2023 Head Coach Candidates

Greenrex · September 19, 2022

I would take Graham Harrell.

southsideguy · September 19, 2022

Mean while back at the ranch-crickets.

El Paso Eagle · September 19, 2022

11 hours ago, BBA1989 said:

Herman =no, Sumlin=no, Kendall Briles=no, Belk’s defense in Houston has been terrible last 2 games against TT and KU so his stock is down.

Harrell, Colby C, OC at App State

Herman Edwards is gone from Az State. They took care of their issue now rather than later.

It will be bad enough to take another P5 coordinator with no head coaching experience please under no circumstance take a G5 coordinator with no head coaching experience

southsideguy · September 19, 2022

Starting to wonder if WB even cares. Nothing from his office.

TheReal_jayD · September 19, 2022

25 minutes ago, southsideguy said:

Starting to wonder if WB even cares. Nothing from his office.

He cares. it has been pretty well documented he will not fire in the season. not sure what he is supposed to come out and say at this point. "fans hang on just a few more weeks its almost over"?

33 minutes ago, El Paso Eagle said:

It will be bad enough to take another P5 coordinator with no head coaching experience please under no circumstance take a G5 coordinator with no head coaching experience

From every name I have heard I can almost guarantee that the next head coach will have head coaching experience

untbowler · September 19, 2022

27 minutes ago, southsideguy said:

Starting to wonder if WB even cares. Nothing from his office.

more because he is not the one who will ultimately make the decision. That is obvious

Greenrex · September 19, 2022

45 minutes ago, southsideguy said:

Starting to wonder if WB even cares. Nothing from his office.

Just my opinion:

I think Wren cares as much as anyone. After all, his career is wrapped up in this moment. Not having a deep well of cash but a deep need to get it right is a tight rope walk in the best of circumstances. He knows he gets one swing at this. There are so many factors included in such a process. I have an idea he is very involved in discussion with Dr Smatresk, Dr Williams (the new chancellor), board members, donors, various agents, and other unknowns. He probably has someone whom he has known all his life that he calls. I know I do.
So, I'm going to give this very capable young man room to work while I wait for that swing and expect to hear the crack of a home run hire...just like he did for basketball.

Edited September 19, 2022 by Greenrex

El Paso Eagle · September 19, 2022

15 minutes ago, Greenrex said:

Just my opinion:

I think Wren cares as much as anyone. After all, his career is wrapped up in this moment. Not having a deep well of cash but a deep need to get it right is a tight rope walk in the best of circumstances. He know he gets one swing at this. There are so many factors included in such a process. I have an idea he is very involved in discussion with Dr Smatresk, Dr Williams (the new chancellor), board members, donors, various agents, and other unknowns. He probably has someone whom he has known all his life that he calls. I know I do.
So, I'm going to give this very capable young man room to work while I wait for that swing and expect to hear the crack of a home run hire...just like he did for basketball.

I will be honest in the fact that I have been frustrated with Wren. I also realize that it's easy for us in fandom to say how easy a decision this or that should be to make. The reality is there are political and economic structures in place that are going to dictate most calls that are made. So I will sit back and try to wait to take any more shots at Wren*

*I reserve the right to take shots if he keeps Seth or hires a new coach I don't like 😈

UNTcrazy727 · September 19, 2022

1 hour ago, TheReal_jayD said:

He cares. it has been pretty well documented he will not fire in the season. not sure what he is supposed to come out and say at this point. "fans hang on just a few more weeks its almost over"?

From every name I have heard I can almost guarantee that the next head coach will have head coaching experience

I get why we'd want that experience. I just hope we're not eliminating candidates if they haven't been a HC yet.

GrayEagle · September 19, 2022

The best coach with the best major college record...Tom Herman (54-22). He may not be Mr. Congeniality but he wins.

Best major college coach that WB has worked with...Justin Fuente

Best college coach with the most major college wins (181)...Gary Patterson.

Best coordinator (no head coaching experience) for our situation...Graham Harrell.

These would be my favorites in the order presented.

UNTcrazy727 · September 19, 2022

5 minutes ago, GrayEagle said:

The best coach with the best major college record...Tom Herman (54-22). He may not be Mr. Congeniality but he wins.

Best major college coach that WB has worked with...Justin Fuente

Best college coach with the most major college wins (181)...Gary Patterson.

