Indy Bowl

southsideguy · December 27, 2019

I wish our program is where LATECH is now. They beat who they are suppose to beat. They are always competitive and team the team is always ready to play. They play defense well and their offense is consistent. They don't seem to have the big drop off years. We need to hire Holtz.

cogido · December 27, 2019

6 hours ago, Cerebus said:

Fans are weird. We had a guy who won the conference 4 straight years and there were people ready to run him out of town ASAP.

Only wanted to run him out of town after the great four year run when he quit coaching, quit recruiting and acted like a spoiled brat.

NorthTexasWeLove · December 27, 2019

Yay us

GrandGreen · December 27, 2019

14 hours ago, Cerebus said:

Fans are weird. We had a guy who won the conference 4 straight years and there were people ready to run him out of town ASAP.

DD did as much as possible to fire himself.

A guy that lived on one great recruiting class, and decided to wait for the big offer. NT didn't fire him soon enough.

ttunt1970 · December 27, 2019

GG you are right on point he lived on one class and trying to get another job Idaho of all places!

SilverEagle · December 27, 2019

16 hours ago, DeepGreen said:

Let’s go after their head coach.

I tend to look at it from another angle. Hire the people who made the decision to bring in Holtz. They obviously know how to pick a coach that works well in their system/community. You can knee-jerk-hire coaches all you want, but not all successful coaches and/or coaches on their way up, do well here at good ol' North Texas.

One example would be Rod Rust. He was an assistant coach at Stanford when he was hired to replace Odus Mitchell. I assume he was well thought of at Stanford. He was a great X's & O's coach, (which is why he had such a long career after NT.....mostly in the pros), but every person who ever remembered him as HC here said the same thing.....he couldn't recruit!

I suspect he couldn't fathom the culture here at North Texas either. Bob Tyler was the first coach I ever heard of that looked around toward the end of the season and said "what the hell is wrong with these people?" But I have to believe that Rod Rust must have said something very similar......only not as clean.

(roll your eyes time) Hayden Fry was the only coach that came in and truly got us. Which is why he undertook the herculean task of trying to change our culture.

greenminer · December 27, 2019

3 hours ago, GrandGreen said:

DD did as much as possible to fire himself.

A guy that lived on one great recruiting class, and decided to wait for the big offer. NT didn't fire him soon enough.

We aren't completely innocent. The guy won four straight titles, had two national rushing champions, and endured the loss of Andrew Smith. We gave him a pat on the back and RV didn't reward him with anything (much?).

Meanwhile, the current generation gets a coach that gets 5 wins in his [at that point] only year of HC, and we're so enamored with an APR bowl that we feel like we need to increase his salary, bump his assistant budget, extend his contract and - oh hey! - here's one of the top indoor practice facilities in this area of the country.

UNTLifer · December 27, 2019

1 hour ago, SilverEagle said:

I tend to look at it from another angle. Hire the people who made the decision to bring in Holtz. They obviously know how to pick a coach that works well in their system/community. You can knee-jerk-hire coaches all you want, but not all successful coaches and/or coaches on their way up, do well here at good ol' North Texas.

One example would be Rod Rust. He was an assistant coach at Stanford when he was hired to replace Odus Mitchell. I assume he was well thought of at Stanford. He was a great X's & O's coach, (which is why he had such a long career after NT.....mostly in the pros), but every person who ever remembered him as HC here said the same thing.....he couldn't recruit!

I suspect he couldn't fathom the culture here at North Texas either. Bob Tyler was the first coach I ever heard of that looked around toward the end of the season and said "what the hell is wrong with these people?" But I have to believe that Rod Rust must have said something very similar......only not as clean.

(roll your eyes time) Hayden Fry was the only coach that came in and truly got us. Which is why he undertook the herculean task of trying to change our culture.

Bob Tyler was as crooked as a dog's hind leg. He was used to deep pockets helping him cheat and didn't find that in Denton. Rust was a good man that my family knew very well. He was a super nice man, but he just couldn't recruit and didn't have the personality to be a successful head coach at that time. Once Mitchell's recruits were gone, he was done.

