Mike Jackson

I am not the one who eyerolled your comment but I didn't suggest P5 head coaching experience is a requirement for success here. But the bigger the named coach coming to a struggling G5 program the better they will be able to retain talent and gain talent through the portal. That is why if you aren't prepared to overpay a big name to come coach a program stepping up to tougher competition, you shouldn't retain a 90% lame duck coach (base on performance) for the last season in a lower conference. If we weren't stepping up to the AAC till 2024 or 2025, I wouldn't have been so upset with them retaining Seth for 2022. Under those circumstances giving Seth an opportunity to save his job would had been fair for all parties and not hurting fans, athletes, and coaches already committed to the program. Maybe coach Morris can overcome all this. But far too often poor leadership puts head football coaches at unnecessary disadvantages and we are far too critical of those coaches imo. Seth was probably the first fairly paid coach and supported given way too much rope to hang himself here to the detriment of the program. The overall point is that I can't be mad at any of these players for leaving. If I weren't an alumni I would hang up my football fan hat and focus on only the other D1 sports our school sponsors. 🤷🏽‍♂️

I just wish we went through these inevitable new coach challenges last season instead this season. Transfer portal loses and gains are particularly hard to nagivate for new G5 head coaches without successful runs at a P5 on their resume.

Somebody is lost.

You may be right. I do think part of the reason they just did not go to a playoff of 4 bowl winners after all the "traditional" bowl games were played was to limit the progress of G5 programs. That in my opinion would be a better product for everyone involved. Even the bowl games without 2 teams in the top 12-18 are more relevant in that scenario because they would impact the ranking of the top 8. Fans of the teams in the top 8 would be watching bowl games involving lower ranked conference mates hoping they win to boost their team rating to get into the playoff. Every team in FBS plays exclusively in conference for the last month of the regular season it is impossible to rank them versus one another. A P5 teams with identical records in different conferences are impossible to fairly rate against each other.

Nothing new about it unless 30 years plus qualifies as "new". Programs large and small have been playing fast and lose with the rules since before SMU got the death penalty. And that 2015 rule was just a half ass attempt to delay the inevitable of paying players who are essential in generating a billion dollars of revenue every year.

Hypothetically an undefeated UTSA team in 2021 probably gets in if Cincy loses. And in that unique year maybe even 2 or 3 G5 teams get into the 12 team playoff. Undefeated 2021 Cincy gets a top 4 seed. A strong cases could be made for a UTSA team that doesn't drown in Denton and 12-1 Sun Belt Champ Louisiana.

I keep hearing they do but I think it like Big Foot. Everyone who allegedly seen it says it stinks and just when they are about to record something interesting about it, it disappears. 🤷🏽‍♂️

Please go to winspedia.com and compare our programs since 2002. Since 2002 Cincy in a stronger conference has had 12 seasons with 9 wins or more and 8 seasons of 10 wins or more. We can stop the comparison right there. Come on we need to stop being delusional and dishonest with ourselves as to how underwhelming this program has been since the peak of Dickey's tenure here. Our program doesn't win consistently Cincy does.

Okay and? Let's spilt that number by more than half and put them as 30th best team in the country for 2023. If you aren't big time into college basketball or connected to UNT that MOFO's response is typically what I would expect in any major population center in USA. And now our basketball coach and key players are gone. What are you selling to the local casual fan? Not much in a run down SuperPit you can't navigate through due to construction. Hopefully they can maintain the momentum and get into the NCAA tournament and advance to the Sweet 16. But that is HIGHLY unlikely and everyone knows it. You know what could have done this? Hiring Coach Sanders or at least firing Seth earlier to publicly court Sanders as the next head coach. This program HISTORICALLY hasn't tried hard enough. And hauty Alumni here have the nerve to still be but hurt over Dickey's black uniforms. The coach probably most responsible for the program NOT dropping back down to FCS due to consistent horrible performance. Meanwhile brand new programs like Liberty, UTSA, lap, rebooted UAB wins a conference championship, and brand new Charlotte beats us in one of our most pivital games. And they have yet to beat SMU in Dallas. No top 25 ranking. Beaten at home when we last flirted with maintaining a top 25 ranking in consecutive weeks. Winning is the most important thing AND playing teams the students want to see. Wyoming doesn't fit the bill, but that is another old conversation.

