UNT donors have really stepped it up; we must as well

Harry · October 12, 2015

I put this up last night but feel compelled to put it up again.

This is a lot of dough. And this as well as other recent athletic specific donations are extremely important at this particular time.

As stated before it will likely cost us between 2-3 million dollars to buy out Mac's deal. Of course, this could be lessened if Mac was to take an assistant position at a big school. My point is, we have seen an uptick in the amount and number of athletic department donations and hopefully we will continue to see that. I have stated, we cannot stand still. We are currently at the upper tier of C-USA in salaries but this next hire needs to push us up more. And that is not only for a head coach but also the assistant positions. And UNT will not be able to do that alone. We will need help from our donors to put together the most competitive package we can.

Honestly, UNT has not had the best track record and there will be some coaches who will not be willing to risk their career path on this opportunity. If we can show them that there is a very strong desire to build this program from the ground up it will help us to convince the right guy to come. I can very well promise you that SMU didn't just pay Chad Morris a bunch of money and he took the job. There was a system wide buy-in and commitment to turn the thing around. This includes facilities, assistant salaries, academics and academic support.. the list goes on and on.

What UNT did in the past was look at the mean of coaching salaries in the conference and go with that. We CANNOT and I repeat CANNOT do that now.

UNT in the past would have allowed Mac to continue to coach this season out. I for one am so relieved that we had the leadership to make this change now as opposed to later in the year. There will be committees formed, and consultants hired and there will be a lot of people involved in this process. We are a public university so unlike SMU/Tulsa we have some additional steps that are required in this process. Getting this done now gives us a chance to start this early and be well positioned for this important hire.

The connection to the UNT donors who have generously given and have the resources to give more is EXTREMELY important to this hire. We do not have a blank checkbook to hire whoever we choose. We will need these relationships to support our efforts in the coming months.

I also implore the fans to keep attending games despite how painful it may be. The eyes of the donors and potential coaches are watching to see how our fans and alumni/students respond to this situation.

The res of this season may be difficult but we have to persevere. Brighter days are ahead my friends. I truly believe that if we get this one right we could be in for a very fun ride. gmg

Edited October 12, 2015 by Harry

Green P1 · October 12, 2015

They're doing a great Job of keeping RV employed!!! Yay us/them!

UNT90 · October 12, 2015

128 of these jobs in America, Harry. We have a lot to offer. The one drawback may be not wanting RV as a boss. RV himself may limit our hiring pool.

Every football coach in his tenure has been fired and hasn't been able to get another college head football coaching job at any level.

That will be a factor.

But still, only 128 of these jobs in America.

Edited October 12, 2015 by UNT90

meanrob · October 12, 2015

I stopped giving to UNT Athletics for a specific reason and until that reason is gone, I won't give.

I'm out of state so it's not up to me to tell people whether they should go to the games or not but it damn sure isn't anybody's place to tell people they should give their hard earned money just because a mistake was corrected. Firing one coach doesn't change the culture or the problem

HELL, did they have any other choice after that debacle yesterday?

Edited October 12, 2015 by meanrob

greenit · October 12, 2015

The lower and middle tier of donors is essentially the MGC. We have a senior staffer who is supposed to be running/growing that program as well as I think season tickets. His name is John Nittardy. WTF does he do? I think MGC membership and season tickets have actually dropped since he joined.

Time to get rid of some dead weight around here. He is essentially in a sales position. It is not to hard to see if he is hitting his sales goals.

James329 · October 12, 2015

The ticket sales office and mean green club are poorly run and inept. I had constant issues with them and they are half the reason I quit contributing to both.

Green Mean · October 12, 2015

If we're going to step it up only to see the constant failures in our AD hiring failures then it's all just pointless. The fans and alumni are there and believe it or not they're ready to explode but the school hasn't given them nearly enough reason for them to jump on the ship.

ADLER · October 12, 2015

The lower and middle tier of donors is essentially the MGC. We have a senior staffer who is supposed to be running/growing that program as well as I think season tickets. His name is John Nittardy. WTF does he do? I think MGC membership and season tickets have actually dropped since he joined.
Time to get rid of some dead weight around here. He is essentially in a sales position. It is not to hard to see if he is hitting his sales goals.

