wardly

In the past 35 years the head football coaches job at UNT has been a career killer. What has changed?

Rudy,why would you think this is going to be a quick fix? We have no D1 players on the roster to speak of and we will have a new recruiting staff.Besides, I don't think the head football coach at North Texas is a sought after job, especially since we have fired every football coach hired since 1980.

Does anyone think he will be considered as Mac's replacement on a permanent basis, with the understanding that when it comes to football coaches nothing is permanent at UNT?

So. Miss. was 11&2 in 2011, and won its bowl game. Their coach moved on to greener pastures, his replacement was 0&12 in 2012, and was fired. His replacement won 1 game in 2013, 3 games in 2014, and is 3&3 this year. I would not expect a quick fix from whomever we hire.

This game has the potential to get real ugly real fast, although it would be hard to top yesterday. It was obvious that the kids quit on Coach Mac. It also obvious that his departure was a mercy killing, and that he expected it. We will probably go 0 and 12 , similar to So. Miss.'s collapse of a few seasons ago, and start from scratch. Our next coach will ,in my opinion will, determine the long term future of Eagle football. Will we have a program like UTEP, or one like Houston. Will we be another New Mexico State, or can we be Arkansan State, whom we lost to 10 years in a row. I am 72, and hope to see the answer to this question in my lifetime.Goals and objectives must be reasonable and obtainable, with a little pie in the sky. They must be defined,measurable, with stated time lines. Our question to answer is: Where are we now, where are we going, and how are we going to get there? This is not rocket science. I need a car,I want a Lexus, I can afford a Toyota.How hard can it be?

Are we one of those schools where you can't at consistently win ? I mean, do more than have a winning season once in a blue moon.Akron,FIU,Kansas,HAWAII,UTEP,all the directional Michigan schools, both New Mexico schools,UNLV,Wyoming,Vanderbilt, and quite a few others come to mind. Are we one of those football programs that are bottom feeders, because it sure looks like it.I never thought than in 52 years of following Eagle football that we would be ranked dead ass last in the polls.[128th out of 128].Todd Dodge was over his head as a college head coach, but he recruited enough talent for us to win a bowl game. Since then its been a downward spiral. In golf its called L.O.F.T. [lack of frigging talent], which in my opinion resonates both on and off the field.I really feel sorry for the poor SOB who has to follow in Coach Mac's footsteps. But back to my original question: are we one of those?

Please expand on the "UNT 17". I am familiar with China's "Gang of Five", but not of "UNT 17".

Our situation reminds me of SMU. Their previous coach took them as far as he could, and then it was all downhill. If you check the roster of Coach Mac's 2013 Bowl team I think most of the players were from Dodges tenure, which is probably to be expected. However, he has had 5 years to bring in D-1 quarterbacks and receivers and has failed to do so. The high school players of today want a TCU/ TTech/ Baylor type of offense, and so do I. I think a change needs to be made because of his inability to recruit, pure and simple.

Come on, guys. We always wanted a football program as good as The University of Texas at Austin and now we have one. Give credit where credit is do.

agreed

A camel is a horse designed by a committee.

We have yet to even cover the spread this year, plus look at the few road games we have won in the past 10 years.

Adjacent to "FORD STAR", the new Frisco home of the Dallas Cowboys indoor practice facility and Jerry Jones world headquarters, is a massive construction undertaking. In addition,Liberty Mutual is building regional offices on the S/W corner of DNT and 121. Adjacent to them is a new Federal Express regional building, and west of FX under construction is Toyota's North American headquarters. About one exit further west is the new Nebraska Furniture Mall. We moved out to Frisco in 07'. In 2 years they will open their 10th 5A high school, and have a population of 150,000+. Build out is expected to be in about 10 years with about a 300,000 population cap. I may be off a little on my numbers or whether a company is building a regional or national headquarters, but you get the picture. This is a wealthy, fast developing community and exactly where I would want us to have a satellite campus as part of the University of North Texas System.

Dallas Baptist had a campus in Frisco that they outgrew and moved to Plano. I don't know the number of students at Collin County Community College in Frisco, but there are certainly enough students in this affluent and growing community to support UNT at Frisco. If memory serves, this basically is how UTD began except they were originally a Junior/Senior campus.In fact, I think they have a campus just south of hwy121.

The definition of insanity is repeating the same action expecting a different result. That's it. It's all I got, other than I am tired of decades of loosing. After 54 years of following the EAGLES I have reached the point where I will continue to attend home games, but have given up expecting anything other than an occasional winning season sandwiched between years of humiliating loses.

