Coaching hot seat: Seth Littrell

Harry · July 9, 2020

Littrell is listed as 2 which means "All good ... for now ". Looks like he is safe.

Philly Mont at Tulsa is a 4 which means "better win now".

Billy Clark at UAB is a 0 which is the best score you can get "untouchable"

Dana Dimel at UTEP is a 5 which means "sleeps with the fishes"

Sonny Dykes at SMU is a 2

Skip Holtz at La Tech is a 1

Link: https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/2020-college-football-hot-seat-rankings-evaluating-job-security-of-all-130-fbs-coaches/

Edited July 9, 2020 by Coach Andy Mac

El Paso Eagle · July 9, 2020

Scott Frost at Nebraska and Manny Diaz at Miami this years poster boys for going from the Penthouse to the Outhouse

image.jpeg.81db5f6af73085a9948708ae6d97a632.jpeg

UNT18Grad · July 9, 2020

Typically firing both coordinators to save face is not something a coach who is super secure in his position does, can't imagine they did too much research on the G5 coaches for this article. We have a handful of challenging games this year, but the highest paid coach in the conference and one of the highest in all of G5 should not miss a bowl game 2 years in a row without feeling a ton of heat under his seat in my opinion.

RBP79 · July 9, 2020

IMO #2 is a good number for SL. Needs to surprise us this year to stay there.

Edited July 9, 2020 by RBP79

KRAM1 · July 9, 2020

16 hours ago, RBP79 said:

IMO #2 is a good number for SL. Needs to surprise us this year to stay there.

Define "surprise" please...surprise in what way?

MGNation92 · July 9, 2020

I'm definitely questioning him now. Year 5 and no excuses because all the players are his and his system is well installed.

If he doesn't make a bowl game fire his ass

akriesman · July 9, 2020

47 minutes ago, MGNation92 said:

I'm definitely questioning him now. Year 5 and no excuses because all the players are his and his system is well installed.

If he doesn't make a bowl game fire his ass

You are at least 1 year too early IMO. Recruiting is really up after a slow start. 2021-22 is the year for this team to break out. That will be the season that he is judged on.

RBP79 · July 9, 2020

3 hours ago, KRAM1 said:

Define "surprise" please...surprise in what way?

Surprise= 6+ wins

KRAM1 · July 9, 2020

9 minutes ago, RBP79 said:

Surprise= 6+ wins

Got ya. Looking forward to the days when six wins would be a big disappointment.

97and03 · July 10, 2020

6 hours ago, KRAM1 said:

Got ya. Looking forward to the days when six wins would be a big disappointment.

Me too. But that is where we are this year. No OL and new QB with little meaningful game time.

The good news is that our newer players are theoretically more talented - with the exception of the OL.

peanuts104 · July 10, 2020

On 7/8/2020 at 7:33 PM, UNT18Grad said:

Typically firing both coordinators to save face is not something a coach who is super secure in his position does, can't imagine they did too much research on the G5 coaches for this article. We have a handful of challenging games this year, but the highest paid coach in the conference and one of the highest in all of G5 should not miss a bowl game 2 years in a row without feeling a ton of heat under his seat in my opinion.

Your opinion is bad and you should feel bad.

97and03 · July 10, 2020

5 minutes ago, peanuts104 said:

Your opinion is bad and you should feel bad.

Why? Firing both coordinators is never a good sign and the highest paid coach in the conference should not have multiple non-bowl years.

MrStrange18 · July 10, 2020

17 hours ago, akriesman said:

You are at least 1 year too early IMO. Recruiting is really up after a slow start. 2021-22 is the year for this team to break out. That will be the season that he is judged on.

Also, if I remember correctly, he was a pretty late hire when he came on. So that first year he had very little impact on the roster (minus #6 of course)

UNT18Grad · July 10, 2020

6 hours ago, peanuts104 said:

Your opinion is bad and you should feel bad.

Always open to discussion and never assume I'm always right, instead of making some lame joke let's discuss, that's the whole point of this forum after all. I'd love to hear what part of my statement is bad in your mind.

If you can find me an example of a coach who had a decent year and is completely safe in their job but also fired both coordinators I'm all ears. We are paying a very hefty fee for Littrell, that's a fact not an opinion. Many coaches just within our own conference are doing more with a smaller contract and supposedly less talented players.

If you believe that Littrell can go 4-8 again this year and be secure in his job I would love to hear the reasoning behind that.

