Realistic goals for the Littrell era

Mike Jackson · December 6, 2015

Realistic Goals

1. Have a winning percentage of 65% or higher against in state conference foes UTSA, UTEP, and Rice

2. Consistently have the best rated recruiting classes in CUSA West Division on signing day. Being out recruited by Southern Miss or La Tech once every 3 years is not cool but no one is perfect.

3. Finish 3rd or better in CUSA West Division every year. This one is iron clad and gives you a mulligan for "magical" year at conference rival school

4. Beat SMU in Dallas. Beating SMU in Denton has be been done but we can't have a true rivalry until we beat them on their turf.

5. Start some new tradition that includes student involvement. Have a select group of 250 students that usher the players on the field before game and come down on to the field to sing the alma mater with the team after game is my suggestion.

untjim1995 · December 7, 2015

1.) First goal needs to be to analyze the roster and see who has talent to stay, as well as not having bad character flaws that have obviously hurt the locker room.

2.) See if you can get Dillman to be a QB in your system. If so, let him compete with Damarcus Smith for the starting job.

3.) See what you have on the offensive side of the ball to get a better idea of the players who can play in your wide-open system, versus Mac's Model T offense.

4.) Run off anyone who shows the propensity to quit during practice, conditioning drills, or going to class--not to mention if they cause any problems at all in the locker room. Run off whoever you deem necessary--the university's fans will understand, without even batting an eye. Everyone that quit on the program and caused the worst loss in modern college football history should have to prove they will never quit again.

5.) Use this first year wisely--its the only time that you'll get a full reprieve for terrible football. You are inheriting the worst FBS team in the country. The best recruiting class you are inheriting finished 90th out of 127, including one that was dead-ass last in 2014 and one that will probably be close to that this year, only because of the changes made now and the small window available for recruiting. This is time for character development, strength and conditioning, and gaining playing experience. If it comes with a 2 win season or worse, sobeit.

6.) Don't mention that you won a national championship at OU when you are being interviewed about North Texas.

MeanGreenTexan · December 7, 2015

1.) First goal needs to be to analyze the roster and see who has talent to stay, as well as not having bad character flaws that have obviously hurt the locker room.
2.) See if you can get Dillman to be a QB in your system. If so, let him compete with Damarcus Smith for the starting job.
3.) See what you have on the offensive side of the ball to get a better idea of the players who can play in your wide-open system, versus Mac's Model T offense.
4.) Run off anyone who shows the propensity to quit during practice, conditioning drills, or going to class--not to mention if they cause any problems at all in the locker room. Run off whoever you deem necessary--the university's fans will understand, without even batting an eye. Everyone that quit on the program and caused the worst loss in modern college football history should have to prove they will never quit again.
5.) Use this first year wisely--its the only time that you'll get a full reprieve for terrible football. You are inheriting the worst FBS team in the country. The best recruiting class you are inheriting finished 90th out of 127, including one that was dead-ass last in 2014 and one that will probably be close to that this year, only because of the changes made now and the small window available for recruiting. This is time for character development, strength and conditioning, and gaining playing experience. If it comes with a 2 win season or worse, sobeit.
6.) Don't mention that you won a national championship at OU when you are being interviewed about North Texas.

Um, no man. That dubious honor belongs to the only team we beat this year.

untjim1995 · December 7, 2015

Um, no man. That dubious honor belongs to the only team we beat this year.

Nah, if they have their 4th string QB stay in the game, they probably win over us. And if we played them in San Antonio, we would've gotten run over.

No way we weren't the worst FBS team in the country this past year. You don't lose 66-7 at home against a team from FCS on your Homecoming and not be the worst team. We are somewhat lucky that Texas just happens to have 4 other FBS dregs in the state to recruit against in SMU, UTSA, UTEP, and Texas State. If Littrell can find a QB for his system in the next few years, he can easily vault us over these four squads and up to a level that Rice and La Tech are at right now in CUSA.

TIgreen01 · December 7, 2015

I don't understand why we need to qualify our Littrell era goals with "realistic". That's such a "North Texas" thing to do. :)

Win. Win often. But certainly, if we're paying top of CUSA level money for a coaching staff, I expect to be winning conference championships. Maybe not by a specific year, but I expect to be winning conference championships during his tenure.

