Mike Jackson

I think it is an absolutely brilliant idea. Ideally the vocal leader of the group should be a younger guy who is very media savvy. A representative from the Alumni organization should be a requirement as well. I would love for them to put forth head coach suggestions out in the media.... "Today the North Texas AC put forth a list 5 desired candidates for the new head basketball coach now that it official Benford will not b returning next season."

School size is resource to work with so it definitely isn't nothing. Basketball in California again really? You clearly have no appreciation of how big football is in Texas. Baylor and Duke were the door matts of their leagues for many years. Baylor Football was the opportunity for other Big 12 school to have a conference game homecoming. The Duke program success in Basketball is solely due to their Hall of Fame coach. So if Haden Frye has stayed here 20 years UNT would have had even more resources than Duke to build a powerhouse program. But again you are mentioning basketball which is totally different animal. In basketball 2 blue chip recruits that pan out spend 6 years on your basketball team collectively can transform a program. Why do you insist in binging basketball programs up when talking about football? You find me another college with 30k students, in the center of 5 star recruiting oasis, and 90+ history in football that does as bad as UNT. You won't find it. If the BOR, AD and alumni make bad decisions or worse demonstrate object apathy towards the program it will not succeed. If we still played at Fouts Field and did not have a brand new athletic complex I would point solely at those things as the reason. Everything is in place hear at UNT except a captive audience without other sport entertainment choices. But even that does not excuse football attendance being routinely below 20k.

Stole my score, so I will try to be unique 41 - 18. We go for 2 early in the third quarter to cut the lead to 16 and Mac tells us Monday how we were still in the game until McNulty turned the ball over again.

Our struggling is on a whole different level when you look at the numbers. And if you look at our west division CUSA rivals it is even worse because we are the biggest school in the conference with one of the longest football histories as well. We are not a "big name football" school but we aren't a back water pond school either. Our school is on par with all the schools you named except national name recognition. Just look up the numbers.

My fear is that Smith will play like a QB who is seeing his first game action and playing him will lead to a "Dajon at UAB" outcome....pulling him because he turns the ball over, then allowing McNulty to turn the ball over without repercussion _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ If we see McNulty after another typical McNulty outing against Southern Miss it means only one thing. Mac does not give a crap about extending his career as a FBS head coach anywhere after his current contract runs out. When you aren't competitive in games except for a very few areas in incremental ways it is time to start experimenting and preparing for the future. The only people who don't prepare for the future are fools and people who believe they don't have one. So if Mac continues down this path of starting McNulty who has consistently plays bad then he is either one or the other. I would hope that isn't delusional enough to believe that cronyism will get him a new contract here with a losing record and running off fans from Apogee. The AD and BOR can't sit around while the money the program is losing increases month after month. You have to throw the loyal fans a bone in a while and give them so hope and it is too convenient to do that when a head coaches contract is about to expire. Unfortunately for us that is not until after the 2016 season.

Very important distinction home games. And no 30k is 30k not 20k in a major metro area with 100k alumni. The Raiders even during their good run in LA rarely sold out 93k stadium so that is an awful comparison. Selling out Apogee for a game against SMU speaks to apathy and losing consistently nothing else. And I don't know what an ASU Basketball game has to do with anything here. We are talking about football in Texas and there are high school football games locally that out draw UNT every year and that is garbage. Every example you named beside BC doubles the attendance for a Mean Green game. I am ready for UNT to "struggle" with 25K plus average attendance which with our resource is not unreasonable. Here another tidbit why comparing Miami to UNT is a horrible comparison (Sun Life Stadium seats 75,540. The undergraduate enrollment at the U is about 10,000. ) So using Miami "Math" Apogee should at least be 50K capacity with 40K average. If you could get just half of the undergrads to show up Apogee is half full. Conference doesn't make a difference if you don't win. Even if we were in the Big 12 as a door matt the stadium would be full but only with fans of visiting teams.

Where and when did UCLA and USC play i a half empty non-conference road game? I am calling bullshit. No organization here plays below .500 ball for an extended about of time and draws fans. And the only team that can get away with extended runs of .500 mediocrity is the Dallas Cowboys. But 5 Championships buys that kind of loyalty. The Ranger's season barely over laps ours and until very recent history they were a laughing stock with an empty ball park every August and September. Mavericks played in empty arenas in all with long periods of crappy basketball ball here. And even the Cowboys before Jimmy Johnson turned thinks around had local blackout due to unsold tickets. If you don't win and are not even competitive on the rare occasion you get a team that generates local interest to Denton you aren't going to get fans. "There are school near ......." More bullshit and sorry excuses. Let check the numbers and facts. Boston College 30k average home attendance 2013 Record a power house 7-6 season Temple 2014 Season average attendance 23.2 k I won't even address Miami cause if you are talking about any other school than the U it is insulting to this University and it current resources FIU didn't have D1 or D2 football before 1999. FAU didn't start till 2001. So comparing your school's position to them and making excuses base on what FAU & FIU can't do is like comparing a child to an adult. Phoenix - calling more bullshit. There are 3 count them 3 public universities in the state of Arizona. Northern Arizona play in Flagstaff, AZ a long way from Phoenix. Plus the Lumberjacks play FCS ball. Arizona State (Tempe AZ) 20 minutes for Phoenix, they average well over 50k a game. Stop making excuses! The 100k local alumni should demand better for this program PERIOD NO MORE EXCUSES.

