Why is RV’s picture no longer on the UNT NIL site

GrayEagle · June 8, 2023

21 hours ago, meangreenfaninno said:

? I could have sworn he was all over it the last time I looked at it. https://www.lightthetowercollective.com/collective-board/

I don't really remember his picture but if you look at the last sentence it mentions a CEO who has experience with UNT. I am reasonably sure that's referring to RV.

greenminer · June 8, 2023

2 hours ago, wardly said:

You may disparage his hiring record but until his arrival the only dedicated athletic building constructed after Fouts Field was a 3,000 sq. ft. athletic facility Fry had built that still sits in the parking lot adjacent to the Super Pit.

Not demonizing the guy: he definitely loves the Mean Green and wants to help, but I can see all the misfires.

“Until his arrival”, and after he got help. the key people that helped facilitate the passing of the athletic fee had to step forward

A failed initial vote to raise athletic fee (before he got help). Maybe worst of all: the awful scores from a third party survey of the state of athletics at the end of his tenure. The horrible track record of his hires - I dont hate him for that but man! It’s kind of shocking to look at those numbers.

grateful for his attitude and efforts, but very happy to be on the other side of his tenure.

greenminer · June 8, 2023

I have to state this follow up, @wardly

We have existed for far too long on the shoulders of far too few. RV was put in the unenviable position of captain of this limping ship. I'm grateful for the passion that these few generous families have, that motivated them to help keep us afloat when we otherwise would have sunken.

I hope one day we can solve this riddle that is alumni engagement. This has long been our "Shroud of the Dark Side" in Denton since the day we decided to move to 1AA. If we can ever get and keep our graduates involved with time and $$$, we have the numbers to be dominant and the AD job would be no more than a joy ride.

Edited June 9, 2023 by greenminer

GrayEagle · June 8, 2023

8 minutes ago, greenminer said:

Have to have this follow up, @wardly

We have existed for far too long on the shoulders of far too few. RV was put in the unenviable position of captain of this limping ship. I'm grateful for the passion that these few generous families have, that motivated them to help keep us afloat when we otherwise would have sunken.

I hope one day we can solve this riddle that is alumni engagement. This has long been our "Shroud of the Dark Side" in Denton since the day we decided to move to 1AA. If we can ever get and keep our graduates involved with time and $$$, we have the numbers to be dominant and the AD job would be no more than a joy ride.

Due to the condition of the economy it's going to be hard to get the medium sized donors for the next few years. But...if we can get thousands to make small to medium-sized contributions after they graduate our sheer numbers will keep us afloat; maybe even ahead of the game. I won't be on this earth when it all happens but I can go to my grave happy if we are on the right track.

Green Crazy · June 9, 2023

On 6/7/2023 at 4:28 PM, p_phelps said:

It's 100% fair because its true. I'd say he's on the mount Rushmore of most failures under hid belt at his time at unt.

Care to elaborate? Not saying I care too much either way, but you basically just made the "Is too!" argument.

wardly · June 9, 2023

22 hours ago, GrayEagle said:

RV was responsible for the athletic village purchase as well as the building of Apogee. He got millions from Apogee for the naming rights. OK, not as much as he bartered for but still a significant amount.

RV was forced to operate from a much smaller budget than Wren and now Jared. I was shocked at the Dodge hire not working. He was the premier of the Texas high school coaches. I didn't realize how limited they had made the pool for assistant coaches, virtually forcing him to bring much of his high school staff with him. Benford hadn't been a college head coach (to my knowledge) and his situation just bombed. He took a chance on what he could afford.

It's my understanding that one of the conditions that Dodge had was that he could bring his high school assistants with him. This was a grave error. While he recruited well his teams were really out coached on the field. Rick tried to hit a home run but instead struck out. While I am at it,Benford was one of the nicest coaches that I ever met but just couldn't coach. I went to Kansas State for the Pre-NIT and we lost our first game to a D2 school from Alabama whose name I have forgotten. We had a "can't miss" future NBA player [ who did miss] and Benford never new what to do with him. Both hires were a miss.