DeepGreen · December 27, 2019

To Silver Eagle's post, are we talking the "coaching hire culture" at North Texas, or the culture of North Texas, the University? I tend to think it's the latter. Something in the UNT air keeps good athletics from coming to Denton. Yes, we certainly get "some" talented athletes, but not near what other programs get. Remember Coach Mac's words, "it's hard to recruit to North Texas". I ask, "why" is it hard to recruit to North Texas? Maybe it's something about the University itself.

OK, I've dug in for the onslaught!

GrandGreen · December 27, 2019

2 hours ago, greenminer said:

We aren't completely innocent. The guy won four straight titles, had two national rushing champions, and endured the loss of Andrew Smith. We gave him a pat on the back and RV didn't reward him with anything (much?).

Meanwhile, the current generation gets a coach that gets 5 wins in his [at that point] only year of HC, and we're so enamored with an APR bowl that we feel like we need to increase his salary, bump his assistant budget, extend his contract and - oh hey! - here's one of the top indoor practice facilities in this area of the country.

I have always thought that Dickey's Belt winning streak was tremendous and a big accomplishment.

Dickey did a lot with little, but overlooked is that most of his wins came against schools with much less than NT.

As the league caught up with NT, Dickey was exposed.

Bringing Littrell in the conversation and once again complaining about his results as a function of his salary is IMO off point. Like having his record and being paid half of his current compensation would make it somehow better.

1 hour ago, DeepGreen said:

To Silver Eagle's post, are we talking the "coaching hire culture" at North Texas, or the culture of North Texas, the University? I tend to think it's the latter. Something in the UNT air keeps good athletics from coming to Denton. Yes, we certainly get "some" talented athletes, but not near what other programs get. Remember Coach Mac's words, "it's hard to recruit to North Texas". I ask, "why" is it hard to recruit to North Texas? Maybe it's something about the University itself.

OK, I've dug in for the onslaught!

I doubt there is an onslaught, but I disagree to an extent.

NT is digging out of an hole that they had been digging for decades. This La Tech team some are touting is a product of an university that has for the most part understood the value of athletes for most of their history. While NT has a bigger budget and superior infrastructure at this point, this is a fairly recent occurrence.

Mac couldn't recruit anywhere by the time NT hired him. I believe that NT is recruiting very well at this point, if Littrell can't win here it is because he is a bad coach, not because of what NT has to offer.

NM Green · December 28, 2019

People we’ve missed one bowl game. Not ready to throw out Seth yet. Recommit and go win the league and bowl game. Don’t want skip in Denton. We don’t need to chase a coach from Ruston no matter how much I respect his accomplishments.

Paint CUSA Mean Green 2020

greenminer · December 28, 2019

1 hour ago, NM Green said:

People we’ve missed one CFP. Not ready to throw out Nick yet. Recommit and go win the league and CFP title.

It's interesting to think how Alabama will respond with Saban.

Side Show Joe · December 28, 2019

I'm glad to see a C-USA team pull out a bowl win against a respected P5 brand like Miami. But, it does feel like salt in an open wound, considering LA Tech has far fewer resources yet consistently preforms better on the field. I know it is just one season, but our terrible season occurred at the worst possible time, when we were senior heavy and picked to win the division, and contend for the conference title. LA Tech has found the magic formula for being a consistence winner at the G5 level. Littrell may figure it out too. Time will tell. I'm not in panic mode yet, but another down season (sub .500) and many on this board will be calling for bigger changes, especially if LA Tech is bowling again.

The new recruiting class looks good, but most of those players are at least a year or two away from making an impact on the field. This team needs immediate help on both lines and at QB. I didn't see enough out of either back-up to make me feel confident in them running the offense next season. We simply can't wait for players to develop. Bowen has been hired as the new DC. At this point we can only hope his system has an immediate positive impact. Hopefully, Littrell can find an OC that can elevate our offense to new heights. If the hire can unify the fan base and generate some positive press for UNT that would be great too.

Thought Police, enjoy down-voting my post.

Edited December 28, 2019 by Side Show Joe

SilverEagle · December 29, 2019

On 12/27/2019 at 1:45 PM, UNTLifer said:

Bob Tyler was as crooked as a dog's hind leg. He was used to deep pockets helping him cheat and didn't find that in Denton. Rust was a good man that my family knew very well. He was a super nice man, but he just couldn't recruit and didn't have the personality to be a successful head coach at that time. Once Mitchell's recruits were gone, he was done.

