2016 schedule

HoustonEagle · December 22, 2015

Mac didn't recruit the last 2 years. Our talent level is way down. Skladany saw it and retired. This is going to take time. Like it, don't like it, don't care.
Those expecting 5 or 6 wins next year are headed for another MASSIVE disappointment.,

While your negativity can be a beating I do agree with you on this. I just see no magical improvement next year. If he is indeed a good coach we will see an immediate and obvious improvement in the team. That does not mean it will translate into wins. Not unless he can magically find some D-linemen and a QB just laying around.

Aldo · December 22, 2015

As am I. Expecting anything more than 3 wins next season is a fool's errand and quite frankly not fair to Coach Littrell.

While your negativity can be a beating I do agree with you on this. I just see no magical improvement next year. If he is indeed a good coach we will see an immediate and obvious improvement in the team. That does not mean it will translate into wins. Not unless he can magically find some D-linemen and a QB just laying around.

While I don't expect bowl contention, I expect coaching quality and play calling to improve.

That would, at the very least, make it more fun next season.

Die horizontal passing game! Die!

Dr. Seuss · December 22, 2015

Sunk cost?
You mean like 15 years of sunk cost with a terrible AD? Who has sunk the athletic programs of this university?
Is that what you are talking about? If so, perhaps you should be talking to the 17 about their sunk costs?

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sunkcost.asp

We all understand that our donations wont always have a positive ROI. You dont seem to get that. You just keep on bringing up your club seats. You've already paid for them. Why waste the effort?

UNT90 · December 22, 2015

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sunkcost.asp
We all understand that our donations wont always have a positive ROI. You dont seem to get that. You just keep on bringing up your club seats. You've already paid for them. Why waste the effort?

That is the question, isn't it?

Eagle-96 · December 22, 2015

2016 Wins

1-2 Might be the reality we are looking at. Rebuilding takes TIME. We have 2 positions that are above average(RB, DB) and that's from a 1-11 team. SMU and BC are are real opportunities next season.

3-4 If we can get this many then Coach Littrell has earned his paycheck considering the dearth of talent available(no degree of green tint on your glasses makes that statement untrue) and short recruiting season.

5-6 This would be a minor miracle considering we are installing a radically different offense and a(hopefully) radically different defense with players recruited to play something completely different. A 5th year QB could make this possible. Just ask La Tech.

7-8 Littrell would get CUSA Coach of the Year honors.

9-10 Give this guy a lifetime contract(just kidding RV.)

11 + PCP is a hell of a drug.

untjim1995 · December 22, 2015

While your negativity can be a beating I do agree with you on this. I just see no magical improvement next year. If he is indeed a good coach we will see an immediate and obvious improvement in the team. That does not mean it will translate into wins. Not unless he can magically find some D-linemen and a QB just laying around.

there is not enough talent here to coach them up to win more than three games next year, in my opinion. Littrell might be an awesome coach, but it's not gonna show up in the standings next year. No QB that is remotely meant to be an FBS starter, no size on the DLine, no team defensive speed, and an inexperienced OLine that was just flat out bad last year...add in a killer schedule and a brand new coach who's gotta learn on the fly, I don't see how we get above 2-10, but that's just me.

And it'll be ok, even if he goes 1-11 next year. People here want to believe in the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, as well as believing we will quadruple our wins next year. We are the absolute worst program in America right now. As long as we don't lose to Bethune-Cookman, there is no other loss that we can suffer in 2016 that will make me believe Littrell is a failure. He's inheriting the worst collection of talent that a coach at a team in these neck of the woods could possibly inherit at this level of play. Give the man two years to get rid of the quitters on this team and the guys who cannot adapt to an offense that isn't played with a leather helmet. And then let him go out and see if he can make some inroads with Texas High School recruits, coaches, and parents to get some folks here that can play down the road for us. 2018 is when you should expect a bowl team, just get talent here and a schedule that isn't a killer for a program like ours now. Last season, it was obvious that if we couldn't beat SMU then we weren't gonna win more than a game the rest of the season, just because of the awful schedule and lack of talent. 2016 is setup to be very similar on both fronts, even though our OOC schedule is much more easier than last year's was. But our CUSA schedule will be harder, as the only two teams we can compete with are UTEP & UTSA, both of whom we play on the road. All the others are waaaayyyyyyy ahead of us right now.

MeanGreen22 · December 22, 2015

It looks as if we'll get mainly the same schedule as last year, just swapping some non-conference foes. So based on this, here are my extremely watered down homer-ish expectations:

Lock(ish) wins (5)- SMU (a decent QB beats them last year), UTSA, UTEP, Bethune-Cookman, Army (if you cant beat Army, go to FCS)

Possible Wins (2)- Western Kentucky (losing Brandon Doughty), LA Tech (losing Jeff Driskel and Kenneth Dixon)

Really Would Have To Dig Deep Wins (4)- Rice, Southern Miss, Marshall, Middle Tennessee

Need Jesus Wins (1)- Florida

So by my count, 5-7 would be a great year, 7-5 would be an amazing year, anything more than 7 wins would signal the apocalypse.

