Take Mason Fine out of the Littrell era and what do you have left?

[Dannymacfan]

I just thought about this last night and honestly had Littrell not had Mason Fine who to my understanding was a Graham Harrell find, what would the last 8 years have really been in terms of building this program and accomplishments?  Littrell should be on his hands and knees thanking Fine tor allowing him to be here for as long as he has.

[MGNation92]

13 minutes ago, Dannymacfan said:

I just thought about this last night and honestly had Littrell not had Mason Fine who to my understanding was a Graham Harrell find, what would the last 8 years have really been in terms of building this program and accomplishments?  Littrell should be on his hands and knees thanking Fine tor allowing him to be here for as long as he has.

Mason's coach was friends with Seth and told him about him. Harrell visited and offered him.

That being said, Littrell owes his entire HC career to those two people. Only reason he had any success here worth mentioning

[Cr1028]

33 minutes ago, Dannymacfan said:

I just thought about this last night and honestly had Littrell not had Mason Fine who to my understanding was a Graham Harrell find, what would the last 8 years have really been in terms of building this program and accomplishments?  Littrell should be on his hands and knees thanking Fine tor allowing him to be here for as long as he has.

Conversely Mason would’ve been a walk-on running scout team at a P5 Oklahoma school if it weren’t for Seth and nobody would’ve known his name.

Also, old Grey Goose should’ve been on his hands and knees thanking Todd Dodge’s last recruiting class and John Skladany for him having any success at all in Denton.

Edited September 22, 2022 by Cr1028

[CaribbeanGreen]

Jaelon Darden, Jalen Guyton, Rico Bussey, Jeff Wilson, and a whoooooolleee lot of other folks beg to differ

[MeanGreenTexan]

Lots of 4-to-6 win seasons with a slew of really good RBs & Jaelon Darden's unreal All-American 2020 season.

[Greenrex]

Well, as in most things, I reckon it takes a village.

 

[zenhuddy]

Seth was a hot property in the OC world we know when he got here. Sometimes OC’s become great HC’s and sometimes not - some are great recruiters and some are not. We saw Mason’s producing go down when Graham left - so the value of Mason combined with Graham was epic. Agreed we’d have been where we are now sooner without this combo. Have there been some good guys run through the organization, yes but not enough to win 8-9 games and win a bowl game. Seth has another good run it’s just not probably here. I got a few votes and a few detractors on my coach picks needling TX roots, and I agree with some of the debate as it’s not like it was 15 yrs ago but I will say if you look at our richest recruiting classes by their performance they came from Dickey and Dodge (Todd was a terrible college coach) both with great TX coach ties. Dan had no luck and Seth has been 50/50 JMO.  Traylor is grabbing good local talent and Mc in Tech is starting too. Now Sark ain’t local but he has the power of unlimited funds and a school that’s still top ten all time. Patterson who also wasn’t local but had unlimited funds behind him like Rhett now at SMU so to me our needs and connections need still some old school ties to build as our funds are tight. Lastly the Portal is a goldmine and is a tool for kids that used to ride the pine on a stacked teams now have a chance to escape and play - we do need a guy that can embrace it! Sorry went off topic. 

[NorthTexasWeLove]

10 hours ago, CaribbeanGreen said:

Jaelon Darden, Jalen Guyton, Rico Bussey, Jeff Wilson, and a whoooooolleee lot of other folks beg to differ

Without MF they are decent players. With MF they are dang good players. 

[Cr1028]

54 minutes ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

Without MF they are decent players. With MF they are dang good players. 

Jeff is currently the starting running back in San Francisco. Darden is the starting returner in Tampa. Guyton is in the rotation of receivers on the active roster in LA. What does any of their present success have to do with Mason? Darden didn’t even catch national attention until after Mason graduated.

[Mike Jackson]

We had a lot of talent for a G5 team with no OC or QB to unlock it.   The fact that most of the fans are just now coming to conclusion that Seth is a mediocre head coach is depressing to me.  But not as disappointing that the leadership didn’t see it during the second contract extension.  This program isn’t a backwater program in the middle of nowhere representing a school few people outside 200 mile radius have heard of.   The CUSA we were in didn’t have TCU, Houston, and Louisville who were legit contenders to level up to P5.  Then being excited and over committing to Seth after a couple +8 win seasons coming from the old Sun Belt would have been understandable.  Like old school people say; when you do something good act you’ve been there before.  And winning the division in CUSA was no more impressive that running the Sun Belt 3 years straight.  “At least Seth doesn’t make executes” 🙄.  He doesn’t because there are none here anymore.  And since Dickey got canned no coach should have the audacity to make excuses for 0.500 seasons in a weak conference with school with no tangible advantages over except a history of demanding better.   By winning here you could get a mere 30% of local alumni to care on some financial level and regularly sellout Apogee.  We would legitimately rival SMU and TCU then.  