The talk about Gunnell devolving into a debate/critic about Coach Sanders reveals something disappointing about the few fans passionate enough to converse about in Spring. Gunnell isn't going to Colorado. Colorado nor JSU are on our schedule nor are we rumored to be in the same conference with them anything soon. So Coach Sanders should be a footnote mention in this thread. Illogical me came back to the this thread to see if there was an update on where Gunnell was going to. If this is a reflection of most of our fanbase, I see why leadership isn't ambitious enough to get this program over the hump. Everything positive for the profile of CU football that Coach Sanders is doing in Colorado would be on "former Dallas Cowboy" steriods at UNT in the DFW area if he was hired here. If you don't want that then winning UNT football isn't high in your sports priorities. Expecting any player with a 3-star pedigree and starts at a P5 school to sit on the bench at our mediocre program is foolish. On a related note we all we disappointed when Gumms our stellar TE left. I want to ask all the Coach Sanders critics a question after they watch this clip about Gumms. Fast forward to the 1:48 mark. While he is he or even shortly after Coach Sanders departs a head coaching gig here do you think a player like Gumms is "under the radar" here and "more exposure" factors into to him leaving? Only one fan had heard of Gumms in LK's audience.

I was specifically talking about the Green & White game. I am okay with alternate uniforms but not 💩 on one of our primary colors for the Spring Game. I was one of the few on this board that did not mind black uniforms used during Dickey’s tenure. I will go back and edit my comment to make that clear.

Nothing else needs to be said other than this. The powers that be obviously don’t care. And this highlights why I think bellyaching on this board about the what the marketing department doesn’t do it 100% futile. How do you market something that is so inconsistent? What’s next changing the font on all the Mean Green signage to be more compatible with Tik Tok filters? Not one single recruit with the maturity you would want to be on your team is going to be swayed by black in the uniforms. And let’s play devil’s advocate and say you actually want a talented guy that immature. What are the chances he sticks around more than 2 years with the transfer portal and NIL? I will happily reconsider when I see successful programs 💩 on their most basic of traditions. So if when Oklahoma, Texas, Michigan State, Alabama, and Penn State omit white jerseys from their spring game let me know. (Without 10s of millions of dollars dependent on it)

EXACTLY, I wish I could give both these comments 5 stars. UNT leadership has inflicted far more damage to our program than a conference schedule maker ever could. In the latest of the self inflicted wounds they held on to a coach with these stats 1-6 vs SMU, no bowl wins, and no conference championships. The SMU Illuminati didn’t force UNT to extend a mediocre coach twice. The AD and president held on to Seth pointlessly flounder through a last CUSA season and end up exactly 0.500 and that was exceeding most of our rational expectations for the 2022 season. When the lights are brightest this program hasn’t taken care of business since a Heart of Dallas Bowl win. Ironically I suspect the “poor little UNT” perspective partially influenced leadership to desperately hold on to a mediocre coach far too long. A coach who couldn’t get a high profile OC job upon his dismissal.

Actually with the new conference this year it only makes the decision to keep Seth for the 2022 season more questionable. That combination of coaches and players those coaches recruited couldn’t win a weaker conference.

At this point with transfer window still open and a new coaching staff I wouldn’t take issue unless we were ranked below Charlotte and Tulsa. Rice is ranked 5th? That is kind of high for Rice imo. These ratings are a shot in the dark especially in a new conference featuring several teams not familiar with each other. 🤷🏽‍♂️

This is unavoidable with a new coach that isn’t a huge big name upgrade from the coach you fired. And even then that coach is likely to bring in quality recruits that cut into the older player’s playing times. I actually expected worse.

That is a question for the moderators.

