untjim1995

??? I'm sure this will be a witty response, which is what I enjoy about your posts, but I am to dense to get this one, so....

Two things come to mind about this thread: 1.) Coach Fran won at New Mexico and took them to the old WAC Conference Championship, then immediately left to go to TCU, where they were coming off a 1-11 year. (Funny thing about the 1-11 year, TCU beat SMU in the last game of the year, giving them their only win and keeping SMU from going to a bowl game even though they finally had a winning season at 6-5. The 6-5 winning season attracted the attention of Craig Helwig, though, so he hired their OC by himself, thus we got DD!!) It might be a better job than UNT because of conference affiliation, but they let their best coach get away from them because TCU paid more--nothing more, nothing less. 2.) Leach ain't the best interview. It has been said that many higher profile schools were very interested in his services (UCLA, Washington, Miami, etc.) while he was at Tech and it was fairly well-known that he wanted out of Lubbock. But after his invterviews at each place, he never got another sniff at their openings. His ego is large. Would he be a great hire here? Most likely, he would be awesome. But his ego wants a big-time job, his wallet will demand pay that will be close to what he had at Tech, and he wants nothing to do with glad-handing with alumni or the fans. That last part is what the Tech administrators hated most about him, was his lack of interest in doing anything PR wise for the program. Leach is a weird dude, but he is also a winner. His offense will put butts in seats, and I have always believed that a MWC-type school will get him one day. UNM would be a perfect fit for everything that he wants and what their program needs.

I am opposed to playing Texas or Oklahoma because not only are we not competitive with their talent or resources, but the negative perceptions associated with losing to them amongst Texas citizens get reinforced as to just how much better they are than us, even academically, which is not always true. If it were me, I would schedule my bodybag games each year with the Iowas of the world in the future. I know that we have them schedueld twice going forward, but I wouldn't play the top schools in the Big XII or the SEC for my cash anymore. With demographics as they are, the South has much more in its favor going forward than the Rust Belt, and I think that plays more in favor of at least having a decent game with them. We at least have a chance with our talent to match up more favorably against Big Ten or Big East teams. Seriously, we should not play Texas, OU, LSU, Florida, or Georgia for cash when Wisconsin, Iowa, Purdue or Michigan can pay out a lot of money to play them, too. I have always thought that going to the Big Ten to play cash games at least gives you a 1-2% chance of winning against their big boys, which isn't even counting the percentages of playing a close game that can help with your recruiting and image. Last year, Arkansas State come within an eyelash of beating Iowa, who went to the Orange Bowl. I guarantee that game gave their fanbase more pride and $upport than their butt-whipping at the hands of Auburn this year. Playing those other top SEC and Big XII teams have paid a lot of bills for our AD, but I haven't seen much good that has come with getting beat badly by those schools over the last 15 years. I would take my chances in a game at Wisconsin or Michigan at least being competitive versus the odds of getting pillaged when we go to Baton Rouge, Austin, or Norman.

Were the crickets chirping throughout this meeting?

I have always believed that Leach will end up at a school like this. Its in a non-AQ league where football isn't close to being the #1 sport and he won't have to glad-hand a lot of people. UNM would be a great fit for him, not to mention that they are in a league that can support higher-paid coaches and you can actually get a chance at being in a BCS bowl if you win that conference outright. He will get good pay, play Tech still for revenge, deal with little media, and will probably get lots of control. And, don't forget the pull that Steve Alford might have here with the AD at UNM. Bob Knight loved Mike Leach out there at Tech and I think that Alford has probably heard his old coach say that once or twice!!

Wow, that was bad. I don't know who hired this guy as a consultant, but if it was RV, then I am extremely worried about our ADs ability to hire the next football coach. If it wasn't RV, then I am going to assume that RV is banging his head against the wall, as that was money he could have used toward expenses in the AD. Extremely underwhelming. I just don't understand what this was supposed to do for us. We are all excited about building this new stadium, but I am still of the belief that we aren't really all that serious about sports here at UNT. I am coming around to the understanding that the SBC, for many different reasons, is just going to be our home for years to come, even though it will never be a place that will encourage extra attention from fans or the media in the area. I just don't see how we are ever going to get this thing (athletics) turned around here in Denton. We talk about if we have a winner, then the support will follow. Well, we had a winner in football during the early years of the decade and attendance was less than now. Meanwhile, men's hoops starts winning and going to the NCAA Tournament, but we see nothing close to improvement in attendance that you would expect from the depths of the Trilli years to JJ's tenure. I know that our fanbase is frustrated beyond all belief, but this type of report does the exact opposite of what we were hoping to read. To me, it just reiterates that our university doesn't really care if athletics builds upward or not, which seems so ironic since we are finally building a new stadium. I just think we will know our answer for sure if we hire some no-name coach in football for $275K after this season.