Tom McKrackin · June 9, 2023

I mean the man tried to help and wasn't getting paid a dime for it as I understand. He did the best he could. And he did a LOT for UNT in terms of building facilities. RV took UNT places they had never been before. Why can't some of your people just let your hatred for RV go? #WITCHHUNT

KingDL1 · June 9, 2023

1 hour ago, Tom McKrackin said:

I mean the man tried to help and wasn't getting paid a dime for it as I understand. He did the best he could. And he did a LOT for UNT in terms of building facilities. RV took UNT places they had never been before. Why can't some of your people just let your hatred for RV go? #WITCHHUNT

That's a nice story, but it's not true. RV was all con artist and FULL OF BS. He was paid well. Snubbed plenty? What did he drive?

Mo Green · June 9, 2023

2 hours ago, wardly said:

It's my understanding that one of the conditions that Dodge had was that he could bring his high school assistants with him. This was a grave error. While he recruited well his teams were really out coached on the field. Rick tried to hit a home run but instead struck out. While I am at it,Benford was one of the nicest coaches that I ever met but just couldn't coach. I went to Kansas State for the Pre-NIT and we lost our first game to a D2 school from Alabama whose name I have forgotten. We had a "can't miss" future NBA player [ who did miss] and Benford never new what to do with him. Both hires were a miss.

Coach Russell told me that Dodge wanted to keep several coaches especially on defense, but our beloved AD told him to clean house. The rest is history.

By the way, Coach Russell was the only coach to apologize to RV for their failure in recruiting.

Mean Green 93-98 · June 9, 2023

35 minutes ago, KingDL1 said:

He was paid well.

Are you talking about his work with the NIL collective?

DentonLurker · June 9, 2023

The truth is some really good things happened under RV and some not so good things happened under RV. I do believe he left North Texas Athletics better than he found it. His tenure was marked by significantly less resources than the administrations since him, so it's honestly hard to even compare. Was it time for UNT to move on from RV? Sure, but I'm also willing to give him credit for the improvements that happened during his time as AD.

KingDL1 · June 9, 2023

2 hours ago, Mean Green 93-98 said:

Are you talking about his work with the NIL collective?

No, that was its own cluster.

Mean Green 93-98 · June 9, 2023

1 hour ago, KingDL1 said:

No, that was its own cluster.

The NIL collective was what Tom Mc was talking about when he said RV "wasn't getting paid a dime."

wardly · June 9, 2023

4 hours ago, DentonLurker said:

The truth is some really good things happened under RV and some not so good things happened under RV. I do believe he left North Texas Athletics better than he found it. His tenure was marked by significantly less resources than the administrations since him, so it's honestly hard to even compare. Was it time for UNT to move on from RV? Sure, but I'm also willing to give him credit for the improvements that happened during his time as AD.

I think this post sums up Ricks tenure best. Time to move on.

KingDL1 · June 10, 2023

6 hours ago, Mean Green 93-98 said:

The NIL collective was what Tom Mc was talking about when he said RV "wasn't getting paid a dime."

Well, that's kind of true, but the plan was that it would be a paid position soon. And soon it will be.

UNT 90 Grad · June 11, 2023

On 6/7/2023 at 4:28 PM, p_phelps said:

It's 100% fair because its true. I'd say he's on the mount Rushmore of most failures under hid belt at his time at unt.

Not fair and not true. The man brought tailgating to UNT football.
See Ya Reaction GIF by WWE

p_phelps · June 11, 2023

23 minutes ago, UNT 90 Grad said:

Not fair and not true. The man brought tailgating to UNT football.

He was imperically a terrible athletic director

Dannymacfan · June 11, 2023

21 minutes ago, p_phelps said:

He was imperically a terrible athletic director

I disagree with you Darrell

bstnsportsfan3 · June 11, 2023

On 6/9/2023 at 12:56 PM, DentonLurker said:

The truth is some really good things happened under RV and some not so good things happened under RV. I do believe he left North Texas Athletics better than he found it. His tenure was marked by significantly less resources than the administrations since him, so it's honestly hard to even compare. Was it time for UNT to move on from RV? Sure, but I'm also willing to give him credit for the improvements that happened during his time as AD.

honestly, this is how I feel. we were better off than before he showed up by a long way, but he overstayed his welcome. Probably should have been gone 2-3 years before he was.