Best coordinator (no head coaching experience) for our situation...Graham Harrell.

These would be my favorites in the order presented.

If people didn't like Seth's lack of energy and personality then they better get ready for more with Fuente.

SilverEagle · September 19, 2022

2 hours ago, southsideguy said:

Starting to wonder if WB even cares. Nothing from his office.

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UNTLifer · September 19, 2022

I am not completely sold on Carthel. I was also a fan of Keeler at Sam Houston, but the more I have though about this the more I am leaning towards someone else and they are already here, Patrick Cobbs. Hear me out.

We have brought in successful HS coaches with little experience in Dodge and Parker. We have gone the coordinator route from bigger programs with the likes of Nelson, Moore, Simon, Dickey and now Littrell and we tried the coach on the backend of their career in McCarney all with no sustained success.

One thing we have never tried is someone that knows our university, knows and loves our program, wants to see it successful and wants to be a part of that. Cobbs fits those requirements. His position group is the best and deepest on the team and he has managed to keep that group happy while spreading the wealth. He played for DD that required his best players to play special teams. I remember games where Cobbs would run for 100+ and then turn around a block a punt or be busting his ass on coverage units. He has NFL experience. He played under a running system with a hard nosed coach and has coached under a few HC's and always represent our university well. His love for North Texas matches ours and he wants to be here.

I know most people want a coach with some HC experience, so I did a little research on coaches that are currently successful that had zero HC experience prior to being head coaches and the list includes Dabo Swinney, P.J. Fleck, Ryan Day, Dave Aranda and Mike Gundy to name a few.

I believe Cobbs would be a great representative of our program and university, has enough connections to surround himself with a great staff, and has connections to coaches in OK and TX for recruiting.

Just my two cents.

Pellom · September 19, 2022

Spent some time this morning going over coaches who have an overlap with Wren from his previous administrative stops.

Fuente is an obvious no brainer because of their relationship and his resume. They spent three years together at Memphis.

Barry Odom is another. They were at two stops together: two years at Memphis, one year at Missouri.

Those two would be home run hires if Wren can make a deal. Fuente is unemployed (theoretically cashing VT checks) and Odom makes $1.8M as DC at Arkansas. It would be a tough sell to get either one of them if they think a higher paying/P5 job is on the table soon.

One under the radar candidate I noticed was Ryan Walters (I think someone may have mentioned him earlier in the thread.) Three years of overlap with Wren at Memphis and then at Missouri. Not only that, but he spent a year here in 2013 as CB coach. I listen to Split Zone Duo a lot and they rave about Walters as a budding superstar in the industry. He would bring a lot of energy.

https://fightingillini.com/sports/football/roster/coaches/ryan-walters/1466

untjim1995 · September 19, 2022

The reality is that a D-2 or FCS coach would love what UNT offers...any P5 guy who hasn't coached here before probably won't. Herman has only coached recently at places that are easy to recruit to. Fuente has only coached recently at places with way more resources than we will ever have. And as much as I want Gary Patterson and believe he would be an awesome hire here, he may not want to take on the albatross that this program's reputation has across the region.

Graham Harrell is the only P5 coordinator that I think would know the job ahead and still try it...I hope. He could be like Steve Kragthorpe back in the day that I wanted to replace Simon, but he had coached here and saw Craig Helwig up close and personal, as well as the lack of institutional care, so he made it clear that he wanted nothing to do with coming back here.

If we really, really wanted to make a giant splash--other than Gary Patterson--there is one name to money-whip that I believe we could get here now.

Deion Sanders

Cr1028 · September 19, 2022

I still have Colby as my front runner. It is hard not to like the guy.

But then again, maybe he wants to stay in east Texas.

MeanGreenTexan · September 19, 2022

51 minutes ago, GrayEagle said:

Best coordinator (no head coaching experience) for our situation...Graham Harrell.

You have got to be kidding. This is likely because you have no idea of any other qualified coordinators names, let alone resumes.

UNTLifer · September 19, 2022

33 minutes ago, Pellom said:

Spent some time this morning going over coaches who have an overlap with Wren from his previous administrative stops.

Fuente is an obvious no brainer because of their relationship and his resume. They spent three years together at Memphis.

Barry Odom is another. They were at two stops together: two years at Memphis, one year at Missouri.

