North Texas athletics experiencing unprecedented success in Year 2 under Wren Baker

Skipper · November 15, 2017

Whether it’s a coincidence or not, the North Texas athletic department is having what is arguably the best fall season in school history between its football, volleyball and soccer teams

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MeanGreen_MBA · November 15, 2017

Somebody buy WB a beer!!!!

akriesman · November 15, 2017

I already forgot about our previous AD. Wasn't his name Jimmy John or something like that :)

Just kidding RV........somewhat.

LongJim · November 15, 2017

UNT should dominate CUSA in every sport. Every sport.

MeanGreen17 · November 16, 2017

4 hours ago, akriesman said:

I already forgot about our previous AD. Wasn't his name Jimmy John or something like that :)

Just kidding RV........somewhat.

Wrong. UNT90

emmitt01 · November 16, 2017

Wait, this simply can't be true. I was told he was no different than RV.

Now you tell me we are having unprecedented success??

**Discreetly calls the airplane pilot to cancel his order**

Venson · November 16, 2017

I would like to give all the credit to WB, but he has only hired one coach and that's Grant McCasland. All the rest were hired under RV. I give credit to WB for expressing a vision and providing support, but I think the real hero is President Smatresk. He has been intimately involved with the athletics program like no other President before. Not that WB is not a good hire, I just think he is riding the coat tails of the Pres now.

BTG_Fan1 · November 16, 2017

4 minutes ago, Venson said:

I would like to give all the credit to WB, but he has only hired one coach and that's Grant McCasland. All the rest were hired under RV. I give credit to WB for expressing a vision and providing support, but I think the real hero is President Smatresk. He has been intimately involved with the athletics program like no other President before. Not that WB is not a good hire, I just think he is riding the coat tails of the Pres now.

Agreed RV hires have been solid in terms this year and WBB made the conference tourney last year.

One thing that has really improved under NS and WB, is NS I think has come to realization that Sports can open up UNT to even more people. With that being said WB has brought in a more business like approach which has seen donations increase, and the programs getting the support they need. No idea but wondering if soccer,VBall,football took off at the same time because od the sports nutrition guy.

Venson · November 16, 2017

3 minutes ago, BTG_Fan1 said:

Agreed RV hires have been solid in terms this year and WBB made the conference tourney last year.

One thing that has really improved under NS and WB, is NS I think has come to realization that Sports can open up UNT to even more people. With that being said WB has brought in a more business like approach which has seen donations increase, and the programs getting the support they need. No idea but wondering if soccer,VBall,football took off at the same time because od the sports nutrition guy.

Him bringing in the nutritionist is the type of support that I am talking about. Those are great things. Soccer has always been the best team on campus so I am not sure if the nutritionist had anything to do with their success. Now Volleyball on the other hand, maybe.

ChristopherRyanWilkes · November 16, 2017

20 minutes ago, Venson said:

I would like to give all the credit to WB, but he has only hired one coach and that's Grant McCasland. All the rest were hired under RV. I give credit to WB for expressing a vision and providing support, but I think the real hero is President Smatresk. He has been intimately involved with the athletics program like no other President before. Not that WB is not a good hire, I just think he is riding the coat tails of the Pres now.

I'd also like to point out that its my belief and the belief of many on here that Seth Littrell was ultimately a Smatty hire as well. RV made has always made some decent to good hires in women sports. His downfall was in the revenue-generating sports hires, especially in recent years.

HoustonEagle · November 16, 2017

Please correct me if I’m wrong but I think Hedlund was hired prior to RV’s tenure.

blurbeard · November 16, 2017

11 minutes ago, HoustonEagle said:

Please correct me if I’m wrong but I think Hedlund was hired prior to RV’s tenure.

Correct. Hedlund already has 5 CUSA titles, 13 overall.

KingDL1 · November 16, 2017

2 hours ago, Venson said:

I would like to give all the credit to WB, but he has only hired one coach and that's Grant McCasland. All the rest were hired under RV. I give credit to WB for expressing a vision and providing support, but I think the real hero is President Smatresk. He has been intimately involved with the athletics program like no other President before. Not that WB is not a good hire, I just think he is riding the coat tails of the Pres now.

Littrell was not RV's

Venson · November 16, 2017

1 minute ago, KingDL1 said:

Littrell was not RV's

Yes he was. Littrell was hired December 5, 2015 and RV did not step down until May 23, 2016. Go research it.He was the last hire that RV made.

KingDL1 · November 16, 2017

Just now, Venson said:

Yes he was. Littrell was hired December 5, 2015 and RV did not step down until May 23, 2016. Go research it.He was the last hire that RV made.

RV might have still been there but he had absolutely nothing to do with Litrell's hiring.

