AFTER 4 SEASONS

MeanGreenTexan · November 25, 2019

Just now, TheColonyEagle said:

I'm curious.....how do you know he's an outstanding coach for North Texas?

For me, it's because of how quickly he turned the ship around.

Udomann · November 25, 2019

Just now, MeanGreenTexan said:

For me, it's because of how quickly he turned the ship around.

Feels like an overstatement/simplification. Yeah, he is turning the ship. But I don't think it's a turn around or in the right direction. It's not hitting rocks or running aground, but the ship steering still needs some work. A lot of other coaches can do what he did in hindsight.

TheColonyEagle · November 25, 2019

Just now, MeanGreenTexan said:

For me, it's because of how quickly he turned the ship around.

But it didn't stay there long....

I still say (in hindsight of course) that Littrell was the beneficiary of a horribly easy schedule. That's been evident by the way his teams have played against good competition. Again...what he's done is beat up on FCS teams, really really bad FBS teams...and everyone else blows him out.

Any coach that wasn't a complete disaster (HS assistants or looking to retirement) could've done what Littrell did. And we certainly don't need to give Littrell the deal we gave him (sorry Adler) to give us what he's given us. (barely above .500)

This is year 4 with the greatest QB in school history and we're not going to make a bowl. Half the teams in college football make bowls.

My bar is not "it's better than Portland State" especially with the investment here.

MeanGreenTexan · November 25, 2019

Just now, Udomann said:

Feels like an overstatement/simplification. Yeah, he is turning the ship. But I don't think it's a turn around or in the right direction. It's not hitting rocks or running aground, but the ship steering still needs some work. A lot of other coaches can do what he did in hindsight.

And this seems like your washing his previous 3 successful years in the stink of this year's failure, which is not fair.

SilverEagle · November 25, 2019

1 hour ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

Exactly. It would be best for both parties (North Texas & Seth Littrell) if both succeed. Seth will now have an extra 2 weeks to fully dedicate himself to recruiting, coaching changes & self-reflection since he won't be coaching his team in preparation for a bowl game.

I anticipate some difficult decisions will need to be made for him regarding coaches.

Fingers crossed: I think NT's OC for the 2020 season is about to be fired from FLSt.

....and after breathing the rarefied air of coaching in the ACC do you think he would actually come to North Texas for anything less than the HC gig?

On the negative side. If he can't generate a kick ass offense at a school with much more going for it than North Texas, then other than being a legendary native son of Texas, what makes him such an attractive hire here?

Edited November 25, 2019 by SilverEagle

MeanGreenTexan · November 25, 2019

Just now, TheColonyEagle said:

But it didn't stay there long....

I still say (in hindsight of course) that Littrell was the beneficiary of a horribly easy schedule. That's been evident by the way his teams have played against good competition. Again...what he's done is beat up on FCS teams, really really bad FBS teams...and everyone else blows him out.

Any coach that wasn't a complete disaster (HS assistants or looking to retirement) could've done what Littrell did. And we certainly don't need to give Littrell the deal we gave him (sorry Adler) to give us what he's given us. (barely above .500)

This is year 4 with the greatest QB in school history and we're not going to make a bowl. Half the teams in college football make bowls.

My bar is not "it's better than Portland State" especially with the investment here.

Again, we can only play the teams on the schedule. That doesn't mean 9 wins aren't a success. We get blown out of the 2017 CCG. That doesn't mean getting there wasn't a success.
This season was a failure, for sure. But 1 failure of a season does not erase 3 prior successful seasons. Now, 2 failures back-to-back, it's time to worry (heck, IF he doesn't make any staff changes, then worry now).

MeanGreenTexan · November 25, 2019

Just now, SilverEagle said:

....and after breathing the rarefied air of coaching in the ACC do you think he would actually come to North Texas for anything less than the HC gig?

On the negative side. If he can't generate a kick ass offense at a school with much more going for it than North Texas, then other than being a legendary native son of Texas, what makes him such an attractive hire here?

Yes, because FSU's offensive woes weren't what P5 schools are looking for in an OC. The shine is off on the golden boy for now... a lot like Littrell himself.
However, did you see what he did with FAU & Houston? THAT's why he would be attractive here.

SilverEagle · November 25, 2019

1 minute ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

Yes, because FSU's offensive woes weren't what P5 schools are looking for in an OC. The shine is off on the golden boy for now... a lot like Littrell himself.
However, did you see what he did with FAU & Houston? THAT's why he would be attractive here.

