Who will be the next UNT Head Football Coach?

MeanGreenTexan · December 7, 2022

3 minutes ago, ExADofficeIntern said:

While I get the whole process, I would assume that Wren (if he is a good guy and a friend or NS), he would have been open to NS about potential discussions with WV.. is it crazy to think that?

I would hope/assume if Wren was open about what was going on behind closed door, the process likely has already been started looking for an AD. With that said, I would assume the open interview process, etc is normal (I don’t recall any other schools having an AD in waiting tag for someone).

I think JM is likely the guy for the job as well, but also kind of worrisome that Wren didn’t poach him or take him with him to WV and this process drags out longer than expected.

Does anyone recall how long the process was for both gigs (HC and AD) after it was announced to the public that search firms were helping?

Who's to say he didn't try? Mosley likely saw the opportunity ahead of him when Wren was hired away and decided to stick around. He's at home here in Texas. He may not want to go to WV to be 'deputy'.

ExADofficeIntern · December 7, 2022

10 minutes ago, greenminer said:

My .02…

OVERRATED: Coached at the P5 level

UNDERRATED: won at the G5 level

Swing and a miss: “brings brand recognition”

Not every gig or hiring is the same, the only thing that truly matters is finding coaches who can coach and recruit.

The university has established a floor, in terms of what they have/are putting into the football team now. If they truly want to see improvements, they need to improve salaries for assistants, and allow for recruiting budgets to be expanded. Look at the success we have had with basketball, getting someone who can coach is most important and someone with a knowledge of the recruiting landscape.

ExADofficeIntern · December 7, 2022

1 minute ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

Who's to say he didn't try? Mosley likely saw the opportunity ahead of him when Wren was hired away and decided to stick around. He's at home here in Texas. He may not want to go to WV to be 'deputy'.

To me, I hope wren tried to take one of his trusted guys with him, I just will worry if this drags into something we don’t hear anything by Christmas, then Mosley becomes the guy early next year.

El Paso Eagle · December 7, 2022

48 minutes ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

I guess Jeff Traylor was that big "brand recognition" guy for UTSA??

Traylor had/has tremendous "brand recognition" in one of the most important areas - Texas High School Coaches!

meangreenbob · December 7, 2022

15 hours ago, NT80 said:

Glad you're not making the hire...

Me too! 😉

TheReal_jayD · December 7, 2022

1 hour ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

JayD has a tip guy somewhere in the AD. But JayD also plays along with the game about how good things are or can be until it's beyond clear it's not working out. Probably so he can maintain that tip guy.

So, IOW, he (and others) will laude this hire as a great hire that will do great things regardless of who it was or what their resume clearly states about them.

With that said, I appreciate his fandom like I appreciate all the people on here. This is a small community, the only community, of diehard UNT fans. We need 10x the website traffic than we have to boost interest and fans.

renews cbs GIF

GMG_Dallas · December 7, 2022

I hope it's somebody currently in the playoffs not named Garrett Riley. 👀 Anybody know if Todd Monken wants to be a HC? Dude took So Miss from 0-12 the year before he got there to 9-5 in 3 years, developed Nick Mullens and has a former walk-on QB playing in his second playoffs.

greenminer · December 7, 2022

48 minutes ago, ExADofficeIntern said:

the only thing that truly matters is finding coaches who can coach and recruit.

This sounds eerily like 'football is football."

Sorry, it's NOT that simple, Todge.

jwVA · December 7, 2022

4 hours ago, Cr1028 said:

Well seeing as how a few new posters (who could be Jimmy Sexton-types for all we know) showed up just since the job posting just to sell Fuente while twitter dude has been posting about VaTech and the Saints for awhile, my inclination is to trust the one that didn’t just show up overnight. Maybe you can share your handle and some of your hated posts from the VT board to give yourself a little credibility.

Oh man, you are a tough one Cr. Going with Chris from Twitter over me?

Here’s the thing – I took the initiative to come say hello and see what you good folks are all about. Can Chris from Twitter say the same??

I suppose I could share my Twitter handle with you… but all it does is shamelessly promote my business. Unless we have some real estate investors in here, I seriously doubt anyone cares to see that stuff.

I am happy to share a few of my old VT posts with you though:

https://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2020/december/1/what-if

https://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2021/august/19/call-arms

https://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2021/november/16/perspective

And by the way, if you guys want to see the kind of energy Coach Fu brings check this one out: https://vimeo.com/778946687/c89bfaaffd

The ACC Championship Sounds of Game Day piece was really good for some inside looks too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPi9Woat7sY

So now that I’ve taken the time to post all this, I’m going to feel pretty silly if Coach Fu isn’t your guy. Hah.

