xyresic

Exit fees are almost always negotiated. Sometimes it’s more money to leave early, but it could be programs pushing out the term or lowering the dollar amount too. It’s less publicized but it’s not uncommon for new programs to get help on entrance fees as well. Don’t think of them as a firm contract - think of them as a ballpark of what both sides think may be owed

Agree strongly here with your take about timing. I’m a big WB backer, I think he’s done well and I like his management technique with coaches that weren’t “his” hires. He makes sure they have improved resources and gives them a shot to turn things around with better support - if it doesn’t work he moves on. Zero chance SL coaches next season as you noted and we will have folks hopping back on the bandwagon. Your extension info is still not spot on but it was a more complicated deal than I first thought, where some external pieces tilted things a bit. Don’t really want to put them on blast because the school will need them moving forward and at the time the decision looked much better than it does now. If I had one nitpick I’d have him let the track coach garnering all the noise and allegations go - not his hire and doesn’t seem to be particularly successful. I know it his M.O. to make these decisions slowly, but that’s my one question about decision making in the department.

This isn’t a money issue, I know that for a fact. Our AD has told all the major donors he is not a proponent of firing coaches in season. He also said this after Benford was not renewed. He thinks the stats show that nothing is gained by getting an interim coach. So the effort is better spent lining up the next coach and working on conference affiliation. People can clamor all the want but this is going to be what happens.

I saw some parallels to what is happening with the recent AAC poaching, at that time the MWC was going to be losing TCU, SDSU and Boise before things settled down a bit. Once the deal got scrapped and the flood of teams left CUSA it paved the way for us to get into CUSA.

Ha - I got sucked into the internet vortex reading old stuff about the MWC CUSA tie up to make a 18 to 24 team super conference.

He was key to getting Hawaii into the MWC: https://www.staradvertiser.com/2010/11/19/hawaii-news/uh-leaving-wac/

UNT enrollment set a record this year of 42,372 students to become the 4th largest campus in Texas behind UT, A&M and Houston (passing up Tech and UTA). During this period we enrolled 3042 more students an almost 8% growth rate while UTD stayed flat, Houston was flat, UT was up 1.7%, TWU and UTA both actually saw student declines. Great to see students recognizing the greatness of the Mean Green!

I agree here, was really excited to see what he could do with a full season and more touches. Torrey coming back will certainly help and we have to hope another of the newcomers shows out.

I have heard wheels are in motion on three different fronts. With so much in flux this makes sense instead of focusing on just one path. UNT supports CUSA but there is no doubt that every school keeps their options if a better deal is to be had. Obviously things can change in a hurry, but in my opinion 2 of the 3 are clear upgrades. The third option that seems to be a wash or small step up would have some of the east teams exiting while replacing them with better regional fits.

It is true, Mosley is one of the biggest reasons Gmac is here. It is also the reason Benford wasn't instantly let go because Grant was the target right away. Mosley was also the reason ACU hired Golding. That move took awhile to show returns, impressive that ACU stuck with him to let him build things up.

You know Andrew’s research is spot on when he doesn’t even spell the player’s name correctly.

Hodge was a JuCo head coach prior to being an assistant with Colorado State then has been with Mac since that time.

They are from the same coaching tree, probably yes at this point especially since Mills once almost fought Kevin Bacon- ha. I am all for keeping Grant (and a huge fan - I posted years ago that he was a home run hire and took some heat) and giving him a pay bump to stay. If we do lose him I think we can reload. Cooley alluded to it - Grant's defense is great but his style of play will lead to tough teams rather than ones with blue chips and I think to hit the next level of success we might ultimately need to go that route. OU opened up the vault to swipe Kruger from UNLV while the Prez was there so it would be ironic if his retirement caused Grant to get snagged from us. Kruger's son who was an OU assistant was just hired as the new UNLV head coach so maybe he is retiring to assist him there in some way now that he is a first time HC. I think we will be fine either way, just interested to see if anything happens if we roll with Hodge and keep a similar philosophy or if we take a chance and try to take another step up.

I looked it up to get the actual #s @HoustonEagle UNT went from 140th --> 121st for National Public schools in 2020 by US news & world report. For reference in 2015 when the admin changed over we ranked in the 200's. Those rankings aren't perfect but nice recognition of the improvement that we have seen. Starting in 2019 we have also been ranked in their national rankings covering all universities for the first time in our history. Initially at 281st and that number is now 249.

I don’t have it in front of me but they have climbed continually over the past few years. Last years jump was from 140ish to 120 and I believe the biggest one year jump in school history.

Just spotted a cool billboard. Has Hamlet celebrating and says Let’s Dance! Love the quick marketing turnaround. Would have been legendary to have one with Ham’s dad and the iPad 😂

Donations & enrollment at all time highs and a big jump in academic rankings in 2020. Should see some momentum from the tourney as well! Love how the staff has laid the infrastructure to capitalize on success and sustain it.

Always with the concern trolling. Throughout the season you are saying Coach can't develop talent. We get in the tourney and you are saying we will lose bc Coach Mac can't recruit. We win CUSA and you are writing about why our 10th man isn't playing and taking digs at Wise. We make the big dance and you are asking if our guys have Covid. They have been testing guys all the time and the team has its own hotel room floor and is being kept in a "bubble" - why even bring this up?

If I’m In Knoxville I’m not thrilled with that hire.

They 17, is more like the 4 and they didn't buy out coach Mac. Would love to see that number get up to a real 17!

Flipped from Army, nice pickup!

Nailed it. Andrew consistently overrates TB as a recruiter.

Addaway had a higher composite rating in HS than Bentley.

Most of his income streams are more fixed because we don't sell a ton of tickets so the variable pieces didn't really hit us as hard as they might at like a big 10 school with no football. I think he did a good job, but I don't know that these sort of victory lap articles are the best look right now.

Cougar King will like having a UH guy here. This guy has some deep Texas family coaching ties he is the nephew of Gary Joseph the HC at Katy (5 state championships) and was at one point head of the Texas high school coaches assoc.