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We should probably start this thread now. I don't know how long he will make it past the football hire...

Tony Benford was Rick Villarreal's hire (No matter how much anyone will later try and tell you differently). It was extremely clear very early to anyone that has ever played basketball at any level that Benford was EXTREMELY out of his depth. Many of us called for a firing after the 1st year because it was evident that Benford couldn't coach. Rick Villarreal defended Benford. Again and again and again, always pointing to the next year as the year Benford would turn this around. And here we sit. Year one was 12-20. Year four was 12-20. That is the definition of zero improvement. None. Nada. Zip. This program was pulling in 4K a night the year before Benford. Now we inflate attendance numbers and can't even get to half that amount. This program was poised to become a highly respected mid-major with the talent on hand to do so. Rick Villarreal had promised fans no more inexperienced head coaches. A team loaded with talent that begged for an experienced college head coach was instead handed an experiment. A guy who had interviewed about 20 times for a head coaching job with zero success. For these reasons alone Rick Villarreal should be fired. Throw on top of it all the other terrible hires, the compulsive lying, and the long term losing in football, and any other FBS program would have fired him last fall. But not at UNT. Benford has 3 losing seasons, two 20 loss seasons, and one .500 season. He has had plenty of time and has shown zero improvement. Both should be fired, not because I "hate them," but because they haven't done their job. If they aren't, every single donor should walk away from this program and withhold money until that happens. I know this is an impossibility, but that is what logic would dictate. Sadly, being a sports fan has very little logic involved.

When UNT losses one more game, the men's basketball program will be guaranteed of another losing season. Does Benford get fired or extended? It seems like an outrageous question, but we are UNT and Rivk Villarreal is still AD. It should come the day after the end of the season. Will it?

@Brett Vito now is the time for the question "What is the future status of Tony Benford?" to be asked to Rick Villarreal. His answer, or refusal to answer, will tell us a lot.

So say UNT retains or even extends a disaster of a head coach. What is your response? Will you keep giving at the current level? Will you renew basketball season tickets? Will you walk away? Will you protest naked in front of the athletic department? Or will you do what UNT fans have done for decades: just lay down and take it?

Saw on the news this morning that UNT is posting signs around campus for how people can receive mental health help. A reliable source has told me the first batch of these signs will be posted in and around Apogee and the Superpit. The same source has told me none of these signs will be posted in the suite level of Apogee due to every mental health professional in Denton County agreeing that those folks were beyond any help and clinically insane as defined by Einstein. As you can see, the first one was posted at Apogee: http://www.fox4news.com/news/97077061-story

