untjim1995

That's not really gonna change in the SBCUSA, either.

That's gonna be one expensive breaking of a record for the athletic department--and us fans--to accept.

Kind of like hiring Steve Lavin at St. John's, huh? I bet that killed their recruiting...oh wait? Huh? Fraschilla lives in Dallas and has a cush job at ESPN. He son plays at HPHS. This would have been the only job that fit with any desire he had to still coach. We know he was interested. I talked to him personally about Mitchell--"he's the Real Deal." were his exact words. And I don't believe for one moment that he wouldn't come here if he had been offered the job, even if ESPN paid him more. He will always have that to fall back on, just like Lavin does. But, hey, I'm glad that you seem content that Benford was given his shot to learn to be a head coach with the best collection of basketball talent in school history. It sure looks promising right now!!

I think the Big XII made it clear to the Liberty Bowl that they needed to take Iowa State. They travel well and the conference will probably help ISU with tickets. La Tech's poor ass didn't have any of those advantages. Plus, I'm sure that the Liberty Bowl was probably thinking that it would make more sense to be friendly with the Big XII now, if for nothing else than to get future considerations from the Big XII. Telling the WAC commissioner that they had a deal and then backing out is akin to a skinny band dude asking a cheerleader to go to Prom, only to find out that a guy on the football team wanted to go to Prom with her, too. In the end, there's just not much the skinny band kid can do other than face the music...

I disagree a little bit. I do think that Vizza would've been awesome in those years, but Riley was always going to be too small and DT wouldn't suddenly have been more accurate. Hell, the offense this year looked exactly like Dickey's offense and DT wasn't able to take advantage of 8 men in the box. And I do think that Hall would've been solid no matter who was his coach. He had moxie and could make accurate throws. If he's on this year's team, they would've won 6 games, at least.

I think that Mack is a great recruiter. I think that any of those guys he turned down, including RG III and Johnny Manziel, weren't as good as what he had already signed or thought he had. The problem down there at Club Med-Austin is that their players are coddled and adored, thus their development falls apart. I'm convinced that Colt McCoy developed the way he did as a freshman because he was a coach's kid and that aided his development. Gilbert was supposed to be all-world, just like Simms was and Chance Mock and David Ash and...The real problem that Texas has is that their recruits all get ranked high because they get recruited by Texas--and their media alums just make a fortune on propping them up. In reality, many of those 4-5* kids they get aren't any better than what A&M, Tech, Baylor, and TCU have been getting. The difference has been that the coaching under Sumlin, Leach, Briles, and Patterson has been much better, which has allowed them to beat Texas (or in A&Ms case, would beat them). Mack has done a very good job at Texas, turning them around in a way that Texas fans hadn't seen since the Royal and Akers years. But 15 years is a long time and the program appears to be on a downside slide that won't be tolerated much longer. The Cotton Bowl between A&M and OU is a no-win deal for Texas. Oklahoma wins and they continue getting top Texas HS recruits to look north of the Red River. A&M wins and they have all of the momentum now with Texas HS recruits. In a weird way, it might actually benefit Texas MORE if OU wins the Cotton Bowl, since they already recruit evenly with them and they lost to them again by 40. If A&M can say that they beat OU on a neutral field after OU prison-raped UT (again) on a neutral field, the Aggies are going to clean up in recruiting. Its gonna look like its 1985 all over again in this state.

One of those QBs listed above doesn't belong in the same sentence as the other two. Just sayin'...

Did any of them replace a coach who won 6 games in 4+ years and had only been a high school coach before taking over? Not trying to be a Mac apologist--flame away if you think I am--but he's already won 9 games, where the previous regimes won 13 games in the 6 years before him. We all want a winner here, but you gotta get a qb that can play and lines that can block or pressure the other team. McCarney's recruiting and development can really be judged as we move forward here. But the 2nd season, at least in my opinion, is his last honeymoon year here--going forward he knows that the expectation is to have winning seasons or he won't be here beyond the 2014 season.

