Here is why you leave Benford to finish off the season...

UNT90 · March 2, 2017

I'm considering just writing off the club seats as a sunk cost and going about my way. Baker has been beyond a disappointment in his inability to grasp UNT fan culture and appears to have enlisted in the C Dan Smith suck up club, a la one Rick Villarreal.

Change won't happen at UNT in my lifetime, and I'm 52. I feel really sorry for those more advanced than I.

Moral of the story? 98% of UNT alumni are right, and have been all along.

On 3/2/2017 at 1:16 PM, Harry said:

http://www.workingmother.com/sites/workingmother.com/files/styles/medium_1x_/public/import/blog_post_field_image/files/_images/blog_posts/3983/image_2.jpg?itok=_W8oNW5J

Laugh it up. Your continued excuses for the crap handed to fans is part of a huge cultural problem at UNT.

Now, go ahead and ban me again for saying something you don't like.

KingDL1 · March 2, 2017

1 hour ago, UNT90 said:

I'm considering just writing off the club seats as a sunk cost and going about my way. Baker has been beyond a disappointment in his inability to grasp UNT fan culture and appears to have enlisted in the C Dan Smith suck up club, a la one Rick Villarreal.

I told you to buy a seat in the tail fin with me and my group. I am not spending more money unless I see a change. I still like tailgating our home games. If there is a real substantial improvement I will upgrade my seats again.

untjim1995 · March 2, 2017

I stopped going to games at the Super Pit in 2013, when it became obvious that Benford was in way over his head. I haven't missed a thing, either,

Look, my alma mater doesn't care about the thing I care most about for my school, outside of research and academics. I want to support a winning football and mens basketball program at UNT. I get tired of hearing of other alums of Texas schools tell me, during football and basketball season, that we would kill them in a marching band contest or in a jazz concert. But I just don't believe that they will ever feel this way at the top at UNT, nor do I believe that the culture of the university wants this. In many ways, it actually begs the question of why bother offering sports if you don't want to win at them as much as possible.

NT1978 · March 2, 2017

On 3/1/2017 at 1:36 PM, Harry said:

1). Hey we all understand including Benford that it just didn't work out. He was classy through the whole thing, never pointed the finger at UNT or the fans. This is not Blackshirt Darrell Dickey stuff. So you let him finish out the season and you make the break as amicable as you can. That way you give yourself a better chance to keep the talent we have here. Benford is a good recruiter and it won't take him long to find a good assistant job. Why give him any reason to poach? Not saying he would even do that but in my view if you play this out nice guy you give yourself a better chance to hold on to some pretty damn good young talent and signees so this thing is not a complete 4-5 year do over...

2). The best coaches won't come available until after the tourney anyhow. Wren most certainly has a list and is doing work behind the scenes right now.

3). Let Wren keep his word. If you were going to get mad about this decision do it back months ago when he says he's going to give him the season and evaluate after. To expect Wren to turn back on his word now makes him look dishonest. This is not a Portland State type of crisis moment. Sure we suck but its not something that can't wait a few more games and firing Benford now is not going to fill up the Pit or give the players any more incentive to play better.

gmg

4). We need someone to keep the trash picked up around the Super Pit until April 30th.

Green P1 · March 2, 2017

BULL

UNT90 · March 3, 2017

I think Wren Baker and Harry have zero idea of the far reaching consequences refusing to fire Benford will have for UNT athletics.

Then again, short sightedness has always been UNT strong suit when it comes to athletics,

Edited March 3, 2017 by UNT90

southsideguy · March 3, 2017

10 hours ago, EagleMBA said:

If so, that is another major disaster...since they're supposed to be in KY.

Funny, i should have checked the schedule but at this point what is matter. i did appreciate the humor.

TheWestie · March 3, 2017

On 3/1/2017 at 0:36 PM, Harry said:

Benford is a good recruiter and it won't take him long to find a good assistant job.

But is he really?

What I've seen is someone who has brought in:

1.) A bunch of HS fixer-upper players who got passed over by other schools because of behavioral, academic or attitude problems, lauded them as the solution to our problems.

2.) A bunch of "meh" HS recruits who only have offers from Sun Belt schools or FCS schools, IF they even have other offers.

3.) Add in a seemingly endless parade of college transfers who either got booted from somewhere because they were the #1 category above when they got recruited there and were such a piece of work that their first school said enough is enough or were just such a locker room cancer they got run off.

