Specific Top Candidates for Next UNT HC

[untjim1995]

Honestly, I'd be fine with either of those two. Harrell brought the scheme to build a winner here with the right QB. As soon as he left, even with the great QB still here, the place went straight into the ground. Joey McGuire sounds like a Traylor starter kit, which I like, as well, assuming he can lead.

The best part of all of this above would be that Mumbles would be gone--which I still think is 50/50 right now. I'm telling you all that if he gets to 4 wins, he's gonna be back. The savings of $1.5 million to bring him back next year is sadly going to be a big player in this decision.

[UNTcrazy727]

1 hour ago, wardly said:

As alcoholic who has not had a drink since Christmas of 1988 I can tell you that this is a big red flag. Not to preach, but normal people don't get drunk, and they certainly don't get D.U.I.'s. The only way I would consider him would be to mandate ongoing A.A. participation or an out patient program, and even then I would be very concerned. He has a drinking problem,so the question is would you hire someone as an employee in your business knowing this.

lol wut?

[NTXCoog]

3 hours ago, jtm0097 said:

The DC from Houston? We can do better than that. 

I'll give you Dana if we can keep Belk

[Mike Jackson]

4 hours ago, jtm0097 said:

The DC from Houston? We can do better than that. 

Look up this resume.  Would you be interested in a DC many think is headed for a NFL position within 2 years if he stays in Houston and the HC doesn’t get fired?  If Saban gives him an endorsement as DC there isn’t a lot better out there without NFL Coordinator or FCS Head Coahing experience in the price range I assuming will be the 1.2 million to 2.1 million range.  My preference would be to get the Head Coach that can assemble the best assistant coaching staff.  Hopefully by paying a younger candidate 1.2 million we can retain more of that staff when the head coach leaves.  If a younger head coach departs for a NFL Coordinator position I believe you can retain more of the staff built here.  

Edited October 26, 2021 by Mike Jackson

[Mike Jackson]

9 minutes ago, NTXCoog said:

I'll give you Dana if we can keep Belk

Thank you NTXCoog for confirming how highly thought of Belk is.

[wardly]

40 minutes ago, UNTcrazy727 said:

lol wut?

I don't understand you comments. Does "lol" mean laugh out loud"? What does "wut' mean?

[BillySee58]

6 hours ago, Mike Jackson said:

Nothing against Graham Harrell but I am not interested in a first time HC with FBS OC being their highest level of experience.  Especially if they are from the Mike Leach coaching tree.  The spread is the most popular offense in college football these days. I doubt any Mike Leach disciple is going to change this offense drastically in a positive fashion unless they are bring in better talent or are drastically better evaluators of the talent that might be hidden here currently.

If we are going the Assitant route and want to get maximum reward and don’t mind the risk.  Doug Belk is the guy.  He is young for the position but just a little younger that Harrell.  He is the best defensive coach in Texas right now that you might be able to hire.  He would inject a lot of energy.  And recruits serious about their future as defensive players would more likely come here.  If we can get Phil Bennett to stay on with him and mentor/assist  him in the head coaching responsibilities it would be a home run I think.

He’s really young but I would be happy with this. Belk is such a rising star that he seems to me like your options are either get him maybe a little earlier than you would’ve liked or be okay with missing the boat on him. 

We’re probably okay with missing the boat on him but again, I wouldn’t be mad at us being proactive and trying to nail down a rising star like this before his star shoots off too high.

[jtm0097]

18 minutes ago, Mike Jackson said:

Look up this resume.  Would you be interested in a DC many think is headed for a NFL position within 2 years if he stays in Houston and the HC doesn’t get fired?  If Saban gives him an endorsement as DC there isn’t a lot better out there without NFL Coordinator or FCS Head Coahing experience in the price range I assuming will be the 1.2 million to 2.1 million range.  My preference would be to get the Head Coach that can assemble the best assistant coaching staff.  Hopefully by paying a younger candidate 1.2 million we can retain more of that staff when the head coach leaves.  If a younger head coach departs for a NFL Coordinator position I believe you can retain more of the staff built here.  

He is moving up quickly through the ranks. He was a GA at Alabama for 2 years. He hasn't been a DC that long either. I imagine he will be a HC in the next few years.

[SilverEagle]

1 hour ago, wardly said:

No comparison. Dodge had no college coaching experience plus he was allowed to bring his high school staff which was a grave error. He could recruit, and coach Mac did well with those players until he didn't. I can't think of any high school coach who made the direct leap to college head coach and succeeded. Also, I have no idea why Graham Harrell would be interested in North Texas. It appears that he might have P5 opportunities in the future.

Well, this will be the second or third time I have provided this information. I understand that it was a different time and era, but we were still playing in the top level of Football at that time. 

