Mike Jackson

He could but that game plan reeked of an OC caught up in his ego as a pass game guru instead of head coach looking at the big picture and the strengths of his roster. Even Seth did that better early on, keeping good TE on his roster and working them into his scheme. Seth probably still threw the ball too much his first season but not like this with a QB that clearly not ready.

Wait till next home game and take an accurate picture. There are clearly some people at UNT that prioritize things over winning and academics surely isn’t one of those things for most.

You’re right I’m close. And I think the one thing that has me out more so than the horrible leadership is the complacency and acceptance of mediocrity. Seeing the crap since they fired Dickey they NO reason to fire Dickey so shortly after him having a heart attack. I don’t count but hurt due to his personality as logical reason. Hell I am not a fan today if Coach Dickey didn’t have the success he did here. Dominating the Sun Belt for those years was an accomplishment given the resources he had. I would have like see if Dickey could brought the program back up with the facilities investments made after he was fired. The facts are that they are never going to get students or anyone else to show up as long it doesn’t even look like they are trying to win big from perspective of casual observers. There are too many other things to do for students and fans in DFW area. Minimally when you spent your entertainment dollar you expect the leadership running the organization to be trying to give you the best experience possible. If they could’ve gotten into AAC with Fouts Field spruced up a little, I know we wouldn’t have DATCU. And the Superpit in its current condition is proof of that imo. So it isn’t the lack of winning is the lack of effort that is beyond frustrating.

When I fully accept that I will find other things on game days. 🤷🏽‍♂️

The last time the players we could recruit here were good enough was when Hayden Fry was here. The consistent top 25 in CFB has been playing semi-pro for over 40 years. You think SMU was one the few paying players in the early 80s and before? Go ask coach Switzer off the record. I will tell any fan of FCS school from 1978 till 2023 that if you aren't interested in "semi-pro" football you don't want your team jumping up to FBS unless you like the 'wholesome fun' of watching a lot of nice loyal guys representing your school getting the snot kicked out them 8 games out of 10. If that is the case, you really aren't doing yourself any favors spending time concerned about UNT football. Because FBS will be a league without UNT participation or leadership will get on board with the new model in a big way. Heck in the old model we weren't going to do anything beyond winning a very weak Sun Belt Conference.

What are you talking about? What we need is a better gameday experience like blending old school music with new school music to keep the crowd engaged. More programs and better North Texas cheer coordination. And as long as we throw the ball down field consistently like we are trying to win in an exciting fashion the fans will show up. Trying to win by hiring an arrogant blow hard with a track record of getting big time recruits and wining at the FCS level is either beneath our dignity as respectable academic/athletic brand or too lofty for us. I lose to track of which one it is. We will get around to winning by hiring Dodge 4.0, Littrell 3.0, or Morris 2.0 take your pick. 😊 Seriously I haven't given up on Morris but I had to go there because I see a pattern. If he is anything but an unquestionable total disaster in under 3 years, I see another Spread Air Raid-ish coordinator coming. 🤪

This kind of undermines your point IMO. Because Bean looks like a more talented player that either lost his job to Aune or didn't like/respond to the coaching under Littrell. He went to Big 12 bottom feeder Kansas not Kansas State. Aune wasn't good, he was just adequate at best for FBS. And the only reason he got an invite to an NFL camp is because he is a pro-athlete with 6 years experience in an actual pro-organization. If he is 23 without the layoff from football with the stats he put up at North Texas, I doubt he gets invited to a camp. The accuracy just isn't there. The revisionist positive history of Coach Littrell is laughable. No bowl wins, no 10 win seasons, and no conference championships. The "best" wins of his career were a fluke win in the rain at home against UTSA and win verses Arkansas who had maybe the worse coach in their history at the helm. Yes, it was Arkansas an SEC team but that Arkansas team was worse than SEC West doormat Vandy. Arkansas beat 1 FBS team that year; homecoming against Tulsa. And no way would a victory over Vandy be viewed as so entertaining. We are in a football winning desert so these little droplets of relief seem bigger than they actually are. It is debatable as to whether he should gotten the first extension (a raise a bonus at the time of the first extension maybe but no extension).

