untjim1995

+1 for you, sir--especially the parts about Stanford and Tech!

You literally have no idea how college football works, do you? Was June Jones a terrible hire at SMU? He went 1-11 in his first year and that win was over Texas State. I think it has worked out ok since then for them. How about George O'Leary at UCF? His first team went 0-12, but they went to a bowl game in his second season. If Coach Mac's tenure here turns into either of the previous coaches mentioned above, we will have hit a jackpot, no matter how he does this year. If anyone thinks we made a huge mistake in hiring Coach Mac after this season, even if we go winless, should probably just find a good Longhorn T-shirt to wear, because he is going to be here for a while and we need to give him plenty of time to get this turned around. If we are here at the end of the 2013 season and we are 3-8 and haven't even gotten close to 5 or more wins, then the rants of him being disappointing will have lots of merit. But, financially speaking alone, Coach McCarney will be here for a while--we all might as well as give him a chance to build things up around here from the ashes that we currently sit in. For those who want to raise expectations here, please understand that I am right there with you. But I will not raise expectations beyond reality when the new coach has had to follow a coach with a completely different philosophy on how to play football, practice, and recruit players. My belief is that this year will be our rock bottom year, as the current players are having to go through a complete culture change. This is exactly why I posted that if Coach Mac gets us to 5 wins this year, he should be SBC Coach of the Year. My realistic expectations for next year (2012) is to get to 5 wins or more and then to compete for a bowl berth and SBC championship in 2013. This is what FIU did when they hired Cristobal--who wouldn't want trade places with them right now? If FIU did it, then we should be able to do it, too.

Remember that FIU is a start up program. Yes, they were awful when they first moved up, but people have given then time to build and learn. Hiring a local guy like Cristobal and letting him recruit local kids has paid off big time for them. Their fans really haven't had to deal with anything close to what we have, which is why their local media hasn't buried them. If they had, say 80 years, of UNT apathy, let's see how much coverage the Miami media would give them--it would make this a true apples-to-apples comparison. This also hits on the advantages that UTSA could very well have on us if they find early success in the WAC

Emmitt, your are exactly right. I think it would behoove most of us to expect that the next game will show improvements, but that Houston is worlds better than us. This is going to be a game where they probably use us like Tulsa did--as a recruiting advantage. They used a regional opponent that they do recruit against and just annihilated us, gaining a huge jump on us for years. UH will probably do the same, just to keep their status with Texas recruits at a high standing. Just keep it in perspective--we have a long ways to go. Just enjoy the new stadium and the fact that we aren't playing the Coogs at Fouts with Dodge/Dickey patrolling the sidelines. That would be depressing!!

This.

Hey there UNT90!! How you doing today? I know we had our back-and-forth during the off-season about expectations for this season, but I do feel bad for you because I know that you want nothing but the best for our alma mater--you just want it sooner than it can reasonably be expected to occur. Emmitt's point about being soft for the last 4+ years is just so true. These guys are used to nothing but losing and they are not used to physical play. I know that you gave me grief for being Coach Mac, since I bought into his "coachspeak", but this is the purest example of what he was talking about. Our lines are amazingly weak, our QB is not experienced, and our WRs can't catch. They will improve as the year progresses, which is why 3-4 wins is a reasonable expectation. Watching last night, 3-9 might be amazing, but I am still sticking to the 3-4 win prediction. The SBC ain't the SEC--but the top teams in the SBC tend to stay there for years and the bottom feeders tend to stay there for years. FIU is a top SBC team and we have been at the bottom for 6 years. The first step for improvement is to get out of the bottom three in this league, which 3-4 wins will do. Next year is when we need to be getting to 5-6 wins and working up toward the top three of the league. Cristobal at FIU took three years to get them to the top of the league and to win a bowl game. They were literally the worst FBS program in the country when he took them over. This is what we should expect out of McCarney.

Dude, we gave been getting trucked by SBC schools for 6 straight years--looks like a 7th is well on it's way. We just aren't that good right now. We have no depth on our lines and we can't make FGs. You don't win games against anyone when you are not able to win in the trenches and you can't make kicks.