I'm with Harry on this one--I think the AD and Cristobal probably got crossways, most likely from last year's job rumors. I agree that Butch Davis is a great coach, but he comes with a TON of baggage. Probably won't hurt him at FIU, but Cristobal will be a coordinator or head caoch somewhere quickly. These ADs just really make me laugh. Cristobal, single-handedly, built them up from laughingstock to bowl winner, with tons of ties to the Miami area. He has one bad year and he is gone...

ok-I'll play devil's advocate. Under RV--8 straight years of awful football, hiring an unproven assistant basketball coach to lead the best team you've probably had in 40 years, had to depend on student leader to get stadium passed since he was unable to get it done before on the campaign he led. Look, he's been an awesome advocate for UNT--probably as big a cheerleader of the Mean Green as we have ever had on the payroll. Tailgating has been his baby and it has helped things immesely. But, again, sometimes things are just so bad when you take something over that you cannot help but be looked at as a savior. Yes, the BOR tied his hands when he wanted to fire Dickey, but he also gave him two extensions, the last one that caused us to buyout a contract that strapped us tot he point of having to hire a high school coach. He gets major points for keeping Johnny Jones here for as long as he could. But the Stephens hire, Dodge hire, and Benford hire all have the same thing in cmmon: RV hired unproven assistants to run the money sports here and they were awful. Maybe Benford turns it all around and becomes a great coach, but I am not going to hold my breath. And if he does, then Tech will probably hire him away when they get the chance. It just wasn't a good long-term hire, no matter how this all turns out. To reiterate, RV is an awesome guy and huge fan of UNT--but you need the AD to be a good judge of coaching talent here. He's done fine with tailgaiting and improving fundraising here, but that last part is what makes you a national name instead of being a regional name. Right now, we are in danger of going right back to being a regional also-ran again because of the lack of success these money programs have given here at UNT for so long.

5 years is a very normal contract for a head coach, just for recruiting purposes as previously mentioned. I have no problem with that contract, nor the pay. I just have a major problem with paying that out to an unproven assistant. I liked Fran Fraschilla a lot as a name coach. I would have gone hard after Shields at UALR or Marlin at ULL. I would've at least talked to Scott Cross. All of these guys have one thing in common--they have been successful head coaches. Benford and Trilli were nothing more than unproven assistants at big name schools that are easy to recruit to. Again, I go back to this reality. When you make a hire of this magnitude, in either football or basketball, you had better be right or it screws an athletic department like ours much worse than it does a big AQ school or a cash school like TCU or SMU. I think RV has done a great job as a cheerleader for our teams and for working to make gameday better. But his money sport hires have been mediocre (Coach Mac and Aston--only because she was here for 1 year) to downright awful (Stephens, Dodge, and Benford so far). And if this turns out to be awful, like it has started out, it should be enough to cause a change at the top of the AD. We are stuck with Benford, no matter what happens, for at least two more years after this. But this is, without a doubt, the biggest swing and miss of a head coach hire that UNT has had since they hired Bob Tyler to be the head coach of a program that had Fry's great success and then Jerry Moore's decent teams in 1981. We haven't ever a team since then that was so promising to bring major success to the university like this was supposed to be. It won't surprise me one bit if Johnny Jones becomes our basketball-version of Hayden Fry. Its just so typical of North Texas athletics.

If Berglund can play, we will win at least 6 games next year, assuming health isn't a huge issue. CUSA in 2013 won't be any better than the SBC of 2012. We have one game next year that is unwinnable on the field (big W to the bank account, though) in UGA, but the others are against teams we can compete against. If we don't get to 6 wins, then I'll come off the Coach Mac bandwagon, but I think we will see it come together next year.

And then we lost the best coach we ever had and went into obscurity for the next 35 years. Sonny Dykes--for sure--won't be in Ruston beyond the next few months. And, then, La Tech will probably get to enjoy all of their alums talking about the glorious Dykes years in the upcoming decades. Sadly, we know how this story goes...