I've never really been impressed by anybody Benford has brought in, and Combs seems like the only player who has actually improved substantially since arriving. His resume after his years here is a god-awful losing record and a string of recruits who never did anything, got injured constantly, and left in frustration soon after.

Here's a good analogy for why Wren/Smatresk didn't fire Benford.

Your parents just bought you a laptop for your birthday and a car for graduation. They probably can't afford to get you a pony for Christmas too.

If Dan McCarney is still getting checks from UNT does he still have an EagleMail account?

wardly · March 3, 2017

We are still paying off Coach Mac, and I think that we just didn't have an extra $400,000 to buy him out. I mean, in the big picture whats another horse shit year?

Army of Dad · March 3, 2017

50 minutes ago, wardly said:

We are still paying off Coach Mac, and I think that we just didn't have an extra $400,000 to buy him out. I mean, in the big picture whats another horse shit year?

Even if they had no "extra" cash to pay a single year Benford buyout (and think of how sad that is) they could have sold an extra guarantee game or two and sacrificed a couple of the patsies Benford scheduled in a vain attempt to pad his W-L record to make up the difference.

As a season ticket holder I'd have gladly made that trade.

KRAM1 · March 3, 2017

Question for a psychologist out there in Mean Green Land.....

Why do people who say they no longer care about UNT keep posting on a UNT "fan board"? If one doesn't care about something why do they subject themselves to reading about it and discussing it so much? It is like the old Doctor joke....guy says "Doc it hurts when I raise my arm. Doc replies "don't raise your arm". Problem solved.

If one truly no longer cares about UNT, or anything else for that matter, it seems logical that they would remove themselves from that arena and find something that they do care about. So, is it that they really don't care or is it simply that they have a strong need to keep telling everyone they don't care in the hopes they can convince others to likewise not care by continually posting about what they "no longer care about". Or, maybe to convince themselves? Misery loves company perhaps? It seems to be an endless circle.

Any psychologists out there want to tackle this quandary?

97and03 · March 3, 2017

21 hours ago, FirefightnRick said:

We are responsible for why Benford wasn't reassigned as he should have been years ago. Any other fanbase would have raised ~~nine kinds of hell demanding it~~ the money to buyout his contract and hire a better coach. But not here. Here....we continue to come up with reasons why we should defend it.

Rick

FIFY

FirefightnRick · March 3, 2017

2 hours ago, wardly said:

We are still paying off Coach Mac, and I think that we just didn't have an extra $400,000 to buy him out. I mean, in the big picture whats another horse shit year?

We didn't need to to pay him off in January. We needed to reassign him.

Rick

shootermcgavin44 · March 3, 2017

11 hours ago, UNT90 said:

I think Wren Baker and Harry have zero idea of the far reaching consequences refusing to fire Benford will have for UNT athletics.

Then again, short sightedness has always been UNT strong suit when it comes to athletics,

You are being irrational. You just need to be patient and let the full evaluation process take place. Benford has one more game to get all his guys in here and get rid of team cancers and the such. Just be patient... evaluations take time.

UNTFan23 · March 3, 2017

7 hours ago, FirefightnRick said:

We didn't need to to pay him off in January. We needed to reassign him.

Rick

Moving someone to a lower position is such a bush league way to go about getting rid of someone. Besides, if we had, we'd be paying him the same amount of money he is making now to be something like a janitor or whatever role he is given.

VideoEagle · March 3, 2017

Bedford shouldn't have been given a fifth year. Actually, he shouldn't have been given a fourth year. But that has already happened and there is no point in worrying about it. It's a sunk cost - the money and time are already gone - and thus shouldn't play any part in decisions going forward. That's one of the basic principles of sound management.

UNT90 · March 3, 2017

14 minutes ago, VideoEagle said:

Bedford shouldn't have been given a fifth year. Actually, he shouldn't have been given a fourth year. But that has already happened and there is no point in worrying about it. It's a sunk cost - the money and time are already gone - and thus shouldn't play any part in decisions going forward. That's one of the basic principles of sound management.

I don't think ignoring huge past mistakes so that they can be repeated again is associated with any form of "sound management."

But it's definitely associated with UNT management.

Edited March 3, 2017 by UNT90

MeanGreenHoops · March 3, 2017

Killed it for me too. I too went from season tickets to I could maybe name half the players on the roster.

greenminer · March 4, 2017

11 hours ago, UNTFan23 said:

Moving someone to a lower position is such a bush league way to go about getting rid of someone. Besides, if we had, we'd be paying him the same amount of money he is making now to be something like a janitor or whatever role he is given.