I saw what he did twice to us at FAU, but unless he's playing the North Texas defense every week, that's not all that impressive. Troy did pretty much the same thing to us the same year. Who was their OC?

RBP79 · November 25, 2019

9 minutes ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

And this seems like your washing his previous 3 successful years in the stink of this year's failure, which is not fair.

Two 9 win seasons, one 5-7 season, and most likely 4-8 this season. Two winning seasons mainly because we're in the worst football division in FBS. Next year hopefully we get 4 wins again cause that schedule looks a lot more difficult.

MeanGreenTexan · November 25, 2019

15 minutes ago, RBP79 said:

Two 9 win seasons, one 5-7 season, and most likely 4-8 this season. Two winning seasons mainly because we're in the worst football division in FBS. Next year hopefully we get 4 wins again cause that schedule looks a lot more difficult.

The 5-7 season... Do we really need to go there? That season was more impressive than any of his others. It was a MONUMENTAL success.

Are y'all that myopic?

ADLER · November 25, 2019

3 minutes ago, TheColonyEagle said:

I'm curious.....how do you know he's an outstanding coach for North Texas?

We had an enormously disappointing season this year, we all understand that.

But attendance has been the best ever, even with this weeks anticipated emptiness ( I'll let the Debbie-Downers do their little celebration dance) even though the vast majority of the NCAA has seen a reduction.

Recruiting has improved drastically last year, and in this year's current class. We are going to be developing the type of talent and depth that should give us a good chance of being in the upper tier of G5.

And most of all, Seth wins. We all understand this has been a down season, but like you stated, two 9 win seasons in a row is not a common at North Texas. He has raised the bar and raised expectations. Right now we're all in the dumps because we didn't make a bowl game, that's understandable.

We've witnessed enormous growth for this program in the last several years and we need to find and achieve whatever decisions that will not only maintain that momentum but possibly enhance it.

MeanGreenTexan · November 25, 2019

18 minutes ago, SilverEagle said:

I saw what he did twice to us at FAU, but unless he's playing the North Texas defense every week, that's not all that impressive. Troy did pretty much the same thing to us the same year. Who was their OC?

The OC of Big12 West Virginia since he followed his successful HC there.

Udomann · November 25, 2019

1 minute ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

The 5-7 season... Do we really need to go there? That season was more impressive than any of his others. It was a MONUMENTAL success.

Are y'all that myopic?

Again, it doesn't just boil down to good or bad only. Black or white. win or lose. It's just not that simplistic. If all you see is 2 nine win seasons, everything look peachy.

Sure we downplay that we went from dead last in CFB to having some decent years. But you can't pump up those seasons as if we were worthy of a national title or even a good team. We did "just ok" in a really bad conference against really bad teams. Hindsight has showed us that. And we failed to do well against anyone with some meat on them.

And now, once again, we are nearing the bottom 10.

On a scale of 1-10, given the teams we've beaten. We are maybe... a 5? Barely average? I was kinda hoping to see that go up. Not back down. I truly do hope Seth is the guy. Unless, the good lord willing, some other team takes him off our hands, we are stuck with him.

97and03 · November 25, 2019

Are we forgetting that we used to lose to all these horrible teams and under SL we generally beat them?

We still need to beat the good teams in meaningful games obviously but I can’t understand complaining that we beat the teams on our schedule.

TheColonyEagle · November 25, 2019

6 minutes ago, ADLER said:

We had an enormously disappointing season this year, we all understand that.

But attendance has been the best ever, even with this weeks anticipated emptiness ( I'll let the Debbie-Downers do their little celebration dance) even though the vast majority of the NCAA has seen a reduction.

Recruiting has improved drastically last year, and in this year's current class. We are going to be developing the type of talent and depth that should give us a good chance of being in the upper tier of G5.

And most of all, Seth wins. We all understand this has been a down season, but like you stated, two 9 win seasons in a row is not a common at North Texas. He has raised the bar and raised expectations. Right now we're all in the dumps because we didn't make a bowl game, that's understandable.

We've witnessed enormous growth for this program in the last several years and we need to find and achieve whatever decisions that will not only maintain that momentum but possibly enhance it.

Hiring the recruiting coordinator and revamping that process was a big time positive. Littrell started out poorly in recruiting and addressed it. I'll give him major credit for that. We haven't seen the results yet (meaning can he develop them and win games with them) but that may be the most important thing he's done. We'll soon see if he takes that same strategy and revamps his coordinators. Especially on the defensive side.

outoftown · November 25, 2019

I am disappointed with this year, and always thought WB was giving SL too much money too early.

