UNT's schedule is out... We will not rest

UNT90 · February 3, 2015

Without going into RV's comments too much, I'm curious why if Tulsa was willing to do an out-of-conference series before we joined C-USA why they were not willing to work out a new deal once they left the conference. We are closer than at least one of their away out-of-conference games @ New Mexico. I'd be curious to know who we tried to make a deal with and why it didn't work out.

Actually, it like going into your bosses office and saying "look boss, I know I made that mistake a couple of projects before, even though I got this shiny new office by promising i wouldnt make that mistake, and I then promised I would never make that mistake again, and I know that I know have made that same mistake in 2 of the last 4 projects, but really, it isn't my fault... Really..."

UNT90 · February 3, 2015

Without going into RV's comments too much, I'm curious why if Tulsa was willing to do an out-of-conference series before we joined C-USA why they were not willing to work out a new deal once they left the conference. We are closer than at least one of their away out-of-conference games @ New Mexico. I'd be curious to know who we tried to make a deal with and why it didn't work out.

RV said shortly after Tulsa announced that they were leaving CUSA that he was working on a series with them, but obviously Tulsa was able to find a more attractive alternative. Either that or RV was just saying something he thought the fans wanted to hear. A real possibility.

Lets not forget that RV told Harry that RV was working on a one and one with a P5 during the first podcast last season where he refused to acknowledge we would have a 5 home game season.

Never a better time to announce that series, RV. Or were you just riffing?

UNT90 · February 3, 2015

Why not be Excellent.

GMG

An approach we should have when it comes to our AD.

UNT90 · February 3, 2015

Ok
I get the frustration. But isn't this better than a Sun Belt schedule? I think some are taking the games against Rice and UTEP for granted. These would have been non conference games in the Belt. Let's try to keep some perspective here.

So because we got into CUSA, RV magically doesn't have to do his job anymore?

Come on, Harry.

I have never seen a season where the won/loss record will be as much on the AD as on the head coach.

Just head shakingly bad management.

And we wonder why so many UNT grads laugh at their own school's athletic program.

Edited February 3, 2015 by UNT90

oldguystudent · February 3, 2015

I don't know what you do or how you make/maintain your monies... but I want to work for you.

Working for him was pretty freaking awesome.

UNT90 · February 3, 2015

Or we could all up our donation levels so that we don't have to play the likes of Georgia, LSU, texas,......you see how this works? By cutting your donation level you are actually hurting the process. And he has said that, we have to quit kicking the can down the road on the games that we owe people, and this is the year.

Yeah, let's cut mean green club membership which DIRECTLY FUNDS STUDENT ATHLETE SCHOLARSHIPS.

But go ahead, pound away.

So you are saying we should pay more for a worse product, and if we refuse and the product becomes even worse, it is our fault.

Something tells me this isn't the business model you used to become successful.

Edited February 3, 2015 by UNT90

emmitt01 · February 3, 2015

Somebody link this Mean Green Blog to the top of the page. I want to be able to find it when something "beyond our control" happens, we're staring at a 5 game home schedule before 2020, and people say "he never promised six home games...he just said he'd try".

flyonthewall · February 3, 2015

So you are saying we should pay more for a worse product, and if we refuse and the product becomes even worse, it is our fault.
Something tells me this isn't the business model you used to be one successful.

No, I am saying that to make this thing improve, it is going to take all of us. We don't have some magic money pot we can go to every time we want to fire a coach like other places. So we have to fight long arduous battles to get where we want to be. It took 10 years to get a new stadium, even though I heard that we needed to build one at the first New Orleans Bowl. Please remember, TCU was 4-8 last year. Did they give up on Patterson? No.

The business model is invest, have long range plans. Stick with the plan. Are there going to be bumps that cause you to adjust? Yes. You can't just start over every other year. If you can't see the progress here, then I am sorry. But nothing is going to happen instantly, that is just the way it is.

If more people gave more money, we would not be playing the Volunteers this year at all, but there is not a magic money pot to buy out of that game, so we play it and go collect a check.