Baseball doesn’t help either of those things. With minor league Frisco and Rangers within daily commute driving distance the average UNT Alumni that is also baseball fan isn’t bypassing those games to come to a UNT Baseball game. Ideally I would like UNT sponsor all the sports Oklahoma, Michigan and/or UT Austin sponsor. But I don’t believe that is realistic. It is going to take another generation of UNT graduates to distance the university from an apathetic to almost an antagonistic relationship with college sports to one of passionate consistent support. And while our marketing lags it is very hard assignment to grow a market from a neglected stored seed. That is why I am particularly hard on athletic department and head coaching of the football program. We just can’t afford not to be. I don’t think we afford NOT to at least make an attempt to put a package together to hire Deion Sanders. It just seems to me the bigger donors to the program are more concern with having a football head coach they can rub elbows with than winning and projecting the profile of the university forward. That is the main reason a public university of this size with a very limited athletic achievement history continues to play D1 sports. A side effect in the Olympic sports is hopefully attracting academic all-Americans that go on to become leaders outside of sports. You can get an academic all-American in baseball but there are tons of other universities that can offer scholarships as well. Sure they can get creative budget wise and start a baseball program but the payoff (non-monetary) for that effort would be minimal. A UNT baseball team advancing to the Super Regionals and getting swept (a really high achievement) gets 30 seconds on local news.

I subscribed as 55 come on GMG. He should get at least 200 subscribers from our forum. Over 600 viewers of this thread so far. I will continue to refer back to this when people in this board gripe about the general lack of support from local alumni. Subscribing to a YouTube channel is free and takes less than a minute. 🤷🏽‍♂️

You aren’t going to market a non-revenue sport enough to make up for a mismanaged FBS program. You aren’t going to market a FBS team that has never won a New Year’s Six bowl or finished the season in the top 25 in their parent’s lifetimes. The basketball program getting their head coach hired away after a great season is the first time I heard of it happening at major UNT sports program this century. Sure we could start up a baseball. But starting men’s and women’s gymnastics programs is more ambitious. And those programs would conceivably would be able to share new multipurpose facilities that volleyball, basketball need. Only 15 schools sponsor men’s gymnastics and only 62 sponsor women’s gymnastics. More schools sponsor D1 Baseball than FBS Football. Just the sheer number of competitors in Baseball makes the road more difficult to win something significant in NCAA competition. All that said, fix football, continue the momentum (and market it aggressively) in men’s basketball and fix women’s basketball. Then worry about new programs.

Correctomundo. And baseball wouldn’t be filling a gap in DFW area College Baseball with DBU in commuting distance. Gymnastics would be game changer for the school. So if we were to start a new program I would want us to break into market not served in most of the state. A North Texas Gymnastics program could take OU’s place in the Big 12. Even if they don’t go to the Big 12 they could regularly have meets with the biggest brands in the SEC and Big 10. On the flip side look at DBU’s program they are dominate but region hasn’t flocked to their games.

Hardest prediction I have ever made. I would like to think optimistic and have them 1 game over 0.500. But that wouldn’t square with my opinion of Seth as a mediocre coach but not a bad coach. If they get a little more production out of the QB position, accentuate the running back talent they have and a defense that can make critical stops in the second half they can exceed any realistic expectations we have. Right now I can’t give them more than 4 wins. I think that would be the season total over/under wins total for Vegas betting if they posted odds.

Disrespect? They don’t go to the conference championship game if CUSA had not abolished divisions. They got a rematch against UTSA in the championship game because of it, only to get beaten worse in the rematch. You do realize they finished the year below 0.500 against FBS competition? Only players don’t understand that is extremely short of what is good enough would think what I said was “disrespect”. Being 0.500 is not the standard which is why Seth was let go. 🤷🏽‍♂️

I am not concerned because this is the HC’s first year. I trust that if it is close they give the job to the QB with more eligibility left. This is just another reason why letting Seth coach the 2022 season was a waste. Our program just doesn’t have the prestige to keep talented guys on the bench from considering the portal. Someone besides Aune probably should have started most of the year. That 2022 team’s ceiling was low and Aune’s performance wasn’t going to be a force multiplier. That team got lucky to earn a bowl game and probably would have stayed home without a shortage of bowl eligible teams. So if you are going into a season that your best performance throughout the season won’t earn you a bowl appearance, decisions with an eye on subsequent seasons hold a little more value. But position battles have to be really close to consider factors beyond their practice/scrimmage performance at this stage.

I really hate to say this but this is just plain stupid. Our alumni association which I am a member of, isn’t a juggernaut for promotion of our university that is on par with universities with +35k undergraduates. Growing up in Denton I never heard of the UNT’s alumni association. The engagement with the community back then appears to be piss poor in comparison to way they’ve done in the past 20 years. When the alumni association gets in the way of athletic branding and you are D1 program it is tail wagging the dog backwards imo.