But it is also too early to think this will not go anywhere. Last season was likely the best recruiting season in a long time. This season is on track to be similar, but it will be interesting to see if it goes south due to the results. If it doesn't then i think the SL era may still turn out to be as great as it might have promised to be at the end of last season. if they can't hold on to those recruits, bring out the magnifying glass on him.

Edited November 25, 2019 by outoftown

wardly · November 25, 2019

So how would you compare Littrell's recruiting in four years to Dykes in two, and which program is on the rise ? Again, just asking.

outoftown · November 25, 2019

1 minute ago, wardly said:

So how would you compare Littrell's recruiting in four years to Dykes in two, and which program is on the rise ? Again, just asking.

I think its fair to say that Dykes has done a phenomenal job of adapting to the new transfer rules. But I doubt it is how you sustain a long term program that will last beyond Dykes tenure. Dykes may be a long time at SMU though. Doubt any big time programs are thinking to bring him in after Cal, and he sure isn't getting fired with the current results.

SL did above average for NT, but only a little. He started out with a low rated class with lots of diamonds in the rough, then had two classes that just weren't great, then finally found the turn. His recruitment is improved to Macs, but not by a huge margin, however movement seems to go generally in the right direction. Whether that will stay that way with the results deteriorating will be interesting to see.

Edited November 25, 2019 by outoftown

TheColonyEagle · November 25, 2019

Just now, outoftown said:

I think its fair to say that Dykes has done a phenomenal job of adapting to the new transfer rules. But I doubt it is how you sustain a long term program that will last beyond Dykes tenure. Dykes may be a long time at SMU though. Doubt any big time programs are thinking to bring him in after Cal, and he sure isn't getting fired with the current results.

I wonder what Dykes will be able to do with HS recruits when he walks in with top 25 ranking to sell

and also....most of those transfers will be back next year....

GrandGreen · November 25, 2019

NT is having a very disappointing season. It is evident and I doubt anybody has a different view. Hundreds of posts stating that are not going to change anything. Other than let fans vent their frustrations.

The recruiting being bad statement is out of left field. No one knows till the end of a players' play, how good they are. With that qualification, NT recruiting is ranked very high.

NT's last year's class was rated fourth best in the conference and second this year. The second is misleading because NT has the highest average ranked recruits in the league. They are second to La Tech, only because La Tech has 4 more commitments.

Pavlovs Eagle · November 25, 2019

2 hours ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

Seth will now have an extra 2 weeks to fully dedicate himself to recruiting, coaching changes & self-reflection since he won't be coaching his team in preparation for a bowl game.

You mean another 2 weeks to hone his elevator pitch sunshine story for AFCA in Jan? I don't think he made the presenter list this year.

El Paso Eagle · November 25, 2019

1 hour ago, TheColonyEagle said:

I'm curious.....how do you know he's an outstanding coach for North Texas?

When we have a coach in the school's HOF with a career 42-64 record, I think by UNT standards he is doing outstanding

TheColonyEagle · November 25, 2019

Just now, El Paso Eagle said:

When we have a coach in the school's HOF with a career 42-64 record, I think by UNT standards he is doing outstanding

TRUTH

So there are two different ways to look at it.

A coach is either:

#1 an outstanding coach

or

#2 an outstanding coach FOR NORTH TEXAS

I've been mistakenly judging Littrell through #1. I guess I need to stop doing that. But I thought we were investing everything we're investing (facilities, salaries, infrastructure) to have a #1. Not a just a #2. We don't have to act like a big boy if we're just going to accept #2.

untbowler · November 25, 2019

1 hour ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

And this seems like your washing his previous 3 successful years in the stink of this year's failure, which is not fair.

only 2 successful seasons, Season 1 was 5-8, backed in to a bowl due to academics, losing to a team they beat in regular season, all the whole shitting the bed against a bad UTEP that would have made team bowl eligible straight up.

Legend500 · November 25, 2019

33 minutes ago, outoftown said:

I think its fair to say that Dykes has done a phenomenal job of adapting to the new transfer rules. But I doubt it is how you sustain a long term program that will last beyond Dykes tenure. Dykes may be a long time at SMU though. Doubt any big time programs are thinking to bring him in after Cal, and he sure isn't getting fired with the current results.

Dykes' roll of the dice was a one-trick pony. Everybody's onto the transfer for a year game now, and that market is already far more competitive for next year's transfers.

I remember Todd Dodge. Let's not make that mistake ever again.