Villarreal: UNT wants offensive-minded coach

Harry · October 20, 2015

UNT is among the first schools in the country that is looking for a new coach this season after parting ways with McCarney five games into his fifth season. UNT will pay a $2.1 million buyout to McCarney, a UNT official confirmed.

The school has time to consider its options, which could help in the process, one UNT hopes to have wrapped up in the next few weeks.

“You don’t want to interrupt their run,” Villarreal said of coaches currently working with their teams. “That does not mean we have not started looking at who is qualified. My intention is to have someone in place right after the season is over.”

There are a series of key points in college football calendar year that will arrive quickly following the Mean Green’s final game of the season, a Nov. 28 showdown with UTEP at Apogee Stadium.

The midterm signing period for junior college players begins Dec. 16.

“There are so many things involved,” Villarreal said. “The new coach has to hire a staff. They have to get to know the lay of the land. I want to get a coach in as soon as we can. You get into a short window with junior college players.”

read more: http://www.dentonrc.com/sports/sports-headlines/20151019-villarreal-unt-wants-offensive-minded-coach.ece

Eagle-96 · October 20, 2015

The takeaway that mattered to me is that Chico is starting Ashton Preston again. There will be lumps but experience means everything,. Good for you Chico.

UNT90 · October 20, 2015

This is exactly why this reactionary AD should be gone. Let's just go rehire Dodge, and when the that fails again, let's go re hire McCarney.

Or we could hire someone who wins F'n football games.

If nothing is done, this hire will be a complete disaster.

meangreendork · October 20, 2015

"Offensive minded coach."

Or maybe a coach that understands that it's great to have a defense that creates turnovers, dominates field position and can put up 7-14 points per game. It's tied in with an offense that can spread the ball out, strike deep, and still run the ball through an opposing defense. Then, backing them both up, is a special teams unit that can block FGs and kicks, can coffin-corner teams, and hits as hard as it returns.

I mean, these 3 units of football aren't mutually exclusive, bro.

Edited October 20, 2015 by meangreendork

rcade · October 20, 2015

Villarreal: My next coaching hire will be offensive

UNTcrazy727 · October 20, 2015

I found this encouraging. Seems that Rick at least understands that dominating defenses are a thing of the past and you need a coach who knows how to put up 30+ pts.

I get the feeling we're going to take the OC coordinator route. I can't see RV and Co. going with Briles and Cumbie since they've only been coaching 4 years (which I agree with), but it's looking like Major Applewhite might be the #1 guy if he's interested. He already knows the lay of the land, would be a splash hire that would garner a lot of media coverage, has been the OC at Alabama, UT and now Houston, I bet he'd be able to recruit/develop a good QB, and he'd be able to put together a solid staff.

StealthEagle84 · October 20, 2015

"Villarreal indicated he and the members of UNT’s hiring committee would meet within the next few days to formulate a plan as to how the group with move forward with its search."

So this confirms there is in fact a hiring committee?

eoj221 · October 20, 2015

Villarreal: My next coaching hire will be offensive

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Rick V, "I want to hire a good coach..........

VideoEagle · October 20, 2015

but it's looking like Major Applewhite might be the #1 guy if he's interested.

Let's slow down in second. I know Applewhite is suggested by folks on this board and of those suggested he's my personal favorite pending more suggestions. But I haven't seen any hint RV or anyone on the committee have Applewhite or any specific candidate in mind yet. It reads like the committee plans to work on a plan first, then start looking at specific people.

Mean Green 93-98 · October 20, 2015

It sounds to me like he's looking for the same kind of coach that most people on this board are looking for. If RV hires a coach right along the lines of what you wanted, is it a disaster just because RV made the hire?

Mean_Green09 · October 20, 2015

It sounds to me like he's looking for the same kind of coach that most people on this board are looking for. If RV hires a coach right along the lines of what you wanted, is it a disaster just because RV made the hire?

If its a committee hire is it a RV hire?

Harry · October 20, 2015

I agree. I think you are right, Cumbie, Spatival and Briles are below that 40-year old plus safety zone that you see with hires at SMU and Tulsa/Houston. My thought is they (anyone in their 30's) would have to kill it in the interview process and really bowl the committee over to land this job. My thinking is we want younger but not so young that they view this as HC opportunity chapter 1 and get a re-do -- we need this hire to have more skin in the game. We need a young(er) coach who needs to win in this job period -- to continue to be a head coach in FBS going forward.

I am extremely encouraged about including recruiting as one of the top tier needs for this position. Everyone claims that they can recruit. The "top recruiting" lists are hilarious as they are all assistants at top tier programs which in effect sell themselves... you don't need to be a great recruiter to sell Georgia or Texas A&M etc.. So to me, the recruiting prowess comes when you can recruit quality players at a non p5 school. The other piece is do you have a recruiting system and will you stick to that? Recruiting is honestly no different than sales. It is a numbers game and it is the drudgery of the coaching position with long hours and lots of miles. To me, you have to have a plan of attack and make it very results oriented from a compensation standpoint so all of the coaches are competing to be the best. Mac just did not have that here. Mac had his lowest paid coaches in the recruiting lead positions.. that never made sense to me.