It’s been nice chatting with you though.

ftworth · December 7, 2022

What about Kevin Sumlin? I wonder if he would be interested in coaching college football again. He had success at A&M. That would be an interesting candidate for me.

Cr1028 · December 7, 2022

48 minutes ago, jwVA said:

Oh man, you are a tough one Cr. Going with Chris from Twitter over me?

Here’s the thing – I took the initiative to come say hello and see what you good folks are all about. Can Chris from Twitter say the same??

I suppose I could share my Twitter handle with you… but all it does is shamelessly promote my business. Unless we have some real estate investors in here, I seriously doubt anyone cares to see that stuff.

I am happy to share a few of my old VT posts with you though:

https://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2020/december/1/what-if

https://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2021/august/19/call-arms

https://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2021/november/16/perspective

And by the way, if you guys want to see the kind of energy Coach Fu brings check this one out: https://vimeo.com/778946687/c89bfaaffd

The ACC Championship Sounds of Game Day piece was really good for some inside looks too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPi9Woat7sY

So now that I’ve taken the time to post all this, I’m going to feel pretty silly if Coach Fu isn’t your guy. Hah.

It’s been nice chatting with you though.

Thank you for sharing this.

I haven’t found anything where you advocate for keeping Fuente while others want him gone and I haven’t found anything you posted prior to Fuente’s hiring at VT.

Really the only thing I’ve seen noteworthy is this post that you linked above. https://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2021/november/16/perspective
You essentially say it is wrong for them to celebrate Fuente’s firing and that you are taking your ball and going home. People are typically more invested in their school than a temporary coach. None of this seems to suggest you were a VT alum or fan before or after Fuente’s tenure, it just seems like you are a Fuente fan and VT is just where he happened to coach at that time. It seems reasonable that as a fan of Fuente and not of VaTech specifically that you would come here to advocate for your buddy.

Edited December 7, 2022 by Cr1028

UNTLifer · December 7, 2022

Let's get Monken from Army and run the option.

By the way, Missouri Western hired Tyler Wenwick as their coach, so he's off the board.

Dannymacfan · December 7, 2022

1 hour ago, ftworth said:

What about Kevin Sumlin? I wonder if he would be interested in coaching college football again. He had success at A&M. That would be an interesting candidate for me.

Sumlin can recruit his ass off. But I worry he's made so much money he may not be hungry anymore.

jwVA · December 7, 2022

1 hour ago, Cr1028 said:

Thank you for sharing this.

I haven’t found anything where you advocate for keeping Fuente while others want him gone and I haven’t found anything you posted prior to Fuente’s hiring at VT.

Really the only thing I’ve seen noteworthy is this post that you linked above. https://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2021/november/16/perspective
You essentially say it is wrong for them to celebrate Fuente’s firing and that you are taking your ball and going home. People are typically more invested in their school than a temporary coach. None of this seems to suggest you were a VT alum or fan before or after Fuente’s tenure, it just seems like you are a Fuente fan and VT is just where he happened to coach at that time. It seems reasonable that as a fan of Fuente and not of VaTech specifically that you would come here to advocate for your buddy.

Happy to share partner.

And certainly no arguments from me about people being emotionally invested in the school, not the coach. But think about it in the context of VT’s history for a minute…

For those of us under age 50, Frank Beamer was the only coach we ever knew. We have never played the coaching carousel game before.

What’s more, Virginia Tech is located in a very rural part of Virginia. To us, it always represented the common man.

We never had the nicest stuff… but we were willing to outwork everybody in sight. That was the mentality, anyway.

Coach Beamer put VT on the map with that ethos. So we were in no man’s land when he retired.

It became clear to me early on that Coach Fu is cut from the same cloth. It was the Notre Dame game his first year that sold me.

The game was in South Bend. The temperature was in the teens and blowing snow. Yet Fu’s strength coach is out there in a short sleeve shirt and sunglasses like it was nothing.

Then ND jumped up 17-0 in the first quarter… and Fu went ballistic on the sidelines. He doesn’t do that very often. But it sure got the team’s attention. They rallied and won the game in the fourth quarter. A replay of that game is still up on YouTube I believe.

So for me, Justin was a Virginia Tech guy. The program looked like a modern version of what it had always been… with the same mentality and values.

That’s why I was very disappointed with how the fans turned on him despite the fact that he never had a truly bad season. At VT, we’re supposed to take care of our own.

Dannymacfan · December 7, 2022

5 hours ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

JayD has a tip guy somewhere in the AD. But JayD also plays along with the game about how good things are or can be until it's beyond clear it's not working out. Probably so he can maintain that tip guy.

So, IOW, he (and others) will laude this hire as a great hire that will do great things regardless of who it was or what their resume clearly states about them.