Edited December 22, 2015 by MeanGreen22

GOMG2013 · December 22, 2015

How can SMU be a possibility... while UTEP a team that barely beat us by 3 with mcnulty and greer playing, and UTSA a team we beat, not be a possibilty?

GTWT · December 25, 2015

Down the Corridor of years, how has the rainmaker worked out for us?

Not sure, '90. How has negativity worked out for you?

UNT90 · December 25, 2015

Not sure, '90. How has negativity worked out for you?

First, it's realism, not negativity. Negativity would be acting this way while we were successful. I don't think anyone can argue all revenue sports have been abject failures the last 2 years. And the problem has yet to be addressed.

At least RV has had to answer for his terrible record. Bringing that up maybe led a few others to question his performance. Maybe it even made one or two of our large donors sit up and take notice, maybe not. Maybe they don't care about the lower level donors at all. Maybe all the angst from the hardcore fans has made them a wee bit uncomfortable with their close, personal relationship with an AD that isn't producing. Maybe not.

I'll be this way as long as I'm still involved in UNT athletics and as long as the 15 year problem remains at UNT.

rcade · December 26, 2015

We all understand that our donations wont always have a positive ROI. You dont seem to get that. You just keep on bringing up your club seats. You've already paid for them. Why waste the effort?

A better question is why so many people care about UNT90's motivations for following the team.

He's not alone in thinking we'll be 0-4 or 1-3 after SMU, Bethune-Cookman, Florida and Army. Most people who follow Texas college football would expect that, given our 1-11 season and a new coaching staff. I'd love to see us go 2-2, but Littrell took over a program in a deep hole. Digging out may take some time.

UNT90 · December 26, 2015

A better question is why so many people care about UNT90's motivations for following the team.

The funny thing is how people will bring up my "negativity" in threads before I even post in them, usually through snarky comments, then when I do post, they accuse me of derailing the thread with negativity.

It's actually quite entertaining how so many are so concerned with what I might or might not say.

This thing isn't going to be good next year. If some morons want to convince themselves we are going 6-6 next year, I'll be here to point out the lunacy.

Littrell is going to realize pretty soon that we are perceived as the joke of college football in Texas, that our AD is laughed at by every other university in Texas (especially at TCU, where they have some experience with him), that he will have little support from the AD and will often find himself having to do the ADs job if he wants some particular thing done and done right, and that recruiting is a way bigger challenge than he could have dreamed in his worst nightmare.

Roll your sleeves up, coach, and grab an hour or 2 of sleep each night. Do that and you may get to 6-6 by year 3. Try not to get discouraged. Struggle through and pray you have a new boss before the SMU kickoff.

GTWT · December 28, 2015

Roll your sleeves up, coach, and grab an hour or 2 of sleep each night. Do that and you may get to 6-6 by year 3. Try not to get discouraged. Struggle through and pray you have a new boss before the SMU kickoff.

Of course, if Coach Littrell does go 6-6 by the third year, a goal '90 seems to think is reasonable, he'll still find a way to cast a negative light on that accomplishment.

Army of Dad · December 28, 2015

How can SMU be a possibility... while UTEP a team that barely beat us by 3 with mcnulty and greer playing, and UTSA a team we beat, not be a possibilty?

SMU is at home and UTSA will be on the road?

untjim1995 · December 28, 2015

Of course, if Coach Littrell does go 6-6 by the third year, a goal '90 seems to think is reasonable, he'll still find a way to cast a negative light on that accomplishment.

And if we go 3-9 or worse then, are you gonna be here casting it in a positive light, since its triple the win total of the program now? If you do, you'll have plenty of company around here. And that's fine--if that helps you want to attend games and help keep the status quo, it really doesn't matter to a lot of us who have had it with our school's acceptance of losing in revenue sports. We aren't the ones wasting dollars or time anymore--and by the looks of the attendance figures in box scores at Apogee and the Super Pit since November, it appears that there are A LOT more of folks that are taking our view than yours. But again, that's fine. I hope that you have a good time when you go to the games--it was a lot of fun to go and watch our solid basketball team play at the Pit or to see a football team that could tackle and move the ball downfield during non-mopup time. For your sake, I hope that you get some moments like that again soon. And when RV retires/dies, maybe I'll get to come back and enjoy the same good teams again...but, make no doubt about it, many of us won't step foot near either of the venues that host the Mean Green's revenue teams until he is gone. Years of mostly putrid results on the football field and basketball court by RV hires in each sport and the bigger issue of accepted losing by the BOR to the point of RV having a lifetime job have combined to reach a point that many folks cannot in good conscience support this anymore. There are other areas within the university to support--and frankly, they are way more celebrated and supported by the UNT Family than athletics has ever been.