Let's start with ODU: 2016: Hampton, UMass 2017: UNC, Open 2018: VMI, Virginia Tech 2019: Buffalo, East Carolina 2020: Wake Forest (1 and 1), Virginia (1 and 1 plus whore game) 2021: open 2022: Va. Tech (2 and 2), open 2023: open 2024: Va. Tech, open Now La. Tech: 2016: S. Carolina St. 2017: Miss. St., Northwestern (La.) St., S. Alabama 2018: Bowling Green (3 road games) 2019: UMass, open 2020: Open 2021: Baylor (2 for 1) Now UTEP: 2016: New Mexico, Army, Houston Baptist 2017: Arizona (3 road games) 2018: open 2019: open 2020: Texas Tech (1 and 1) 2021: open 2022: Boise St. (1 and 1) Now UTSA: 2016: Arizona St., Alabama St. 2017: Southern, open 2018: Baylor (2 for 1), Texas St. 2019: open 2020: open 2021: Texas St., Memphis (1 and 1). Now Rice: 2016: Baylor (1 abd 1?), Prairie View A&M 2017: Army, Stanford (1 and 1) 2018: Houston, (3 road games) 2019: Wake Forest, UT at NRG, Baylor listed as TBD 2020: Army 2024: Boise St (1 and 1) 2025: Northwestern (1 and 1) Now Southern Miss: 2016: Savannah St, Troy 2017: Kentucky (1 and 1), open 2018; Troy, open 2019: Navy, open 2020: S. Alabama, open And a TBA date for a 1 and 1 with BYU Now UAB: 2017: Costal Carolina No future years scheduled Now FAU: 2016: S. Illinois, Ball St. 2017: Navy, Butt Cookman 2018: Butt Cookman, open 2019: UCF, Central Michigan 2020: USF Now FIU: 2016: Indiana (2 for 2), Maryland (?), UCF 2017: open 2018: Indiana, UMass 2019: UMass, Miami (site TBD) Now Charolette: 2016: E. Michigan, Elon 2017: Ga. St., North Carolina A&T 2018: Fordam, Appy St. 2019: UMass, open 2020: Georgia St, open 2021: open, Duke (1 and 1) 2022: open, Maryland (1 and 1) 2023: open, Ga. St. 2024: open 2025: open, North Carolina (1 and 1) Now Western Kentucky 2016: Vanderbuilt (2 and 2), Houston Baptist 2017: Ball St, E. Kentucky 2018-2020: open 2021: Army, Indiana (2 for 1) Now Marshall: 2016: Akron, Morgan St., Louisville (?) 2017: Miami OH, Kent St. 2018: open, NC St. (1 and 1) 2019: Ohio, Cincy (1 and 1) 2020: Pitt (1 abd 1), Boise St. (1 and 1) 2021: E. Carolina, open 2022: Navy, Appy St. Now Middle TN St: 2016: Alabama A&M, 3 away games 2017: Bowling Green, Vanderbuilt (2 and 2) 2018: open 2019: open, Duke (1 and 1) 2020: open 2021: open 2022: open, Missouri (1 and 1) So UNT joins a just stating back UAB and FAU as THE ONLY CONFERENCE TEAMS WITHOUT A HOME GAME WITH A P5 in future schedule. But, of course, FAU did host the U of Miami in 2015... THE WORST THING THIS AD DOES. HANDS DOWN!

Received a letter in the mail from the athletic department: Silver (cheapest) club seats: $300 MGC donation per seat. mid level club seats: $400 MGC donation per seat top level: $500 MGC donation per seat. This is a $50 per seat bump in Mean Green Club donation level for the silver level seat holders. I don't know what the bump is, if any, to the mid and top level holders. i also don't know if the per seat thing is new. I only have 2 seats, so it doesn't affect me that much. If someone does know, please post. I still think the smart thing to do would have been not to raise prices at all, but this bump may allow me to keep the seats for one more year in the hopes that Littrell is the real deal and RV decides to finally leave UNT.

3 more losses and a winning season becomes impossible. How much time is left on the Benford clock? Will RV show us all how much he is AD for life and extend Benford out of foolish pride? Or is Benford gone before the end of February? I seriously think RV extends Benford for 2 years, citing "next year" as the reason. Weeks, if not days, until we find out.

So, it's been about 3 months now and no transcript or audio posting of this interview. And Sidway has been consistently scooping Vito... Will we ever see this 2 hour interview transcribed? Has there been a backroom deal to quash another embarrassing, lie filled RV moment? Or is Sidway just way, way, way overworked? If any of you know him, see if you can get an answer. I haven't been able to get an answer from him through social media...

So, I finally listen to the RV interview in the podcast. So many issues, but this is the one I'd like to address currently. What the F is up with the club seats? Because RV didn't make anything clear in that interview. First, if RV is thinking about raising the price of the MGC donation after a 1-11, 5 home game season to which RV shares a huge portion of the blame, he should be fired on the spot. Talk about driving people away. But not only does he talk about raising the MGC donation level, he talks about giving people 5 years to pay it off! WTF is that about? That sounds like a one time bump of a SIGNIFICANT amount. Like to $5000 level. This is probably just RV again F'n something else up, but as a club seat holder, when are the planning on telling me about this increase? He also promised things being explained in person to every club seat holder. I'd bet the farm THAT never happens and just becomes something else the RV said because it sounded good at the time. I'll be waiting for that call. If anyone can explain what the hell is going on with club seats, please post here, because RV sure as hell didn't in that interview.

Could have done wit that 2012 team... RV'd

I have it on ROCK SOLID authority that a support banner for RV, probably paid for by RV himself, will fly very soon. My guess would be the day the coaching hire is announced. I can easily find out the date and time. The question is do we want to do anything about it or let him have his banner day? We could always fly an opposing banner at the same time. It is pretty clear that the billboard will not make it, and I will be refunding that money soon. As always, the response to this post will determine what is done. If we are going to do something, it will need to be done quickly...

Take a good look around that empty Superpit this week? Remember 4 years ago when over 4K a night came to watch the best recruiting class in UNT history? Now it's just you and 1500 others and heading down. But, hey, you have your super secret mean green room so you don't have to encounter anyone of an unlike mind, so there is that. Will 2-8 finally be enough? To get something done that should have happened 3 years ago? I doubt it...

Wow...

It's nice that we provided a complete side of the stadium for the UTEP fans...

It would be interesting to see how that compares to Helwig's last year at UNT. Why so low? Losing is only one part. We lost throughout the Dodge years and still averaged 17k a year. Here are other factors. Season tickets: One reason is the failure of the AD to increase season ticket sales. Probably cut into dinner time with the big donors. But seriously, these tickets get counted even when buts aren't in seats. That's why last night's attendance was announced at 8k when it was really no more than 2500. Failure to increase this base is a main reason for the fall in attendance. The season ticket base actually declined for 2015, probably because of... A shit scheduling effort: This was the year I warned you about for the last 3 years. All I got was a bunch of "trust RV" bullshit from the usual crowd. What we got was the worst schedule in FBS. No game on opening day, no bye week, homecoming scheduled on Texas-OU gameday against a FCS (that beat us by 59 points), a 6pm start on Halloween, and a thanksgiving weekend home game to close out a pitiful effort in putting together a home schedule. Add in 2 whore road games, and you have a recipe for disaster. I literally could have tacked a schedule to the wall and thrown my own feces at it and come up with something better. No doubt this was a bad football team, but the schedule did it no favors. At all. Another lost generation of students: They didn't come back after the Portland St game, and I doubt they come back next year. The cost of that game will last for several years (absent a wildly successful winning season, which I think we all agree is nowhere on the horizon, even if Nick Saban was name coach on Monday). It will also have effects with alumni season ticket holders, many of whom will become former season ticket holders next year. The refusal to completely clean house after Portland St: Leaving Rick Villarreal in place will further drive away season ticket holders, as they are tired of zero accountability for the Hattiesburg Hustler. It drove me from trying to get anyone to go to games this year, and will next year if I even go to a game. I'm sure it drove others to the same behavior (even UNT90grad posted about this, and no one would ever accuse him of being a negative Nancy). Dont expect a full rebound in attendance next year. There will be a substantial drop in season ticket sales. Will any big donor or the UNT administration care? Probably not...

A high of 49 degrees with a 60% chance of rain. Long way off, but if this forecast pans out, there may be less than 1k in attendance. Thanks RV.

Willie Fritz's team leads most of the second half before Georgia ties it late and wins in OT. I really hope we have at least asked this guy if he is interested, but with RV's propensity for the reactive hire, I bet we haven't. This guy wins everywhere he coaches. Ga. Southern is a second year FBS program that Fritz had poised for a huge win. Between the hedges. On senior day. Ga. Southern will be favored over S. Alabama and Georgia St. in their final 2 games and will most likely win 9 games this year. As a second year FCS program. Have we approached Willie Fritz?

https://www.gofundme.com/kf9xrrn8 We just got our doors blown off, again, by a conference foe who scored 31 by halftime and lost interest after that. A former Sun Belt member. Freaking MTSU. If we are going to do this, we need to step it up. If we aren't close by a week after thanksgiving, this just won't happen. Up to you, Mean Green fans.

As I watch the highlights of the Tennessee game on the SEC network and ESPN, the comments by the announcers tell you everything you need to know about where this program stands right now. They talk about us like we are a FCS team, or worse. That is the perception of this program. That is "the brand" at this point.

He said he was going to, but then it never happened. Hmmmmmm.

https://www.gofundme.com/kf9xrrn8 Here is the link to the billboard account. It isn't cheap, and I'll let donations dictate whether we do this or not, just like the banner. Small contributions are extremely welcome. The more contributors, the less the "minute few" claim can be made.