Imagine where we would be right now if nobody donated and there was no Apogee Stadium. There would be no CUSA, no home and homes with rice, utep, etc. You want your money back and move back across the highway?

Cougar King · February 3, 2015

It's amazing that RV still has a job.

UNT90 · February 3, 2015

No, I am saying that to make this thing improve, it is going to take all of us. We don't have some magic money pot we can go to every time we want to fire a coach like other places. So we have to fight long arduous battles to get where we want to be. It took 10 years to get a new stadium, even though I heard that we needed to build one at the first New Orleans Bowl. Please remember, TCU was 4-8 last year. Did they give up on Patterson? No.

The business model is invest, have long range plans. Stick with the plan. Are there going to be bumps that cause you to adjust? Yes. You can't just start over every other year. If you can't see the progress here, then I am sorry. But nothing is going to happen instantly, that is just the way it is.

If more people gave more money, we would not be playing the Volunteers this year at all, but there is not a magic money pot to buy out of that game, so we play it and go collect a check.

Imagine where we would be right now if nobody donated and there was no Apogee Stadium. There would be no CUSA, no home and homes with rice, utep, etc. You want your money back and move back across the highway?

Please tell me that you did not just compare RV to Gary Patterson.

The problem is you have a guy leading this thing that is COSTING this program money through bad hires, poor scheduling, and the inability to involve more than a handful of former successful alumni.

Gary Patterson and Rick Villareal couldn't be more polar opposites.

UNT90 · February 3, 2015

And that is crap about not playing Tennessee. A little scheduling 101 here:

In this article published by our own athletics website, we were initially scheduled to play 5 home games in the first year in Apogee (2011), with 2 whore games against Alabama and Tennessee. RV had to move the Tennessee game to avoid a 5 home game season the first year of Apogee:

http://www.meangreensports.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/072209aab.html

Now, according to RV, the reason we have a 5 home game season this year is because of Tulsa. Well, if this were true, it means we would have played Tulsa on the road for an OOC game last year under the former agreement.

But we had UT added in 2011 (couldnt find article on UT. If you find the article announcing that game, please post). we didn't find out about CUSA membership until 2012. We had a return game to Indiana as a part of a one and one signed far before 2011. If we played at Tulsa in 2014, that would have made 2014 a 5 home game season. Timelines are a bitch.

Keep on riffin, RV.

Edited February 3, 2015 by UNT90

MeanGreenTexan · February 3, 2015

I bought two for a reason. One to display proudly in my office, one to provide any blood offerings the football gods deem necessary.

MeanGreenTexan · February 3, 2015

MGB: UNT AD Rick Villarreal addresses home football schedule

http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2015/02/rick-villarreal-addresses-football-schedule.html/

"Unfortunately when we joined Conference USA the Tulsa contracts we had signed for home openers in both 2013 and 2015 were no longer viable. We immediately began to try and find replacements which we did by inking Idaho for 2013 because of the WAC folding."

Eagle1855 · February 3, 2015

And winning freaking football games, freaking women's basketball games, and now even freakiing men's basketball games.
And scheduling OOC opponents that will catch the attention of alumni.
And hiring successful coaches in the 3 major sports.

Well our women's basketball coach was good enough for Texas. Our men's coach was good enough for LSU.

But you guys seem to have one agenda. which best I can tell includes saying the same thing over and over to the same group of people who can literally do nothing about any of it, so there's not much point in offering any of the positives that have happened to this program under RV's watch -- or any positives in general, because THE SCHEDULE. AHH THE SCHEDULE.

MeanGreenTexan · February 3, 2015

Well our women's basketball coach was good enough for Texas. Our men's coach was good enough for LSU.

But you guys seem to have one agenda. which best I can tell includes saying the same thing over and over to the same group of people who can literally do nothing about any of it, so there's not much point in offering any of the positives that have happened to this program under RV's watch -- or any positives in general, because THE SCHEDULE. AHH THE SCHEDULE.