[GBarksdale]

19 hours ago, CaribbeanGreen said:

Jaelon Darden, Jalen Guyton, Rico Bussey, Jeff Wilson, and a whoooooolleee lot of other folks beg to differ

This

[NorthTexasWeLove]

11 hours ago, Cr1028 said:

Jeff is currently the starting running back in San Francisco. Darden is the starting returner in Tampa. Guyton is in the rotation of receivers on the active roster in LA. What does any of their present success have to do with Mason? Darden didn’t even catch national attention until after Mason graduated.

MF elevated their play is all I'm saying. Of course being able to land those players was a big deal. But I think if we insert MF into our current roster all of our current players play elevates. 

[Cr1028]

2 hours ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

MF elevated their play is all I'm saying. Of course being able to land those players was a big deal. But I think if we insert MF into our current roster all of our current players play elevates. 

Jaelon Darden caught 74 balls for 1190 yards and 19 touchdowns in 9 games on passes that were thrown by Jason Bean and Austin Aune. I have a hard time believing that MF made any difference in his playing ability.

Edited September 23, 2022 by Cr1028

[El Paso Eagle]

Take Mason Fine out of the Littrell era and what do you have left?

A much shorter time for Seth at UNT

Edited September 23, 2022 by El Paso Eagle

[NorthTexasWeLove]

4 hours ago, Cr1028 said:

Jaelon Darden caught 74 balls for 1190 yards and 19 touchdowns in 9 games on passes that were thrown by Jason Bean and Austin Aune. I have a hard time believing that MF made any difference in his playing ability.

Maybe he catches 90 for 1500 and 25 touchdowns with MF, that specific season. That's all I'm saying. MF was the type player that elevated the people around him, whether they were subpar, good or great. 

[El Paso Eagle]

I think it is safe to say Mason was able to elevate those around him. If you do not believe this, then not sure what someone can say on the issue. I guess the QB play since Mason has been good in your eyes (and those eyes must be looking through some high powered green glasses)

No other QB has been able to elevate the play of those around him. Darden is a great example of a receiver elevating the stats of the QB's that threw to him his last year. When Mason was on the field you had the feeling we could score on any play based on what he can do. Now our hope seems to be that our QBs make few enough mistakes to not cost us.

[untjim1995]

In Mason’s senior year, without Graham Harrell around, and with an OL that wasn’t terribly good, we won 4 games. 
 

Mason had moxie if he had time. When he didn’t, after many years of hits on his frame, it just started to fall apart. And from that point, we have watched the entire program dissolve into sparedom.

[NorthTexasWeLove]

4 hours ago, untjim1995 said:

In Mason’s senior year, without Graham Harrell around, and with an OL that wasn’t terribly good, we won 4 games. 
 

Mason had moxie if he had time. When he didn’t, after many years of hits on his frame, it just started to fall apart. And from that point, we have watched the entire program dissolve into sparedom.

Not preparing that roster for MFs swan song was firable within and of itself. That was year 4. Basically ALL of SLs players on board and the staff laid a giant egg. That should've been the "oh shit, we better start looking around" moment for the athletic department. But, yet, we riding that contract out 3 years later. I'm not sure who said it, but Seth Littrell owes a great deal of his 10+ million he's been able to fleece the Lovela...I mean...Wren Ba...I mean...Neal Sma...I mean the University of North Texas to Mason Fine and Graham Harrell. 

[emmitt01]

On 9/22/2022 at 10:06 PM, NorthTexasWeLove said:

Without MF they are decent players. With MF they are dang good players. 

Darden, Wilson, and Guyton are on NFL rosters and seeing PT.  I love Mason as much as the next guy, but you don’t get run in the NFL if your college QB “made” you. 

[UNT Texas Hooligan]

An already fired coordinator that couldn’t hack it as a Head Coach

[NorthTexasWeLove]

7 hours ago, emmitt01 said:

Darden, Wilson, and Guyton are on NFL rosters and seeing PT.  I love Mason as much as the next guy, but you don’t get run in the NFL if your college QB “made” you.