Edited December 7, 2015 by TIgreen01

Ben Gooding · December 7, 2015

I want to see his contract. I will then tell you my extended expectations. In CFB, with great money comes great responsibility. He very well may be the youngest, most inexperienced, yet highest paid head coach in CUSA. If so, this is the epitome of a high risk-high reward hire. He has roughly 2 months to put together a class, granted a dead period in between. There are TONS of 3-star recruits still floating around in the state of Texas alone. Excuses are for losers. Go get these guys starting a week ago.

wardly · December 8, 2015

I think at this level of coaching all hires are high risk-high reward. Look at South Carolina,Georgia , and USC as just a few examples. Of the 20 or so new hires since the end of the season, I don't see many slam dunks.

Eastwood Eagle · December 8, 2015

1) Follow the footprint of UH. If in 3-5 seasons we are closer to UH and not Rice, UTEP, UTSA, and Texas State then I think that would be huge. UH is the cream of the crop of non-P5 schools in the state. I want UNT to be in that debate. (may help if UH goes P5 soon, different story there though).

2) Separate ourselves from Rice, UTEP, UTSA, and Texas State in terms of success. Don't want to lose to them anymore.

3) Make adjustments; don't be stubborn with game plans.

4) Consistently have winning seasons. No more below five win seasons.

5) Be competitive no matter what. We saw glimpses in our bowl run a few years back. Let's make that a every year thing.

6) I didn't forget about SMU. Demolish them every year.

Edited December 8, 2015 by Eastwood Eagle

UNTLifer · December 8, 2015

1. Develop a QB. Talent is at every other skill position on offense, so fix that and watch everyone develop. Wilson was very impressive this year. Think what he could to a defense that has to respect the pass.

2. Improve the defense.

3. Recruit better and establish those ties to the HS's all over Texas.

4. Build excitement with the students and connect with the lettermen.

Aquila_Viridis · December 8, 2015

Fuente at Memphis won 4 games his first season and 3 games the next before things starting hitting. Even if Littrell was taking over a good program there would likely be a dropoff the first season. I think y'all better settle in, especially since Memphis does not play such an unbalanced schedule as NT does.

Even if Ls pile up at first, we should expect to see most of them be competitive. At least we have someone with youth and energy. He should be able (and needs) to get someone good to come in and lead the defense and teach them to be in position, get off blocks and make tackles; it's not rocket science.

Still, #1 priority needs to be finding someone who can, or can learn to, throw the ball downfield accurately. Lynch didn't start out lighting it up. The guy is 6'7'' 245; you can't teach that.

GreenTexan13 · December 8, 2015

It's pretty simple for me... Win!

the rest will take care of itself. We will get conference championships and bowl games. But for the love of God!.... Bring us way more wins....

Edited December 8, 2015 by GreenTexan13

Ben Gooding · December 8, 2015

I think at this level of coaching all hires are high risk-high reward. Look at South Carolina,Georgia , and USC as just a few examples. Of the 20 or so new hires since the end of the season, I don't see many slam dunks.

I understand the protect RV narrative in your post.

I guess you didn't see the part of being the youngest - least experienced - yet (possibly) the highest paid HC in CUSA. Paying top dollar for an unproven commodity is risky business. No one else is doing that because no one else will be able to say ^ (the bold).

Got5onIt · December 8, 2015

Just win baby!

That's all that matters. He's got 3 years to show me something.....

TheTastyGreek · December 8, 2015

One way or another, the Littrell era is probably going to last 3 or 4 years.

Realistically? I think that in that time, we can:

- Clean out the attic. Honestly, we moved in over 5 years ago, and there's still an old computer monitor and wreath left up there from the old owners. It's not a big deal right now, but by 2018, 2019 for sure, we're definitely going to need the storage space. It's not convenient, because we can't get up there while cars are parked in the garage... And, if we're home, when do we NOT have a car parked in the garage? But... We have 3 or 4 years. Gotta get the attic cleaned out by then.

- Really commit to and follow a fitness plan. It's not about weight loss, because obviously we're all looking pretty sexy these days. It's about health and wellness. 3 or 4 years from now, we're going to be dangerously close to 40, and there's a history of heart disease on both sides of our family. We can't be a good husband and father if we're not around to handle the job, and the first step is taking proper care of ourselves.