June 2014 - One of Nitardy's first tasks is expanding the Mean Green Club's membership. Currently at approximately 1,000, Nitardy has set a goal of raising membership to over 1,500 by the end of August and to over 3,000 by next year. http://m.meangreensports.com/m/sports/mg-club/spec-rel/062314aaa.html

I don't know any current figures, but here is the 2014 MGC membership upon his 2014 hiring and the 2015 goal.

greenit · October 12, 2015

And one of the ways he tried to accomplish that goal was through a $25 Spiriki level. No telling how much money we could save by cutting his salary.

Green Mean · October 12, 2015

June 2014 - One of Nitardy's first tasks is expanding the Mean Green Club's membership. Currently at approximately 1,000, Nitardy has set a goal of raising membership to over 1,500 by the end of August and to over 3,000 by next year. http://m.meangreensports.com/m/sports/mg-club/spec-rel/062314aaa.html
I don't know any current figures, but here is the 2014 MGC membership upon his 2014 hiring and the 2015 goal.

I mentioned this before in another thread some weeks back but I probably had one or two interactions with him on the phone and my gosh he just seemed really full of himself and wasn't nearly as cordial as I would have hoped. Just wasn't very pleasant to speak to. At this point anytime I ever have any questions whatsoever I will not speak to anyone other than Reggie Johnson. He is one hell of a dude.

Harry · October 12, 2015

I mentioned this before in another thread some weeks back but I probably had one or two interactions with him on the phone and my gosh he just seemed really full of himself and wasn't nearly as cordial as I would have hoped. Just wasn't very pleasant to speak to. At this point anytime I ever have any questions whatsoever I will not speak to anyone other than Reggie Johnson. He is one hell of a dude.

Interesting that you would post that because I have had good dealings with Reggie as well.

FirefightnRick · October 12, 2015

I put this up last night but feel compelled to put it up again.

Think either of these three realize they aren't getting what they paid for like so many of the countless others in our fan bases?

Rick

Edited October 12, 2015 by FirefightnRick

TheFranchise · October 12, 2015

Interesting that you would post that because I have had good dealings with Reggie as well.

Took the wife and kids up to the ticket office last season to buy tickets and Reggie was walking around the Spirit Shop. The dude kneeled down and talked with my then-two-year-old son and gave him high fives and fist bumps because my son wanted "Mean Green Stuff." That's really all that needs to be said about him. You make my son smile and feel like a hot shot, then you're a probably a good guy.

He and I shot the breeze as well about the upcoming game (it was SMU last season, so the outlook was pretty positive) and it confirmed how genuine he is. I love knowing we have a guy like Reggie helping run things around the department.

UNT90 · October 12, 2015

The 3 million donated at halftime was gone 20 minutes after the game thanks to an inept AD.

Think about that.

GoMeanGreen1999 · October 12, 2015

I put this up last night but feel compelled to put it up again.
This is a lot of dough. And this as well as other recent athletic specific donations are extremely important at this particular time.
As stated before it will likely cost us between 2-3 million dollars to buy out Mac's deal. Of course, this could be lessened if Mac was to take an assistant position at a big school. My point is, we have seen an uptick in the amount and number of athletic department donations and hopefully we will continue to see that. I have stated, we cannot stand still. We are currently at the upper tier of C-USA in salaries but this next hire needs to push us up more. And that is not only for a head coach but also the assistant positions. And UNT will not be able to do that alone. We will need help from our donors to put together the most competitive package we can.
Honestly, UNT has not had the best track record and there will be some coaches who will not be willing to risk their career path on this opportunity. If we can show them that there is a very strong desire to build this program from the ground up it will help us to convince the right guy to come. I can very well promise you that SMU didn't just pay Chad Morris a bunch of money and he took the job. There was a system wide buy-in and commitment to turn the thing around. This includes facilities, assistant salaries, academics and academic support.. the list goes on and on.
What UNT did in the past was look at the mean of coaching salaries in the conference and go with that. We CANNOT and I repeat CANNOT do that now.
UNT in the past would have allowed Mac to continue to coach this season out. I for one am so relieved that we had the leadership to make this change now as opposed to later in the year. There will be committees formed, and consultants hired and there will be a lot of people involved in this process. We are a public university so unlike SMU/Tulsa we have some additional steps that are required in this process. Getting this done now gives us a chance to start this early and be well positioned for this important hire.
The connection to the UNT donors who have generously given and have the resources to give more is EXTREMELY important to this hire. We do not have a blank checkbook to hire whoever we choose. We will need these relationships to support our efforts in the coming months.
I also implore the fans to keep attending games despite how painful it may be. The eyes of the donors and potential coaches are watching to see how our fans and alumni/students respond to this situation.
The res of this season may be difficult but we have to persevere. Brighter days are ahead my friends. I truly believe that if we get this one right we could be in for a very fun ride. gmg

If we are serious, new leadership in the Athletic Director position will happen quickly. If not, our past record and not changing in this position based on the past will show us we are not. Remove AD means we are serious. Keeping AD is the same old UNT.