Coach Odus Mitchell was the head coach at Marshall High School when he was hired to coach North Texas upon their return to Football in 1946. His first season they went 7-3-1 and won their conference (Lone Star) and beat Amos Alonzo Staggs Pacific team in the Salad Bowl.

After that his first losing season was not until 1953.

Before that he went,

1947 10-2

1948, 6-4

1949, 8-4

1950, 7-2-1

1951, 8-4

1952, 7-3

His overall record when he retired was 122-85-9

 

Todd Dodge went 6-37

Dennis Parker went 11-21-1. 

His last year as Head Coach he went 4-7, but four of those games were lost by 1 point and one was lost by 2 points.  A break, or positive bounce of the ball and he could easily have been 9-2. The next year Matt Simon took Dennis Parkers recruits, including a record setting QB from Plano, and won the Southland in his first year. Let's see, who was it that saw the potential in that recording setting QB?

Earlier in this thread, someone commented about selecting (or getting) the ideal Coach at NT.  Just how the hell would anyone know who that is? My God, since Hayden Fry we've had....

Jerry Moore, 11-11. We don't know if he would have gone up or crashed and burned as a coach here. Texas Tech took care of that for us.

Bob Tyler, 2-9, we just couldn't wait to hire the guy that put Miss St. on probation. Our administration totally ignored all the calls from various sources to DON'T HIRE THIS GUY!    But (in his best John Belushi voice)  NOOOOO, the administrators wouldn't listen and they just HAD to hire this guy. And then they made the University look very inept to the general public, as well as the alumni, when they had to get rid of him at the end of the year. 

Corkey Nelson. By the time he was hired the program was almost totally screwed and his 48-52-1 record is almost a miracle.

Dennis Parker, already discussed

Matt Simon, 18-26-1

Darryl Dickey, 42-65, four bowls, one bowl win. four straight conference championships.

Todd Dodge, already discussed

Dan McCarney, 22-32

Seth L.  32-37, four bowls no wins, no conference championships.

I would suggest that now that we have an actual competent President and competent athletic director in place to make the hiring decision, we might actually finally find out what an ideal North Texas coach looks like...........😲

 

 

 

[Mike Jackson]

17 hours ago, Cr1028 said:

I don’t dismiss either of these two off hand. My question is why these two? The major sell on both is Texas high school recruiting but I was under the impression we were already recruiting really well. If we went with either of these guys, we would need strong Xs and Os guys as coordinators. I know Graham is a pretty good OC but my recollection from his first stint here is that if you gave him change for a dollar, he’d take the first quarter and let you have the other 3.

I am 100% with this comment.  On the offensive side of the ball a competent QB would fix ALOT of our issues.  If the AD doesn’t want to get away from the spread offense I am not excited about any HC who is a spread guy.  Also look at our timeline here.   If Graham is so great then we should have wished Seth luck at KSU and promoted Harrell to HC.  Our problem for most of the last decade was defense and QB play.  A Spread System Head Coach coming in will most likely be able to fix the QB play at best. But if your best QB gets injured or transferred you might be screwed.  Because when you have poor QB play that is when you lean more on your defense.  The way offense is played now, you can use smoke and mirrors to get 24 points.  But when your defense can’t hold anyone under 35 points your team is screwed.

[keith]

I thought we all agreed that we need someone that can recruit the portal.

[UNTLifer]

2 hours ago, wardly said:

No comparison. Dodge had no college coaching experience plus he was allowed to bring his high school staff which was a grave error. He could recruit, and coach Mac did well with those players until he didn't. I can't think of any high school coach who made the direct leap to college head coach and succeeded. Also, I have no idea why Graham Harrell would be interested in North Texas. It appears that he might have P5 opportunities in the future.

Actually, Dodge had college coaching experience as he was our OC/QB coach when Mitch Maher was setting records.  He is a great offensive mind and this hire could have been so good if RV would have limited who he could bring with him from SLC.

[Mean Green Matt]

10 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

Actually, Dodge had college coaching experience as he was our OC/QB coach when Mitch Maher was setting records.  He is a great offensive mind and this hire could have been so good if RV would have limited who he could bring with him from SLC.

Agree. For as disastrous as Dodge’s tenure was, the amazing thing is he was almost certainly the right hire. North Texas football could be in a completely different position right now if, as you said, the administration mandated he leave his guys in Southlake and hire a real college staff. 

[TreeFiddy]

42 minutes ago, wardly said:

I don't understand you comments. Does "lol" mean laugh out loud"? What does "wut' mean?

I think he just realized he is an alcoholic per your definition.

[NorthTexan95]

34 minutes ago, SilverEagle said:

Dennis Parker went 11-21-1. 

I was at UNT for the Dennis Parker years.  He was one of the dumbest coaches I've ever seen.  

[Mean Green Matt]

5 minutes ago, NorthTexan95 said:

I was at UNT for the Dennis Parker years.  He was one of the dumbest coaches I've ever seen.  