With that said, I appreciate his fandom like I appreciate all the people on here. This is a small community, the only community, of diehard UNT fans. We need 10x the website traffic than we have to boost interest and fans.

this may be true but I have to say JayDee is right more than he is wrong. At least of what I've seen of him.

NT80 · December 7, 2022

3 hours ago, El Paso Eagle said:

Traylor had/has tremendous "brand recognition" in one of the most important areas - Texas High School Coaches!

I think recruiting the Portal and JUCOs is more important now than High School recruiting.

El Paso Eagle · December 7, 2022

38 minutes ago, NT80 said:

I think recruiting the Portal and JUCOs is more important now than High School recruiting.

Agree, but a lot of these players talk to their old HS coaches when they are looking for a new school.

Cr1028 · December 7, 2022

1 hour ago, jwVA said:

Happy to share partner.

And certainly no arguments from me about people being emotionally invested in the school, not the coach. But think about it in the context of VT’s history for a minute…

For those of us under age 50, Frank Beamer was the only coach we ever knew. We have never played the coaching carousel game before.

What’s more, Virginia Tech is located in a very rural part of Virginia. To us, it always represented the common man.

We never had the nicest stuff… but we were willing to outwork everybody in sight. That was the mentality, anyway.

Coach Beamer put VT on the map with that ethos. So we were in no man’s land when he retired.

It became clear to me early on that Coach Fu is cut from the same cloth. It was the Notre Dame game his first year that sold me.

The game was in South Bend. The temperature was in the teens and blowing snow. Yet Fu’s strength coach is out there in a short sleeve shirt and sunglasses like it was nothing.

Then ND jumped up 17-0 in the first quarter… and Fu went ballistic on the sidelines. He doesn’t do that very often. But it sure got the team’s attention. They rallied and won the game in the fourth quarter. A replay of that game is still up on YouTube I believe.

So for me, Justin was a Virginia Tech guy. The program looked like a modern version of what it had always been… with the same mentality and values.

That’s why I was very disappointed with how the fans turned on him despite the fact that he never had a truly bad season. At VT, we’re supposed to take care of our own.

Thank you for the response. How did you feel about his Baylor situation?

Edited December 7, 2022 by Cr1028

Cr1028 · December 7, 2022

1 hour ago, NT80 said:

I think recruiting the Portal and JUCOs is more important now than High School recruiting.

Tell that to Spavital.

NorthTexasWeLove · December 7, 2022

1 hour ago, Dannymacfan said:

this may be true but I have to say JayDee is right more than he is wrong. At least of what I've seen of him.

I'm not denying that.

meaniegreenie · December 7, 2022

6 hours ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

JayD has a tip guy somewhere in the AD. But JayD also plays along with the game about how good things are or can be until it's beyond clear it's not working out. Probably so he can maintain that tip guy.

OMG, I just figured out....JayD is.....Jorge Dunham!!!!!😀

jwVA · December 7, 2022

46 minutes ago, Cr1028 said:

Thank you for the response. How did you feel about his Baylor situation?

You mean talking to Baylor about their vacancy prior to the 2020 season? Man, you know a lot about this story.

I never had a problem with it. That was about one of two things...

Either Coach Fu was exploring an opportunity to move back closer to home and get a big raise for his staff – apparently Baylor is an extremely well-funded private school… Or he made a calculated move to show VT’s admin that they absolutely needed to step up their support for the football program. Or fall behind even more.

I think I mentioned at one point in our conversation that VT had exactly two full-time recruiting people at the time. That was part of the problem. The uncompetitive assistant coach budget was the other big issue.

Well, the “head of recruiting” John Iezzi said that Fu showed up in the office the next day (it’s the offseason) and told the staff that some news was going to come out, and that some people would not be happy with it. But he asked them to trust him that it was something that was going to help the program.

So this guy suggested that the Baylor thing was about the second scenario. And that it was 100% calculated.

And maybe it was. By all accounts, Coach Fu really enjoyed raising his young family in Blacksburg VA, which is a small town.

Just to footnote this so you don’t suspect I’m making it up, here’s the podcast where Iezzi told this story: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/john-iezzi-interview-sons-of-crootin/id1306454306?i=1000465163844

At the same time, I wouldn’t blame Justin one bit if he seriously wanted the Baylor job.

For one, Texas/Oklahoma is his home.

I’m a native Virginian who spent a decade working in a different state… and I jumped at the opportunity to move back closer to home. I don’t know, there’s something about us humans where we want to stay close to our roots. Many of us do, anyway.

So I can understand that.

I also heard that some of Fu’s assistants wanted him to take the Baylor job. I don’t know that he was ever even offered the job… but the staff knew it would be better pay.

