Monkeypox

Since I came to the school in '94, but I don't see what that has to do with DeLoach doing no better than a 1st year coach straight out of high school in WAY over his head, a guy for whom there was "NO EXCUSE" based on sheer statistical stinkyness of the team. Now, all of the sudden, because he's DeLoach, there are excuses coming out of the woodwork. DeLoach ain't Bobby Flay. DeLoach is a guy who gave you a few great meals some years ago, and who just today served you a cold, greasy crap sandwich. You want to eat it up, fine. I'm not saying fire the guy. I'm saying he's coached a couple of years of great defense, and now he's got one of the worst ever on his resume. That's far from Dick Lebeau. Heck, it's not even Gary Gibbs. I believe DeLoach CAN turn it around, but I'm not about to give the guy a pass for the atrocity that was our defense this year, NOR am I going to listen to any excuses drummed up by people who "know things." And I also believe he CAN fail at turning it around, because the sample size of his GREAT defenses is not significantly larger than his sample size of bad ones.

I think the jury is still out after presiding over that atrocious defense.

If anything, I was saying I DON'T want the past to be the standard. That is a past that involved a coach's shuffle and helped facilitate the ideas to the general public that 1) you can't win here and 2) even if you could, you won't be given long enough and 3) the program has NO idea what it's doing. All I did was point out that coaches are NOT going to be eager to turn this thing around if they see they won't be given a chance to. Even a confident and competitive coach could feel like the situation here demands more than a couple of years, and there's little guarantee they'll get it. What you're saying is the equivalent of "HEY, the top athletes in the nation should come here because it's more of a challenge, and by choosing to be a backup at USC or UT or UAB they're just showing that they're not competitors!" Bottom line is they have career goals. Dodge is obviously in over his head and something needs to be done. We can certainly turn it around, and we can certainly get a quality coach, but WHOEVER IT IS will be a gamble, and then in two years people will be right back on here moaning about how we didn't hire Urban Meyer when we had the chance and instead we went with an assistant coach from a big school. All I'm saying is be careful what you wish for, and point out potential negatives of constantly shuffling coaches, and I get "WHY DO YOU HATE NORTH TEXAS?!"

You can certainly aspire to that, but many inexperienced head coaches (assistants at big programs like Peveto) will look at our school and say "man, that's a pretty cruddy situation to step into, especially if i'm not even going to be given any time to install my system or experience growing pains, get paid a ridiculous sum, or be coaching in a premier conference." Now, that is not to say that the desire to rid ourselves of our current albatross is unwarranted, you simply have to accept that it's not all gonna be rainbows and candycanes. We're a freaking embarrassment and it's been an abject failure. But don't think that setting up a coahing carousel is any way to gain consistency and success, should we do what everyone wants, fire our current HC and install some random assistant coach just as likely to fail. And I disagree that the message is always to WIN IMMEDIATELY, bc sometimes people are aware that it's going to take a significant housecleaning before stability and consistent success can be achieved. It's not like coaches come in and don't want or expect to win games. Everyone involved is a competitor or they wouldn't be doing it. I'm just saying you HAVE to expect it to turn some coaches off if you don't seem willing to give them more than a couple of years. At some point the "it's a bad situation to try and coach in" becomes legitimate NOT because it's real, but because it's an easy perception to make given the last bit of forever here. A coaching carousel will only reinforce that. Improvement isn't the same as success, and unlike the NFL, we don't get a draft. The constant harping of "the rich get richer" is pretty loud around these parts, and we aren't the rich. That inexperienced head coach is gonna look around and see the Schnellies and Blakeneys and the likes and think "okay, I have two years to take the absolute worst football team in Div 1A and win before I'm shown the door." And that guy knows if he DOES fail here, it's a quick trip to nowheresville. It was a problem with our school before Dickey, and it will be a problem after Dodge if we continue to shuffle through coaches.

Peveto (whom many LSU fans want fired anyway) was once a successful DC at Northwestern State (as well as other schools in the same conference like SFA) and currently recruits the area, so he's naturally a candidate, covering his bases also in case Miles gets the boot or there's shakeups in the staff. This is far from us pulling a successful assistant out of a successful program somewhere else in the country. I agree on the premise, that a good assistant coach would come here to be our HC (pay raise is important, IMO), but it's not so simple as to point out one guy as an example. A VALID argument of opposition is that if you go about firing a new HC after two years (deserved though it may be), then the message to a new coach is WIN IMMEDIATELY. And a guy going to his first HC gig might look at us as a current bottom-feeder in college football in every place where it matters and wonder why he the hell he would consider our school and let himself be put in a position to fail. And that is exactly what you do when you invite an assistant in here. Who qualifies to our school the way Peveto does to Northwestern State? Kenny Evans, who's 1-11 at Northeastern State (Okla)? Bruce Chambers, TE Coach making $175k at UT? Peveto hasn't taken the job yet, anyway. And is he the caliber you're considering to turn this around? I mean, we have had some Div 1A assistant coaches at various positions in our own coaching staff, and their performance has been pretty questionable, so it's not like they're not gambles in their own right. The two most important things for a HC in my opinion? Putting together a staff and recruiting. You do those things, you win. You struggle doing either of those things, you fail.

still no point. nobody's forcing schools to participate in it. there are options to the BCS. this is simply about the trillionth thing they need to be worrying about.

But they do have a JOB, and it's not fiddling around with a how a meaningless game decides it's champion.

No, it doesn't NEED fixing. People NEED to eat. Our money NEEDS to count for something. We NEED healthcare. Addressing the state of college football isn't anywhere close to a NEED.

Is it TOO MUCH to ask? No. Is it unrealistic? Yes.

Yeah, I kinda thought that was the best way to put it. Maybe Vito is learning.

I'm just glad Congress is finally focusing on the real problems in this country.

