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In January 2014, we as a football program and fanbase experience what many including myself, have termed our best moment, and I have been following the program closely >20 years now. We put 40K into the Cotton Bowl on New Years day and we won a bowl game. Our newly hired president flipped the coin. It was Dan McCarney's 3rd year. the 2014 season went downhill fast although we were able to open the season with a win against crosstown rival SMU. This season has been an unmitigated disaster. To the credit of the administration, it was dealt with a lot quicker than we would have seen in past years. My point is this -- we were not that bad that long ago. It can be done here. It has been done here. Has it been done here enough? Hell no. And therein lies much of the frustration and angst that we see from our fans right now. I was watching a bunch a football games yesterday, but there was one which caught my attention. A&M was playing a team called Western Carolina. The Western Carolina Coach Mark Speir was sort of pale, had black rimmed glasses, and very animated on the sidelines. He honestly gave A&M everything they could possible handle in the 1st half of that game. He would be the antithesis of the young, well groomed offensive coordinator types who frequently get mentioned here. Frankly Western Carolina scared A&M to death for a good amount of that game. Western Carolina had good athletes, they just did not have enough depth to last against a program like A&M. The announcers mentioned he had been an assistant coach at App State, and seen success. I do not think he had been a head coach. He was pleased that he was finally in a position at Western Carolina where he could redshirt a few guys and build some depth. He wasn't quite there yet but heading in the right direction. He is just one, but there are many very good coaches out there that would love an opportunity to turn things around here. Dan McCarney turned out to be a bad hire. We paid a consultant a lot of money to make this mistake. His 3rd year was an enigma, however it showed us that we can build a program here we just need to hire the right person. I believe we are closer than many of our fans think. People say that I am overly optimistic. That may be true. I hear a lot of people saying UNT is not a good job, I'm sorry, I just don't buy that. I think it could be a very good job. I think the administration is going to have to step up to the plate and pay a competitive salary. In 2011, we finally stepped up to play the game at a competitive level. We paid in the upper half of C-USA salaries. We had a brand new football stadium. Despite all of these things we still missed on some key criteria, namely recruiting. We did not recruit at a level that was needed. As painful a lesson as that is now, I do believe that it is something that will not be repeated here. If anything, I think recruiting is the #1 priority in this hire. Last point, if you think we cannot turn things around take a look at Houston. There are a lot of similarities between us (state school/good academics/major metropolitan location). They have not been a good program often since leaving the Southwest conference. Slowly but surely they have been building. They built a beautiful stadium after we finished Apogee. They have upped their compensation for coaches. Their last hire, Tony Levine - despite having an overall winning record was fired. Now they have Tom Hermann and they may well be the g5 representative in the playoff! They sold their stadium out last night. How can UT fans call them Cougar high anymore? They've grown up. They've earned respect. Keep the faith. I think this next hire will catapult us to where we deserve to be.

UNT president Neal Smatresk described the school’s search for a new football coach as a vital task on Tuesday, when he vowed to make the resources available to ensure the right coach takes over the program. “Our new coach will be the most highly compensated individual at the university,” Smatresk said. “When you expend a high level of money you want a high level of production. You want athletics to develop a sense of community at the university and produce revenue.” read more: http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2015/11/coach-search-notes-smatresks-take.html/