The further this all gets, the more clear it becomes that the Longhorns are going to go independent. The LHN is going to have to have content--they will get the football games that aren't picked up ESiPN and will televise the other sports that aren't nationally televised. Paul Burka at Texas Monthly is running with this same information, as well, although that hardly confirms anything. Its just my hunch that the LHN will have to be depended on for their independence. I think that OU and OSU will go to the Pac-12, very soon to get to 14. Mizzou has either the last SEC spot or a spot in the Big 10, which is a better cultural fit. The curious part here is Kansas. Kansas must drop K-State immediately, partner with Mizzou to sell those markets together to the Big 10, and use Nebraska's support to get into that league. Both KU and Mizzou are AAU schools, which is a huge deal to the Big Ten, as all members are in this group, except Nebraska, which lost its AAU status earlier this year, but after they joined the Big Ten. Kansas has been traditionally bad at football, but they do have a BCS bowl win on their resume (which the other schools listed can only dream about), not to mention the hoops power, which will still help them greatly if they are partnered with Mizzou. KU and MU to the Big Ten is very possible. After that, K-State, Iowa State, Baylor, and Texas Tech remain. The MWC would immediately ask Texas Tech and K-State to join, since their poor academic record won't hurt them with the MWC members. I also believe that Baylor and Iowa State will get invites, too, although not as certain as the other two. It would get the MWC to 14 if all were invited, but Utah State may still get a spot just to secure the Salt Lake City market. Iowa State could very well be your 14th team in the MAC, which would be the biggest drop off of an FBS (1-A) program ever.

UTSA really is a huge question mark--no one has any idea what their program will look like over the next 5-10 years. They have some serious advantages over UNT and Texas State, but they also have some big disadvantages, too. I am quite comfortable in saying that in 2020, UTSA will either look like Georgia State or South Florida. I just have no idea which one it will be. If its Georgia State, then UTSA will enjoy many years as an after-thought. But if they get off to a solid start and have success somewhere along the way, that San Antonio media market is gonna look real enticing to a conference looking to find a decent replacement for someone who jumps up to a higher conference. I wouldn't count out UTSA being in the SBC in 5 years, especially if we somehow find a new home.

Enough of them do--especially the monied folk. A lot of your Highland Park and University Park crowd would literally buy SMU back into being relevant. And to those people, you are relevant if you are in an AQ conference--CUSA is never going to satisfy SMUs older alums or Dallas' wealthy citizenry. It won't matter, though. SMU brings nothing to the current BIG XII or any other AQ league that they don't already have. Nothing--even if the Belo media conglomerate in Dallas tries its hardest to convince us all that SMU belongs there, you know, since they were in the SWC and all...there is nothing that they bring to the table for an AQ league. If Texas and Tech leave the Big XII, then SMU can argue for a spot, but even then, that is probably not worth anything to the remaining leftovers, unless it is the only way they can keep their AQ status. To me, SMU is the truest definiton of the term mid-major. Not big enough to be in an AQ league, not small-enough budget-wise, history-wise, or market-wise to be rendered small time, which is why CUSA gobbled them up as fast as they could even when SMU literally sucked at football.

When Miami, BC, and Va Tech left for the ACC, the remining Big East schools sued them for leaving, since they were the bellcows of the league. Guess what happened? The Big East settled with those schools because it was going to take years for them to fight over a proper exit fee and they needed to move forward, which is what happened when the BE raided CUSA. Sensibility in college athletics = money and TV, nothing more, nothing less.

But the Dodge hire is directly related to the fact that our university couldn't afford to pay more than they did for a head coach because we had so little support from both the administration and the alumni for so long. There may not have been anything we could have done in 1982 to avoid i-aa, but my point is what we did prior to 1982 and after 1982 were the killers here. We have more connected alumni from the 70s for athletics than we have combined from the 80s and 90s--I think we all know why. We basically ran the university--spirit wise--as a giant community college for so long that the reamifications are still huge. Sure, winning would change it, but it won't be winning 6 games in the Sunbelt that changes it. For our university to realistically have a shot at moving upward in the next 2 years, it will take the following: 1.) Go 8-4 or better this year with wins over Houston and Indiana in a packed house, competitive losses to Alabama (less than 3 TDs) and Tulsa (less than a TD) and winning the SBC. 2.) Have Johnny Jones team go tot he NCAA Tournament again and actually win a game or come very close (loss by a bucket). 3.) Have the Big XII-III stay together. Get BYU in as a 10th member just to buy time--for their conference and for our university. 4.) Have openings in either the MWC or CUSA that would fit our needs and CANNOT be blocked by anyone else--so prolly MWC. I will say this until I am green in the face, but the MWC is our chance to copy TCU. They got away from Texas schools and beat those teams out west, all while raising their reputation in recruiting. It can be done--the Frogs proved it. I just want us to beat Baylor, SMU, UH, and to a lesser degree, Tech, to the punch. Because if any of those schools are the only Texas schools in the MWC, they are gonna do very well. Beating a top ten Boise State and a top 20 ranked AFA and Fresno State will get you lots of pub--CUSA doesn't offer this potential depth and probably never will in football. You want snub your nose back at SMU--follow what their biggest rival did and leave them in the dust.