I just wanted to present this to show how I believe a program that really wanted to win would have conducted business last year: On September 24, 2022 the Mean Green led by Seth Littrell lost to the Memphis Tigers 44-34. What the final score doesn't tell you is that during the game the max probability of the Mean Green winning was under 30% for the entire game and hovered around 15% most of the time. This lost capped off September that was 1-3 against FBS competition. Ostensibly, this was with Seth's job on the line for the 2022 season. The Mean Green lost the 3 games by an average of over 26-point margin with the 10-point margin against Memphis being the best performance. Now these are the facts with no embellishment. Now consider what I think any rational fan of UNT Football should have responded favorably to following this loss. Presented in timeline form. September 25, 2022; Seth Littrell is fired with some sort of negotiated buyout announcement/press release. This is after behind the scenes discussions with the remainder of the staff. A discussion between Phil Bennet, Patrick Cobbs and AD is coordinated to discuss the remainder of the season. The interim job is offered to Phil with the caveat that Patrick Cobbs is the coach in waiting if they don't go outside the current staff to replace the Head Coach. This is only out of respect for Bennett and hope that he will mentor Coach Cobbs. Once that is settled a discussion with the team takes place announcing who the interim head coach is and that it is highly likely some of the current coaching staff is retained into the 2023 season. Also, it is strongly suggested that if a head coach is hired from the the outside it would be a HUGE Name that will positively impact the culture and recruiting. September 26, 2022; A press conference scheduled within 8 business days that will detail our strategy for targeting a new head coach September 26 - October 3 Coach Sanders is contacted with 3 key messages/questions. 1. We are UNT, and besides money these are the unique things we can provide Coach Sanders. 2. Here are the things we want to accomplish in years 3, 4, and 5 of your tenure. 3. What do you need from us to lead us where we want go? 4. If we present you with what you need and want out of head coaching job, how long will you need to make a decision. If he doesn't emphatically say no and gives a list of requests that could be met, you put together a budget and figure out the funding you need. Get back to him and say will can do it but we need time to fund raise to get the money, but we need to be able to use your name behind the scenes to get there. Pledge to do everything possible not to have the information get to the media acknowledging that leaks involving Coach Sanders is almost certainly impossible in the DFW area market. October 5 - press conference simply stating we have had deep discussions with the current staff and are exploring opportunities with some the biggest names in coaching. We can't go into specifics but any coach that isn't currently a P5 Head Coach or NFL Head Coach is in the candidate pool. For the right coach we are setting the new precedent for football coaches at UNT. The salary floor for the right coach is 3 million per year, which would be tied for the highest salary for an AAC team not currently scheduled to be out of the conference when we enter it. October 27 Thursday after more than likely a loss to UTSA. You announce that you have hired Patrick Cobbs or state that we have an outside candidate that has duties until the end of the regular season and we will announced at his discretion. With this timeline, you have taken your shot at Coach Sanders and all the other best candidates that might be interested. And by the time you announce officially more people at least have the feeling you tired your best get a Head Coach to change the culture. And not only that you have donors who can confirm that pursuit and the candidates you wanted to increase the budget for. That way people are less skeptical of the current hire even if their resume dictates you only need to pay them around 1.5 million. This also helps you in recruiting because by mid-November at the latest the next Head Coach would want to be announce so he can at least let him name early recruit to North Texas.

Granted, you might be right given Alec Morris did not put up any stats at Alabama because he failed to ever win the job. But given what I saw from the starter our Head Coach coached up and picked, I am not sure what will be able to get out of any QB prospect (with proven success in FBS or not).

I think we no longer can put a lot of stock in that victory given that was a really bad day and season for Arkansas. Chad Morris was in his first season for a tenure and he got fired before finishing his second. Chad Morris most prestigious job since is an "Offensive Analyst" and current has that position at Clemson. That Clemson offense came out last night and scored 7. And you can't downplay how bad the performance was because at best without turning the ball over and hitting FG under 45 yards they score 13 max. As for our team there probably less than 10 guys total on this team from the 2018 season. And of those few none of them were significant contributors at that time, especially on defense. There was talent left here but it isn't on par with that 2018 team at any position except maybe WR & RB. What is particularly concerning to me is how heavily he tried to force the tendencies of his play calling into this opening game strategy. I assume by what I saw yesterday and what others have said before Saturday; Stone Earle isn't a dime throwing pocket passer. If there was any shot of not being blown out by Cal Saturday it was to be balanced. Then you open up more the passing game in following games against FIU and ACU. He did not have to put his offensive stamp on the team so forcefully against a P5 team as an underdog. That is running the team like an Offensive Coordinator tied up in your ego rather than a Head Coach looking at the big picture. They still get beat if they have a more balanced attack. Because they were going to struggle to score more than 24 points and the defense holding Cal under 35 would have been a virtual miracle judging by what we saw.

