POLL: Gunnell or Ruder? (Plus a PB GIF)

Green Otaku · September 26, 2022

23 hours ago, Pseudo Nym said:

Clearly he is looking ahead and this is only a small part of the larger point of focusing on the moment, being where your feet are, and having ones head in the clouds.

So far as constant questioning, this isn't the Yankees or the New York media, or Alabama, Arkansas, or UT media for that matter. No one his hounding him with "constant questioning of whether or not he will return to UNT." No one.

Read the damn room.

So twice now, he's talking about the NFL. This is not where the starting QB's head should be and I would expect a leader of this team, age be damned, to have a better understanding of the position they're in, the platform they are on and the message they're sending.

There's a reason mantras like "We over Me" exist and why coaches talk about fighting for their culture everyday.

It's why Saban talks of Belichick's "Do Your Job" (Period!) as the singular focus and responsibility of everyone on the staff from the head coach to the equipment manager, and the players, from the starters to the practice squad.

It's the quintessential rat poison and lack of focus talked about by high performing teams and coaches every week that they seek, no fight, to avoid falling into.

To use your word cockiness, I don't see cockiness, I see fantasizing about the future at the expense of focusing on the presence.

As such, I see someone who is lost and needs to be reeled in and brought back to reality; the fact that this is where our starting quarterback is, age and experience considered, is nothing short of a flat out shame and disappointment.

Brutally accurate.

Cr1028 · September 26, 2022

2 hours ago, peanuts104 said:

Well we're 1-1 in conference play so we're not out of that race yet.

Hold on now, which conference loss did I miss?

peanuts104 · September 26, 2022

6 minutes ago, Cr1028 said:

Hold on now, which conference loss did I miss?

Oops, my bad. We're 1-0. Even more reason for optimism...some sarcasm there

UNT Family Man · September 27, 2022

14 hours ago, GrayEagle said:

What if the most accurate is Gunnell and the healthiest is Ruder?

The conjunction means both. If they each are #2 at both of these categories then flip a coin.

Mike Jackson · September 27, 2022

On 9/25/2022 at 10:59 PM, peanuts104 said:

This offense is just dysfunctional. Adding different QBs into the mix won't magically fix that. If anything it'll make it worse.

You are probably right but again this highlights the terrible decision to bring Seth back for this season. ZERO up side. The high water mark for this team this year was 6-6 without massive improvement from the offense. Other teams will copy Memphis's game plan and be better at it. We won't be able to beat up teams with the run game. They are going to force Aune to throw to see if he can do it efficiently and it a logical bet looking at his career stats.

Pseudo Nym · September 28, 2022

dallas-cowboys-cooper-rush.gif.af62aea5e8655ec0229dc445957796b9.gif

That Cowboys back up QB looks pretty good - it does suck why he's gotten his reps, but he looks pretty good!

3-0 as a starter I believe.... makes ya wonder what our backups look like, especially those we haven't seen at all or haven't seen in while.

UNTLifer · September 28, 2022

On 9/26/2022 at 12:56 PM, TIgreen01 said:

My opinion, based solely on what I've seen in games this year and last, is that you have to ride with Aune. This team will get to .500 with him driving the bus. With the others we may not win another game. I know the knee-jerk reaction is that the backup has to be better or kill the season and play for the future, but I'd rather see us get to a respectable record.

I have no doubt that we're going to see a coaching change after this season. The stat that shows our number of winning seasons, or under .500 seasons since coming back from D1-AA is embarrassing enough. Get the program to where .500 is the floor. At the very least Seth has done that. We actually look and act like a D1 program now. Next we need to take the step to compete for championships.

I just don’t get this. Ruder was thrown to the wolves after being here basically a month. Appears Gunnell isn’t 100% and we have seen nothing from Earle or Head. How in the world can we say Aune is the only answer when we haven’t really seen anyone else?

Glory to the Green · September 28, 2022

1 hour ago, UNTLifer said:

I just don’t get this. Ruder was thrown to the wolves after being here basically a month. Appears Gunnell isn’t 100% and we have seen nothing from Earle or Head. How in the world can we say Aune is the only answer when we haven’t really seen anyone else?

I’d love to see Earle.

untjim1995 · September 28, 2022

4 hours ago, Mike Jackson said:

You are probably right but again this highlights the terrible decision to bring Seth back for this season. ZERO up side. The high water mark for this team this year was 6-6 without massive improvement from the offense. Other teams will copy Memphis's game plan and be better at it. We won't be able to beat up teams with the run game. They are going to force Aune to throw to see if he can do it efficiently and it a logical bet looking at his career stats.