Without question, IMO, the worst decision we ever made was allowing ourselves to drop down to i-aa. There is a very strong chance that we will never recover from that decision, even with the new found commitment to athletics and facilities. The lack of respect and the injection of even more apathy that this created still haunts us today. If these super conferences get created and it effectively locks us into a new 1-aa again, we are really going to hear it from the haters at UNT for spending so much on a new stadium, especially during these difficult economic times. If we get dropped down again and we are still in the SBC, it isnt hard to imagine 10 years from now having crowds that were very similar from our Fouts/SLC days. A game with Louisiana-Monroe in 2020 will look a lot like it did when they were Northeast Louisiana and they came to Fouts in 1990 if we are back at the equivalent of 1-aa. Upgrading from Fouts saved our football program, but our prolonged lack of support for athletics may very well get us a place back at the kids table. If it happens, we really have no one to blame but ourselves. I just wouldn't want to be the guy who gets grilled by the "old nestor-types" about the costs of the new stadium if we do get dropped back.

My rankings on this are based on who would North Texas fans want to be in a conference with and who would give the most value to be associated with, athletically speaking. 1. Boise State--football powerhouse 2. SMU--rivalry for the Metroplex 3. Houston--school most like us 4. Air Force--nationally recognized program 5. UTEP--school very simlar to us 6. UCF--school we should have tried to emulate 15 years ago 7. Memphis--lots of benefits here, could get into BE eventually 8a. Colorado State--solid name program 8b. Fresno State--see CSU 9a. Nevada--old Big West school that has grown in name value 9b. UNLV--old hoops powerhouse that still has name value 10. Rice--old SWC team that gave us the low point of our FBS return in 2009 (77-20, could have easily been 105-20) 11. New Mexico--traditionally strong at hoops, solid name value 12. New Mexico State--old rival, not much history of success 13. Louisiana Tech--school that thinks much higher of itself than it should, easy road trip, better following than ULM 14. Southern Miss--solid football program, always an after-thought in their state because they aren't SEC (sound familiar?) 15. Hawaii--name program that provides travel nightmare 16. Texas State--oldest rival, in-state school that looks like us 17. MTSU--closest football "rival" we ever had in SBC 18. Western Kentucky--strong hoops, testy football games, only school Todd Dodge loved to play 19. ULL--nice road trip, usually bad football, great nickname 20. Arky State--old SLC/SBC rival, completely overshadowed by UA 21. Troy--Solid football program results, shady recruiting, small 22+ All others CUSA has closer schools, no doubt, but none of them have ever shown an inkling of interest in being affiliated in a conference with us, especially SMU. MWC has some solid programs, but travel is more expensive--still would be a great conference to be a part of for both of the major sports. SBC is ok and the WAC sucks. That my $.02.

I believe that OU and OSU are connected together, so if you are looking at Oklahoma and Mizzou leaving to the SEC, I believe OSU is in the mix, too. Kansas is apparently shackled with K-State, so the MWC is probably about to really step up in hoops if those aforementioned teams leave, plus they will probably add the other Big XII leftovers, as Texas will go indy. The MWC will add Utah State to stay in the SLC market and then would get to 16 teams, while probably becoming the next AQ league. The Big XII falling apart is the absolute worst thing that could happen to our dreams of moving up the conference chain, as the MWC would be full and CUSA would not have seen any movement. If we are going to be in the SBC for next 10+ years, I just pray that no one else leaves. I just can't imagine being in a league where MUTS, FIU, or another SBC bunkmate gets plucked away and we replace them with Georgia State or Georgia Southern. This is the scenario I fear the most concerning our alma mater.