So very true. That said, I still don't understand why we can't get a coalition of state schools to come together and form a nice conference. UNT, LA Tech, ULL, Arkansas State, Memphis, UCF, USM, UAB, MUTS, UTEP, UH, and FAU would be a fun conference with like-minded schools and big markets. Seems simple to me.

Or bring back a coach that will probably be 5-43 at the end of the season to go into the new stadium!! Feel the excitement!!! I am really glad you have nothing to do with coaching decisions at our alma amter right now. You and Al Hurley would have gotten along great!!

We'll agree to disagree here, which is just fine. But, I will say this--if someone sees UH beat us 72-0 in our first game in the new stadium with a new coach and decides that they aren't coming back again because we suck and we never should have built a new stadium, I guess that will be the breaks we have to deal with. If we beat Nicholls State in the first home game in front of 28K by a score of 35-13 and that makes people want to come back the next week and we lose to UH 42-7, I just don't see how that creates anything. As a matter of fact, it seems like we want a fanbase made up of people who want to see us play UH than Nicholls State, no matter what the score will turn out to be. Again, I respect your thoughts on the topic, but I do look forward to seeing Cougar High come to town next September. To put it all another way, if we got a home again against Oklahoma instead of Houston, that would be awesome with me, even if they probably beat us by 8 TDs. Just playing OU at home would send a huge message to the rest of the area on what kind of program we finally have at UNT, especially with the new stadium. That is how I feel about playing UH instead of SFA or Sam Houston in an opener. We can get those games any day--we need these games against named regional opponents in Denton very badly right now.

This. If we could somehow get Fran to come here, it would be huge. Don't let the Aggie thing fool you. He wasn't a fit for that school at all, so the support waned. Plus, he was in the same division as Texas (won a title), OU (was in the title game twice), and Tech (who owned them under Leach). This isn't even counting a Top 25 team in OSU or the years that Mizzou and Kansas had great teams. His MO is to rebuild teams from nothing. Even at Alabama, he took over a bad team and had them winning both years he was there. Trust me, the record that he has built up and the programs he has lleft behind, except A&M, have been pretty damn good. We could use the mastermind behind TCU's rise from the ashes here in Denton and the price shouldn't be too shocking since this is his last year on the Aggies' dime. He has gotten paid handsomely for three years while doing nothing.

Isn't everyone glad CheckFacts found his way back here through a sock puppet?

looks like we are blacked out. My apologies to John Wiley Price for my language.

What made that laughable beyond belief was that it was losing that badly to Rice. Yes, they were good, but there is no way that Rice should ever be that much better than another FBS team, especially one that recruits the same state as UNT. That game, to me, is the low point. Whether Army came close to reaching that level seems crazy to me, but I wasn't there. It just seems to me that when you look back at a coach's demise, there is always a game that stands as the place where it just became clear that this was not going to get better. For Dodge, it was that Rice game. For Dickey, I think it was the Tulsa game at home where we lost 54-2. Simon lost to Nevada in his last season something like 65-10. I am sure that our friends on the Hilltop knew that Phil Bennett wasn't ever gonna make it work at SMU when his team got donkey-punched 24-6 by UNT in 2006. There are just games that really stand out when you look back.

It amazes me at how much flack RV gets for scheduling UH at home to open the new stadium. We gripe and moan about how few in-state games we play. Not only do we get an in-state game against a very good program not named Texas, we get them at home to open up the new place. If we get rocked in our first game, it won't be the only time that will happen over the next few decades, I can assure you of that. But, if UH decides that they want to start a series with UNT because we asked them to play us in our stadium opener, then we will have "won" a much bigger deal than just the game. We need these games against other in-state schools, especially if we will never be in a conference with them. I just don't understand how beating Abilene Christian to open a new stadium will really help the situation. So, if we lose to UH the next game 72-0, that won't be as bad because we opened up our stadium with a win over a spare? Here's an even crazier thought: Let's hire someone who can actually get us ready to play a competitive game against UH in the home opener!! I know, I know, that's just ridiculous talk.

Look, the enitre reason RV brought Dodge back was because we couldn't afford to buy out two years of his contract AND pay for a new coach that the fans want. But, RV also knows that this is the make or break year for Dodge because he either stays and gets an extension or he gets fired with one-year to buyout. No one will ever be able to recruit anybody to come play for them if they are in the last year of their contract. The beauty of getting extra revenue from the new stadium is that it should allow UNT to easily payout Dodge remaining year, as well as increase the pay for a proven coach. If we cannot pay a new coach more than FIU pays Cristobal ($390k), then we need to really look at why we are even building a new football stadium.