Keeping him around was a pretty bush league way to run off the die hards. Now you have less fans, less money, and people that are questioning your priorities and abilities as an AD.

If you're suggesting this was the high road or the smart path, I respectfully disagree. Put on your big man pants and tell the world you will not tolerate losing.

KRAM1 · March 4, 2017

16 hours ago, greenminer said:

Keeping him around was a pretty bush league way to run off the die hards.

Except that you don't run off "die hards"...you run off others. Die hard fans are just that ... "die hard". They remain through thick and thin...they are there for the good times AND the bad times. Most true "die hard" fans are fans for reasons other than who the AD or certain coaches might be, and simply soldier through the "bad times" still supporting their university and its programs. Every university needs all the fans it can get...die hard, t-shirt, occasional, bandwagon...whatever you want to label them. No value judgement here...just clearing up the "definition" of die-hard. You cannot run those folks off.....as hard as the school might try sometimes.

Edited March 4, 2017 by KRAM1

DeepGreen · March 4, 2017

On 3/2/2017 at 2:49 PM, untjim1995 said:

I stopped going to games at the Super Pit in 2013, when it became obvious that Benford was in way over his head. I haven't missed a thing, either,

Look, my alma mater doesn't care about the thing I care most about for my school, outside of research and academics. I want to support a winning football and mens basketball program at UNT. I get tired of hearing of other alums of Texas schools tell me, during football and basketball season, that we would kill them in a marching band contest or in a jazz concert. But I just don't believe that they will ever feel this way at the top at UNT, nor do I believe that the culture of the university wants this. In many ways, it actually begs the question of why bother offering sports if you don't want to win at them as much as possible.

It's a way to give a free college education to 200+ students. Or whatever number it is. Who cares if we win or lose! This is North Texas.

NT1978 · March 4, 2017

2 hours ago, KRAM1 said:

Except that you don't run off "die hards"...you run off others. Die hard fans are just that ... "die hard". They remain through thick and thin...they are there for the good times AND the bad times. Most true "die hard" fans are fans for reasons other than who the AD or certain coaches might be, and simply soldier through the "bad times" still supporting their university and its programs. Every university needs all the fans it can get...die hard, t-shirt, occasional, bandwagon...whatever you want to label them. No value judgement here...just clearing up the "definition" of die-hard. You cannot run those folks off.....as hard as the school might try sometimes.

No value judgement here either, but it appears that you are confusing a die hard fan with a never say die fan. As the words mean, a die hard fan can lose interest in the what ever they support, it just takes more to kill the desire to support. A never say die fan's support survives all disappointments. Thanks to all the latter, at North Texas we need all we can get.

Army of Dad · March 4, 2017

2 hours ago, KRAM1 said:

"die hards"

KRAM1 · March 4, 2017

1 hour ago, NT1978 said:

No value judgement here either, but it appears that you are confusing a die hard fan with a never say die fan. As the words mean, a die hard fan can lose interest in the what ever they support, it just takes more to kill the desire to support. A never say die fan's support survives all disappointments. Thanks to all the latter, at North Texas we need all we can get.

News to me...

UNT90 · March 4, 2017

On 3/2/2017 at 11:20 PM, KRAM1 said:

Question for a psychologist out there in Mean Green Land.....

Why do people who say they no longer care about UNT keep posting on a UNT "fan board"? If one doesn't care about something why do they subject themselves to reading about it and discussing it so much? It is like the old Doctor joke....guy says "Doc it hurts when I raise my arm. Doc replies "don't raise your arm". Problem solved.

If one truly no longer cares about UNT, or anything else for that matter, it seems logical that they would remove themselves from that arena and find something that they do care about. So, is it that they really don't care or is it simply that they have a strong need to keep telling everyone they don't care in the hopes they can convince others to likewise not care by continually posting about what they "no longer care about". Or, maybe to convince themselves? Misery loves company perhaps? It seems to be an endless circle.

Any psychologists out there want to tackle this quandary?

Maybe because they are now sure that they have thrown away thousands of dollars on a pack of lies told to them time and again by the leadership at UNT? Maybe they feel that they are the bottom bitch of the UNT athletic Ponzi scheme?

But you would love it if all criticism vanished and the same 100 people could pat each other on the back and tell each other how great each other are in your own little echo chamber, I'm quite sure.

When 98% of any group find something so devoid of value as to eliminate it from their life completely, maybe it's the other 2% of people who think it has value are wrong. Ever consider that?