AD Department

TIgreen01 · July 26, 2017

It all comes down to hiring coaches that can be highly competitive at our level. All the little stuff combined helps lure those coaches to Denton. At the P5 levels you're fired if you don't win immediately. At the G5 levels you're stolen/hired away if you do. It's a constant churn. An AD either needs one hell of a great support network to help identify talent, or he/she needs to be a great evaluator of coaches. Then they've got to be able to land those coaches once they are identified, and that's where all the other stuff (administrative & donor $$ support, facilities, etc) comes in.

I'd be happy with UNT to just have the sustained success of a LaTech for a while. They have a lot of things that would be easy to use as excuses---somewhat crappy facilities (relative to peers), not the most money, lousy location, ugly co-eds (kidding), etc....but they just keep on chugging along. It's rare when they aren't in the top quarter or competing for their conference crown. I also can't ever remember a year when I wouldn't have traded straight up for their HFC and staff since I started at UNT in '96. If UNT had spent the past 20 years doing what LaTech has, I believe that we'd already be in a higher level conference. Our location, alumni base, and TV market wouldn't have held us back as it has LaTech.

untjim1995 · July 26, 2017

On ‎7‎/‎23‎/‎2017 at 0:20 PM, wardly said:

We have a new stadium, and won a bowl game a few years ago, yet season ticket sales dropped. Many other schools in both in both CUSA and SBC, including UTEP and UTSA, have far more season ticket sales than UNT. I thought that new bricks and sticks would change that but it hasn't. I have determined that after 56 years of supporting Eagle football that the majority of students and alumni just don't care, and probably won't ever care.

You have hit the nail on the head perfectly. In Colorado State's situation, their football program was given a huge priority back in the 80's and early 90's, when Sonny Lubick became a huge success and they became a top 25 team in most years. That university's family (alumni, student body, faculty, administration, etc...) wants sports to be its primary window to the university, so they've put lots of $$$ towards facilities, coaches, and buyouts. Plus, they have regional rivalries in conference that have been around for decades (AFA, Wyoming, UNM) and they get to play the big dog in the state (Colorado) every year to start the season.

Our situation is pretty much 180 degrees from theirs. They play in a league that will get to continue playing at the highest level of play when the future culling of FBS occurs. They have two FBS schools in their state to compete with that love playing them in sports every year. We here on gmg.com could only wish that we had those kind of luxuries--its too bad that the other 98% either don't care or openly wish we would get rid of the football program...

Cerebus · July 26, 2017

On 7/22/2017 at 5:39 PM, wardly said:

I just got back from Colorado Springs, where the Rams announced this years season ticket sales of 16,000, up from 12,000,[C.U.'s was 19,000] with average 2016 attendance at 27,500. .

I am still solidly in the "waiting and seeing" camp when it comes to The Wren™. I've really liked/loved somethings he has done, really disliked/hated others. Over all, he seems to be an improvement, but I want to see a lot more than just "better than the last guy."

If he wanted to win me over (for now) all he would have to do is:

Announce season ticket and MGC numbers
Announce season ticket and MGC goals.

He's been able to hire the upper level staff he felt he needed. He's had time to evaluate and make changes. He has had time to get the new culture started, if not quite enough time to make it stick. It's time that he started to be evaluated. Part of that evaluation is seeing how his people do. On and off the field. We'll see how his MBB hire does soon enough, we need to see how his off the field people do too.

With the on the field people, we can see wins and losses. With the off the field people, we need other metrics. I have harped about ST/MGC numbers for a long time. I think they are a very good metric of how healthy your athletic department is.

Not releasing those number implies nothing good to me.

oldguystudent · July 26, 2017

1 hour ago, Cerebus said:

Not releasing those number implies nothing good to me.

I don't know if this means anything, but when I looked for hypothetical basketball season tickets, pretty much every seat in the arena was available. This is what I got looking for hypothetical football season tickets.

Cerebus · July 30, 2017

On 7/26/2017 at 4:11 PM, Cerebus said:

I am still solidly in the "waiting and seeing" camp when it comes to The Wren™. I've really liked/loved somethings he has done, really disliked/hated others. Over all, he seems to be an improvement, but I want to see a lot more than just "better than the last guy."

If he wanted to win me over (for now) all he would have to do is:

Announce season ticket and MGC numbers

Announce season ticket and MGC goals.

I'm going to amend this. Move me from "waiting and seeing" to "optimistic and excited, but still watching for followup."

There should be some announcements next month.

GreenMachine · July 30, 2017

On 7/26/2017 at 10:17 AM, TIgreen01 said:

It all comes down to hiring coaches that can be highly competitive at our level. All the little stuff combined helps lure those coaches to Denton. At the P5 levels you're fired if you don't win immediately. At the G5 levels you're stolen/hired away if you do. It's a constant churn. An AD either needs one hell of a great support network to help identify talent, or he/she needs to be a great evaluator of coaches. Then they've got to be able to land those coaches once they are identified, and that's where all the other stuff (administrative & donor $$ support, facilities, etc) comes in.

I'd be happy with UNT to just have the sustained success of a LaTech for a while. They have a lot of things that would be easy to use as excuses---somewhat crappy facilities (relative to peers), not the most money, lousy location, ugly co-eds (kidding), etc....but they just keep on chugging along. It's rare when they aren't in the top quarter or competing for their conference crown. I also can't ever remember a year when I wouldn't have traded straight up for their HFC and staff since I started at UNT in '96. If UNT had spent the past 20 years doing what LaTech has, I believe that we'd already be in a higher level conference. Our location, alumni base, and TV market wouldn't have held us back as it has LaTech.

It makes me want to vomit in my mouth to compare North Texas to LA Tech in any form or fashion.