This is what I fear the most--we hire a no-name position coach from a program that has just gotten some recent success. Basically, it would be a redux of hiring Dickey--of course, he was the OC at SMU, so he was a little higher on the food chain. But, hiring a guy like Klemm or Chambers at UT just screams out to me, "Hello, this will be our version of John Blake. Enjoy!!" And I will say this about our ability to pay for a new coach and staff. If this new stadium costs $78 million to build and we can only pay a new coach around $350K or less, we might as well just be the best FCS school in the country. There is no way we will ever be able to recruit against anyone other than Belt Schools if we won't pay for a coach. And the problem with only recruiting against other Belt schools is that it seems that our admission standards are more strict than theirs, so the perpetual losing that has been UNT for the better part of 30+ years will continue. We aren't going to lower admission standards, so we need to raise our profile. Only way to really achieve that instantly is to hire someone recognizable--its just that this time, we need to get a recognizable college coach that our fans will get excited about. My two choices are easily either Franchione or Kragthorpe. Both know the area and the university and have had great success at schools that we should aspire to be like in TCU and Tulsa. And, most importantly, they are each available, both living at various places in the state of Texas right now.

Those places can easily afford to change out coaches that quickly if they fail after two seasons. Here...well, not so much, even with a new stadium on the way. This is always about $$$$.

This. But let Ramon Flanigan tell you otherwise...

classy post--I just wish you had the foresight to post it on 9/11 to really illustrate your point. sarcasm alert

great post--those two startups down to the south COULD turn in to great in-state rivals within the confines of the SBC. I think folks here get scared of giving those schools an advantage, but they forget that we have been blackballed that way for decades here in the state. It just seems ironic that we look down at Texas State, yet we complain incessantly about SMU and others looking down on us. Imagine, just for a moment, how cool it would be to have rivals in the state of Texas. We would get a trip to one of the best areas to visit in the state every year. I can assure that recruits' families in this state would be more thrilled to see their sons play Texas State than South Alabama, just as they would enjoy going to San Antonio for a game instead of Miami. If we cannot get into CUSA or MWC, then the SBC is just going to be our home for a long time to come. It would help our league to get some more Texas exposure. And, I will say this about those two upstarts. If they both do go the WAC and have success over the course of the next five years, someone in one of those coveted conferences that we would love to be in, will give them a call about joining. It all depends on attendance and support, but those untapped markets are going to be real attractive to somebody one day. I just think the SBC could do worse than to invite them in once they become FBS programs.

Too revisionist? That SMU win was early in that season. His team was 3-6 (including that "epic" 7 OT win against FIU in which no one could score enough to win) when he got fired in his last year, following the 2-10 performance the year before. His brand of football was amazingly boring, hence the fact that attendance never improved. He ran down the school at every chance he got. Imagine what attendance would be here if we got a coach who liked being here and won games? It was the right decision then, just as it will be the right decision if Dodge cannot win 7 games. You always talk about those 4 bowl seasons, but you never mention that DD didn't even have a winning record here until his 5th season. I know, though, that is probably too revisionist, as well. When we got shut out at home by MTSU 35-0, it was quite obvious to most that his time had run its course, similar to how most feel about the current situation, unless a miracle occurs. Sometimes, I think shaft is Ramon Flanigan.

As Mike Tirico said about the white kick returner for the Jets on MNF, "He looks like he wouldn't have any athleticism, but he works so hard."

I predicted a Rice win last week, but said that we would win this week and I am sticking to it. I say we win 27-21.

Look, DD should have gotten fired when he did. He beat SMU--man, how did he ever do that? I mean they were coached by the great Phil Bennett. That juggernaut they had down there in Dallas was just so awesome. Beating them back then was just huge, probably the equivalent to beating Arkansas State. Truthfully, they were not good. Dickey had a decent run for really three years here. He didn't get another job, though, and as recruiting began to get back to normal under his "stealth" ways, his 3rd and 15 draw play didn't quite appeal to the masses. To me, the quality of DD showed up long before Hutch Black Jersey Night, but it was when SilverEagle and Ramon Flanigan got into a fight in the stands. RF should have been fired on the spot. If he wasn't fired by the HFC, then the AD should have done it. There wouldn't have been any other fights after that. Too many on this board take a Dickey vs. Dodge view, especially you. Look, neither of them have been good for various reasons. Dickey had success by holding the ball and having a defense that could hit and tackle. But, even with the wins, the average attendance was about 16k. Dodge's offense has excitement, so it brings butts in seats, but his defense and special teams are beyond embarrasing. No wins, better attendance, though--go figure. In other words, they both were losers at UNT. Maybe it will just always be that way here, but to have a field named after DD is just ridiculous when there is nothing named after Hayden Fry or Corky Nelson. RV did the right thing, but his hire turned out to be a major dud. It happens everywhere. Look at how long it took UT to find Mack Brown or OU to find Bob Stoops. Hell, look at how long it took SMU to get June Jones. I just hope we get it right this next time. But if our next hire is battling out with DD to see who had a better legacy at UNT, I can assure you that we didn't get it right--again.

Anybody think Spencer Leftwich is sitting back and feeling better about his decision to leave in August? I imagine he is sighing relief every moment of the day. It may have been a crappy move, but he probably protected his best interests more than anyone else in the mess right now.