Those two would be home run hires if Wren can make a deal. Fuente is unemployed (theoretically cashing VT checks) and Odom makes $1.8M as DC at Arkansas. It would be a tough sell to get either one of them if they think a higher paying/P5 job is on the table soon.

One under the radar candidate I noticed was Ryan Walters (I think someone may have mentioned him earlier in the thread.) Three years of overlap with Wren at Memphis and then at Missouri. Not only that, but he spent a year here in 2013 as CB coach. I listen to Split Zone Duo a lot and they rave about Walters as a budding superstar in the industry. He would bring a lot of energy.

https://fightingillini.com/sports/football/roster/coaches/ryan-walters/1466

Fuentes is another SL. Low energy and he failed at VA Tech.

Odom does nothing to excite me.

If Walters is considered then so should Cobbs.

jtm0097 · September 19, 2022

36 minutes ago, Cr1028 said:

But then again, maybe he wants to stay in east Texas.

Stay in East Texas, said no one ever lol.

greenminer · September 19, 2022

we are in East Texas!

Signed,
Guy from El Paso

MeanGreenTexan · September 19, 2022

53 minutes ago, UNTcrazy727 said:

If people didn't like Seth's lack of energy and personality then they better get ready for more with Fuente.

I don't think you know what you're talking about.

Just watch these two clips (both directly after defeats that put them on their way out the door):

This presser is after losing a heartbreaker to Syracuse, which most considered to be his death knell. There were already fans clamoring for his dismissal WELL BEFORE this game despite coming into it with a 3-3 record and beating the #10 team in the nation just weeks before.
The ball got rolling to fire him directly after this game, everyone knew he would be fired after losing to BC 2 weeks later (he coached the following week as a lame-duck and absolutely slaughtered Duke on his way out). VATech was 5-5 when Fuente was fired. Think we can get to 5-5?
Can you imagine Littrell taking questions like these from Vito & the NT Daily guy after a crushing loss to a conference team like FAU or something? He'd probably walk out.

Here, Littrell sits with his arms crossed, looking down almost the whole time, and blaming his team's lack of execution over & over. He clearly looks WAY MORE defeated than Fuente, even though Fuente quite obviously was under much more scrutiny than Littrell has ever been.

Then watch this:

He's excited to be coaching. He's active. His guys listen to him.

To my knowledge there has never been a SL Mic'd up video made while he's been at NT. Probably because it'd be boring as hell.

The upgrade from SL to Fuente would be monumental.

MeanGreenTexan · September 19, 2022

44 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

Fuentes is another SL. Low energy and he failed at VA Tech.

Odom does nothing to excite me.

If Walters is considered then so should Cobbs.

Either Fuente or Odom would be amazing hires. I'd be a little more skeptical of Odom, just because he hasn't proven he can do anything at the G5 level. He's one of those guys who has been at the P5 level forever, and would be in for quite a shock at the G5 level's funding & resources.

Walters is an interesting name, but yet again, I think he's only mentioned because he here was once-upon-a-time. I think there are a bunch of better DC's out there (Odom being one).

If Patrick Cobbs is hired as NT's next HFC, we just need to drop down to FCS again because we're not serious at all (I do expect him to be retained by whoever the new guy is though because he's more than proven himself to be a very good RB's coach).

Wag Tag · September 19, 2022

Top of the list should be Morris a Texas guy that is currently OC at Washington State. He has been a head coach and he has coach many really good qbs. He found and coached Cameron Ward to UIW. He turned out to be one of the top qbs in the transfer portal. Maybe he could bring some transfers with him? This is the guy I'm going to keep pushing!

Edited September 19, 2022 by Wag Tag

GoMeanGreen1999 · September 19, 2022

How about Deion Sanders. Guy clearly can recruit. If you think Chad Morris would be a good candidate then you might as well considering bringing Dodge back.

MeanGreenGlory · September 19, 2022

Barry Odom.

His head coaching record isn't better than Seth's. However, turning around an SEC program is a bit more challenging than turning around an AAC program. Additionally, since being a head coach, he's been a successful AHC/DC in the SEC and has been a big part of turning Arkansas around which I think adds a lot of additional wisdom and value to his head coaching experience.

He's also not unfamiliar nor unafraid of taking on a re-building project: