CurveItAround

QB-PP = Pocket Passer QB-DT = Dual Threat

If I understand the following information correctly, North Texas currently has extended 70 offers to potential recruits ranging from 4* to NRs. The school name to the right indicates a verbal commitment, but nothing is official until Feb 1st when they actually sign. http://espn.go.com/college-sports/football/recruiting/school/_/id/249/class/2013/page/offers

Explain this 'rivalry' concept you speak of. Sounds interesting. /sarcasm

If you look closely, many of the tuba players are struggling with their turns. They are not planting properly going into their break and are a little undersized to play at this level. I kid! I thought the performance was amazing. Very cool.

We are going to win more. There, I said it. I just wish I believed it.

I have not gone back through what TD signed in his last years, but here is my understanding of how it could hurt. The NCAA limits Div IA teams to 85 total scholarships and limits programs to 25 new players per year. If on the way out Dodge loaded up with Juco transfers in an effort to 'win now' they would have come over as juniors. Therefore, when these Juco transers graduate two years later there are no underclassmen to take their place. The NCAA limit of 25 new players prevents programs from 'catching up' by adding a lot of new players to replace the outgoing ones. Once you start down the Juco path, you pretty much have to stick with it. The problem is you are not guaranteed to be able to get the players you want or need. A lot of programs restrict their use of Jucos to fill in due to attrition or if someone blows up in Juco (i.e. Cam Newton).

I agree that beating a single team does nothing. Even if we beat an AQ team once, it would not matter. Look at what happen with ULM when they beat Alabama, once. Step 1. Schedule contains conference plus non top 25 non AQ teams home/home, if we MUST play a money game, limit 1 per year. Step 2. Are we mainting a .500 or better record? If yes goto step 3 else stay at step 1 Step 3. Schedule contains conference plus non AQ teams home/ home, plus lower rung AQ teams home/home, eliminate money games) Step 4. Are we maintaining a .500 or better record? If yes goto step 5 else goto step 3 Step 5. Schedule contains conference plus top non AQ teams home/home, plus AQ teams home/home or neutral field) Step 6. Are we maintaining a .500 or better record? If yes continue else goto step 3 Problem is our program is at step one and we want to immediately jump to step 6 and become a ranked team. I don't disagree with the destination, I disagree with our approach. Let's start beating anybody regularly and then we can work our way up to beating somebody that matters.

Gagree. The path to more W's seems to be to improve from within and improve our schedule by getting rid of the money games. Both things will give us a better chance to win each game we play. I am confident we will win our fair share of games where we are evenly matched. If you go back an look, when we won consistently in the Fry and Dickey years, we were not pulling off upsets every week. For the most part, we were equally matched or better than the teams we were playing. As we get better, our competition can get better. Trying to shortcut the process is a recipe for failure.

I don't disagree that we have struggled in the red zone, which is kind of odd. Usually it is the spread offenses that struggle when they get in the red zone, not teams that try to run it down your throat.

It is certainly possible that we get drilled, but I really don't think it will happen. We have one common opponent with UL, which is Troy. UL was favored by 1.5 on the road @Troy. They won 37-24. I am guessing that they will be favored by around 6 at our place (just a guess on my part, could be more/less). If you compare the two teams numbers so far this season: Total Offense: UL - 411, UNT - 382 Passing Offense: UL - 221, UNT - 207 Rushing Offense: UL - 190, UNT - 175 Offensive Scoring: UL - 38, UNT - 20 Total Defense: UL - 402, UNT - 396 Passing Defense: UL - 295, UNT - 219 Rushing Defense: UL - 107, UNT - 177 Scoring Defense: UL - 24, UNT - 26 They do not have a huge advantage overall. The troubling thing is that on paper they have a pretty strong run defense, but appear that they could be exploited through the air (not exactly a strength of ours, but still an opportunity). They have been extremely efficient in scoring points when compared to the total yardage. This usually implies very few turnovers and converting most of your red zone opportunities into TDs instead of FGs. Here is another opportunity for our defense to step up. If they play to their averages and we do the same, they probably win, but it would not take a lot for UNT to pull out the victory. I could see a game more like the Troy game than the Houston game.

Great question. No.

... "UNT has improved since McCarney arrived before last season. No one who is paying attention would dispute that." ... Interesting point that Vito makes...

With all the negative going on, let's ponder a positive scenario for a change. What do you think would happen if (when) Coach Mac turns the program around and starts building a consistent 7/8/9 win a year program. Do you think he is at the point in his career that he would stick with North Texas (ala coach snyder at KState)? The trouble with up and coming coaches like Dykes at La Tech is that they usually use their success to move somewhere else. It seemed like when Dodge was here, all he was worried about doing is showing the world how smart he was and tried to schedule games the program had no business playing in so he could show them how great his offense was and 'look at me'. I don't get that vibe from Coach Mac.

Can someone enlighten us on why exactly we are playing 10 schollies short? Program decision? Todd Dodge? SMU?

???

Let's review what our 'tough' OOC schedule has gotten us. Here are some things I have seen posted: 1. Is Coach Mac the right person / how much more time should he be given 2. Replace the QB 3. Offense is too predictable 4. Fans 'Done' with the program 5. Our upcoming TV game won't have anyone there 6. Cheerleaders aren't cheering correctly 7. Etc... It just reinforces the point that while fans say they want a tough schedule so they can thump their chest and brag to their friends, what they really mean is that they want a tough schedule as long as they are also winning. I believe we are in capable hands with RV and Coach Mac. I have not seen anything to make me think otherwise at this point.

It seems that a lot of people on here rightfully consider the Dickey era as a success (2001-2006, 4 conference championships). The thing that the Dicky teams were able to do is put W's on the board. However, if you look at Dickey's record, during his 6 years at the helm, his teams produced a grand total of 2 wins against teams that finished year above .500. His teams posted an additional 4 wins against teams that finished at .500 during that time. What Dickey was able to accomplish was beating up on weak conference mates during a very period of very bad Sun Belt teams. This period did nothing to advance the perception of the conference, unlike recent history. Now, only a few years later, we look back on that time very favorably. We tend to forget how/where the wins came from. With the improvement in the Sun Belt quality of place, we will realistically have to play just as well as it took us to win the conference during the Dickey era in order to just go .500 in today's Sunbelt. It doesn't look to get any easier next year in CUSA.

In the LSU game, the team started out by giving up 24 straight points to start the game, and looked like a team that did not belong on the same field, and then went on to finish the game by getting outscored 17-14. In the Houston game we give up 17 straight to start the game and then get outscored by 27-21 to finish the game. LSU's overall offense currently ranks #77 and Houston's is #9. I felt bad about the Houston loss, but I did not really care for the LSU loss either. After the LSU game, a LOT of people were talking moral victory and how great we looked. After the Houston game, we are ready to replace our coach. I am not trying to say that Houston is equal to LSU, but it is not like they don't have ability, especially on the offensive side of the ball. Do we need to tap the breaks a little?

Sadly, this disqualifies you from either 'team'.

The tailgate was great. We got lucky and saw it when we were looking for a place to park. If you were one of the ones that never found it, follow the link and look for the parking lot labeled 9C. It was in a grassy area next to lot 9C on the Wheeler St side of the lot. http://www.uhcougars.com/fanguide-parking.html

Finally, some cheerleading talk!

1. ~20,000 2. ~20,000 with waiting list 3. great proximity to ECU, Marshall, and new member Charlotte (in the process of starting football program) That entire area is a very solid recruiting hotbed. They have been a power at FCS level and all indications are that they will continue to be pretty successful as they transition to FBS level. General consensus is that they are a very solid add to the eastern division and were pushed by existing CUSA schoools such as ECU and Marshall in order to provide schools located close to them.

I'll probably regret this, but I guess if that is what we are, we might as well be the best at what we do...

Jealous... for those that could attend. Sounded like a great time!!

It is not surprising that when you look through these numbers that there are not many positives, but here are a few things I pulled out of the details. I went back to look at our numbers since 1995 (our return to Div I-A Conference record is 49-57, not completely horrible Out of conference record is 17-76, This shocked me for some reason, so I dug further. Here is our OOC record going back to 1995. Coach Mac is right when he says everywhere you look there is some negative streak that we can break. In the last 17 years, we have not even broke even in our OOC schedule, much less used our OOC schedule to get some extra wins. I bet this changes, and soon. HOPEFULLY STARTING TOMORROW! 2011: 1-3 2010: 0-4 2009: 1-3 2008: 0-4 2007: 1-4 2006: 1-4 2005: 0-4 2004: 0-4 2003: 2-4 2002: 2-5 2001: 0-6 (1st year in Sun Belt) 2000: 2-4 1999: 1-4 1998: 0-6 1997: 2-4 1996: 2-4 (1st year in Big West) 1995: 2-9 (played as indy before joining Big West)