, as well as the sure loss at Georgia. That leaves @ Tulane, @ La Tech, @ Southern Miss, home to MUTS, and home to UTEP. I think we will win the home games and win one of the road games, most likely Tulane. Remember this about Tulane and Tulsa--they both are leaving the conference after this year. Just as we saw last year in the SBC, and all other teams have seen when they leave their conferences to go somewhere else, the breaks don't really seem to get "called" your way very often. I doubt many 50/50 calls in CUSA conference play will go Tulane, Tulsa, or ECUs way this fall. Same thing will happen for Western Kentucky in SBC play, too.

As I have said for a while, if Coach Mac can't turn this around here, no one can. His fire and his spirit are contagious and you have to be that kind of guy to make something work here in Denton. His experience in building a program and making a connection with the community and fanbase are well known. This story is just another great example of who we are blessed with as a leader. You might say that Todd Dodge or Darrell Dickey did stuff like this too, but we rarely heard of any decent interactions between those two--especially Dickey and his MFer comments about the fans--and the fanbase. Coach Mac is facing a huge mountain here and he isn't even halfway up, but the reality is that he is trying to build it up the right way. His recruiting of HS kids has not been good, but that is more institutional, in my opinion. Texas High School coaches and their parents need to see UNT win--becasue they will continue to see and hear Coach Mac be the kind of man that they would want their kids to be under. I'll tell you this--I'll take Coach Mac's personality and drive over a lot of other coaches around this state and region. In the end, and he knows this better than any of us, it will come down to wins and losses ONLY, but he's got this thing at least turned in the right direction. Whether he can get it moving further up the mountain is yet to be seen, but I like our chances with Coach Mac a heckuva lot more than any coach we have had here since Corky Nelson.

Gray Eagle--I'm sorry your sarcasm wasn't sensed by the three people who gave you a minus. I'll bump you up for a great reply!! Love sarcasm that goes over lots of heads...

Look, the Big Five Conferences are gonna get their way here. Heck, when its all said and done, you'll probably have about 70 schools that will get their own Super Level within the NCAA. The NCAA cannot afford to lose them, they already know this. Plus, its not just football they lose here. The NCAA Tournament certainly loses a lot of interest, as does the College World Series, too, if the NCAA loses the Big Five in Football and the Big Six (surely the new Big East will be with the other AQs) in hoops. The NCAA knows that the networks are going to salivate all over themselves to broadcast all of their games, whether they are in the NCAA or not. Plus, those AQs know that the lawsuit being brought on by the players is creating a lot of grumbling. Helping to show a way that players can be paid going forward will be used a peace offering. This could be a nice bargaining tool for settlements. I am at the point of it not even bothering me anymore. I don't want to play NFL-lite factories on their terms only anymore. We don't have a budget that even comes close to the Longhorns or the Aggies. Hell, even Tech, Baylor, and TCU are way ahead of us and I'm not even sure the last two teams are guaranteed to make the cut when the AQs separate from the rest of us. We decided long ago to not put enough interest or capital toward college athletics, so our bed is made to lie in with most of the other CUSA, SBC, MAC, AAC, and MWC schools. We will still have a great stadium to host games against SMU, UTEP, Rice, UTSA, Texas State, Tulsa, La Tech, Tulane, etc...but it just won't be as a "1-A" team. It truly won't surprise me to see the small private schools quit football, but we will see how it goes. I think the regional conference we have dreamed of has a very good chance of getting even closer in the near future--it just won't be as a FBS or 1-A level. A lot of folks are going to feel crushed at these other schools--here at UNT, we know all to well how this realignment feels. Only this time, it would actually be with teams that people have known about and followed for generations. Its not anywhere close to what I hoped would happen to us when we moved back up in 1995 to 1-A, but I'm afraid we just didn't accomplish enough to make a difference in this race.

I totally agree, Emmitt. But RV isn't going anywhere with his new extension. There are only two groups that will be gone after a UTSA loss--fans and/or coaches. If that preceding sentnece ends in "and coaches", then you may not kill the fanbase that has remarkably grown during the last 8 years of suckitude. If it doesn't involve "and coaches" after something as catastrophic as losing to UTSA at home in its third year of existence, I really don't care who else leaves--at that point, I'd be gone...