I expect us to have another loosing season,fire coach Mac, and try again to find "Son of Hayden Fry".

No.Odus Mitchell retired in 1966,replaced by Rod Rust who was fired in 1972. Hayden Fry replaced him, moving to Iowa at the end of 1978. Jerry Moore was here for 2 seasons before leaving for Texas Tech at the end of 1980. Coach Moore got fired a few years later at Tech, but had a great career at 1aa Ap.State.

Since 1980 UNT has fired every head football coach that it hired. Brent Vito says its because it is "hard as hell" to win here.But why? I know I am an old man[72] , but I don't drool, and I still manage to find my way to Denton most football Saturdays. Has loosing become such a self full filling prophecy that we just accept it? However, that is a question for another time. Today I am asking you to stay focused and tell me why it is so hard to win at UNT as I just don't get it.

I promise this is my last post on this subject. In the 54 years I have followed Eagle football we have had 11 head coaches. Three of them either retired or moved on to greener pastures,all before 1981. Since then[34 years] we have fired 7 coaches in a row, with Coach Mac on the "wait list".It's a tough profession, with no apparent fool proof guidelines when choosing someone to head up your football program. Rick is not our only A.D. that has struggled with successfully filling this position.Just saying........

I didn't mean to imply that R.V. record is spotless. However, despite our overall football record, we have been to 5 bowl games during his tenure, something even the great coach Hadyen Fry was unable to accomplish. In addition, we participated in 2 NCAA tournaments. I am only aware of 2 major revenue producing sports, football and men's basketball, as everything else operates in the red. And despite J. Jones winning record, our average home attendance was only about 3,500, which doesn't exactly make us a jumping off point for aspiring young men's basketball coaches. Life is not black or white. It, like my hair, has a lot of gray. However, I certainly respect your opinion, your passion, and the fact that you care!

In today's DMN there is an articled referring to DeLoss Dodds and his history in hiring coaches. Dodds was the best A.,D. that U.T. ever had, and probably one of the greatest in the history of college athletics. No matter how great he was, he is still the A.D. who replaced Fred Akers with David McWilliams, fired him and hired John Mackovic, fired him and hired Mack Brown. I want to say upfront that I think Rick Villarreal is the best A.D. that North Texas has ever had. Before his arrival the only dedicated athletic building constructed since my freshman year of 1961 was the small athletic building in the parking lot across from the Super Pit that Hayden Fry built. Please don't say that the new stadium and other athletic facilities would have been realized anyway. I have been fairly close to the Athletic Department for several decades, and if they could have been built before his arrival, they would have been built. After firing Dickey, Rick took a risk and hired Todd Dodge.It blew up in his face. He then made what appeared to be a good hire, and after 2013 I think we all were drinking the cool aid. It appears now that the cool aid was just water. My point is that while we have every right to criticize his hires that he, like DeLoss Dodds, is looking for our Mack Brown. Ward White, class of 1966.

Bingo meangreenbob! That's exactly what I said to the Olson's sitting next to me.

I am with "meangreenbob" on this one as it pertains to Coach Mac. I have followed our football program since my freshman year of 1961, and this is the most frustrated that I have ever been. I had a successful medical device distributorship for 30 years, and I assure you that if I had missed my sales numbers 4 out of 5 years I would of been selling salve door to door. His inability to successfully recruit has led us to where we are today. The only bright note that came out of our loss to SMU is that we were shown what a young coach with strong Texas high school ties can do in his 1st year.If we don't have a winning season this year then we must make a coaching change. Just an old man's opinion.

Actually the 1AA years were fun in that for the most part we had a competitive program. In addition, there didn't seem to be as much separation between 1A and !AA 30years ago as there is now between North Texas and the Power Five.My disappointment is not when we get hammered by Texas in a money game. Its when in one year SMU beats us with a new coach,a new QB, and a better team. Shame on us.

The fact that McNulty is the pick of the litter defines our staff's inability to recruit. Coach Mac got an extension at the end of a very good season in 13' at a point where most of us thought that the football program had turned the corner. It turns out that we were wrong. I have said it before;I see little if any difference between his offense and Darrell Dickey's. I don't see us improving much over last years record, and normally if you have 4 out of 5 loosing seasons you get fired. Whether or not we can afford to buy him out is probably an issue.