With all due respect?

[NorthTexan95]

1 minute ago, Mean Green Matt said:

With all due respect?

Yes, I respect Parker's ability to lose games because of his dumb decisions. 

[ntmeangreen11]

One thing about Dodge's last season people forget aside from several games that were lost by a few points mentioned above is the unprecedented bad luck that team had with injuries. Something like 20+ contributors hurt for long stretches that had people questioning our contract with Under Armour and whether or not their cleats were to blame.

Pretty unfortunate for him, who knows what who have happened had he won 6-8 games that season.

[UNTcrazy727]

1 hour ago, wardly said:

I don't understand you comments. Does "lol" mean laugh out loud"? What does "wut' mean?

I'm laughing at your very odd statement that "normal" people don't get drunk. 

[NTXCoog]

1 hour ago, Mike Jackson said:

Thank you NTXCoog for confirming how highly thought of Belk is.

The UH offense has been pretty bad this year especially the running game.  The defense and return game are why Houston has only 1 loss

[wardly]

2 hours ago, UNTcrazy727 said:

I'm laughing at your very odd statement that "normal" people don't get drunk. 

It's not odd, unless you think that normal people let drunk. Ask any doctor.They don't.

[El Paso Eagle]

4 hours ago, BillySee58 said:

He’s really young but I would be happy with this. Belk is such a rising star that he seems to me like your options are either get him maybe a little earlier than you would’ve liked or be okay with missing the boat on him. 

We’re probably okay with missing the boat on him but again, I wouldn’t be mad at us being proactive and trying to nail down a rising star like this before his star shoots off too high.

If you gathered all of the people UNT coaching searches have missed the boat on you would need a big boat.

[wardly]

4 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

Actually, Dodge had college coaching experience as he was our OC/QB coach when Mitch Maher was setting records.  He is a great offensive mind and this hire could have been so good if RV would have limited who he could bring with him from SLC.

I forgot about his college coaching experience. It was my understanding that the ability to bring his high school staff was a condition of employment mandated by Dodge.

[meangreen11]

25 minutes ago, wardly said:

I forgot about his college coaching experience. It was my understanding that the ability to bring his high school staff was a condition of employment mandated by Dodge.

It was but the hidden story is that our lack of a decent budget also was a factor in us allowing him to do it. 

[Christopher Walker]

9 hours ago, TheColonyEagle said:

Is recruiting our #1 problem? 

According to 247 our classes have ranked:

2018     #8

2019     #4

2020     #2

2021      #1

Seems to me our recruiting the past 3 years has been the best in CUSA. How do we get someone to get us better classes than #1 in the conference?

This also highlights how a good coach can win big NEXT season. This is not a rebuild. 

Since we're in a legitimate place for new comparisons, we should stop holding ourselves to CUSA standards. Here's our recruiting rankings in those same years amongst the lineup of the 2023 AAC that we're joining:

2018 • 10th / 14 at #101
2019 • 5th / 14 at #76
2020 • 3rd / 14 at #68
2021 • 4th / 14 at #78

+ Current 2022 • 11th / 14 at #119 - yikes

So those figures aren't too misaligned in trajectory, but the last year and a half are NOT comforting, either. What I think matters more to me, however, is the lack of development from our nice recruiting classes. Development is hard to define but NFL Draft picks is at least a metric, so here we go across the past three seasons with draft rounds in parentheses:

2019 Draft
AAC 11 • CUSA 6
*Houston 3 (1st, 4th, 6th)
Temple 3 (2nd, 5th, 7th)
Memphis 2 (3rd, 4th)
FAU 2 (3rd, 7th)
*UCF 1 (2nd)
Charlotte 1 (3rd)
Tulane 1 (7th)
*Cincinnati 1 (7th)

2020 Draft
AAC 19 • CUSA 10
Memphis 3 (3rd, 7th)
Charlotte 2 (3rd, 4th)
Tulsa 2 (4th, 5th)
Tulane 2 (5th, 7th)
Navy 1 (7th)
*Cincinnati 1 (3rd)
SMU 1 (6th)
*Houston 1 (3rd)
*UCF 1 (4th) 
FAU 1 (4th)

2021 Draft
AAC 19 • CUSA 4
*UCF 6 (2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th) - 8th most represented school overall in draft
*Cincinnati 4 (4th, 5th, 7th)
*Houston 3 (1st, 6th, 7th) 
SMU 2 (3rd, 4th)
Tulane 2 (4th, 7th)
Tulsa 1 (1st)
UAB 1 (4th)
North Texas 1 (4th)
East Carolina 1 (4th)
Memphis 1 (5th)

*these schools of course are onwards and upwards.

This is I think the better company we should be seeking to achieve, and thus shoot for coaches who can not only maintain and build on the recruiting trajectory – finish top 60, anyone? – but also aim for one to two draft picks a year as well.