Utah should not be in the National Title conversation. They play powderpuffs compared to the other teams. I wasn't making a suggestion for playoffs. I was telling you why playoffs fail to give you who the best team is, and that most of this whining comes from teams that have no business discussing a national championship bc they simply do NOT play against tough teams, and, if they did, would get their monkey asses handed to them. Do YOU think Utah or TCU or Boise State could come up with 4 out of 5 wins on a consistent basis vs. Oklahoma, Texas, Tech, Missouri, OSU? Well, if you wanna get a shot at a National Title, this is the kinda thing a team in the Big 12 has to do. They have to go into stadiums that pack 3 and 4 times what ours do and WIN, week-in, week-out. I'm just telling you what most of the country already thinks. They don't WANT to see Utah get their asses handed to them by a big team 90% of the time for the 10% of the time that they'll make a game of it. That's why every year they rank the games and shitty matchups are lambasted. There wasn't a whole lot of that Hawaii talk after they got their business handled by Georgia last year. And that's what happens. And to all the talk that it's about money... OF COURSE IT IS! Football is a business. That's why you buy tickets, concessions, etc. It's a revenue sport. And BOWLS exist, TELEVISION COVERAGE exists, media coverage exists NOT to support college athletics, but to make money. And a LOT more people will watch the big name teams matchup than they will the big underdog matchups.

The college basketball system rewards teams that get in against inferior competition and get hot at the right time. Well, it's a lot easier to get hot when you haven't had to get up for EVERY game like you would if you were in a power conference. At least in the NBA, you have to win a series. Now, college basketball is quite a different animal than football, since putting together a successful basketball team is much cheaper and easier and the distribution of power isn't as skewed. I know, I know, everyone loves a Cinderella, but if they had to play the top teams all season long or had to win in a series, 90% of them wouldn't be there.

And there's no way we SHOULD get a chance to play for a National Championship with the quality of opponents we have, even if we went undefeated for two years. Sure, it's unfair bc there's really no way to rectify the situation given conference structures, but the yearly complaining about the BCS is getting old. Sorry, we play in the Sun Belt. We have 2 or 3 games every year against top competition, and, EVEN if we went in there and won, it wouldn't be as worthy as the teams who have to do it all season long.

Yep. You absolutely HAVE to have a beast NT to run a 3-4 well. And you'd better have a line of them. And now your DEs have to be as large as strong as the DTs in your 4-3 defense. We've probably had one guy TRULY capable of playing that NT position like you need it for us to win consistently at the LOS since I've been following North Texas football (1994).

Auburn Fan 1: I hear they're looking at Todd Dodge. Auburn Fan 2: Todd who? Auburn Fan 1: Dodge. I think he's the coach at North Texas State Teacher's College or something. Auburn Fan 2: They have a football team? Auburn Fan 1: Apparently. Auburn Fan 2: Is he good or something? Auburn Fan 1: He's won 3 games in two years. Auburn Fan 2: How many do they play in the Directional Commuter Teacher's College Division? Auburn Fan 1: The same I think. Auburn Fan 2: Oh... well, that's a stupid idea then.

So because he did it before, he's not responsible for current performance? So now he doesn't have to coach another down of football? I believe in DeLoach, but I don't think you reward a guy for skins on the wall when his most recent experience is leading the worst defense in the history of forever. Now, on the other hand, the downside of all this is that now Dodge and DeLoach are relatively inexorably linked. For those clamoring for a new coach, keep in mind your boy DeLoach would likely be gone with the bathwater (unless, of course, he WERE said new HC). I don't know, but I think to an objective outsider the move of DeLoach to assistant HC after the defensive year we just had would be, if they even heard about it, just another reason to view this program as laughably, absurdly inept.

The elephant in the room being that you get rid of Dodge, do you believe that a new guy with no ties to NT and no history with DeLoach will keep him? Staffs are generally purged with new HCs, so with Dodge's exit, I believe DeLoach will be out. Not because he SHOULD be or because I want him to. That's just what happens.

They've got plenty of time since Troy refuses to run the ball.

well, that was some dumb playcalling in the 2nd half.

Troy needs to mount a drive.

We'll see if Troy can keep their offense up. LSU scored with little difficulty, 31-10. Game isn't over. C'mon, Troy!

The SMU-UNT rivalry is something that only exists in the mind of a few people on this board. They've worked hard over the years to create one with baiting and board-hopping, but for the most part, no one on either campus really gives a crap about the other. SMU's rival is TCU. We, sadly, don't have a true rival. I honestly think it's sad how people keep trying to MAKE this a rivalry.

If that defense was THAT experienced and talented, a new coach wouldn't come in and be able to turn them into garbage in a year. We have had very few, if any, NFL prospects on this team in a while, particular on defense. I heard a lot of "no excuses" last year. I don't consider letting Troy's 2nd string QB complete passes at will with little pressure or coverage to be a vast improvement. What, we now let people coast to 40 points now instead of roll up 60-70? I have no personal desire to see DeLoach quit. I am of the belief that he is a decent, if overrated in these parts, DC. BUT, if I had a job and was not allowed to do it in a manner to achieve success, and MY professional reputation was hinged on its performance, then I would have an ultimatum for my employers and, barring any changes, they would be seeing my resignation. I think something of that nature, while damaging to our program in the short-term, would FOR SURE spell it out for followers of the program where the issues lie. The reason for my questioning is that there was a very large contingency who would accept no excuses for last year's defensive performance, based on its complete futility. This year's defense is just as futile, and everyone comes out of the woodwork with statements of support. This defense is nothing to be pleased about.

He's had a lot of trouble making plays this year. He's had a big problem with pursuit angles and missed tackles. That's from watching the games. I like the kid, too, but I've been disappointed in his play thus far.