I gotta hand it to Wren

NorthTexasSportsNetwork · December 1, 2022

Really? Omg this is the most ridiculous thread of all time. I don’t even have enough energy to riddle off an essay on how terrible of a take this is.

I guess you can’t make everyone happy

ForneyGreen · December 1, 2022

38 minutes ago, aztecskin said:

I am repeating myself from the blog post a bit but I thought Wren did a good job modernizing the department. It was a mom-and-pop operation and turned it into a well-respected operation. He got facilities built and donors to donate.

I'd give Wren an A- for his time at UNT...

Positives are AD modernization as mentioned above along with the Grant hiring, new Track/Soccer facility, improved media presence, and of course our admission to the American.

Negatives are on the marketing and football performance side ... continued struggles with attendance in major sports and a fuzzy roadmap for our football program.

All in all, a strong tenure at AD. Hoping that our next AD will take us to even further heights in the American!

DentonLurker · December 1, 2022

22 minutes ago, meangreenbob said:

You sure Baker made that decision?

Anything else is just speculation. I may be the minority here or even naïve, but I don't believe the Lovelaces are holding this football program hostage just to keep SL. They haven't been as successful in business as they have been from never making hard decisions.

ThatMeanGreen · December 1, 2022

16 minutes ago, NorthTexasSportsNetwork said:

Really? Omg this is the most ridiculous thread of all time. I don’t even have enough energy to riddle off an essay on how terrible of a take this is.

I guess you can’t make everyone happy

Please, indulge us.

Wag Tag · December 1, 2022

When a person is in a leadership position there is never a good time to quit, from a firm, business or team perspective.

greenminer · December 1, 2022

2 hours ago, ThatMeanGreen said:

Because he was only ever in it for himself and his yes men. The hero worship of Wren on this board is weird.

The guy has been on the rise forever. Hard to find anything negative about him except stuff coming from people that were negatively impacted by his rise. People either fired to make room for him, fired by Wren to make room for his people, or posters on this board that have been waiting for him to fire SL.

Overall, the praise by his peers (not just UNT) has been glowing.

In a matter of 4 posts, you displayed some isight but also an obvious flag that you don't care for the guy.

Edited December 1, 2022 by greenminer

UNTLifer · December 1, 2022

1 hour ago, ThatMeanGreen said:

Please, indulge us.

How about you indulge us? Never been on this board until Baker announces he is leaving and you seem to have some issues with him.

VideoEagle · December 1, 2022

17 minutes ago, gordo nation said:

Seth made it damn clear he didn't want to comment on the Wren situation when asked by Brett yesterday via zoom interview...

Littrell had at least basic media training that you NEVER, EVER publicly, "on the record," comment on situations "above your pay grade." That's day one of any media training.

GMG_Dallas · December 1, 2022

4 hours ago, DentonLurker said:

Just because you disagree with the decision he made to keep SL doesn't mean he didn't make an important decision about the football coach. He chose to keep him. Many here would have fired him. The reality is he still made a decision. And to many outside of the UNT world, they probably look at football's results during WB's tenure at UNT as pretty good.

Football results for a hire he didn't make. Decision to keep SL doesn't change the fact Wren has never hired a FBS football coach as AD. He's never interviewed football coaches and made a hiring decision that has led to a successful football program.

southsideguy · December 1, 2022

Well the AD job was posted at UNT two days ago. I think they have to wait 30 days? I would think we. have a short list

ADLER · December 1, 2022

4 hours ago, ThatMeanGreen said:

The hero worship of Wren on this board is weird.

Wren did incredibly well with the financial aspects, our student athletes thrived with excellent APR scores, fundraising, and we were winning in just about every sport. That's 95% of his responsibility.

Where Wren did fail was in marketing, branding, and gameday promotions. Those kind of fell into the "who really gives a poop" file because the results were not measurable and didn't include financial incentives. Values and traditions that are canon at almost all other schools were simply ignored here.

VideoEagle · December 1, 2022

4 minutes ago, ADLER said:

In reality, aren't there littrelly Three Phases in the Baker situation and isn't there room for improvement in each?

At the end of the day, I think you're right.

untphd · December 1, 2022

4 minutes ago, ADLER said:

In reality, aren't there littrelly Three Phases in the Baker situation and isn't there room for improvement in each?

Thumbs up, I see what you did.

p_phelps · December 2, 2022

Love Wren, grew up 5 mins from my tiny hometown. He hired a hell of a basketball coach. But he put us in such a poor position in the money making sport. Our football program is so up in the air it's awful. Our conference mates are significantly improving. While we mumble all 3 phases. We're in a bad spot.

NorthTexasWeLove · December 2, 2022

18 minutes ago, p_phelps said:

Love Wren, grew up 5 mins from my tiny hometown. He hired a hell of a basketball coach. But he put us in such a poor position in the money making sport. Our football program is so up in the air it's awful. Our conference mates are significantly improving. While we mumble all 3 phases. We're in a bad spot.