Yep, Bob Tyler probably was "crooked as a dog's leg", but historically some of the best judges of character have been crooks......especially con men. Otherwise, down the corridor of years, they wouldn't be able to con so many people out of their money. I have been told two things about his hire, 1. he was a very well dressed person, so the person in charge of hiring was overly impressed with how he looked. 2. knowledgeable people at Miss St. kept warning us NOT to hire the guy.

You know, sometimes I think that until RV was hired as AD, the hiring of new coaches was done by whoever was in the office on that particular day. I've imagined it this way many times.....

"Secretary for the vice president of multiple meaningless titles sticks her head in the door"

Mr. Doolittle, there's three guys out in the lobby who say they are here to be interviewed for the head football coaching job. One of them calls himself *Corkey of all things, and one of the others looks kind of shifty and overdressed to me.

Mr. Doolittle

Damn! Am I on call today to do hires?

Secretary..... Yep, you're the guy on rotation.

Doolittle

"Damn, I was hoping to be able to go over to the Marcus Hall cafeteria and have an early lunch with one of my fellow bureaucrats. It's meatloaf day. Oh well, tell them to come in in alphabetical order and I'll get this over with."

Secretary

Fine. BTW are you ever going to answer that phone message from that guy at Miss State. He said it was important.

*Corkey Nelson was one of the applicants when Bob Tyler was hired.

Edited December 29, 2019 by SilverEagle

SilverEagle · December 29, 2019

On 12/27/2019 at 2:46 PM, DeepGreen said:

To Silver Eagle's post, are we talking the "coaching hire culture" at North Texas, or the culture of North Texas, the University? I tend to think it's the latter. Something in the UNT air keeps good athletics from coming to Denton. Yes, we certainly get "some" talented athletes, but not near what other programs get. Remember Coach Mac's words, "it's hard to recruit to North Texas". I ask, "why" is it hard to recruit to North Texas? Maybe it's something about the University itself.

OK, I've dug in for the onslaught!

Well, keep in mind two things.

1. Odus Mitchell coached for 20 years with little change in personnel in all that time. So for 20 years, North Texas administrators had NO experience in hiring a head football coach.....and to a great extent it still shows.

2. Inside the city limits of Denton, North Texas existed as it's own middle earth. And just about every person who lived outside the city limits really thought of us that way. I remember being asked by a resident of the small town in which I grew up "where are you going to college?" I answered "North Texas"......pause.......so, you're going to school with all those weirdos. I thought " yep, I'm going to school where they don't see anything wrong with dancing, girls wearing shorts, or occasionally playing cards".

untbowler · December 29, 2019

2 hours ago, SilverEagle said:

Yep, Bob Tyler probably was "crooked as a dog's leg", but historically some of the best judges of character have been crooks......especially con men. Otherwise, down the corridor of years, they wouldn't be able to con so many people out of their money. I have been told two things about his hire, 1. he was a very well dressed person, so the person in charge of hiring was overly impressed with how he looked. 2. knowledgeable people at Miss St. kept warning us NOT to hire the guy.

You know, sometimes I think that until RV was hired as AD, the hiring of new coaches was done by whoever was in the office on that particular day. I've imagined it this way many times.....

"Secretary for the vice president of multiple meaningless titles sticks her head in the door"

Mr. Doolittle, there's three guys out in the lobby who say they are here to be interviewed for the head football coaching job. One of them calls himself *Corkey of all things, and one of the others looks kind of shifty and overdressed to me.

Mr. Doolittle

Damn! Am I on call today to do hires?

Secretary..... Yep, you're the guy on rotation.

Doolittle

"Damn, I was hoping to be able to go over to the Marcus Hall cafeteria and have an early lunch with one of my fellow bureaucrats. It's meatloaf day. Oh well, tell them to come in in alphabetical order and I'll get this over with."

Secretary

Fine. BTW are you ever going to answer that phone message from that guy at Miss State. He said it was important.

*Corkey Nelson was one of the applicants when Bob Tyler was hired.