Big picture, I'm with you. (some aren't)

When you step back and look at how far we've come, and what's been built on the old golf course under his watch, you have to be happy with the job Rick is doing.

He's had his pats on the back for those things.

He really struggles at some things though, and should be taken to task on them, just like the kudos & praise for the good things he's done.

emmitt01 · February 3, 2015

No, I am saying that to make this thing improve, it is going to take all of us. We don't have some magic money pot we can go to every time we want to fire a coach like other places. So we have to fight long arduous battles to get where we want to be. It took 10 years to get a new stadium, even though I heard that we needed to build one at the first New Orleans Bowl. Please remember, TCU was 4-8 last year. Did they give up on Patterson? No.

The business model is invest, have long range plans. Stick with the plan. Are there going to be bumps that cause you to adjust? Yes. You can't just start over every other year. If you can't see the progress here, then I am sorry. But nothing is going to happen instantly, that is just the way it is.

If more people gave more money, we would not be playing the Volunteers this year at all, but there is not a magic money pot to buy out of that game, so we play it and go collect a check.

Imagine where we would be right now if nobody donated and there was no Apogee Stadium. There would be no CUSA, no home and homes with rice, utep, etc. You want your money back and move back across the highway?

I think it's the bolded part where many get confused. The answer isn't to chastise and brow beat the few who actually DO give because they're not seeing a return on their investment...it's to do the things necessary to bring in a greater number of people who see this product as worth investing in and then you don't have to worry about what level their giving is at.

Let's put this in business terms (and let's just use a pizza place for totally random reasons). If you have a pizza restaurant that does a poor job of advertising, makes horrible hires for the day and evening shift managers and the pizza is consistently mediocre you have two choices:

A) Ask the few people who actually like the pizza to pay $20 a pizza instead of $10 a pizza because "we all have to do our part".

or

B ) Make changes, from the top down, to improve the overall product and try to attract NEW customers.

We all know which option has been consistently chosen at North Texas.

Edited February 3, 2015 by emmitt01

UNT90 · February 3, 2015

Well our women's basketball coach was good enough for Texas. Our men's coach was good enough for LSU.

But you guys seem to have one agenda. which best I can tell includes saying the same thing over and over to the same group of people who can literally do nothing about any of it, so there's not much point in offering any of the positives that have happened to this program under RV's watch -- or any positives in general, because THE SCHEDULE. AHH THE SCHEDULE.

JJ was a positive.

Aston was a 1 year coach here that produced a .500 record. Period. The fact that she is doing well at Texas indicates that she MAY have done well here. She has a lot of assets at her disposal at UT, including a different AD.

There are other positives, such as facilities.

What bothers me more than the actual schedule is the continued lies about the schedule and the refusal to take accountability for anything.

Benford a bad hire? Nope, it's the player's fault. The same players that were fine the year before under JJ

5 game home schedule? Don't comment on it until after it is released and after you put your head football coach on the block to ease your own responsibility. And then when you do comment on it, you don't take ownership, but instead lie to the fans about the cause of the problem.

No one is saying there aren't positives, but for me the negatives have overtaken the positives. When that happens, it's time to go in a new direction.

Also, this is a thread about the schedule, which is why all we are talking about is SCHEDULE, SCHEDULE, SCHEDULE.

Edited February 3, 2015 by UNT90

Travis · February 3, 2015

Big picture, I'm with you. (some aren't)
When you step back and look at how far we've come, and what's been built on the old golf course under his watch, you have to be happy with the job Rick is doing.
He's had his pats on the back for those things.
He really struggles at some things though, and should be taken to task on them, just like the kudos & praise for the good things he's done.

RV wasn't able to pull the stadium off. The students led by a certain fan really got that movement going. Hell, he couldn't convince the student body the first time around when we were actually winning.

Furthermore, I recall RV being rather dishonest about bringing in high-profile concerts in the stadium for the students as a thank you. We are still waiting on that... Unless, if he thinks that the crap concerts that were done after a spring football game once or twice is fulfilling that then I don't know what to tell ya.

Looking back, I think the students should have used a little more bargaining power for what they were going to get out of the deal.

Ben Gooding · February 3, 2015

It's inexcusable and Tulsa has nothing to do with it. It's a bullshit scapegoat is what Tulsa is. Playing at 2 P5 programs (pretty good ones at that) and having 5 home games in the same year is absolutely inexcusable. Sorry for the language, but how the fuck this shit flys around here is beyond belief. This dude should be packing his bags. It's pitiful. Oh and people give unearned credit to RV. That stadium was not his doings, granted he grabbed the batan and ran with it and of course takes absolute credit for it.

The University of North Texas needs an aggressive, innovative AD put in place immediately. RV's time here has elapsed.

MeanGreenTexan · February 3, 2015

RV wasn't able to pull the stadium off. The students led by a certain fan really got that movement going. Hell, he couldn't convince the student body the first time around when we were actually winning.

Furthermore, I recall RV being rather dishonest about bringing in high-profile concerts in the stadium for the students as a thank you. We are still waiting on that... Unless, if he thinks that the crap concerts that were done after a spring football game once or twice is fulfilling that then I don't know what to tell ya.

Looking back, I think the students should have used a little more bargaining power for what they were going to get out of the deal.

We're all thankful for Flyer's efforts. Haven't seen that guy around here in a while... but to give RV ZERO credit for Apogee or anything else over there is really dumb, and extremely myopic... like, only-on-gmg.com-will-you-find-that-opinion myopic. We're like a little mob on here.

Are you sure we can peg the lack of concerts on RV? Is that the Athletic Director's job? The stadium was built to accommodate concerts. That doesn't necessarily mean it's the Athletic Director's job to bring anyone in.

Is he horrible at scheduling/bargaining with other AD's? It appears so.

Is he horrible at hiring coaches for revenue sports? Some have been good, some have been very, very poor.

Is he amazingly awesome at creating facilities? It appears so.

Is he a horrible AD that needs to be fired? I don't think so.

emmitt01 · February 3, 2015

We're all thankful for Flyer's efforts. Haven't seen that guy around here in a while... but to give RV ZERO credit for Apogee or anything else over there is really dumb, and extremely myopic... like, only-on-gmg.com-will-you-find-that-opinion myopic. We're like a little mob on here.
Are you sure we can peg the lack of concerts on RV? Is that the Athletic Director's job? The stadium was built to accommodate concerts. That doesn't necessarily mean it's the Athletic Director's job to bring anyone in.
Is he horrible at scheduling/bargaining with other AD's? It appears so.
Is he horrible at hiring coaches for revenue sports? Some have been good, some have been very, very poor.
Is he amazingly awesome at creating facilities? It appears so.

A) Did he tell Liberty Christian to relocate, thereby leaving ready made buildings for our use? Wow...genius

B ) Did he tell the university to take back the golf course from the Radisson? Again...wow.

Is he a horrible AD that needs to be fired? I don't think so.

The best thing he did to help get us Apogee was to stay out of the way.

Edited February 3, 2015 by emmitt01

oldguystudent · February 3, 2015

extremely myopic

You could delete every post in every thread in every forum, leave these two words on the front page, and you'd have the same essential content.

EAGLE83 · February 3, 2015

Who are our home games in 2016 and 2017.

UNTcrazy727 · February 3, 2015

It's inexcusable and Tulsa has nothing to do with it. It's a bullshit scapegoat is what Tulsa is. Playing at 2 P5 programs (pretty good ones at that) and having 5 home games in the same year is absolutely inexcusable. Sorry for the language, but how the fuck this shit flys around here is beyond belief. This dude should be packing his bags. It's pitiful. Oh and people give unearned credit to RV. That stadium was not his doings, granted he grabbed the batan and ran with it and of course takes absolute credit for it.
The University of North Texas needs an aggressive, innovative AD put in place immediately. RV's time here has elapsed.

I think RV's feet should be held to the fire for a lot of things, but this notion that he should be given zero credit for Apogee is insane and incredibly ignorant.