Its a good time to review the 2015 schedule, it's affect on losing, and it's overall affect on the future of Mean Green Football. I have long pointed to this particular year as a year that there would be 5 home games. This was due to the Iowa whore game scheduled in 2009 and the Tennessee whore game scheduled in what seems like the 1990s and moved to 2015 in 2011. So Iowa scheduled in 2009 and Tennessee in 2011. Remember that. As we headed into 2015, we tried to buy our own whore, something we had to do to simply get to 5 home games. We apparently let our whore name the time, if not the place, as RV wasn't even skilled enough to purchase a whore for opening day. While every other college in America opened football season, UNT sat in their dorm rooms. Then we opened at SMU to a beat down, returned home for a Rice beat down, whored ourselves to Iowa for a beat down, then... Had homecoming on Texas-OU weekend with a 4PM start time, barely after Texas-OU had ended. So those with kids and Saturday morning sports got to tailgate for 2 hours, maybe. And this wasn't for TV. There was none. But we played the game at 4PM. Maybe Rick and the 17 had dinner reservations on the square at 8:00? Priorities. And it's clear this season was one to RV. So, the whore we bought named the date and rolled us for 450k. Rolled us hard. To the tune of the worst loss in FBS history. But why did we have to buy a whore anyway? Because of Tulsa, right? I mean, that's what RV said. Tulsa screwed us out of a 6 home game season when they left the conference in 2013. Except we already had 2 whorin dates scheduled for 2015 when that happened. Those were scheduled in 2009 and 2011, remember? Oh? You say SMU series must not have been scheduled until after Tulsa decided to leave in 2013? Wrong again. It was scheduled in 2008: http://m.meangreensports.com/m/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/062708aaa.html So, surely Tulsa was originally scheduled in place of Portland St. to be at UNT in 2015, right? That has to be it. Except it isn't. Because UNT would have been playing at Tulsa in 2014 if this were the case, correct? Well... UNT played at UT and at Indiana in 2014. UT had been scheduled years earlier and Indiana was a return of a 1 and 1. So, if Tulsa would have been an away game in 2014, SMU would have been our only home game. So to recap, RV has said Tulsa caused this year's 5 home games. UNT played Tulsa in 2011. That was the last game of that contract.In 2013, we entered a conference with Tulsa, and played at Tulsa again. If there was a new contract, Why wouldn't Tulsa have played at in 2014? When is that return Tulsa game owed? It isn't. It's a lie of convenience by Rick Villarreal, and a lie he has re-issued several times. Then the next home game is a Thursday night against WKU. Shocked that only 10k showed up to present UNT on national TV? Then we FINALLY get a Saturday game at 6PM... On Halloween... If you wanted a game to have a 2:00PM start, this game was begging for it. But no, this AD thought 6PM on Halloween was right. And about 10k fans tolerated the decision. And then, after all that crap ass scheduling, we get 3 straight road games in November, followed by a game in Saturday after Thanksgiving against UTEP, a team that normally brings a large amount of fans to Apogee... Unless it's the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The lack of effort and foresight put into this schedule is reason enough to fire an AD, much less when it's reason number 1362. The loss to Portland St has put this program back at least 8 years in how this program is perceived. That is a direct result of lazy schedule management. Would we have won more with a better schedule? Maybe. Especially with one more home game. Did this schedule ensure a less than 3 win season when it became clear we had no option at QB? You better believe it.

Tomorrow over campus from 12:30 to 1:30. Those in Denton please grab a pic. Please share on Twitter with whomever you think appropriate, especially UNT grads in the local sports media. Why tomorrow? Well; the UTEP game is likely to be the lowest attended game in Apogee history, and tomorrow is the day before basketball season. The banner will be seen by students, and will also take a turn or 2 around the square before heading over campus. Much larger number of eyes will be turned upward. A billboard will cost, at the cheapest, $3400, and that is for a smaller one. If we still have the interest, I will open a gofundme account for that and I will be the first contributor. The banner needs to fly. And it will tomorrow.