Only brought up Houston cause their players had some NBA success and a few people in their 30s can remember those players. But none the less the main idea stays the same Texas is football country and coaching basketball here is 5 timea harder than football. CUSA has a rich basketball history but a lot of those schools are no longer in the conference. La Tech had Karl Malone a long time ago and a great women's program a while back too. ODU and WKU are the only programs that register on the recent basketball radar. ODU success was minor. WKU made a somewhat recent run in the NCAA but they were Sun Belt at the time.

Yes, Greer is the worst QB I have ever seen on the FBS level. Unfortunately, I doubt we see Smith get quality playing time before November. Our coaching staff is just doesn't teach well enough or is just too stubborn to play him. Greer should never see the field again unless there are multiple QB injuries. I would rather see Carolos Harris as an option QB with the Jimmy Show and Wilson behind him than Greer at QB. I'm just wondering what the hell happened to Conner Means. The most depressing thing about it is that if Mac stays how in the hell are going to recruit QB talent with this track record with the position. If we are going to lose let lose with a QB throwing for 400 yards and 3 touchdowns and have the ball in the 4th quarter with a chance to tie the game or take the lead.

I'm sorry "pro team" sucking up the Oxygen? That is a sorry excuse. The only advantage exclusive market gets you that is getting marquee schools to come play you in your house. And this is moot point if you suck and no one shows up consistently because Oregon, Washington, Utah and Colorado are not showing up to play in a half empty house away from home in a non conference game. UNT has made bad hires period. The Saints were the only game in town for New Orleans for 2 decades and they sucked. The stands reflected that but now its Who Dat all over the place. So yes if we were talking about breaking into a power 5 conference and not having an exclusive market is a valid challenge but we are talking about CUSA west division.

With the first all Black starting lineup. I wasn't even a gleam in my daddy's eye back then and my oldest son is recruiting age now. That is ancient history, that lis almost like expecting a football recruit to be interested in UNT because of Mean Joe.

Any game plan that has McNulty not holding a clip board on the sidelines is a losing game plan. But if the staff is stubborn enough to play him again they need to run the spread option like the QB running is a real option. I want the QB to carry the ball at least 5 times and maybe as many as 15 if they gain 5 yards or more each time. Also we need to take at least 7 good deep shots down the field 25 yards plus in the air. On defense they need to body up the receivers at least 1/3 of the time. You can't give away 5 yard completions and hope to get teams in 3rd down and long. More blitzing from the secondary too, zone blitzing no cover 0.

Love the post but umm.... no

Someone wrote "limited resources" when talking about UNT. Every program in America except maybe 10 have "limited resources" when comparing them to their conference foes. This is no longer a place with "limited resources" if you compare us to other west division CUSA schools. This is the 4th largest school in Texas bigger than University of Colorado, University of Oklahoma, Colorado State, and University of Arkansas. The only schools near UNT that are significantly larger are UT Austin and LSU. In my best McCarney impression "Get that garbage limited resources out of your vocabulary when talking about UNT". The limits of our program stem from getting our asses handed to us by UTSA in our new stadium. This UTSA program that held its first practice in 2010 (no games till 2011) the year before McCarney was hired here. We have yet to be a program that didn't exist in 2009 and that has 0 to do with limited resources and everything to do with horrible leadership that has gotten it ass handed to it by an upstart program. BULLSHIT!!!! I challenge you to look up the demographics of the other west division CUSA schools and ask yourself why do we take a back seat to ANY of them! But if you want make excuses, I definitely want to hear them if they are valid so type away please and prove me wrong.

So why is this job so hard? Please tell me because all I hear is a lot of excuses from coaches who can't recruit or coach. This is no harder job than TCU when it was in CUSA, Boise State when they were in the Big West Conference. Hell UTSA is now in better shape than UNT right now and that program did not exist before 2000.