I remember that when Mac had Seneca Walace and Sage Rosenfels at Iowa State, he had wide open offenses, even if they still ran the ball a lot. BTW, I still believe that running the ball should be your strength. Its just that when you have a QB who cannot be trusted to make solid throws consistently is just too much of a liability. When I think back to our "glory years in the SBC", Scott Hall might not have been able to throw it much, but when he did, he was accurate. His pass-action plays were usually very effective. Since he left, we have seen Meager, who just didn't have it (even with that amazing game at 1-11 SMU that year) as a starting QB (DT is most like Meager, I think), Vizza, who could've been great here, but his timing was messed up with Dodge's inept system, Riley, who was a gamer, but was just too small to be a QB at this level, and then DT. For every year before this one, the QB wouldn't have made any difference in us being a bowl team or not because we have had so many depth issues, but this is the year that QB play really stood out as being the difference between a bowl season and 4-8. If the DT who played at K-State had shown up for SBC play, then we would've won at least 7 games, in my opinion. That's why Berglund makes me so excited for next season. He COULD be the answer we have been looking for at that position for a long time. Imagine an offense with Jimmerson and Berglund--I think Canales would be able to get back to the wide-open play calling that we saw from him at the end of 2010 with those guys. He needs a QB that can play and a RB that can break away, like he had with Dunbar.

Dickey got fired because he didn't win enough games to make attendance better than 15k. HIs demeanor was poor, obviously, but if he had won more games in his last two years, he'd probably would have gotten at least two more years. Hell, he probably would still be here. No one outside of the diehards here on gmg.com ever cared about winning against SBC teams, while basically giving up in OOC games. Sure, he beat a mediocre Tech team once and beat an awful Baylor once during OOC games, and that bowl win over Cincy was a great win, but in the same breath, the attitude for the big $$$ games was just sad, and other OOC games were just pathetic. His simple gameplan was very effective against SBC teams, but it was easy to defeat if you had talent, which the rest of the SBC basically started getting by 2005. Dodge seemed like the right guy at the time because of his success at Southlake Carroll and his tenure here before becoming a HC in high school. No one can believe it now, but back when he got hired, 99% of this board was onboard and very excited. The attendance bump we saw during his time was the most ironic of all, since his teams were so bad. Attendance at Fouts was definitely better, even if we won just a game or two each year. As he found out, getting those suburban rich kids here in Denton was a bad fit, just as bad as hiring his HS assistants here. Good guy (the anti-Dickey), but very Vic Trilli-like in performance. To me, Coach Mac is light years better than either of these two, even if he does eventually get fired. His problem right now is talent--nothing less than that. He'll get two more years to turn it around, unless he pulls a Dodge Year and just wins 2 or less. Remember, Dodge won 2 games in Year 3 and got a 4th year. Dickey won 3 games in Year 3 and got a 4th year. We don't have the cash to buy anyone out--if we have to do that, we will get that unknown assistant that doesn't cost much, but that hasn't ever worked here yet. I suspect that Coach Mac knows all of this and that his recruiting will go heavy on JUCOs for the lines. To be honest, it might be the only way to improve recruiting, since its becoming obvious that getting ENOUGH major Texas HS talent here is just not that easy. His future here is dependent on having a competent QB and a better DLine. I truly believe that if Berglund can throw the football like most believe he could coming out of HS, this will change a lot for next year. I actually think next year will be a 6 win or better year--and I'm the guy who thought we would only win 3 games last year and around 4 or 5 this year, so I'm not exactly a homer. But I believe that Mac will see the fruits of his labor here, starting next year.

I think the NCAA will cower down to those institutions so that they can keep the basketball and College World Series under the NCAA umbrella, which is their real money makers. Hell, that's what they have been doing for decades anyway. Now, if those big AQ schools did break off from the NCAA, I could see them also taking along the basketball-only schools of the East and Midwest, too, to create their own March Madness, which would basically look like the NCAA Tournament replacing the NIT as the major hoops playoff back in the 50s. I could also see them creating a system to pay players (legally), since those schools would have all the money from the TV deals. There would be lots of lawsuits, but I think the big powers would have the legislative and judicial powers to make it happen.

Who here doesn't think that SMU would do the same thing if we got invited to play them in that Heart of Dallas Bowl--or whatever its called...This thing just runs so deep. At least a school like SMU has the cash to not care, but last time I checked, La Tech ain't exactly rolling in the dough. Its just funny how there are schools in this country that stick their noses up against local teams near them. Then, I look at Rice and UH and how well they have coexisted all these years. Whether its LaTech-ULM, SMU-UNT, UTEP-NMSU, or any other combo that fits this description, its just crazy that this kind of thinking still exists in these economic times. I think its silly that a school like Arkansas won't play the only other FBS school in its state every year or the MIssissippi schools not ever playing USM on any regular basis, but at least I understand the difference in the AQ vs non-AQ status there. These others just don't make much sense to me.