No upside? Upside costs money…and we don’t have it or won’t spend it.

But bringing him back saved the university $1.35 million dollars, just for SL, not to mention other staff. And it kept one of the BMDs happy with keeping his favorite coach around.

greenminer · September 28, 2022

On 9/26/2022 at 12:56 PM, TIgreen01 said:

My opinion, based solely on what I've seen in games this year and last, is that you have to ride with Aune. This team will get to .500 with him driving the bus. With the others we may not win another game. I know the knee-jerk reaction is that the backup has to be better or kill the season and play for the future, but I'd rather see us get to a respectable record.

I have no doubt that we're going to see a coaching change after this season. The stat that shows our number of winning seasons, or under .500 seasons since coming back from D1-AA is embarrassing enough. Get the program to where .500 is the floor. At the very least Seth has done that. We actually look and act like a D1 program now. Next we need to take the step to compete for championships.

We might hit 0.500 with Aune, but I dont' think we hit 0.500 because of Aune.

Even though Aune might be our best option, it might still be worth throwing new blood out there.

There was a time under Dickey when the 1s were not cutting it and he threw the 2s out there. IN AN ACTUAL GAME. I think they were nicknamed the Green and White teams. And...it worked. The 2s marched down the field and scored, IIRC.

Sometimes it really is simply about change. Put me in the camp that would like to see more from Ruder/Earle. Maybe even Gunnel. He might just need some momentum? Not sure.

Edited September 28, 2022 by greenminer

Mike Jackson · September 28, 2022

6 hours ago, untjim1995 said:

No upside? Upside costs money…and we don’t have it or won’t spend it.

But bringing him back saved the university $1.35 million dollars, just for SL, not to mention other staff. And it kept one of the BMDs happy with keeping his favorite coach around.

The major reason we don't have money is that the perception of the program among majority of local alumni is that the leadership isn't serious about putting quality football teams on the field. Keeping a mediocre coach around for almost a decade reinforces that perception. And keeping one big money donor happy is inconsequential if it means delaying changing the perception of the program to get more donors at all levels. I often speculate at different stages of the program how I would sell it to potential donors and recruits. Right now it would be an extremely hard sell because nothing you mentioned as upside correlates with winning. It appears we are running a program just an an execuse to have big events on Saturday and showcase our band. And all the improvements are to be the "Vanderbilt" of a big money G5 conference without the comparive elite academics compared to our new conference rivals. How much money is lost if game day revenue is reduced by 25% per game because people aren't coming to the games. Hell even some "diehards" on GMG.com are boycotting the rest of the season. And now we have zero walk up crowd. So you can see it as saying money but long term this bad season will negatively impact revenue into the next coaches tenure.

GMG_Dallas · September 28, 2022

12 hours ago, Pseudo Nym said:

That Cowboys back up QB looks pretty good - it does suck why he's gotten his reps, but he looks pretty good!

3-0 as a starter I believe.... makes ya wonder what our backups look like, especially those we haven't seen at all or haven't seen in while.

You know what's crazy is this guy left people highly unimpressed during preseason. Even with his win against Minnesota last year, it was believed he could be surpassed by Will Grier as the backup. Grier got hurt during preseason and neither ultimately made the original 53 although it was expected Rush would be brought back once other players received injury designation. The way this relates is that you can't give up on somebody like Gunnell or Ruder due to a couple poor performances. Sometimes it really is just about seeing what somebody can do with full first team reps instead of expecting them to perform with backups and then dismissing them when they're not cutting it with the 3s and 4s.

Like others have said, we can win some with Aune but we're not necessarily winning any because of him. It's time to see what others can do with the 1s.

PlummMeanGreen · September 28, 2022

9 hours ago, Glory to the Green said:

I’d love to see Earle.

Earl?

Cr1028 · September 28, 2022

9 hours ago, greenminer said:

There was a time under Dickey when the 1s were not cutting it and he threw the 2s out there. IN AN ACTUAL GAME. I think they were nicknamed the Green and White teams. And...it worked. The 2s marched down the field and scored, IIRC.

I remember this. The green team was led by Matt Phillips. It was this game. The green team going in created a spark and at the time I felt him putting the starters back in after the green teams scored 2 touchdowns was the reason we didn’t win that game.

I think bringing that concept to this offense would be worth a shot. You guys gonna stall drives or commit turnovers? Well let’s see how these hungry guys that want your job do.