For those of with very small kids, remind me again when we fire this thing off--after we score, end of the quarter, kickoff? Any others? I will need to prepare my 3 year old and 5 year old to cover their ears or else I can see a massive amount of fear that will be damn near unrecoverable If I don't get ahead of this one now.

I saw BCG at the UTA-UNT game this past November. He was by himself in the concession line and was very pleasant to talk with, although he looked as if he hadn't slept in about 3 days. Later, I saw him sitting by himself with no one even close to him. He left after UNT went up by 20 and came over and said bye. Total hoops junkie--and a junkie of other things, too..

Baylor was far from being terrible when they joined the Big XII. They had been to several bowl games in the years leading up to the SWC crashing down. It was TCU that was terrible, along with SMU and Rice, too. Baylor will be in the MWC before this is all over--mark it down.

I agree with this completely. Texas's greed and need for power has killed the Big XII. The saddest part about this is that if the LHN was just made to be a simple deal instead of this extravagant, ESPN production that is a cash cow, there would still be the Big XII-II in place. The midwestern schools much prefer this current setup to waht the other options will be. The saddest part to me in all of this is that we never made ourselves into an athletic program that any of these conferences would want to add when expansion/poaching became the big deal. Obviously, we hope that we can change that now, but if the Aggies leaving does cause the Big XII to fall apart, we just lost our MWC possibility. This scenario is actually terrible for anyone in CUSA who wants to move up, too, as the Big East and MWC will pick up the teams left behind from the Big XII, leaving UCF, ECU, and UH in CUSA for years to come. The only thing that could somehow save teh Big XII is if they get clearnace from the NCAA to stay as an AQ league if they get enough teams to join it, assuming that Texas, Tech, OU, and OSU leave. I could see a new Big XII that would look like this: ISU, KU, KSU, Mizzou, BYU, Colorado State, AFA, New Mexico, Memphis, Houston, TCU, and UTEP Heavy on basketball stalwarts, but having regional football programs that have had big success in the past. It gets TV markets that would at least get a decent payout from some network and would have bowl ties with Houston, Memphis, DFW, El Paso and Albuquerque, not to mention cities that have hosted the old Big 12 championship game in Houston, Kansas City, and St. Louis. This league would still probably be on par with the Big East in football, but it would keep them AQ. This could be our ticket into the MWC, but a lot of the teams we would play would be far away (old Big West days). This also would create a few openings in CUSA, but the SMU/private school block would probably still be a deal-killer. All that said, a new Big XII would give us many more opportunites than if the conference just dies.

Ponyfans should love this--similar to the time we had SMU Football Ads streaming on gmg.com a few years ago. I will never forget the fun they had with that one. One of their posters had the same ad that was showing over here on gmg, but he edited it to say, "Yea, we blackballed you." It actually was the first bit of honesty concerning UNT on that site that I ever saw.

This usually gets followed very closely by the same demographic arguing about how racist our society is--you know, because they know so much about it, being lily white and all...

Sumlin is a very good coach--he will be an AQ coach very soon. Keenum is the perfect QB for his system because of that release and the athletes that he throws to. Their offense will be stout. Their defense is always what holds them back from being a serious BCS buster, but UH is definitely a team that we need to emulate over the next few years.

Richard Bridges? Still think Dickey was wrong to start him instead of Scott Hall against Tech at Texas Stadium. We had no chance after that...

This. Our coach is no idiot--he knows that he has severe depth and strength issues on the lines. The QB and WR situation will work itself out, but the lines alone keep my expectation for this season only at 3-4 wins. The attitude adjustment will pay huge dividends for us next season and beyond. But, if SI is right, and we go 5-7, I will be beyond thrilled. To put this in perspective, since 1995, our first year back at the FBS level, we have won 5 games or more in a season on 5 occassions, 1996, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004. In 1996 and 2001, we won exactly 5 games. In the other 11 seasons, we have won a total of 27 games. You can see how a 5 win season prediction can make me giddy!!

Funniest post on this board in a long time.