OK, here's the deal with Louisville. Yes, they may have had a commuter image and never got much interest from any major conferences for a long time, but their basketball brand has always been strong. When you win a couple of national championships in hoops, you get sellouts and make lots of cash. You then do something almost unheard of, which is parlay that success in one sport and throw it toward the sport that can catapult your athletic program. They hired a coach with a national championship ring as the head guy--Howard Schnellenberger. He build them up and they actually become so good that they get a Fiesta Bowl bid and kill Alabama. From that point, Louisville has become a name program in both sports. They beat Florida State in football during Bowden's glory years on national TV. They went and hired a coach for their declining hoops program that had won a national championship, Rick Pitino. Now, Louisville brings in a lot of revenue to their university from athletics. They became a program in all sports that people wanted to play and were comfortable being associated with. The ACC was very smart to make this change--yeah, they lose to DC market, but I will venture to guess that the DC market has a lot of UVa and VaTech fans there to more than make up for that. Plus, it helps solidify their league so that the major southern football powers won't jump ship to the Big XII. Good move and I will root for them. They are kind of like the Boise State of the AQs--just keep winning, make others pay attention to you, become attractive enough for better conferences, and move upward while still winning.

@ Troy--and they won after their last second field goal was tipped, but still managed to go thru the uprights...sigh,only at North Texas.

Todd Berry also has a QB that can play. I don't fault McCarney for this now, but I will next year. Whoever is the QB (praying its Brock because he wins the job), he better be able to throw the ball accurately. In year three, that excuse will have been beaten. But for this year--and the previous year--its just a personnel issue. He was left with almost nothing at that position. I still believe that your third year as coach is when you can tell if things are going in the right direction or not. Its just that here at UNT, we don't have the $$$ to get rid of someone if that third year is poor and there are still multiple years left on the contract. Remember when USF came in here to Denton and beat us? Remember FAU doing the same thing? UTSA doing it next year is not beyond the scope of possibility. If it happens, it will be unacceptable and it will firmly place McCarney on the hot seat going into Year 4. But starting from scratch is easier than winning here--I firmly, unquestionsably, believe this. The Texas HS coaches only know North Texas as a loser and as a program that played spare teams for all of their life. Until McCarney got here, the Texas HS coaches in the last 30 years have dealt with Corky Nelson running a 1-aa program the best he could, Dennis Parker, a fellow HS coach, Matt Simon, an unknown assistant with a massive ego and a confrontational attitude, Darrell Dickey, a non-descript assistant that had the personality of a wall, and Todd Dodge, who HS success caused an ego that other HS coaches resented greatly. At UTSA, they known Larry Coker, winner of a national championshp in the last 11 years. At Texas State, they know Dennis Franchione is leading the charge, the same guy who coached at TCU, Alabama, and A&M. Those TX HS coaches don't know of UTSA and TX State as college football losers and dregs. That's almost all they have ever known of North Texas all of their lives.

This is gold. I tell you what, if we lose to Texas State next year, I think the whole unviersity should go away. SInce we are playing UTSA, though, we should be ok... Coach McCarney has never spun himself to be the greatest thing since sliced bread. Not once. If next year, he wins more than 3 games, he will be back for a make-or-break-it 4th season. No questions. You gonna buy out his remaining years and pony up the cash to get someone else in here? Becasue it ain't happening after next year, unless we win 2 games or less, and even then it might be tough for this place to find $$$$ in this eceonomy to pay all of this off. McCarney is not even remotely close to Dodge. So far, his tenure has looked like some of Dickey's years--Dickey won 3,2,3, and 5 games in his first 4 years here. Coach Mac has won 9 games in two years with a team that runs the ball because the offense won't/can't pass the ball. To me, its very simple--he has to recruit better lineman and receivers and get better QB play. He may have the latter issue solved, assuming that Berglund can play at a high level befitting his HS ratings. WRs should be able to be found--maybe having a better QB would help that. The biggest question, though, is lineman. That's supoosed to be his specialty, but it takes a while to develop effective lines, whether its HS recruits or JUCOs. McCarney has two more years here, at a minimum. He will either be extended before that season ends or he will be fired. You can buy out a year here at North Texas, but you cannot buy out two or more. Look at what we had to do when we fired Dickey with two years on his meager contract--we still could only afford a high school coach. The $$$, even though its better than it has ever been here in Denton, still ain't there for big money buyouts and hires. It just isn't.