I think that getting an AQ here from the SEC, Big XII, or the B1G will be almost impossible if they keep scheduling 9 games a year and Jerry World continues to host big games in the DFW Metroplex. Trust me, I never wanted to give RV a pass. I already think the strong majority of UNT fans think he is genius just because he allowed tailgating. To me, that really says more about the idiocy of the ADs before them that didn't allow this, but that's how low of a bar RV has to clear with most of this fanbase. I've already been on record that RV is the worst AD I've personally ever seen at any college at hiring coaches in the money sports, mostly because other ADs who made poor hires like his never got much of a chance to make further hires. But not here... All that said, if Northern Illinois has to lose a "home" game against Nebraska in Chicago, but they still play 4 times in Lincoln within 8 years is just amazing to me. Northern Illinois has accomplished quite a bit over the last 10 years. It wouldn't seem that they couldn't get a home game against a Nebraska program that is certainly down from its heyday. But the 9 conference games leaves you with 3 OOC games and if you figure the B1G teams play a Pac-12 team every year for one of those 3 OOC games, those B1G teams aren't going to give up a home OOC game when they can make so much money buying North Texas for a game--see Iowa. Just hate admitting it, but it says a lot about why we couldn't get them here for a return game. RV still needs to call the Pac-12 schools, the ACC schools, and the MWC schools for home-and-home series, but I am willing to give him a pass on the Iowa games. Sorry RV...

Rice is very interesting. They are small, but very well-respected because of their academics. They have money, too, but not sure they care about athletics enough to really stay at FBS for the long road. Wouldn't surprise me to see Rice disband the program if they ever find themsleves left behind in a future FBS split. The MOB is great, as long as you don't have thin skin. Anyone who drives the idiots at UH crazy must have something going for them. I still believe that our epic beatdown by Rice in 2008 was the absolute lowpoint for this program since we became FBS again. Losing to Rice--old SWC doormat Rice--by a score of 77-20 was just amazing in its UNT ineptitude. What made it worse was that Rice could have EASILY scored 100 points or more if they had wanted. We aren't talking about UT, OU, A&M, Tech, LSU, Bama, Arkansas, TCU, or any other AQ power we have played in the past--we are talking about one of the absolute smallest schools in FBS--them and Tulsa--who both seem to revel in just pouring salt in the wounds they have given to us when we have played. It is worth noting that we did improve enough in two years that we almost beat Rice in Denton two years ago, only to fall short at the end. That's kind of why I feel like that Rice game in 2008 was the low point as a FBS program since 1995. I do remember losing at Nevada my freshman year in 1991 as a 1-aa school 72-0, but they were #1, we had our first failed high school coach in charge, and since it was 1-aa, literally no one cared around here. I did think that was our low point as a 1-aa program, though.

You know, ULM has done ok with their limited resources, but doesn't that hit at the reality of why non-AQs are stuck? They accomplished all of this and managed to get mudholed in their one bowl game that was down the road from them, and that opponent only played there because the other choice refused to play there due to the fact that ULM was there!! Really, that is about as spare as you can get, even if it isn't ULM's fault. That just doesn't scream success to me. I give them credit that they have accomplished more than we have, especially since they have no advantages as a program of location or size, but achieving more than UNT isn't exactly setting the bar high, especially if you look at the last 13 years.

I loved Steve Kragthorpe. That guy was a fun guy to be around and he was very good at offensive gameplans and making QBs believe in themselves. His success at Tulsa never surprised me. His failure at Louisville did. He took over bad leftovers and made them believe that they could accomplish big things at Tulsa. HE also knew that winning games against DFW teams would help turn on a pipeline to Tulsa from the Metroplex. He knew that DFW kids would like to go to a school that was a good academic institution but was farther away from home than TCU, SMU, or UNT. He took much glee in that 54-2 ass-whipping because he knew that it effectively killed UNT's progress, meaning he had one less program to beat out for recruits. He did the same thing with victories over SMU, too. What surprised me at Louisville was how Petrino's leftovers from a BCS Bowl team never jelled under Kragthorpe--probably because both coaches were opposites in personalities, I suspect. I was very much on record as wanting Kragthorpe as our head coach when Dodge got fired, but his health situation obviously would have kept that from ever happening. Fast forward to Dan McCarney. I was on board with his hiring and still am. I think the similarities are there bwtween the two programs, but as TFLF mentioned, Burns was a successful college coordinator before he became head coach at Tulsa. He knew what a college football player should look like, both in size and in spirit. Kragthorpe took over a team full of college football players. Coach Mac took over a team from a high school coach that left him with the smallest lines in the country, and no defensive playmakers on the entire roster. He basically got Lance Dunbar and full roster of FCS or lower level players. I think he has tried to turn this thing around the best he can and I still believe in Coach Mac's ability to do that. This year will tell us a lot, but I suspect that Coach Mac will do enough to get us to 5+ wins this year and get an extension. If we get to 5 wins this year, that means he will have won 14 games in the last 3 years under McCarney--or the equal of the previous 6 years under Dickey, Dodge, and Chico. It will just add an element of stability that we desperately need here under a legitimate college coach that is fan friendly, both of which we haven't seen here at UNT since Fry roamed the sidelines. I want him to succeed badly and his failure at UNT will surprise me, in part, because I truly believe that he if cannot fix this here with his experience as a rebuilder, then it probably can't get fixed by anybody.

