SilverEagle

Well, I suppose that he can't be wrong about everything regarding North Texas. We'll therefore give him credit for stating the obvious.

....so many comments. I'll just leave it at this....

So, are you saying that the players don't have any respect for RV?

W. Texas A&M 30, Abilene Christian 27, OT Associated Press CANYON, Texas -- A 20-yard field goal in overtime by John Roberts gave West Texas A&M a 30-27 victory over Abilene Christian on Saturday in Division II playoffs. The game was forced into overtime by a 50-yard pass from West Texas A&M quarterback Dalton Bell to wide receiver Ramon Perry with just over a minute to play. With the victory, West Texas A&M improves to 11-1 on the season and avenges its only loss of the season, a 49-33 home setback to Abilene Christian on Oct. 19th. West Texas A&M, which trailed by 15 points late in the fourth period, got a 13-yard score from Bell to wideout Charly Martin with only 5:36 remaining to close the Abilene Christian lead to 27-19. Martin then hauled in a short pass from Bell on a two-point conversion attempt to cut West Texas A&M's deficit to seven and set the stage for Perry's game-tying touchdown. Bell completed 32-of-55 passes for 410 yards and three touchdowns. In overtime, West Texas A&M was forced to settle for the 20-yard kick from Roberts after being turned away at the goal time. On the ensuing Abilene Christian possession, West Texas A&M's defense forced a 34-yard attempt by ACU kicker Matt Adams, which was deflected and fell harmlessly to the turf. This is the first 11-win season for West Texas A&M Please RV. If you're not going to go after this guy, OR if for some reason this guy doesn't want to come to North Texas, then... PLEASE FIND SOMEONE JUST LIKE HIM!

Last year, his lack of production was blamed on a lingering hammy and a gain in weight. To me, the question would be "what sort of weight did he gain"? Was it muscle, like Ladanian Tomlinson gained during his TCU career, or the other kind. Gaining muscle doesn't slow RB's down.... unless it's excessive. As to the "hammy". Ja-Mo set the NT single season rushing record with a bad hammy. He missed half of the Baylor game as well as all of the Ark St. game because of his bad hammy. When he wasn't missing games that year with his hammy, he was spending all his time on the sideline on the "cycle" because of the hammy.....yet he got 1800+ yards that year. I may get flamed for this, but I would suggest that anyone with a DVD and/or tape of the 04 NO Bowl, might want to watch it over again. Before half-time Ja-Mo got a direct hit that was probably harder than any hit he had taken all year. At that point, the So Miss defense got their bluff in, and Ja-Mo didn't run the same the rest of the game. IMHO, he hasn't run the same since. If you still want to blame his lack of production on the hammy and/or conditioning, then we need to take a hard look at our conditioning coaches. Maybe they need to join DD in looking for another job. I'm told that we have NO speed and agility program for the football players.

Now, that will be an interesting event.

Well, if fall practice was any indication, Tune did as well (if not better) than the incumbents. He showed more poise and confidence than I've seen in a freshman QB in a long time. So the new coach will at least have that to work with.

Well, I guess this thread is a moot point now.

....or what was more revealing. No one came around and hired Dickey away from us after we beat Cincy in the second NO Bowl.

They keep calling it the athletic center, but it's just the practice fields. At any rate, my friend who used to cover North Texas football during the Hayden Fry era called me after this latest story broke. He was laughing at the absurdity of it all, and how (once again) our football program looks downright ineffective to the rest of Texas. He went on to say "you know, I bet the director of the Lab Bands has been on the phone to RV saying "Now, RV! don't you back down from that guy! Show em' what a real man you are! Tell him to stick his donation where the sun don't shine!" We both speculated about what Dr. B. might be thinking about all this....."I thought I was going to take over an institution of higher learning in Texas. How did I end up in doofus land?"

Okay, I keep reading that the the athletic center is being re-named. I thought that it was the practice FIELDS. Which is it?