Aldo · December 28, 2015

Of course, if Coach Littrell does go 6-6 by the third year, a goal '90 seems to think is reasonable, he'll still find a way to cast a negative light on that accomplishment.

Going .500 shouldn't be an accomplishment.

GTWT · December 28, 2015

2 hours ago, Aldo said:

Going .500 shouldn't be an accomplishment.

Bringing a 1-win team to bowl eligible is, in my opinion, an accomplishment.

ChristopherRyanWilkes · December 28, 2015

6 minutes ago, GTWT said:

Bringing a 1-win team to bowl eligible is, in my opinion, an accomplishment.

Todd Monken brought SoMiss from a 0 win & 1 win team to a 9 win team in year 3. Of course, that was a program with 18 straight winning seasons before that...

Ironically, Jones Junes brought Hawaii from a 0 win season to 9-4 in his first season.

There are other examples, but it's rare, year 3 is usually the most reasonable time to expect a turn around. Which really sucks.

Edited December 28, 2015 by ChristopherRyanWilkes

UNT90 · December 28, 2015

45 minutes ago, GTWT said:

Bringing a 1-win team to bowl eligible is, in my opinion, an accomplishment.

You will trumpet 2-10 as a 100% improvement. Hell, you may even give RV an extension.

It isn't going to be easy to recover from where this AD has AGAIN allowed this program to sink. Especially with a wet behind the ears head coach that has no clue the waters in which he enters.

Going 6-6 next year wouldn't be an accomplishment, it would be a miracle. Every non-homer educated college football fan understands this.

Recruiting this year and next will tell us how successful Littrell will be in year 3. That's the year we should be pointing towards, as we were one of the 2 or 3 worst teams in FBS last year (if not the worst).

GangGreen · December 29, 2015

7 hours ago, ChristopherRyanWilkes said:

Jones Junes

Golden.

ChristopherRyanWilkes · December 29, 2015

33 minutes ago, GangGreen said:

Golden.

Unintentional but hilarious.

GTWT · December 29, 2015

17 hours ago, UNT90 said:

You will trumpet 2-10 as a 100% improvement. Hell, you may even give RV an extension.

It isn't going to be easy to recover from where this AD has AGAIN allowed this program to sink. Especially with a wet behind the ears head coach that has no clue the waters in which he enters.

Going 6-6 next year wouldn't be an accomplishment, it would be a miracle. Every non-homer educated college football fan understands this.

Recruiting this year and next will tell us how successful Littrell will be in year 3. That's the year we should be pointing towards, as we were one of the 2 or 3 worst teams in FBS last year (if not the worst).

"Hell, you may even give RV an extension."

I probably have an earlier problem with RV than you. I was a avid supporter of Lynn Dickey. I thought RV's attitude toward Dickey was ridiculous. However, I think it's more ridiculous to ignore the good things that RV has done since that time - being a big factor in building Apogee & in marshaling the support of big-money donors. It would be short-sighted to not recognize those accomplishments.

I think he's made some terrible hires in FB & BB, but I'm willing to still support his latest hire & give Coach Littrell the benefit of the doubt.

Give RV an extension? I'll leave that decision to the UNT administration. Whatever they decide, I'll support in whatever small way I can. I'll support my university & not just because I have a $750 investment in my seats.

UNT90 · December 29, 2015

10 minutes ago, GTWT said:

"Hell, you may even give RV an extension."

I probably have an earlier problem with RV than you. I was a avid supporter of Lynn Dickey. I thought RV's attitude toward Dickey was ridiculous. However, I think it's more ridiculous to ignore the good things that RV has done since that time - being a big factor in building Apogee & in marshaling the support of big-money donors. It would be short-sighted to not recognize those accomplishments.

I think he's made some terrible hires in FB & BB, but I'm willing to still support his latest hire & give Coach Littrell the benefit of the doubt.

Give RV an extension? I'll leave that decision to the UNT administration. Whatever they decide, I'll support in whatever small way I can. I'll support my university & not just because I have a $750 investment in my seats.

RV loves donors like yourself.

GTWT · December 29, 2015

17 minutes ago, UNT90 said:

RV loves donors like yourself.

I suspect he would love me more if I could afford to give more. What I can give, I do. Not to RV, but to UNT. This is my university. It is in large part responsible for whatever success I have enjoyed in life.

UNT90 · December 29, 2015

12 minutes ago, GTWT said:

I suspect he would love me more if I could afford to give more. What I can give, I do. Not to RV, but to UNT. This is my university. It is in large part responsible for whatever success I have enjoyed in life.

To each their own. I just wish you demanded a little better FOR the students you support.