Cr1028 · September 28, 2022

1 hour ago, GMG_Dallas said:

You know what's crazy is this guy left people highly unimpressed during preseason. Even with his win against Minnesota last year, it was believed he could be surpassed by Will Grier as the backup. Grier got hurt during preseason and neither ultimately made the original 53 although it was expected Rush would be brought back once other players received injury designation. The way this relates is that you can't give up on somebody like Gunnell or Ruder due to a couple poor performances. Sometimes it really is just about seeing what somebody can do with full first team reps instead of expecting them to perform with backups and then dismissing them when they're not cutting it with the 3s and 4s.

Like others have said, we can win some with Aune but we're not necessarily winning any because of him. It's time to see what others can do with the 1s.

Tony Romo was a guy like Cooper Rush until Quincy Carter got cut.

GMG_Dallas · September 28, 2022

31 minutes ago, Cr1028 said:

Tony Romo was a guy like Cooper Rush until Quincy Carter got cut.

Tom Brady was a guy like Cooper Rush until Drew Bledsoe got hurt and Tony Romo was a guy like Rush until Drew Bledsoe started playing like Austin Aune (kidding, sort of). Poor Bledsoe.

Cr1028 · September 28, 2022

3 minutes ago, GMG_Dallas said:

Tom Brady was a guy like Cooper Rush until Drew Bledsoe got hurt and Tony Romo was a guy like Rush until Drew Bledsoe started playing like Austin Aune (kidding, sort of). Poor Bledsoe.

Haha oh man I didn’t even make that connection, great job!

untjim1995 · September 28, 2022

4 hours ago, Mike Jackson said:

The major reason we don't have money is that the perception of the program among majority of local alumni is that the leadership isn't serious about putting quality football teams on the field. Keeping a mediocre coach around for almost a decade reinforces that perception. And keeping one big money donor happy is inconsequential if it means delaying changing the perception of the program to get more donors at all levels. I often speculate at different stages of the program how I would sell it to potential donors and recruits. Right now it would be an extremely hard sell because nothing you mentioned as upside correlates with winning. It appears we are running a program just an an execuse to have big events on Saturday and showcase our band. And all the improvements are to be the "Vanderbilt" of a big money G5 conference without the comparive elite academics compared to our new conference rivals. How much money is lost if game day revenue is reduced by 25% per game because people aren't coming to the games. Hell even some "diehards" on GMG.com are boycotting the rest of the season. And now we have zero walk up crowd. So you can see it as saying money but long term this bad season will negatively impact revenue into the next coaches tenure.

No kidding...

Everything you've mentioned is exactly what I used to think about our future here--about 10 years ago. Then it became obvious that we just flat out won't ever look at athletics like you've stated. We just won't do it. And you can't care about winning more than the administration does--its never gonna work in your favor as a fan. So you either get fed up and walk away to follow another college team like the other 98% of UNT alumni do or you give up expecting anything to change and just enjoy the time when a 9-win season rolls around here, which is not very often.

greenminer · September 28, 2022

2 hours ago, Cr1028 said:

I remember this. The green team was led by Matt Phillips. It was this game. The green team going in created a spark and at the time I felt him putting the starters back in after the green teams scored 2 touchdowns was the reason we didn’t win that game.

I think bringing that concept to this offense would be worth a shot. You guys gonna stall drives or commit turnovers? Well let’s see how these hungry guys that want your job do.

Looks like this was the same game JQ set the career receiving mark.

LT went up 21-0 in the 1Q.
We scored 24 in the 2Q.
wild.

TIgreen01 · September 28, 2022

15 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

I just don’t get this. Ruder was thrown to the wolves after being here basically a month. Appears Gunnell isn’t 100% and we have seen nothing from Earle or Head. How in the world can we say Aune is the only answer when we haven’t really seen anyone else?

Thrown to the wolves?! LOL. I guess Mason Fine and Scott Hall got thrown to the wolves, as well? Those guys had similar practice time experience, but from the first step they took onto the field in their first ever game (both in game 1 of their true freshman seasons) you KNEW they had something.

Gunnel and Ruder have both looked off, for whatever reason. Could Ruder be better today than he was a year ago? Sure. Could Gunnel be better than 2-3 weeks ago? Sure. What I said is from what I saw of them both on the field---which is a tiny fraction of the amount of time that the actual paid coaches have seen of them.

Having said that, if Aune throws another pick 6 to start the next game he very well could be benched and everyone here will get their wish. He will have deserved that benching. I just don't think we're going to get much from any of the guys backing him up. Hope we don't have to find out, and if we do that I'm wrong.