- Go see the Formula 1 race down in Austin. Frankly, we ought to be embarrassed, because we all know this was a realistic goal we thought we'd achieve under Coach Mac. Every year, it "hasn't been a good weekend". Well, it'll NEVER be a perfect weekend. Sure, we all don't follow F1 as closely as we used to... But, the reality is, we're fortunate that a race is so close. It hasn't always been that way, and there's no telling when it might disappear off the calendar. And we're blessed that Dad is in good health, so we really need to take advantage of the opportunity to get our asses down to Austin and watch at least one race in person with him as soon as possible. Honestly, we ought to make this a 2016 goal... But it's wise to avoid deadline-specific goals when we don't have control of the factors to achieve it, and there's a lot that can happen between now and then.

- Pick a worthwhile skill, and make a point of learning it. We should sit down and think through our options, maybe talk to the wife and see what she thinks... But, it's always important to learn and grow. The day we stop challenging ourselves to improve and develop as people is the day we've started wasting our lives. It doesn't have to be a marketable skill or anything... We all had a lot of fun learning to puppeteer last year. And, whatever we choose, we don't have to stick with it forever if we don't like it! Remember back under Dodge, how many years we thought about maybe trying to learn how to sail? And then we won lessons in that raffle, and found out that sailing somehow manages to be worse than "drowning" on the list of the most miserable things you can do in water? Which makes no sense, because we had a great time when we tried kayaking on vacation this year! Why would paddling be awesome if sailing is worse than unanesthetized penis surgery? Who knows... In any event, it's more about challenging ourselves than changing ourselves. Like when we were younger and spent that year learning turntable mechanics. That was a lot of fun! Too bad a man our age looks ridiculous cutting and scratching records... To say nothing of how sore our necks all get from balancing the one headphone in place, particularly after nights when we slept funny and things just don't feel right in the first place. When we clean out the attic, we probably ought to move the decks and mixer up there. We could definitely use the space, but that doesn't mean we need to give up on that hobby forever. And isn't that what an attic is for? Definitely not for a crappy old computer monitor that the previous owners didn't even think was worth carrying down a ladder to keep. Anyway... Maybe we ought to think about learning another language? Everyone assumes that "bilingual" means Spanish, so why not learn Spanish? We got a good start back in 2003 when it looked like we were going to move to Chicago and take that distribution analyst job... Well, why not try to learn Spanish for its own sake? We don't have to be fluent or anything. Two languages is plenty. But, wouldn't it be nice if we could maybe understand what all the words that aren't "Corazon" mean when we hear Spanish language music? It's a thought. No need to decide right away. The first goal is to pick the goal, and that's still where we're at right now. Still... It's nice that we already have an idea, right?

- Redo the back porch. If we're being honest with ourselves... It's looked like crap since we bought the house, and it's only getting worse. We've tackled every other project we wanted to do inside the house. And we re-seeded the lawn two years ago. Depending on what our expenses look like at the end of the year, we should plan on finally tackling that deck either this spring or maybe 2017. It's the last major thing we want to get finished, and it's just a matter of making it the priority and finally handling it.

- Read Gödel, Escher, Bach. We spent YEARS trying to find it at Half Price Books. And when we explained why we didn't just want to buy a new copy from Amazon, our mother-in-law was sweet enough not to roll her eyes, and she remembered the book long enough to give it to us for Christmas. Well, that was almost two full years ago. And what have we done to capitalize on a 9 win season and bowl championship? Nothing!! The book is still sitting on our 'to read' shelf. We've read over fifty other books since then, but have we even picked it up to START reading it? No. No, we haven't, and we ought to be ashamed of ourselves. Yes, obviously, it's going to be a challenging read. But, that's why we wanted the damn book in the first place! We just need to devote our free time to reading it, and NOT the time before we fall asleep! We all know it's going to be rewarding if we actually focus and do it, so we need to just finally DO IT already. That fourth "Locke Lamora" book isn't coming any time soon, so why not read something worthwhile instead? Honestly, we ought to start it as soon as we finish "The Stench of Honolulu". Maybe we should just pull it off the bookshelf now? We should definitely think about it.