Venson · November 16, 2017

1 minute ago, KingDL1 said:

RV might have still been there but he had absolutely nothing to do with Litrell's hiring.

I beg to differ. All the articles written about the situation says that RV went after SL. I know RV wasn't a great AD, but everything he did was not bad. He did a couple of good things and pursuing SL was one of them. Did he do some bad? Yes. Firing Dickey, hiring Dodge, hiring Benford, hiring McCarney, who was just trying to pad his retirement, to name a few. The good, getting Apogee, hiring Jalie Mitchell, and hiring SL.

KingDL1 · November 16, 2017

Just now, Venson said:

I beg to differ. All the articles written about the situation says that RV went after SL. I know RV wasn't a great AD, but everything he did was not bad. He did a couple of good things and pursuing SL was one of them. Did he do some bad? Yes. Firing Dickey, hiring Dodge, hiring Benford, hiring McCarney, who was just trying to pad his retirement, to name a few. The good, getting Apogee, hiring Jalie Mitchell, and hiring SL.

Well believe what you like, in this case you would be wrong.

Venson · November 16, 2017

1 minute ago, KingDL1 said:

Well believe what you like, in this case you would be wrong.

Well we will have to agree to disagree.

KingDL1 · November 16, 2017

1 minute ago, Venson said:

Well we will have to agree to disagree.

Do you believe RV stepped down on his own?

Venson · November 16, 2017

15 minutes ago, KingDL1 said:

Do you believe RV stepped down on his own?

No I don't, but we don't know otherwise either unless everyone involved tells the truth which I doubt will ever happen.

NorthTexan95 · November 16, 2017

Hiring coaches is tough and I don't judge RV too hard because he made bad hires. The problem is his bad hires were historically bad and "program killing" bad. His bad hires alone should have been reason enough to fire him much sooner.

As bad as his hiring record is, it's his awful administration skills that hurt this school just as much or maybe more. Let's not forget the report that came out last year. It was "highly critical" of RV's administration.

http://www.dentonrc.com/news/news/2016/09/28/report-highly-critical-of-unt-athletics1

Quote

“Overall, the AD is under performing at virtually every level resulting from a lack of leadership, inadequate funding, outdated and/or poorly maintained facilities and in many cases nonexistent internal processes,” the report states.

I'd bet Smatresk was not surprised by much that was in the report and I don't believe RV totally stepped down on his own. He may not have been pushed out but he must have seen the writing on the wall. RV had no idea how to run a competent AD office and he seemed to have no interest in doing so.

I'd also bet that a lot of this money that has opened up from the school and donors for the athletic department would not have been so free if RV was still here. There's a night and day difference between this administration and RV's administration and every can see it, especially donors.

Got5onIt · November 16, 2017

I thought Smatty hired SL with RV watching from the sideline until the ax came down?

KingDL1 · November 16, 2017

1 minute ago, Venson said:

No I don't, but we don't know otherwise either unless everyone involved tells the truth which I doubt will ever happen.

There was plenty of info going around at the time from insiders and even comments straight from Smatresk himself that made it damn clear that RV was not part of the hire and that RV's days were limited. RV was horrible and lazy. Smatresk did a great job with Littrell and RV should not get credit for something like this simply because his walking papers had not been publicly formalized. Having to live through the whole RV era was embarrassing. He was not a true AD, and the TCU people had him right.

BTG_Fan1 · November 16, 2017

Was RV removed from having a say in SL after he fumbled the Lincoln Riley possibly??

Venson · November 16, 2017

6 hours ago, NorthTexan95 said:

Hiring coaches is tough and I don't judge RV too hard because he made bad hires. The problem is his bad hires were historically bad and "program killing" bad. His bad hires alone should have been reason enough to fire him much sooner.

As bad as his hiring record is, it's his awful administration skills that hurt this school just as much or maybe more. Let's not forget the report that came out last year. It was "highly critical" of RV's administration.

http://www.dentonrc.com/news/news/2016/09/28/report-highly-critical-of-unt-athletics1

I'd bet Smatresk was not surprised by much that was in the report and I don't believe RV totally stepped down on his own. He may not have been pushed out but he must have seen the writing on the wall. RV had no idea how to run a competent AD office and he seemed to have no interest in doing so.

I'd also bet that a lot of this money that has opened up from the school and donors for the athletic department would not have been so free if RV was still here. There's a night and day difference between this administration and RV's administration and every can see it, especially donors.

I agree. That's why I say Smatresk is the real hero here. Don't get me wrong, WB is doing great things, but I think the initial success that is being made is because of the President. I talk to a guy who works in fundraising at UNT once a week and he personally told me that the donors love the President. That's why they don't want him to leave, but he is going to retire soon. He made the WB hire and gave him the title of Vice President and AD so we will be okay. We just need to get another President that believes in athletics like NS does when he does call it quits.