Mike Jackson

I know it might give them a nasty taste in their mouth but financially it is the best move for all 3 schools.

So LSU goes to the playoff instead of Alabama is a shocker SEC upset we have never seen before. 🙄

This is the truth. NIL money comes from fans of the programs and not the schools directly. It is has never been about bringing the Longhorns, Sooners, or Aggies to Denton. If that is what a fan was hoping for you are about generation late. It was possible when we were with Boise State in the Big West. They made all the right moves since that time and we didn’t. The 2000 Dickey led program should have been moving into a new stadium and indoor practice facility. Apogee was 11 years too late if not more and the indoor practice facility was at least 20 years too late. Dickey or his successor could have been our Gary Patterson with those resources in place. No one knows what will exactly happen. The notion of going D2 it’s kind of silly. You think attendance is bad now, what is it look like a D2? I grew up in this area and partially because I never saw UNT athletically playing against Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, TCU, Houston and etc, I never thought of UNT being on par with them academically. Only after going off to the military and thoroughly researching just because this is home did I realize UNT could fit my needs just as well as those other schools. And to be clear NIL didn’t deal the death blow to program if it is to die. It was a long list of missteps going all the way back to dropping down to FCS and sucking at that level also. It was also on the academic student life side fostering a commuter school culture during that time. Denton for the longest time seemed virtually hostile to the idea of being a college town. Mix that all together and you have a recipe for alumni apathy and disconnection with school. I am good friends with older Alumni that I have known my whole life and have NEVER seen them in UNT gear (sport focused or otherwise). So in conclusion I don’t know what you were trying to achieve but dropping down to D2. Hell let’s go full No Athletic scholarships for sports if you are all about saving money.

The goal is to get more fans. And the 8 wins definitely won’t be the reason fans depart it will the next sub 6 win season that will likely immediately follow it. Seth stuck here for another 3-4 years with a large buyout. You are stuck on this 55th 🙄. It is the conference ranking that matter but you miss that point and are stuck on the national ranking. Whether G5 or P5 your program isn’t winning anything of significance if your recruiting classes consistently rank near the bottom of the conference you are in. Even with a 55th ranking and struggling to get to 0.500 in conference play likely has your team at home unless you have a weak out of conference schedule that you go undefeated in regularly.

Not sure why this section was added. My statement was all about judging Seth’s recruiting classes vs his conference rivals. If you are asserting that 55th nationally while being last in your division is good, I need you explain. And for the better part of his tenure factoring in resources, time to establish the program and salary vs his conference peers he has been a poor investment. I stand by everything I wrote. If other CUSA coaches can get hired AFTER Seth and exceed everything he has accomplished he in a shorter amount of time the bar for 2022 should be high (Divison Championship or Bust). Since you want to draw out this hypothetical I will go there with you. BYU is 55th this year. That only has them ahead of Kansas & KSU in the Big 12 they are joining in 2023. (It also has them behind UCF, Cincy, & Houston who will join after 2023). Guaranteed their leadership are happy about that. The recruiting rank in conference are far more important than national rankings. Your recruiting ranking against teams that won’t be on your schedule while those recruits are still eligible don’t matter. 7 wins can’t be the bar here because most like that just means they are 6-6 against FBS level opponents. If this program isn’t hitting 8 wins 2 out of every 3 seasons without playing 2 bodybag games a season it won’t be sustainable at the FBS level eventually. [That drop down might be inevitable given the way economics of the P5 schools are changing. But keeping a barely above mediocre coach to keep a few diehard coming to games will only accelerate its drop down out FBS.] I still believe we have a ton of potential fans locally waiting to buy into program once we shake that “perennial loser trying to be mediocre” image. You only do that by consistently winning. (8+ wins as long as you are G5 level and don’t have home & home series with regional P5 programs. If we are playing teams like Houston, OSU, Texas Tech, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, KSU Colorado, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and CSU every year and getting them in Apogee every other year hanging around 0.500 is sustainable to build a fan base). Seth has shown us it is going to be exceptionally hard for him to hit that +8 win mark consistently. So you are betting against his history here to retain him.