There are a million little things we could list here, and this list doesn't include some of the obvious big picture stuff. But, I hope that when the Littrell era is over, we're all celebrating, and we can all look back on this list and say we achieved our goals.

untbowler · December 8, 2015

1. 2016 Season compete and shoot for 6-6, roster has talent but underutilized

2. 2017 and on just consistently win and compete for Division and Conference Title

3. Bring excitement and no excuses, fans are tired of excuses

4. Get out into the community for fans, get into the schools and show your face as the HC

97and03 · December 8, 2015

Tasty, you had me at old computer monitor.

untjim1995 · December 8, 2015

1. 2016 Season compete and shoot for 3-9, roster has almost no talent
2. 2018 and on just consistently win and compete for Division and Conference Title
3. Bring excitement and no excuses, fans (that are still miraculously around) are tired of losing
4. Get into the schools and show your face as the HC and start working to get decent recruits here at some point down the road. It will take a year or two to do some convincing, but you gotta do it.

C Vo · December 8, 2015

Win 10 games in a season!

Green P1 · December 8, 2015

1. Not suck reel bad.

Mad Hatter · December 8, 2015

Come back with your shield, or on it.

MGNation92 · December 8, 2015

I think if he stays the length of his five year contract, getting to a bowl game 3 out of the 5 years should be realistic, maybe the first year or two is a flub because of recruiting. Once he get's his recruits to his system, he should have all the tools to be successful year in and year out.

MeanGreenTexan · December 8, 2015

I think if he stays the length of his five year contract, getting to a bowl game 3 out of the 5 years should be realistic, maybe the first year or two is a flub because of recruiting. Once he get's his recruits to his system, he should have all the tools to be successful year in and year out.

Nope. Nope. Nope.

This is one of the reasons (if not the main reason) he was hired. He is able to adapt his system to the talent he has. He was only the OC at NC for 2 years and Indiana for only 2 years prior. He did not have time to get "his guys" in at either place, yet his offenses took off anyway both times.

Getting "his guys", at least offensively, is not going to be a pass for him. Not with the amount of money he's being paid. Offensively, we should expect to see a mighty turnaround immediately. Like, hopefully by next year we're at least in the top half of all FBS offenses.

Now, defense is a different animal. I really don't think we could be any worse defensively than we were this year. I guess if he has a defensive philosophy, it may take some time to get "his guys" in here. Otherwise, it's going to be his DC's guys.

MGNation92 · December 8, 2015

Nope. Nope. Nope.
This is one of the reasons (if not the main reason) he was hired. He is able to adapt his system to the talent he has. He was only the OC at NC for 2 years and Indiana for only 2 years prior. He did not have time to get "his guys" in at either place, yet his offenses took off anyway both times.
Getting "his guys", at least offensively, is not going to be a pass for him. Not with the amount of money he's being paid. Offensively, we should expect to see a mighty turnaround immediately. Like, hopefully by next year we're at least in the top half of all FBS offenses.
Now, defense is a different animal. I really don't think we could be any worse defensively than we were this year. I guess if he has a defensive philosophy, it may take some time to get "his guys" in here. Otherwise, it's going to be his DC's guys.

Well he's gonna have a hell of a time fitting Mac's Wing T recruits(square peg) into a air raid spread system(round hole). Just my 2 cents. If we are top half of FBS offenses next year I'll be extremely impressed and excited. I trust he will do better than Mac, but he will have to be incredible at adjusting, especially with no QB.

MeanGreenTexan · December 8, 2015

Well he's gonna have a hell of a time fitting Mac's Wing T recruits(square peg) into a air raid spread system(round hole). Just my 2 cents. If we are top half of FBS offenses next year I'll be extremely impressed and excited. I trust he will do better than Mac, but he will have to be incredible at adjusting, especially with no QB.

You don't think Wilson/Ivery will be able to excel in a spread? Goree/Kidsey/Smiley/Rutherford? DaMarcus's (or whoever the QB is) acclimation will be key.

Chris Drybread · December 8, 2015

Nope. Nope. Nope.
This is one of the reasons (if not the main reason) he was hired. He is able to adapt his system to the talent he has. He was only the OC at NC for 2 years and Indiana for only 2 years prior. He did not have time to get "his guys" in at either place, yet his offenses took off anyway both times.
Getting "his guys", at least offensively, is not going to be a pass for him. Not with the amount of money he's being paid. Offensively, we should expect to see a mighty turnaround immediately. Like, hopefully by next year we're at least in the top half of all FBS offenses.
Now, defense is a different animal. I really don't think we could be any worse defensively than we were this year. I guess if he has a defensive philosophy, it may take some time to get "his guys" in here. Otherwise, it's going to be his DC's guys.

this is going to be a rebuild get use to that idea guys . Anything worth having is worth waiting for.