Side Show Joe

I don't mind George leaving. I wish him the best, and hope he sends us some good recruits. My problem is the timeing. We got about a month until spring practice. Thats not much time to get a WR coach, and then get him up to speed with this program. If they knew this was going down, I hope they already have our next WR coach, are planning his press conference, and have him brushing up on our team in a film room.

I wish I wouldn't have checked out the site right now. I was just about to go to bed. I'm going to exercise a small measure of restraint, and save my rant until I hear the reasons for why the two are leaving.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that's now two of the three coaches, that were rumored to be getting fired, before RV came out and said otherwise. Coincidence? Also, who was the WR coach at South Florida with Canales? Would he be an option? Maybe we can land a WR coach who has also excelled at coaching special teams? Any ideas?

Thanks for the updates. Now, for the rest of the night, I'll be a Warhawks fan.

I'd like to have a music major dress up in the Scrappy outfit and play "Crazy Train".

Either way, I give ESPN a -1. Writing about the WR battle, and not including Cole makes no sense. Cole was about as high a recruit as Dez Bryant, coming out of high school. And if Cole isn't with the team, then why not state it in the story?

Great effort by the guys. I'll have to turn on the news and see if they report it.

I don't think so. Oklahoma, Nebraska, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State would still be left to carry the confereence. I do think they would want to have 12 teams, so they could keep the championship game.

I caught that report too. It was nice to hear some good coverage of the basketball program. We should email the station and let them know we're watching. Maybe they will increase their news coverage of our sports. My link Hope the link works.

After a little research, I found out that Colorado's Denver media market is the largest T.V. market in the big 12. It's the number 18 market in the country. Missouri's Kansas City market comes in second at around 38. Losing Colorado would really hurt the Big 12 when it comes to signing a new T.V. deal. From what I hear, their current deal isn't so great, compared to other BCS deals. If Colorado heads to the PAC 10, the T.V. markets of the remaining Big 12 would not be strong enough to negotiate a deal on the same level with the other BCS conferences. When I first heard the rumors of Texas and the Big 10, I thought it impossible, but now I just don't know. I can't imagine Texas not playing Oklahoma and A&M every year. Then again I remember thinking Texas and Arkansas would always play too. How does all this effect North Texas? North Texas, like TCU, and SMU, play in the country's 5th largest market. We have the advantage of being a very large public school, while they have a large edge in academics, and are currently more successful on the field. On the good side, if Colorado, Texas, and A&M all exit the Big 12 (Texas will probably be forced to take A&M with them), our size and status as a public university should be a greater desire to the Big 12. The Big 12 has Baylor, and I don't think they don't want anymore private schools. Houston sits in the number 10 T.V. market, and I believe are also a tier 4 school like North Texas. UTEP could also be an option, but I didn't look at the size of their T.V. market. Should the Big 12 be forced to fill openings in the conference, I think the most important characteristics the conference will be looking for are, Large T.V. markets, so they can negotiate for a more lucrative deal like other BCS conferences have, finding schools that are also large public universities, because that is the preferred makeup of the conference, and finding schools within the conferences footprint. They could look outside the footprint, and try to raid another BCS conference, but the PAC 10, Big 10, and SEC all have better T.V. deals then the Big 12, so those schools will probably not want to move. Any objections?

I can't see TCU every getting into the Big 12. They got Baylor, and I bet they won't add another private school. I can't see them stealing a team from the SEC or Big 10, especially with them in the middle of expansion. What large public FBS schools with large media markets are left in the Big 12's region? Houston and North Texas. Houston would join the South, and Texas Tech would move to the North. Lets hope the Big 10 steals Missouri, and we can raise our academics a bit mlore.

I agree. Of all the recruits we signed yesterday, I think Olen should have the biggest impact on the scoreboard. His ability to kickoff should help with field position. I believe the out of bounds kickoffs will be a thing of the past. I'm most excited about what he can bring to the program next season.

I'll be there. I like having the signing day event at the Pourhouse. It was nice at the Athletic Center, but the room at the Pourhouse, plus the food and drink really make it a great activity.

I was having a good weekend until I read this. Maybe we can make a late run at him? Send Canales, push the new stadium, road games in Florida, our record against wku, and open QB competition?

Thank you for catching my error. I ment to typr FBS, for Football Bowl Subdivision.

This is great. At the end of the season, many on this board, including me, had our pitchforks out, and were calling for change. I feel this hire is not only great for the future success of our team, but has also brought this board back together again. Thank you Dodge, and thank you Villareal. I truely believe that this type of planning and hiring will lead to a stronger football program then we have every had at UNT. Maybe I'm jumpin' the gun but I feel so good about this hire and the long term success of our program, that even if we don't see 6 wins next year, and we are staying competitive in our games, I'd be for staying the course with Dodge. His understanding of the dinamics of this hire, and willingness to hand over the offense, really makes me believe he will be a good BSC head coach. I really respect him for stepping aside. It couldn't have been easy to do. When he was first hired, I hoped he would be the Joe Paterno of North Texas. This hire makes me feel like it could still happen.

I honestly thought the kid would think it through and stick with us, if a major program didn't offer. El Paso is the arm pit of Texas. I feel bad for anyone who has to live there. Hall could have stayed close to home, where his family could have watched him play. I guess our new stadium isn't far enough along to help sell our program to recruits. If we were winning would Hall still be headed to UTEP? With our loses mounting, does Dodge still have enough recruiting magic to replace Hall with a QB of equal caliber?

I never thought I'd live to say this, but "thank you people of Massachusetts!" I'm not a huge fan of Brown, (not far enough on the right for me) but he is as good as we can get out of that state. Obama will celebrate one year in office tomorrow, and if the Dems read the writing on the wall, and jump ship off the president's agenda, Obama will be a "Lame Duck" with three years left in his term. I think the Republicans need to use this as a blueprint for routing the dems in November. The GOP must clean out the old guard in Washington and run fresh principled candidates. I don't think America will be happy if it looks at the candidates and sees the same old wrinkled stiffs. I think they want candidates that are hopefully less corrupted then the jokers in Washington right now.

Steve Axman called a great game for Idaho in their bowl victory over Bowling Green. I thought it was the best game of the bowl season. Idaho's offense had to come from behind to win that game. i'd like to have an offense that can do that. Like I said in another post, Axman's offense ranked 20th in the country in scoring offense, and 9th in total offense, and is similar to ours. He has experince coaching in the PAC 10 and the ACC, and I think we can afford him.

If Dodge chooses to serve as the OC next season, then I truely believe he will not win enough games to save his job, and I won't feel sorry for him. He will surely have a tough sell to bring in a quality OC. He's going to need Villareal, DeLoach, Peterson, and the others to step up and help him sell our OC job. I don't know how much Villareal is willing to spend on the next OC, but I think he will end up paying a larger amount then any of us would predict. He brought Dodge here. He wants him to succed as much as we do, but if he doesn't, it won't be because of a lack of support from the AD. That can only help when trying to sell this program to a new coach. That and the extra funds generated from the stadium fee. If Dodge busts his rump trying to land a OC, and no one is willing to take it, then he'd be forced to act as the OC. If that happens, I'd really feel sorry for the man.

I totally agree with you. Axman might get us 7-5, but I can't think of another OC that we can afford that can do it. When I wrote 5-7, I ment that on the low end.

I think we need to hire from outside our program. My first choice would be Steve Axman, the OC from Idaho. He has experience in the PAC 10, and ACC. Last season Idaho finished 20th in scoring offense and 9th in total offense. We were 63rd and 36th. The highest paid assistant at Idaho made $125,000 last year. I don't know what Ford made last year, but I don't think it was that much. We'd have to offer more, probably around $135,000 or better to get him here. His system is not that much different then Dodge's. With him, I think we could easily go 5-7, if Dodge let him run the offense.

We all know we're down right now, and we all have our opinions on how to get back on track, but I'd like to know about the better times. North Texas has been playing football since 1913, and we had some good years in there. What were our best seasons? What were we doing that made those seasons so sucessful?

I'm not saying we should or should not try this approach. I think we can all agree that our record over the last few seasons place us near the bottom of the football food chain. My point was that we will not be as dependent on the revenue from bodybag games, with our new stadium fee kicking in soon, and these weaker teams would offer us a better chance at both picking up early season wins, getting more home and home series, and becoming bowl eligable. All of these things would help sellour program to recruits, and improve the overall quality of the program. I think next season our non-conference schedule is Clemson, Kansas State (at Fouts, I still can't believe that's happening), Army, and Rice (also I think is at Fouts). I think its great that K State and Rice are coming to town. This quality of home game should continue with our smu series. Maybe somewhere in the middle is the answer. Schedule 1 middle of the pack SEC, Big 12, or Pac 10 team every season, play smu, and then try to pick 2 from, San Jose St., New Mexico St., E. Michigan, Tulane, and Toledo. It seems like every other year the team we play a bodybag game for ends up playing for the national championship. We are like good luck charms for Big 12 and SEC teams. If we don't have to take these games for finacial purposes, then we should demand home and home, or just walk away.

Now that we have a true second bowl tie, should we stop scheduling nonconference bodybag games, and start looking for creampuffs? Or teams that most other programs would consider creampuffs. 4 easy nonconference wins would make it easier. If the GMAC Bowl is looking for the second best record, .500 in the Belt and 4 easy wins in nonconference should put us at 8-4. Of course, first we have to improve to the level of an average Sun Belt team.