MeanGreenMailbox aka TFLF

We already knew that from yesterday.  Posted it in another thread.  He and Allen were offered within days of each other.  I wondered about that and Colorado State because yesterday morning, no one was listing La Tech or Colorado State as offers.
But, to me, it doesn't matter.  The point is, pulled offer or not, at one time or another, two coaches with very good track records of competing at the G5 level thought he was good enough.

To me, this is a different situation than Raveon Hoston having offers pulled by bigger programs.  Hoston was simply not getting the work done in the classroom; had already been to a JUCO, and that trend wasn't changing with him. 

Here, you've got a prep kid with his grades in order and excellent coaches on his trail.  Allen chose La Tech and that offer went away.  No big deal. 
The point is, Skip Holtz would have taken him or Allen.  You can't argue with what Holtz has done at the G5 level.  Ditto, Colorado State.  If they've got some inkling that another QB is going to commit to them and pulled his offer as a result, it doesn't take away from the fact that they still offered him. 
Colorado State's Mike Bobo is a great coach, and a former QB at a top program, Georgia.  The guy played and coached QBs in the SEC.  If he offers a kid a scholarship before he's played a down his senior year, that says something. 

This is where I am, as an alumni going into my 28th season following the program.  High school coaches have seen the post-1995 UNT football movie over and over again.  Only consistent winning will convince them.

We've tried every other type of coach:
-Coordinator from another school:  Dickey and Littrell
-High school coach:  Dodge
-Former head coach who built a loser into a bowl contender:  McCarney

This has been discussed in the past:  it is the head coach's job to sell the school - to everyone!  Alumni, casual local fans, strangers, supporters...and, yes, high school coaches and their players.

We've talked about how Littrell isn't a rah-rah guy. Okay, well, he still has to sell.  McCarney was a rah-rah guy, and he didn't get enough FBS-types in here. 

At the end of the day, what works is winning consistently.  But because we don't exist in a vacuum, you do have to be realistic when you see what we are getting and realize that it's simply not different than what we got in the past. 
Sadly, it's as though the bowl game gave us zero advantage in recruiting.  None. 

Yes, but here's the point to be made:  there were several schools in the Sun Belt during that span that did not win the conference during the same sapn, right?  So, what do we do?  Pooh-pooh Dickey's accomplishments simply because he didn't win as many OOC games as people would have liked?  Do we laud the coaches who didn't win the Sun Belt during that stretch?
Dickey sometimes had three bodybag games a season.  Three!
If Dickey had not won four Sun Belt titles, would have have made some of you happier? 
The fact is, someone has to win the conference every year, in every conference.  Dickey did it four years in a row.  Name another UNT or NTSU coach who won their conference four years in a row, and/or took their squads to bowls or playoffs (when we were I-AA) four years in a row.
What is the point of belittling Dickey's accomplishment?  Did Dickey negotiate our entry into the Sun Belt Conference?  Was it his fault we were "only" in the Sun Belt? 
In 2001, did Dickey make the NCAA rule that allowed him to take a 5-6 conference winning school to a bowl game?
All he did was coach in the conference the then-athletic director and school leadership had negotiated, and coached under the NCAA rules at the time.
What kind of fantasy land do some of you live in where it's somehow Dickey's fault that he "only" won the Sun Belt and made one bowl "only" because of an NCAA rule?
Pick any other time or era where a North Texas or North Texas State coach did what Dickey did.  You can't because it has only happened with Dickey.
He didn't choose the lousy facilities.  He didn't choose the conference he played in.  He didn't make the NCAA rules.  He simply coached within the scope of each - and did a damn good job of it.  Diet Cokes all around!
This mindset of no good deed goes unpunished/damned if you do, damned if you don't always pops up when Darrell Dickey or Derek Thompson are mentioned.  It's insanity. 
No other North Texas coach put together four consecutive conference titles and post season appearances.  It's that simple.
 
 

Plano event was fun, as usual; but, there didn't seem to be as many people there as in the past.  That was disappointing. 

UNT staff, despite all of the bitching here, was as helpful and friendly as ever.  I always leave these thing wondering how anyone can complain about the people in the athletic department. 

And, yes, I know we've been losing at the big three for quite sometime.  But, I always go back to how clean the program is run, and how many good people work in the athletic department.  
I want us to win as badly as the next alum or fan.  But, would I trade it for the reputation of hiding a child molester like Penn State?  To have players who break women's faces on the roster like Oklahoma?  To be constantly caught up in recruiting violations like virtually every SEC school not named Vanderbilt?
You can say losing comes from the top and blame Rick Villarreal, and that's fine.  I totally understand.  But, the off the field stuff also must come from the top down, then.  You can't argue that this athletic department is embarrassing either the school or its alumni from either a conduct or academic standpoint. 

For the sake of Rick and everyone in the athletic department, I truly hope the "big three" programs can turn it around.  There are many good people in the athletic department who work hard and love North Texas.  Cannot rail against them.
Thank you, again, for the sixth year in a row, for giving my family a fun night at the Coaches' Caravan event.  Amazing to think my kids have now basically grown up going to these things.  Hopefully it is creating a bond, in their minds, to UNT.