Plus, Fu’s staff at Virginia Tech was largely a combination of guys from TX/OK and former VT players. I’m sure the TX/OK guys would love to make more money and get back closer to home.

Cr1028 · December 7, 2022

1 hour ago, jwVA said:

You mean talking to Baylor about their vacancy prior to the 2020 season? Man, you know a lot about this story.

I never had a problem with it. That was about one of two things...

Either Coach Fu was exploring an opportunity to move back closer to home and get a big raise for his staff – apparently Baylor is an extremely well-funded private school… Or he made a calculated move to show VT’s admin that they absolutely needed to step up their support for the football program. Or fall behind even more.

I think I mentioned at one point in our conversation that VT had exactly two full-time recruiting people at the time. That was part of the problem. The uncompetitive assistant coach budget was the other big issue.

Well, the “head of recruiting” John Iezzi said that Fu showed up in the office the next day (it’s the offseason) and told the staff that some news was going to come out, and that some people would not be happy with it. But he asked them to trust him that it was something that was going to help the program.

So this guy suggested that the Baylor thing was about the second scenario. And that it was 100% calculated.

And maybe it was. By all accounts, Coach Fu really enjoyed raising his young family in Blacksburg VA, which is a small town.

Just to footnote this so you don’t suspect I’m making it up, here’s the podcast where Iezzi told this story: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/john-iezzi-interview-sons-of-crootin/id1306454306?i=1000465163844

At the same time, I wouldn’t blame Justin one bit if he seriously wanted the Baylor job.

For one, Texas/Oklahoma is his home.

I’m a native Virginian who spent a decade working in a different state… and I jumped at the opportunity to move back closer to home. I don’t know, there’s something about us humans where we want to stay close to our roots. Many of us do, anyway.

So I can understand that.

I also heard that some of Fu’s assistants wanted him to take the Baylor job. I don’t know that he was ever even offered the job… but the staff knew it would be better pay.

Plus, Fu’s staff at Virginia Tech was largely a combination of guys from TX/OK and former VT players. I’m sure the TX/OK guys would love to make more money and get back closer to home.

Thanks for sharing

MeanGreenTexan · December 8, 2022

2 hours ago, jwVA said:

You mean talking to Baylor about their vacancy prior to the 2020 season? Man, you know a lot about this story.

I never had a problem with it. That was about one of two things...

Either Coach Fu was exploring an opportunity to move back closer to home and get a big raise for his staff – apparently Baylor is an extremely well-funded private school… Or he made a calculated move to show VT’s admin that they absolutely needed to step up their support for the football program. Or fall behind even more.

I think I mentioned at one point in our conversation that VT had exactly two full-time recruiting people at the time. That was part of the problem. The uncompetitive assistant coach budget was the other big issue.

Well, the “head of recruiting” John Iezzi said that Fu showed up in the office the next day (it’s the offseason) and told the staff that some news was going to come out, and that some people would not be happy with it. But he asked them to trust him that it was something that was going to help the program.

So this guy suggested that the Baylor thing was about the second scenario. And that it was 100% calculated.

And maybe it was. By all accounts, Coach Fu really enjoyed raising his young family in Blacksburg VA, which is a small town.

Just to footnote this so you don’t suspect I’m making it up, here’s the podcast where Iezzi told this story: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/john-iezzi-interview-sons-of-crootin/id1306454306?i=1000465163844

At the same time, I wouldn’t blame Justin one bit if he seriously wanted the Baylor job.

For one, Texas/Oklahoma is his home.

I’m a native Virginian who spent a decade working in a different state… and I jumped at the opportunity to move back closer to home. I don’t know, there’s something about us humans where we want to stay close to our roots. Many of us do, anyway.

So I can understand that.

I also heard that some of Fu’s assistants wanted him to take the Baylor job. I don’t know that he was ever even offered the job… but the staff knew it would be better pay.

Plus, Fu’s staff at Virginia Tech was largely a combination of guys from TX/OK and former VT players. I’m sure the TX/OK guys would love to make more money and get back closer to home.

Wow.

I don’t understand why you’re here though. Are you scouring the internet looking for people to engage about Justin? Or is there something you’ve been told?

You kinda come across as a relative or agent rather than a VATech fan.

Pellom · December 8, 2022

So, running all the posts in this thread through my message board filter, I would say Fuente looks to be the guy. Or at least he's in the running enough to send someone here to advocate on his behalf. I suppose it could also be the AD floating a trial balloon to see how it would go over.

Would be a good hire, I think. And more importantly, I think it would send a message to the nation that North Texas can get a big name AND that North Texas is serious about competing in the AAC.