Coach Andy Mac · July 10, 2020

1 hour ago, UNT18Grad said:

Always open to discussion and never assume I'm always right, instead of making some lame joke let's discuss, that's the whole point of this forum after all. I'd love to hear what part of my statement is bad in your mind.

I think you are right @peanuts104 needs to provide more detail on why he feels that way. I agree with you 100%. 4-8 in a conference like CUSA is unacceptable given our resources.

untjim1995 · July 10, 2020

25 minutes ago, Coach Andy Mac said:

I think you are right @peanuts104 needs to provide more detail on why he feels that way. I agree with you 100%. 4-8 in a conference like CUSA is unacceptable given our resources.

But given our roster's lack of size on the lines and having two new coordinators, while adding in a new QB doesn't exactly make those resources worth much for this upcoming season.

Actually, SL may get pretty lucky in all of this. I doubt we are playing any football this fall, so his upcoming class of kids that were the best ranked class we have probably ever had will get a full year of getting used to the program and getting prepared for 2021, which is a much easier OOC than 2020 was set up to be. We basically trade out @A&M for @Mizzou, and home vs Liberty for @UH, and we play @SMU instead of in Denton. Add in the FCS spare, we SHOULD be 2-2, with the real possibility of sneaking another win away from one of the two road contests. If you do that, plus have the reality of still playing the Texas CUSA West spares, that looks like anywhere from 4 to 7 wins, without even considering the CUSA West non-Texas trio of LT, USM, and UAB, or the CUSA East games we get.

2021 is SL's big year--he gets 6 or more wins, he will get an extension here at a minimum, while 9+ probably gets him hired away. He has his destiny in his own hands and that schedule becomes MUCH more favorable for him then than it is currently scheduled for 2020.

GrandGreen · July 10, 2020

4 hours ago, untjim1995 said:

But given our roster's lack of size on the lines and having two new coordinators, while adding in a new QB doesn't exactly make those resources worth much for this upcoming season.

Actually, SL may get pretty lucky in all of this. I doubt we are playing any football this fall, so his upcoming class of kids that were the best ranked class we have probably ever had will get a full year of getting used to the program and getting prepared for 2021, which is a much easier OOC than 2020 was set up to be. We basically trade out @A&M for @Mizzou, and home vs Liberty for @UH, and we play @SMU instead of in Denton. Add in the FCS spare, we SHOULD be 2-2, with the real possibility of sneaking another win away from one of the two road contests. If you do that, plus have the reality of still playing the Texas CUSA West spares, that looks like anywhere from 4 to 7 wins, without even considering the CUSA West non-Texas trio of LT, USM, and UAB, or the CUSA East games we get.

2021 is SL's big year--he gets 6 or more wins, he will get an extension here at a minimum, while 9+ probably gets him hired away. He has his destiny in his own hands and that schedule becomes MUCH more favorable for him then than it is currently scheduled for 2020.

Why would 6 wins in a 12 game season get Littrell an extension?

Also you keep mentioning lack of size on the line, NT has plenty of size. If a projected starter is not as big as you like, just be assured he beat out a lot of big men.

I too doubt, football will be played this year; but every team will get that extra time to get ready. It does favor less experienced teams, but won't be that big a factor.

With NT resources and location; not competing in a very weak CUSA should merit coaching changes.

Edited July 10, 2020 by GrandGreen

tmjerm · July 11, 2020

We are a season removed from back to back 9 win seasons and a win over an SEC team (yes I know they sucked but we dominated them). Last season was disgusting and the ‘18 season was a completely squandered opportunity but I feel like these are growing pains we need to ride out with a promising dude who is still finding himself as a head coach. Not into the idea of trading out at all. He has hopefully learned the staff personalities he needs to fit into the program more...I don’t think he’s the greatest motivator on the planet because he’s such a disciplined personality he has a hard time accepting that anyone would be any different so he needs assistants who connect with the players on a personal level to motivate so he can focus on his real talent which is scheme. We’ve brought in some solid classes but still have plenty of holes. I’m in the camp of being patient. We have a tremendous AD who is filling the gaps financially and facilities wise, they’re both young and learning. We are trending well still in my eyes. Another bad year obviously affects plenty, but we have a major void at quarterback and it’s not gonna be super smooth. I expect excellence ultimately but we are still crawling out of the butt of a undeniable gap in the college football landscape and there are uncountable nuances to the challenges we’ve historically faced. I’m grateful and optimistic.