What have you heard? I have not heard anything. And if Conner Mean suck that would only mean this coaching staff can't scout good QB's

Dam strong EaglesMBA bravo. So does McCarney have more influence on the defense or the offense? it was my impression that it was the defense. But since our old DC retired maybe that isn't the case. So what is McCarney contributing to the X & O of coaching this team? So far I would give him a C- in recruiting. I would give him a 'F' in player development. The players seem to stay out of "off the field" situations so I would give him an A. So we have grade book that says A, C-, C-, and F. What do you think? Is there any reason to believe McCarney is worth keep around after this season? It is clear he doesn't deserve to be paid so much better than Todd Dodge was.

Why no mention of Conner Means when talking about the QB situation? Is he that bad?

I absolutely agree. I don't know if he actually gets to run the offense the way he wants too but if he doesn't that is on him. I sent him a private message during that time expressing my support for him to get the head coaching job. I think he should have left then. But I don't know what professional options he had at the time so it really hard to say with any conviction. I wish him well regardless of what happens at the end of this season. But who will want to replace him if he goes? If this season goes bad enough for Canales to be let go who comes here with head coach and AD on shaky ground at best. Maybe RV our AD is safe but that makes for a very disgruntled alumni and fan base which does not bode well for job security.

I think you are wrong. They definitely don't care about basketball. Texas is Football country no school in the state has done much of anything significant in division I basketball other than U. of Houston and UT. If we had the next Lebron James in our back yard right now he leaves the state to go to college most likely. Larry Brown at SMU and UT would have slim hopes. And without Larry Brown those slim hopes at SMU go away instantly. UNT does care about football. But they don't want to pay the money to get the coach that could turn it around. A coach with a big time resume is the ONLY sure way to turn the program around. Yes we could get lucky and hire a young up and coming coach who goes on to lead a national power but that is unlikely. Mac's age was another reason not to hire him in this situation. Had Todd Dodge been somewhat of a success and moved on to better things Mac would have be the perfect candidate. But you don't hire Mac and pay him and his staff decent if you don't care about football. You also don't build a brand new stadium when you could renovated Fouts Field for less money and should your alumni on a "home" game in the Cotton Bowl every year during the State Fair.

I would not be pessimistic. An empty stadium by mid to late October speaks volumes. We need an AD to reach out to fans. We only need 25k devoted fans to turn the corner. But the AD needs to come hard and say we are not interested in just getting by and squeezing out a conference champion once every 5 years when the conference happens to be terrible. I want a Chip Kelly or anyone with local ties and FBS level accomplishments.

“This isn’t the easiest place in the world to recruit to. This isn’t the easiest place in the world when you have a track record and a lot of years of losing. Just because you put up some cement and some bigger stands, that doesn’t make it easy. Did it happen fast because I came in wearing some big ass ring from Florida or because some people respected what I did at Iowa State? “No. It’s still North Texas. -- Dan McCarney October 13, 2014 That quote by itself gives me the reason hiring Mac was the wrong move. Cause Iowa State doesn't matter to local recruits.

Too soon to be hopeful that something will be done to improve the offensive coaching staff here?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________ “This isn’t the easiest place in the world to recruit to. This isn’t the easiest place in the world when you have a track record and a lot of years of losing. Just because you put up some cement and some bigger stands, that doesn’t make it easy. Did it happen fast because I came in wearing some big ass ring from Florida or because some people respected what I did at Iowa State? “No. It’s still North Texas. -- Dan McCarney October 13, 2014 I just saw this Mac quote. I never realized how bad it was until I read it. No one and I mean no one in Texas could give a crap about what happen at Iowa State. That quote should highlight the flawed logic in hiring Mac. That being said I love the attitude he brought when he got here. Attitude only goes so far and it you skill that takes it to the next level. You think its harder to recruit to UNT than it was at Boise State, BYU, TCU, and Utah? BSU issued its first bachelors degree in 1974. All four these schools significantly smaller than UNT. Recruits get excited to build something new with a leader with an established track record with local significance or NATIONAL significance. The short run at Iowa State does not register with local recruits or even their parents. As for the passionate kid, he should have his head focus on his academics and football too much to be worried about some harsh fans online. He needs to get his priorities straight. The only way this is excusable is if these fans he alluded to sought him out to make personal attacks.

It isn't only Iowa. And that isn't going to change. Good coaches know where the talent is and how to get it. We may not be on the radar for 5 star recruits with letters from "Big Dawg" power 5 conference schools but we sure hell should have deeper talent on our team than any other west CUSA team with the advantages the university has. We should dominate west division CUSA and I am dead serious about that. And I want anyone to offer any an excuse that doesn't have to do with alumni attitude. Alumni attitude would change if you go to back to back bowl games and win. Alumni attitude would change if you name a coach with FBS skins on the wall and local connections.