I'd like to suggest that we go after this guy before SOMEONE ELSE DOES!

I really like your style.

I still like Don Carthel. Hard working, experienced as a HD, and good at making connections with the community.

You know twodogs, that's a very astute observation. It's also the same dynamic that comes into play regarding divorce. I learned a long time ago (from my sociology class about marriage and the family) that people don't file for divorce simply because they are miserable in their marriage per se. They make the decision to file for divorce when they see a viable option to their bad marriage/relationship situation.

Realistically, I don't see any coach coming in and having instant success. What I do realistically expect to see is someone with a passion to turn things around, and that passion is being reflected in how his team plays every week. I don't care if a coach loves my school or not. I want a coach that is hungry to make a name for himself, loves the opportunity, and is looking to move up to the next level. You can't do that at North Texas unless you're both talented as an X's and O's guy, and you're very personable.

Maybe you're operating on total faith, but I'm not. I'm not the least bit interested in this being an easy hire. I want someone who can work with the team and the North Texas fan base, not be someone's "good ol' boy". And BTW, Jimmy Johnson really tore it up after he left Dallas didn't he? Could it be that the Dallas gig was the ONLY time that a crony hire ever worked?

My concern is that RV is going to do yet another friend a bigger favor. NO CRONY HIRES RV! There isn't anyone at S. Miss that excites us!

My friend called me at 6:30 and said that "Babe" mentioned it on his sports report as well.

Trivia about North Texas coaches. Most have been Baylor graduates. One of the most successful, and with the longest tenure, is a West Texas State graduate....Odus Mitchell. So West Texas A&M figures in the process with two possibilities. Don Carthel, because he currently coaches there, and Mickey Mathews, because he is a graduate. Now, if we could just get a candidate/applicant that graduated from Baylor and coached (and received his masters) at West Texas A&M.

Corky was DC at Baylor before he was hired as HC at North Texas. His defense helped Baylor go to it's last Cotton Bowl appearance. Corky was the head coach at Tyler after he left North Texas.... where he was the DL coach under Rod Rust. While he was HC at Tyler, he made the decision to move Earl Campbell from linebacker to RB. Earl had played LB for all his HS career and felt that playing LB was his best shot at going to college. Earl was very distressed at this move, but agreed to it anyway. The rest, as they say, is history. While he was coaching at North Texas, Corky recruited Rex Johnson out of Junior College. Rex had been playing LB and earned some all-conference honors at that position. Even though Rex Johnson was 6'1" X 235 (a good size for a LB) Corky moved him to nose tackle, where he eventually earned 1-AA all-american honors. Corky had several years coaching in the college ranks before coming to North Texas. IMHO he was almost genius in his ability to assess players and put them where they could do the most good.

Exactly! When has he ever had to promote the SlC football program. I think never! We really need someone who has had to work in the community to build a program up.....or re-build a program. Here is one sample of his ability to sell. http://www.scholarshipmaker.com/AdvisoryBoard1.aspx

I've never heard that about Todd Dodge. In fact, I don't know much about his personality at all. I will say that North Texas definitely needs a salesman......a tireless salesman.

To me, Friday night lights hits home as a movie about the culture of football. It's my favorite of all of them.

Ok, we've established that TD is a great X's and O's coach. He knows how to win, and he doesn't tolerate anything less. Just my humble opinion, but the other great quality that a HD needs at North Texas is the ability to motivate the fan base. At SLC Coach Dodge hasn't had to talk anyone into coming to games. People are lining up to go to games, and to be in the booster club. They are also moving to the Southlake so that thier kids can play in his system. At SLC, coach Dodge takes care of the winning, and the administration and booster clubs take care of the spirit.....which was always there from the very beginning. I like coach Carthel, because he has gone to programs that were on the downturn, and turned them into winners. He doesn't mind working hard at getting out into the community and getting the fans/alumni interested. He's also used to working with limited resources. I have no earthly idea what sort of personality Coach Dodge has.