I hear your sarcasm very clearly--I'm conservative, too, but I am not so blind to the reality that power is corruptible and can hurt others from being the best they can be. It doesn't mean that you can't overcome those hurdles, but power is tough to fight if you don't have the heart and the desire to fight it. Even then, without power of your own ($$$, people, votes, etc..) the hurdles that can be placed ahead of you by unbridled power, government-wide or otherwise, are too much to overcome. You'll get no argument from me ever that North Texas hasn't shown the care, initiative, or the will to even fight for college football power. Basically, after the SWC told us to pound sand at the thought of ever joining their league in the late 70s, we saw our savior, Hayden Fry, leave, and then we made it very easy for our SWC brethren by just giving up for the next 12 years, if not longer. We made our own bed because the powers that be of the time, in Texas, the SWC, and in Denton, decided we weren't worthy of being a solid college football program. Maybe if we had shown some gumption back then, today would be a much better picture of what north texas should be, but we didn't follow that path. I will say this. Although they are nice programs for non-AQs, Arkansas State and ULM are not success stories. I'm sorry, but very few in the college football world look at either of them and think they are success stories. Both of those schools still take on several $$$ games on the road every year because they have to. That alone means you aren't a success story to most of college football. They think Texas A&M is a success story, that Louisville is a success story. TCU and Utah are looked at as the ultimate success stories because of how they worked to become AQ programs in leagues they could only dream of joining. Arkansas State and ULM do not fit the same definintion because they are SBC schools, who most media and fans in think are just glorified FCS schools, even with their recent wins. Boise State is a totally different success story--a true outlier--but again, they have advantages that other non-AQs don't share, especially ours. They don't share a market with anyone. Not a pro team, not a college team, nothing. With a decent sized town to claim them as their own in a region that has not other team, they have cultivated that advantage. North Texas has one major advantage--its enrollment--that they refuse to even try and take advantage of. Charging half of the athletic fee that stalwarts such as UTSA and Texas State charge is not taking advantage of your advantage. In that regard, you are right in that we won't get off of our dead-ass.

I think that much of the American dream is lost for many reasons, but the biggest is power, both from private and public greed. College football certainly follows that trend. ESPN and Fox, AQ conferences, large state schools, monied private schools, and a governing body that gets its tax exemption from all governments that are lined with representatives of those AQ schools all contribute to this situation. Sure, people try to blame some fo those entities more than others--just like we do in civil issues in society--but the reality is that they all combine to cause this power grab. The AQs are kind of like the big banks to me--they get privileges from the government that smaller banks don't get. They get more deposits because they are well-known and have more resources than your community bank. They then get to pick and choose from those below them who they want to buy off--both in personnel and in assets. If the smaller banks grow to become more regionalized, they then get "accepted" into the club, just like Louisville, TCU, or Utah have done to get into the AQ leagues they are in know. That probably will never change. To me, North Texas is like a small bank that used to be known as a Savings and Loan institution, but went bankrupt in the early 80s. Everyone knows what happened and very few people outside of the banks customers and workers are willing to give them any credence until they show that they are not going to fail again. Being profitable and having happy customer service isn't enough because the rest of the banking world wants to see major accomplishments beyond just marginal profit and a few branches in your home town. Meanwhile, the bank's board seems content with the improvements they have made to be somewhat profitable and to have just shed the label of being a failure after coming back from the ashes. In today's world, those two views don't mesh with each other and cause the small bank to stay where they are at becasue they get no help from the bigger banks or the government, plus they still have stiff competition from the other small and regional banks. In the end, it probably won't end well for that small bank's customers or their workers.