Completely. I'm personally not letting him wash his hands of this fiasco. It should follow him. We are in deep shit whether the green goggle wearers want to believe it or not.

NT80 · December 2, 2022

8 hours ago, ForneyGreen said:

I'd give Wren an A- for his time at UNT...

Positives are AD modernization as mentioned above along with the Grant hiring, new Track/Soccer facility, improved media presence, and of course our admission to the American.

Negatives are on the marketing and football performance side ... continued struggles with attendance in major sports and a fuzzy roadmap for our football program.

All in all, a strong tenure at AD. Hoping that our next AD will take us to even further heights in the American!

Agree with all. He left us better than he found us overall, but he ignored the elephant in the room = Football.

ntmeangreen11 · December 2, 2022

What comes of this? A separate weight room and football locker room expansion has been sorely needed for years.

https://www.lightthetower.com/

Got5onIt · December 2, 2022

The head Football coach is the biggest hire any big university can make. I’m hoping Wren thought it would be best to let the new AD make this hire. He’s obviously been looking for a way out of here for a while now. Either that or he didn’t give 2 shits and was delaying putting in the work for football and instead into a job search. Who knows….

Edited December 2, 2022 by Got5onIt

ThatMeanGreen · December 2, 2022

7 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

How about you indulge us? Never been on this board until Baker announces he is leaving and you seem to have some issues with him.

I have no issues with him, I genuinely wish him and his family nothing but the best in future endeavors. He’s played the game well and got his and continues to rise — as someone else said in either this thread or the announcement thread, that’s what any one of us would’ve done.

I’ve just heard some things from those that are currently in or have recently been involved with the department about how they and their positions are/were treated that make me question some of his leadership tactics from an internal standpoint. No doubt he’s got the external and academic pieces down pat, but stepping on people to get to the top won’t make you friends for long, especially in an industry that’s seeing a lot of upheaval at the mid and entry-level ranks.

Edited December 2, 2022 by ThatMeanGreen

emmitt01 · December 2, 2022

11 hours ago, DeepGreen said:

I've got to ask the question, why couldn't Wren, at the very least, waited until after the conference championship game this weekend to announce he was moving on? I'm really disappointed in him.

You think it was Wren who broke this story? I’m willing to bet the cat got out of the bag elsewhere and he was left to own it once it was public

DeepGreen · December 2, 2022

7 minutes ago, emmitt01 said:

You think it was Wren who broke this story? I’m willing to bet the cat got out of the bag elsewhere and he was left to own it once it was public

Could be.

aztecskin · December 2, 2022

13 hours ago, ForneyGreen said:

I'd give Wren an A- for his time at UNT...

Positives are AD modernization as mentioned above along with the Grant hiring, new Track/Soccer facility, improved media presence, and of course our admission to the American.

Negatives are on the marketing and football performance side ... continued struggles with attendance in major sports and a fuzzy roadmap for our football program.

All in all, a strong tenure at AD. Hoping that our next AD will take us to even further heights in the American!

I think all ADs are struggling with attendance. I see a lot of empty seats on twitter. I mean outside of the 100K at Michigan, Texas, Alabama or whoever -- I mean Memphis didn't have a whole lot of people when I went to the NT game there.

pre-pandemic, NT football had 30K for NT vs Tech. Not terrible. It just takes a good program. Win a championship tomorrow (and a bowl) and it is a lot easier to fill up Apogee next season.

C Rod · December 2, 2022

16 hours ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

Completely. I'm personally not letting him wash his hands of this fiasco. It should follow him. We are in deep shit whether the green goggle wearers want to believe it or not.

Ah yes, the only thing better than hyperbole is top-shelf hyperbole. Cost the same and makes you appear drunk, twice as fast!

Fiasco (noun): A thing that is a complete failure, in a ludicrous or humiliating way.

My friend, we are playing in the conference championship game today. If we win tonight, you might have trouble pronouncing the word fiasco with all that crow in your mouth.

UNTLifer · December 2, 2022

17 hours ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

Completely. I'm personally not letting him wash his hands of this fiasco. It should follow him. We are in deep shit whether the green goggle wearers want to believe it or not.

Drowning Drama Queen GIF

NorthTexasWeLove · December 2, 2022

2 hours ago, C Rod said:

Ah yes, the only thing better than hyperbole is top-shelf hyperbole. Cost the same and makes you appear drunk, twice as fast!

Fiasco (noun): A thing that is a complete failure, in a ludicrous or humiliating way.

My friend, we are playing in the conference championship game today. If we win tonight, you might have trouble pronouncing the word fiasco with all that crow in your mouth.

Expand your horizon. Get back at me mid-October of 2024.