Another thing on recruiting is, you need to have a system conducive to landing the best recruits. Academic programs that are popular with recruits is one example. Making recruiting trips organized, informative and fun for the recruits and their families. Streamlining the paperwork and organizing camps etc are other things.

The key is not to identify the best 50-100 players in the state of Texas -- that is an easy list that everyone has. The key is to find the best of the next 300 who will not get the big school offers, get on them early and stay on them.

A couple of years back we started offering and accepting early commitments. Then we ended up awarding a lot of walk-on scholarships. When you added both together, we found ourself in a predicament where we didn't have enough scholarships to offer quality players that made up their mind in Dec, Jan timeframe and WANTED TO COME HERE. The bottom line is this, every recruit out there intends to go to UT and A&M or xyz until about 2-3 months before signing day. It is at that time they will start to sweat and realize they are not going to their dream school. Those are the players we need to focus in on right now. There will be some special situations where early commitments make sense but 75% of the meat of your class will decide in the last 2-3 months before signing day. Now this does not mean you wait to engage with the recruits until 2-3 months -- you better be engaging with them 1-2 years before that time frame if not sooner.

You need to have a program in place for evaluating prospects. You need a height, weight and speed by position baseline. You need to evaluate production, desire and heart. I have always been a heart and desire guy, but am starting to lean more towards you have to have a certain size, speed and athletic ability to prosper in C-USA.

I am going on too long here but I hope that RV and the committee will REALLY focus in on this area because it is SO important to the future of this program. Our greatest strength is our location and the amount of fantastic football players we have right in our backyard. If we could only figure out this piece of the puzzle it would make such a huge difference.

Edited October 20, 2015 by Harry

Eagle-96 · October 20, 2015

It sounds to me like he's looking for the same kind of coach that most people on this board are looking for. If RV hires a coach right along the lines of what you wanted, is it a disaster just because RV made the hire?

If the coach fails then, yes because he is PAID to make those decisions. I, and everyone else on the board, ARE NOT paid to do this.

Edited October 20, 2015 by Eagle-96

MeanGreenTexan · October 20, 2015

It sounds to me like he's looking for the same kind of coach that most people on this board are looking for. If RV hires a coach right along the lines of what you wanted, is it a disaster just because RV made the hire?

If the results are McCarney/Dodge-like, then YES! We're not 'qualified' to make the hire. We're just a bunch of fans. He's the professional.
If the results are awesome, then he (and his committee) should be praised for the hire.

rcade · October 20, 2015

It sounds to me like he's looking for the same kind of coach that most people on this board are looking for. If RV hires a coach right along the lines of what you wanted, is it a disaster just because RV made the hire?

Given the history of RV's hires, I don't trust his ability to select a coach no matter what he says about his criteria for picking one.

If your friend sets you up on five blind dates and they're all disasters, how much trust do you have when he tells you the next one is hot?

VideoEagle · October 20, 2015

If its a committee hire is it a RV hire?

It sounds to me like he's looking for the same kind of coach that most people on this board are looking for. If RV hires a coach right along the lines of what you wanted, is it a disaster just because RV made the hire?

Having been around a while, I can tell you with certainty a few things about whomever we hire. First, a group will hate him simply because someone - anyone - involved with UNT agreed to the hire. They will point to the history of bad hires and mistakes going back to Theron Fouts. Second, a group will think he's the greatest coach in history. Third, whomever it is likely is somewhere between to two extremes.

I am convinced hiring head football coaches involves a significant portion of luck. One of the best modern ADs was DeLoss Dodds at UT. Look at their department when he started and when he retired and show me someone who build anything better. Now look at his record of football coaches. Even the guy who won a National Championship had to be fired. Coaches can be successful in one place and failures in the next. Look at Mike Leach - do you really think he forgot how to be a coach between Tech and Washington State? In our own history, Hayden Fry was 49-66-1 before he got here. Jerry Moore was 27-48-2 before he went to Appy State where he went 215-87. Did these guys suddenly learn or forget how to coach is there an significant element of luck involved.

edcollopy · October 20, 2015

great comments Harry...the one thing you are omitting when it comes to recruiting at a P5 school, they are battling other P5 schools for those kids. All those schools have facilities as nice as what you have and if you're talking about recruiting for a Texas school, you're probably going up against much nicer campuses. Face it, if you've traveled the country as I have looking at other schools, Texas schools fail in the curb appeal.

rcade · October 20, 2015

I am convinced hiring head football coaches involves a significant portion of luck.

I don't think luck is a major factor. Luck balances out. There's nothing balanced about how bad we've been at hiring since RV took over.

