realitycheck

When Coach Benford was originally hired, I did not necessary think that it was a bad hire but I thought that it was kind of strange especially since it sounds like there were ex-head coaches (and maybe 1 or 2 current head coaches) who were interested in the job. Coach Benford was just an assistant with no head coaching experience who was from outside of the program and the region. It just didn't seem like he was a great fit here. To be fair, I did not think that he would be this terrible but I still think we could have found a better match.

I totally agree with your post. The only thing that I would add is that for us to appear that we have a legitimate athletic department, Coach Benford must be fired. There is not one power conference school in the nation and very few mid major schools that would tolerate a season like this one. I would imagine that a lot of schools would have already fired him. If we do not fire Coach Benford, this non-action will feed into the stereotype that a lot of people have concerning the athletic department in which we are not fully committed to athletics and that failure (even historic failure) is accepted. The athletic department needs to send the message out and show that the University of North Texas has the same standards as every successful athletic program in the nation.

I could be wrong, but I could have sworn that when Trilli received the call from the school informing him that he was fired that he was in the room with Wright minutes before he died. Now to your point the school didn’t know where Trilli was at the time or what the situation was but they still got bad press over it.

If I remember correctly, Trilli was fired before RV was hired. However, you probably are correct about Trilli not leaving on a good note since the school fired him while he was visiting a former player who was on his death bed at the time.

I'm still getting the 101 podcast when I try to listen to it.

True the New Orleans Bowl is on ESPN and is televised nationally. However, the game still draws little interest locally (even when we’re in it). I’m always amazed at the number of college football fans I talk to in the area that still don’t realize that the game exists. During the last several years the New Orleans Bowl has had to go head to head with an NFL game so I’m not sure how good the ratings have been overall. It is always a mid major team that the Sunbelt Champion has to play and that is the kind of team that we would probably have to play in the CBI or CIT. Despite its faults, it is always a great thing when we go to the New Orleans Bowl and it’s something that greatly benefits our program. I think the same could be said if we went to the CBI or CIT.

I believe Cooley is correct. I remember seeing some NIT banners at Texas Hall.

I 100% agree with greendylan. The main thing that this program needs right now is more postseason appearances and experience. It does not matter how many regular wins we have, if we don’t start going to postseason tournaments they are meaningless. I realize that we have had some really great recruiting classes in recent years and my hat is off to Coach Jones and his coaching staff for this accomplishment. However, I fear that this will not last without more postseason appearances. Other coaches in the area and the Sunbelt will be able to tell recruits (if they haven’t started already) that if you go to North Texas you’ll win 20 games every year but you’ll be at home for spring break because they never go anywhere. Also, we have never won a postseason game ever in the history of the program. Participating in the CIT or CBI will give us a chance to get that monkey off our backs. Keep in mind VCU participated in the 2010 CBI and they went to the Final Four the next year as an #11 seed. There are obvious benefits to participating in a postseason tournament even if it is the CBI or CIT. Yes it could be a huge financial commitment, however, so is going to a bowl game. I think all of us would agree that it was worth going to the four New Orleans bowls that we were invited to even though we barely broke even for most of them. I also understand and respect the argument wanting to use any possible extra funds for a practice facility (although, I’m not sure that isn’t a false choice). However, my fear is that in a few years without a few more postseason appearances the program will be in a situation to where a new top of the line practice facility (which I’m sure the facility will be) will not matter.

Most of those arguments could be made about the New Orleans Bowl. I don't think anyone on this board would be in favor of turning down an invitation to it because the few benefits to the event out weight the negatives. I believe the same could be said of the CBI and CIT. Especially for a program that has very few postseason appearances.