Man that one stare down interception when the WR stumbled over the DB covering him reminded me of QB’s playing under Coach Mac not named Derick Thompson.

He shouldn't have came back for 2022 nor had a contract paying him beyond 2023. I first guess the 2nd contract extension as wrong. That extension boldly proclaimed leadership is fine with mediocrity. Moreover even estatic. Maybe would if some in our leadership thinks like this guy. ⬇️ That is the perception of a lot people outside our program certainly.

Nice but we had a QB transfer from Alabama and it didn't work out. Wouldn't hurt to try but not nearly as optimistic about transfer from Vandy.

Never should have been brought back for 2022 or had a contract extension making it so financially punitive to get rid of him at the end of 2021 with no hardware in the trophy case.

If 21,000 fans were in that stadium and actually sat down to see more than just one possession, I don't want anyone mad at me for posting a dating profile saying I make almost 6 figures. 🤣

Hey when I was taught rounding in elementary school to the nearest 10, rounding 18.5 to 20 was perfectly acceptable. 🤣

I didn't realize you were one the few that wanted him gone regardless of the outcome of the game against Miami OH, like I did. The second extension wasn't warranted. I am beyond frustrated with Adminstration and big donors appetite for mediocrity. So the comment was aimed at that way more than what you actually said. 🤣

Culture matters and the culture within our program is half ass effort. It took the last 3 years to beat that into me but I have finally accepted it. I think I will try to stay away from football all together after watching the FIU game. My job is going to require weekend travel this season and that maybe fortuitous for me.

In a way I find all this comical given the push back at the mere suggestion that a public campaign to get Coach Sanders would be a complete waste of time according to probably the majority on this board. We don't have that many donors. I would also add that is very likely the few donors that care enough to give to the point of making sacrifices did so they still couldn't provide the NIL funding to bring in the athletes we need and directly the program. I can't afford much more than season tickets and the donation required for a seat between the 30 yardlines. We have needed a coach bigger than the program to bring in excitement and new donors. Because like I said in another comment being conservative and letting Seth mediocre his way through 2022 made no sense to me if you hire a Morris. I would have preferred them just promote Patrick Cobbs, save money and tweak schemes we already had in place. Because we see now that the roster needed to be overturned to have a shot at a bowl this year with a new coaching staff implementing a new system. Besides hiring Coach McCarney, this program hasn't done anything big but build the prerequisite facilities not to be near the bottom of G5 like Coach Dickey dealt with.

Hard to argue against that.

So that coach that underperformed in 2022, he was good and trending postive in 2021 right? 🙄. You know Morris or another new coach could have had a whole year to evaluate the roster during a lame duck year in CUSA?

It isn't hindsight when you people on this board are saying that Seth as lame duck 2022 year was pointless at best or damaging at worst. Nothing really changed yesterday. Because I know you aren't talking about the 1st clock rules. From 2020 till mid season 2022 while Seth was "soaring" here Sanders was at Jackson State. We also could have pitched Sanders before he accepted the Jackson State job. So we don't need mentoring from UTSA we need bravery to make the moves that demonstrate we really want to win. If Sanders comes here instead of Jackson State, would he have recruited drastically worse than what he did at Jackson State? Would Travis Hunter and his son NOT kill in CUSA? ALL HIS COACHING BEFORE JACKSON STATE was in DFW!!! You think Todd Dodge would is still a failure here with NFL HOF players on speed dial that would come to Denton to speak to the team regularly? Hell forget Sanders why can't we get a Lane Kiffin or a Hugh Freeze? The only apperent answer is;. WE DON'T TRY AND THE ADMINISTRATION KNOW WE DON'T EXPECT THEM TO TRY. Otherwise efforts to get guys like them would be publicized and/or we would have closed the deal on one of them.

Seriously, I don’t think we were at the same game. Maybe you are confusing the staduim formerly known at Apogee with TDECU in Houston.

Does anybody care when we are getting embarrassed on the field?