Wag Tag · October 20, 2015

Must be between 38 and 45. Must have be or has been a successful as a head coach on the college level, any level. ( Freeze before ASU) must be or has been an offensive co. at a big time school. Will attract QBs! Recruiter

drex · October 20, 2015

Yep, no one over 50 need apply. Relating to college age kids is very important. Intercollegiate athletics is a young person's game.

MeanGreenTexan · October 20, 2015

Must be between 38 and 45. Must have be or has been a successful as a head coach on the college level, any level. ( Freeze before ASU) must be or has been an offensive co. at a big time school. Will attract QBs! Recruiter

Are these your personal potential coaching credentials? If so, it removes the 3 big OC names being bantered about on here (HC on any level). It also disqualifies Fritz & Cristobal (the OC @ big time school). You must like Thomsen? Or do you like someone else?

SilverEagle · October 20, 2015

You want young and offensive minded?

At the risk of sounding like a broken record.

Colby Carthel
Head Football Coach

Phone: (903) 886-5566
Email: Colby.Carthel@tamuc.edu

Colby Carthel was hired as the 19th head coach in A&M-Commerce history on January 23, 2013 and his second season at the helm guided the Lions to the 2014 Lone Star Conference Championship.

Under Carthel the Lions 16 wins in two seasons is the highest total in back-to-back years in A&M-Commerce history since the 1991 and 1992 seasons.

Carthel led the Lions to a 7-5 record in his first season at the helm, a far cry from the combined 5-26 record the team put up in the three seasons prior to his arrival. That turnaround, one that included wins over nationally-ranked Delta State and Tarleton State, earned the Lions a postseason berth in the Live United Texarkana Bowl – the program’s first postseason berth since qualifying for the national playoffs in 1995.

Although previously a defensive coordinator, the Lions made huge strides on the offensive side of the ball in his first season, averaging 35.0 points per game, which was up 22.4 points per game from the previous year and was the most by a Lion team since the 1990 team averaged 36.2 per game.

The Lions also garnered 15 all-Lone Star Conference selections in 2013, including three on the first team. Defensive lineman Charles Tuaau was named the league’s top defender and earned all-America honors, while Vernon Johnson was named the league’s top wide receiver after a season that saw him haul in over 1,300 yards and 13 scores through the air.

The Carthel-led 2014 Lions turned in one of the best seasons in recent A&M-Commerce history. The Lions reeled off a nine-win season en route to the program’s 21st LSC Championship and made a second consecutive postseason appearance with a trip to the Heart of Texas Bowl which the Lions won 72-21 over East Central.

The Lions saw a school record 26 players earn LSC postseason recognition, including conference wide receiver of the year Vernon Johnson and defensive player of the year Toni Pulu. The Lions opened the season with 98 points and a NCAA record 986 total yards offense. The pace saw the Lions end the season with the NCAA’s No. 1 offense in terms of total yards per game and scoring per game.

Carthel came to Commerce with strong ties to the Lone Star Conference, spending the seven previous seasons as the defensive coordinator at West Texas A&M and playing a key role in establishing the Buffs as one of the top teams in the region. During his seven years at West Texas A&M, the Buffs captured four Lone Star Conference championships while making an appearance in the postseason each year including a trip to the NCAA semifinals.

Carthel, an Angelo State graduate, and his wife Sarah live in Commerce.

Currently the Lions are 6-1

Hire Colby and then tell him to bring his daddy with him..

Don Carthel was 10-2 his first year at WTA&M After that he was, 11-2 (06), 12-1(07), 11-2 (08), 7-5(09), 8-4 (10), 8-3 (11), 12-3 (12)

Do you think that between Colby and his daddy they know most of the coaches in Texas? I bet they do.

Addendum: Before anyone sneers at D-2 WTA&M, There are 7 players from WT&M in the NFL.

North Texas has 4.

Edited October 20, 2015 by SilverEagle

Wag Tag · October 20, 2015

Are these your personal potential coaching credentials? If so, it removes the 3 big OC names being bantered about on here (HC on any level). It also disqualifies Fritz & Cristobal (the OC @ big time school). You must like Thomsen? Or do you like someone else?

I do like Thornsen. But it made not be the splash we are looking for!

VideoEagle · October 20, 2015

Yep, no one over 50 need apply. Relating to college age kids is very important. Intercollegiate athletics is a young person's game.

Yeah, Nick Saban, Les Miles, Art Briles and Gary Paterson are total failures.

That's also that little Federal law against age discrimination.

Edited October 20, 2015 by VideoEagle

Eagle-96 · October 20, 2015

Yep, no one over 50 need apply. Relating to college age kids is very important. Intercollegiate athletics is a young person's game.

Art Briles and Gary Patterson disagree. Let me be clear, I want a young hungry coach as well, but I don't think a coach over 50 has been a barrier to Baylor or TCU