I really doubt that. If forgoing 1/5 ( more than likely 1/3 if the player is talented enough to think he could get an increase) of your potential NIL by wasting your eligibility sitting out would be super dumb. And it could back fire and basically end your college career and hurt your draft prospects.

The topic was D lineman at UNT. I responded to someone waxing nostalgic about really great DT we had during Dickey’s tenure. My response is to point out North Texas is a very different program today, NCAA rules are drastically different, and our schedules are much harder than they were during that time. I believe Booger got to play a few games in the NFL if I not mistaken. I don’t think any DT on the roster get a NFL camp invite once they out of NCAA eligibility. 🤷🏽‍♂️ So these guys staying here pushing the starters to keep their job might be a good thing.

I remember a well coached defense playing in a weak Sun Belt. That early Dickey run had recruiting advantages over those smaller rural colleges. Booger would probably transfer to a P5 school with the current rules or go to a P5 before stepping foot on Apogee.

Bowls don’t hold the same value as they did 25 years ago. Ohio nor North Texas get a bowl invitation with the season they had if this were 1999. I think it would be technically be a resignation with Seth still getting the buyout for the 2023 season. I doubt they agree to a short term extension with the same base salary that covers the 2025 season. And I doubt he want to coach the last year of his contract without any security and it makes recruiting extremely hard also. That isn’t a good situation for the coaches, players, fans, or school/program. I think true lame duck head coaches (that Aren’t coordinators filling in for a fired head coaches are very rare in college football). Hell the only instance in the pros I can think of that weren’t extended mid lame duck season or fired before the end of the season was Jason Garrett with the Cowboys. In the pros you have a guaranteed allocation of new players through the draft. They have to play for the team that drafted them if they play in the league at all. No recruiting based on your reputation necessary.

I think we are in a College Football economic bubble. Long term I expect the next contracts after this renewal round gold rush & realignment to go down. NIL might be blamed but I think it will be a scapegoat. I am a college football fan, a Mean Green fan, not fan of a particular conference. So the more concentrated the attention is all SEC & Big 10 games that I don’t bother to watch already (unless I get an upset alert with less than 5:00 minutes to go) the less I will watch. I don’t think I am in the minority of fans without ties to an SEC or Big 10 school. I think this will be reflected in the ratings over these new contracts and they will be adjusted accordingly next go round. Not to mention the decline of cable in general. And I am definitely not paying to stream a Big 10, or SEC Network Al La carte like Netflix. And the collective streaming services that mimic cable won’t have the same amount of money to pay these conferences. What do you guys think? Are we entering a bubble with way too much positive speculation on revenue growth for the SEC & Big 10?

It is over for him here. If they bring him back with anything less than a division title or 10 wins a lot of fans on the fence will depart. I don’t think you could risk that going into a new conference. Also I doubt he signs a short term or low buyout extension if he manages a wining record short of the goals I mentioned. The job only gets harder in the AAC. I think leadership is looking at his recruiting class vs future AAC rivals more than the national rankings. At least I hope they are. Who cares if we are 55th in recruiting nationally but 9th in the AAC and last in our divsion of the AAC?

Dropping truth bombs like this is often frowned upon at this establishment. Go back to drinking a vodka & Lime green Kool Aid and back away from the computer and everything will be alright.

I just don’t see 7 wins without major injury luck in our favor. They might get to 5 with enough games left on the schedule to hit 7 but once they get there the door will slam on that possibility very quickly.

Depth beyond a guy that may not start but that is in the rotation and gets a few snaps a game is a luxury most G5 programs don’t have. I far more concerned with the starters and how talented they might be. A good sign would be these departing players get scholarships at other FBS programs. If more than half of them don’t play at this level again it could be a sign of a bad season to come.

Well it appears the tweet was deleted. So no we can’t be sure

I want all the talent available. And this program appears to be talent lacking right now. Players transferring from under an assumed lame duck coach if they don’t win 7 games this year is never a good thing.