Or Alabama/Arkansas/Florida/Georgia either... I get the Texas game, just because of who they are in this state and it keeps Texans' $$$ in state. I'd even understand--and fully expect--A&M to end up on our schedule in the future, too, for the same reasons.

I guarantee you this guy didn't even know TCU existed before 2000...

I agree on that final point. And I also agree on Iowa as a terrific $$$ game opponent, one that should be copied for years to come, instead of playing Southern teams from the SEC, Big XII, or ACC. I just thought Iowa was a team we would see at Apogee from time to time. When we didn't schedule them for a home and home series, I was very disappointed. But now that I see what Nebraska has done to NIU, we never had a chance to play them here. As a matter of fact, I believe that the Big Ten and the Pac-12 have a scheduling agreement to play one OOC game against each other every year, so that leaves two games left to schedule in OOC. Most of those schools are going to host two MAC schools for those games, so that is how it goes for those of us that are poor, I suppose.

I have often criticized RV for our poor OOC home scheduling, in part because I think our fanbase now has a stadium that can handle larger fanbases from bigger name schools. Nebraska was always a favorite target of mine to get down here for a game, since they no longer play here. After reading the link below, however, the Big Ten and SEC appear to be on the same page as the Big 12 in scheduling 9 games versus conference opponents for the future. If that is the case, getting a home and home series with an AQ team is going to be even harder for the future. As you will read, if NIU, who just went to a BCS bowl game, has to deal with Nebraska buying out their one home game (at Soldier Field, no less) in a series that will now have NIU travel to Nebraska FOUR times in eight years, then us getting Iowa for a return game in Denton appears to have been nothing more than a pipedream for an idiot like myself. I love college football. But sometimes, its stories like this that remind me why I am increasingly not liking college football. I know I'm in the minority on this, but the AQ schism from the NCAA that seems to be bandied about even more of late, can't happen soon enough. I'd rather these semi-pro factories just play themselves. http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/07/19/cincinnati-nebraska-agree-to-future-home-and-home/?ocid=Yahoo&partner=ya5nbcs

I'm thrilled to death that SMU left CUSA for the Big East and that CUSA filled up their vacancy with us BEFORE the Big East blew up and the ACC and the Catholic 7 tore it apart. If not, SMU may have come back, since they would have had their private buddies still in CUSA and probably would have convinced Tulane and Tulsa to just stay put and keep their private voting block together with Rice. We would have stayed in the SBC, while we watched La Tech and UTSA join from the WAC and MUTS, FIU, and probably WKU leave the SBC. To be in the SBC still with Texas State, ULM, ULL, Arky State, Troy, New Mexico State, FAU, Idaho, and South Alabama would have been much worse than being in CUSA-West. Even with Texas State in the SBC, it still would be terrible. Plus, you'd have trips from the Northwest to the Southest in your conference. It would've been a killer for our budget. Texas State will see what its like to be the only Texas school in a low level, non-AQ league. It won't be pretty.

If we lose to Idaho, its not an ender to me, just because its that first game of the year. Weird stuff happens in early season games. FCS teams best AQ teams in early season games from time to time. Idaho is a bit better than a FCS team. The thing is that we don't recruit against Idaho. Its at a point where we cannot fall behind UTSA or Texas State in recruiting. A loss to UTSA does that. And that is why its my line in the sand for the short term as a UNT fan.

I think Todd Dodge truly believed that Riley could run his offense just as well, if not better, than Vizza. Problem was that Vizza was bigger than Riley and he could handle the beating that a sieve OL caused each QB to take. Vizza was a really bad fit from the start at UNT. He played at Alamo Heights in a stadium that was nicer than Fouts and they had more support financially for their rich suburban HS program than UNT had. Dodge was just in over his head. The AD should have told him that the idea of having a high school coach to come in as a defensive coordinator was not going to happen. If you wanted Mendoza to be your LBs coach or DBs coach, then fine. But since he was his own OC, having two non-experienced FBS coaches as your coordinators was a disaster waiting to happen. By the time that got straightened out, it was too late for the success of the program. Dodge could recruit because of his name recognition and his HS success, but it was clear after Year 2 that this was not going to end well and he went hard after JCs. You had to give him a thrid year if money is/was as tight as it apparently is/was at UNT after Dickey's buyout, but the true mistake--one we may not be able to ever dig up from--was letting him get a 4th year after he went 2-10 in Year 3. You knew what you had, but went for the most cost-effective choice by giving Dodge one more year so that the buyout to the university would only be one year. What it would've cost the program for a buyout , in my opinion, has been dwarfed by the continued hole we dug in 2010. I truly believe Coach Mac when he says that we were the smallest Division 1 school he had ever been around when he got here. He has just begun to get this thing up to a standard of just being bad--that is how truly awful we got. Remember, in 2007, we lost at FIU, which was their first win in two years, and in 2008, we got a late interception in the end zone to keep us from losing to Western Kentucky, which was our only win that year and kept WKU winless again. If Mac cannot rebuild it all here, I'm not sure anyone could have done any better from where we were at. The academics have improved, the size has improved, and the college coaching experience has improved greatly--that it has improved us to 9 wins in two years over the previous total of 8 wins in 4 years is proof that Mac is improving us and, more importantly, that Todd Dodge was truly the worst head football coach this university has ever employed.