Yes, its true and it is sad. I guarantee you that they have more support from their university and alumni than we do. SWTSU never gave their alumni the ultimate nut kick by dropping down a division level. I suspect that UTSA will block them, but I would be all for Texas State joining the league. It beats the hell out of hosting Florida Atlantic or Old Dominion at Apogee when they bring a total of 20 fans. Plus, you MIGHT be able to get a fellow Texan to go out to the stadium to watch the Bobcats play here, since they have actually heard of that school. As we have all noticed, telling your neighbor that he can come to Denton with you for free to watch South Alabama still doesn't get you anything more than a polite decline. So, yeah, Tulane, and all the other Big East wannabes are ready to jump ship--but I doubt that Old Dominion, UTSA, and Charlotte are any bigger reasons to leave the conference than playing teams that their school's fans and students like being associated with. Seriously, if CUSA had just added North Texas and La Tech only, Tulane, ECU, Marshall, UTEP, USM, UAB, Rice, and Tulsa would still be trying to find a better conference to latch onto, whether they can now or if they cannot.

Whatever you say, Check Facts...no blackballing, huh? That's funny...you have to be the single worst poster on this forum I have ever read, which is why I have you ignored. But, since you trolled so well here, I figured that I would respond with opinions, too. Go ahead and do a qucik poll on whether UNT fans believe anything you just wrote. For that matter, do one on whether anyone ever believes anything you ever post.

The thing that stinks the most is that you just know that the older CUSA teams that haven't left yet will take the first bus out of town if given the choice. Whether its the Big East or the Mountain West, USM, UTEP, Tulsa, Marshall, UAB, and Rice will jump as soon as possible. So we will get SBCUSA, which is the combo of SBC and WAC schools. I can easily see this playing out: WESTERN DIVISION EASTERN DIVISION NMSU WKU TX State FIU UTSA FAU UNT MUTS La Tech Charlotte ULL Old Dominion Its not good, but its marginally better than what we have had. You would still have divisional games against temas in your state and ones that border you. Play three teams out east and there you go. No more ULM, USA, or Troy, although I would rather play Troy and USA than Charlotte or ODU, but those may not be available to be moved to the old SBC.

TFLF--you are dead-on here. Its over for those not named in the Big 5 and I bet its just a matter of time to see this go to the Big 4 within two years. Yes, it sucks for us, but their is a part of me that is going to laugh at the folks who are going to be just as much on the outside as we are when this all gets done. It actually wouldn't surprise me to see the MWC have more longevity than the Big XII. I figure that the there are now ten spots available in the big boys club (4 out west, 2 in the B1G, 2 in the ACC, and 2 in the SEC) . That leaves the 10 teams in the Big XII and UConn, Cincy, and South Florida as options for these conferences to pick apart. I see Texas, Tech, OU, and OSU heading west. I see KU and K-State going B1G. I still think UConn and Cincy will end up in the ACC. I see the SEC poaching two ACC schools, so the ACC probably would add WVU and USF, eventually. That leaves Baylor, TCU, and Iowa State left out. The MWC would love to get Baylor and TCU, especially if they get UH, too. Big East will probably have ECU, UCF, Tulane, SMU, Rice, Tulsa, UTEP, USM, Navy, Marshall, Memphis, and Temple. That would make up 92 teams, 65 in the AQs with ND, plus 28 in non-AQs that are in two leagues that the FBS can still throw carrots to without getting sued by those with some power. The rest, CUSA, MAC, and SBC, plus the two WAC leftovers and some of the better FCS schools will create a new division of 60+ schools that will probably compete against themsleves in a playoff setup like the current FCS system. I really felt like CUSA was our lifeline for staying at the major level of football, but I didn't realize just how badly the other CUSA teams wanted to be associated together still. Who knew that ECU would value playing SMU in football only more than it would value playing North Texas in everything. I figured that Tulane would value playing a team in the MEtroplex for travel reasons, not to stay assocaited with their old CUSA buddies in the Big East.