I get that a fund we generate would only be able to NIL money whip one barely 4 star player here each recruiting class at best. So competing with the better P5 programs just isn't feasible. Target a QB every 2 years that is borderline out of league. After +40 years thinking small and mismanagement of the athletic department funds; donations to the MGSF is a very hard sell to your average alumni who wants to proudly acknowledge his/her alma mater once in a while.

That was against Texas, a team under normal circumstances we have no shot to beat. And yes defense played well that game but, I am talking about the season as a whole. They weren't playing the likes of Texas every week. You can't cherry pick 1 or 2 games that season and call Offense, Defense or Special Teams great. They had an awful record against weak competition that year and defense averaged giving up 30+ points a game. Texas did not break 40 that game. It was Indiana & UAB that blew the doors off points wise. Indiana was 4-8 and UAB was 6-6. Neither went to a bowl game and UAB shutdown their program for 2015. (This was UAB's first season at 0.500 or better in a decade). The only thing you could legitimately say about that defense is they had the POTENTIAL to be great. Definitely probably adequate enough to get that team to 6-6 with adequate QB play (+200 yards, 20 completions, 60% completion, 5/3 TD to Int ratio). So no squad on that team could be call great. But like I said before this was not meant in anyway as a defense for MiniMac or criticism for Aune/Ruder. They all are the close to same level of bad in comparison to their teamates and opponent of their time periods. Aune might be a little better when compared to his contempories than MiniMac was but not much.

NIL Collectives - The Athletic This article is behind a paywall but it is interesting. The guys on 1310 The Ticket were talking about this. It just made me wonder if we had enough disappointed but still engaged fans/alumni to create a NIL collective of any significance? Maybe to get that one QB that wouldn't ordinarily come here but with a virtual guarante to start here as a true freshman and a NIL deal would reconsider?

That 2014 defense wasn’t great. I like the Mac years except the end. I am dumbfounded by people calling that 2014 defense great. Unless that offense averaging a pick 6 or fumble return for TD each game no way you convince me that call a defense giving up 30+ a game vs a weak schedule “great”. Adequate, coached well and leaned on too much certainly, great absolutely not. Green tinted glasses looking back on 2014 defense. The defense was better than MiniMac and the offense but that isn’t saying much.

Yes, I went through the same countdown. 4,3,2,1 and then zero.

You are correct. If they aren’t go to do everything possible (buyouts be dammed) to get and KEEP things good on the field, that effort needs to go into courting new major donors. There is too much younger money in the DFW area to not get one or two new major donors every time the revenue sports have a great season. Also it seems that reaching out to celebrity alumni is lacking. I loved seeing Kevin Von Erich at the game here fairly recently but the time to do that get the most buzz out of it was 15 to 20 years ago. According to Wikipedia he retired 2017 and the Von Erich family was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2009. Those occasions would have been better to bring him home also.

Let it go. You will feel better. I am not sure he is all that good of and X’s & O’s coach at this point. Botched picking the starting QB and doubled down by not committing to the run game until he was on the verge of getting fired. Stress out next year because it appears Seth’s lame duck status is just what the AD order for 2022. If the AD is as smart as we think he is, he had a short list of potential head coaches with confirmed mutual interest and maybe a hand shake agreement. Any highly touted player Seth brought in this past recruiting period is likely to be gone when Seth is let go anyway.

I think you are just solidifying “what you see is what you get” when it comes to Aune. Reads and timing for him should be virtually instinctive at this stage in his career. Him starting 2022 should not have been a question 2 days into Spring Practice. That isn’t impression I got from practice reports. And even now while he is the favorite to start nothing reported so far indicate that Ruder won’t have a shot of winning the job come fall camp. Aune and Ruder should look awesome in practice now because of all the FBS level practice they have been in.

I didn’t say the defense was bad but you can’t give up +30 point average and call them great. They were decent. June Jones was on his way out anyway. I agree they were on the field too much. But in general that team’s talent level was poor vs competition and the offensive coaching was directionless.