There is absolutely no way that Southern Miss is going to hiure Rick Villareal as their next AD. They aren't going to buy out his contract here to hire a guy who has hired the worst hires in UNT's history in football, women's basketball, and what could easily be on pace to be the worst hire in men's basketball history. Other ADs at other schools will get hired long before RV at USM. RV has it made here, especially since he just got another extension from the BOR. He will be our AD until he retires.

Basically, he'd be the their version of Todd Dodge...

To me, there are threee scenarios that play out this year. 50% We win 5+ games. Our schedule is easier this year than last year, I don't care what anyone says. La Tech of 2013 ain't anywhere close to La Tech of 2012, Southern Miss of 2013 looks much more like USM of 2012 than USM of 2011, Tulane is still horrible, UTEP is still bad, Idaho is terrible, and UTSA is about as close to Texas Southern as a FBS school can be. There's 4 wins out of that group, IMO. If you win one more against the rest of the schedule (sans Georgia and Tulsa), that's 5. Should be doable and probably gets Mac an extension, one that is well deserved, even if we just get back to 5 wins. HE has had to rebuild this thing up from below the ground. At least we have big bodies to fill out an OLine now. If not, then... 40% We win 3-4 games. That probably means two things. Bad QB play continues and we have tons of injuries. We have two gimmees on the schedule in Idaho and UTSA at home. Winning at least one more game against the rest shouldn't be too hard. You have to pray Berglund can make some progress for the future. Mac will enter Year 4 clearly on the Hot Seat, with it being his make-it-or-break-it year. 10% We win 2 or less games. If this occurs, its the only way I could see Mac getting fired, but even that seems only feasible if we only one game. If Idaho or UTSA beat us, we really should fold up the tent, especially if its UTSA. That would be catastrophic. I'm on record that a loss to UTSA is the end of my fandom unless Mac is fired that following week. Idaho would be awful, too, but we don't recruit against them. It won't happen, though. UTSA will not beat us in Denton. I think a 2-10 season is the floor for this program this year, but I don't think Mac gets fired--the precedent is that Dodge got to come back for a 4th year following his second 2-10 year of his wonderful tenure here and the buyout of Mac's contract is about three times what Dodge's was, which is what truly matters the most in Denton when it comes to sports.

Texas A&M, Nebraska, Colorado, and Mizzou think you are the pot calling the kettle black. Enjoy the AQ Dumpster Fire until its no longer AQ. Big XII will follow the Big East into oblivion once Texas, OU, and KU hit the road. The MWC will take you back, though, so you'll always have Albuquerque...you can let your fellow Baylor fans know where the best places are too not drink in the Mountain West. Non-alcoholic ticks will need to find new blood, though...

I'm not so sure about your last paragraph--I still don''t believe that this school's BOR or administration believe its shake-and-bake time for its athletic teams. I think they believe that they did what they had to do to keep a football team, which was build a new stadium and get us into a new conference with in-state teams. I think they are more than content with these accomplishments, looking at them as the mountaintop of athletic expenditures. RV getting an extension when none of the money sports are winning--thanks, Benford--and some of his hires have been the worst in each of the money sports we have endured in our school's history, which is really saying something. Winning doesn't matter here, cost does. So until that changes, I won't buy into anyone at UNT being ready for shake-and-bake success or else type of expectations when it comes to athletics. Other schools within the university, certainly, but not athletics. Until proven otehrwise, I don't see how anyone can argue that point.