As for the second highlighted comment - we removed our last football coach mid-season so I don't think it's a fair conclusion that Mac removal proves that we are serious now.

Edited October 12, 2015 by GoMeanGreen1999

Cerebus · October 12, 2015

As for the second highlighted comment - we removed our last football coach mid-season so I don't think it's a fair conclusion that Mac removal proves that we are serious now.

We have now removed the last three HFCs mid season, and Dickey had multiple years left on his contract, so I agree: not ground breaking.

untbowler · October 12, 2015

The 3 million donated at halftime was gone 20 minutes after the game thanks to an inept AD.
Think about that.

and that ensures that RV will remain on the job unless the President does it on his own.

MeanGreenHoops · October 12, 2015

I stopped giving to UNT Athletics for a specific reason and until that reason is gone, I won't give.
I'm out of state so it's not up to me to tell people whether they should go to the games or not but it damn sure isn't anybody's place to tell people they should give their hard earned money just because a mistake was corrected. Firing one coach doesn't change the culture or the problem
HELL, did they have any other choice after that debacle yesterday?

No they didn't have a choice. This move doesn't show any action, it was unavoidable. Removing the man who create the mess at AD will show something though, and would convince me to keep supporting financially and with patronage.

The lower and middle tier of donors is essentially the MGC. We have a senior staffer who is supposed to be running/growing that program as well as I think season tickets. His name is John Nittardy. WTF does he do? I think MGC membership and season tickets have actually dropped since he joined.
Time to get rid of some dead weight around here. He is essentially in a sales position. It is not to hard to see if he is hitting his sales goals.

Totally agree about Nittardy. He came up to us last year talking crap about how he couldn't believe no one here knew who the big donors were and that at Penn State we knew who all the people were in the big lots (i.e. big supporters). Haven't talked to him since even though we are always in the same spot. He just talked crap and backed it up with laziness.

DeepGreen · October 12, 2015

Smatresk has to get involved in UNT Athletics this time around. He just has to. Our Athletic Dept cannot continue to be run by "numbnuts RV".

Edited October 12, 2015 by DeepGreen

MeanGreenTexan · October 12, 2015

Smatresk has to get involved in UNT Athletics this time around. He just has to. Our Athletic Dept cannot continue to be run by "numbnuts RV".

I honestly think the only reason Smatresk wouldn't make a move is due to fear (either his, or the BOR's) that if Rick is let go, we'll lose the financial support of "the 17".

If that's the case, President Smatresk & the BOR need only listen to one of the most spirited of all Mean Green fans: @KRAM1, "The king is dead... long live the king!" Do we honestly think these guys would stop giving if UNT hires a new guy? These guys are either alumns or owners of large local businesses (like the "Wheel club") Why would they pull their money from their University or their advertising?

I guess that's a question for Mr. Flyonthewall.

GRN-WHT · October 12, 2015

I'll step up again and open my wallet the day RV is gone, not a day sooner.

flyonthewall · October 12, 2015

I honestly think the only reason Smatresk wouldn't make a move is due to fear (either his, or the BOR's) that if Rick is let go, we'll lose the financial support of "the 17".

I guess that's a question for Mr. Flyonthewall.

The president is a lot of things, but SCARED ain't one of them.

VideoEagle · October 12, 2015

My loyalty is to NT, not who is or is not the athletic director. I was donating before he got here and I'll be donating after he's gone. I understand not wanting to give money to RV, but RV isn't paid from Mean Green Club donations. Not donating reduces the total available money for scholarships, training facilities, and a host of things besides RVs salary. Not giving doesn't hurt RV nearly as much as it does the current students and frankly reduces the likelihood better student athletes will choose to come here.

I get the dislike for RV and I understand the feeling that reducing the giving is a way to express that dislike. But it hurts the students far more than it hurts RV.