What could have been

[Cooley]

Nick Saban, head coach of North Texas

Wasn't aware of any of the candidates, but was told that Nick Saban was our #1 guy to become the next Head Coach after the firing of Corky Nelson. Saban came to Denton for his final interview but the money wasn't quite right. We instead settled on Dennis Parker. Can anyone confirm? 

From a very reliable source

[Mean Green 93-98]

I'm skeptical.  At that time, Saban was head coach at Toledo, a MAC school, and we were a 1AA (FCS) school.  That would have been a significant step down.

Maybe he was a candidate when we hired Matt Simon?  At least at that time, we pretty well knew we were moving back up to 1A the next year.

[TIgreen01]

35 minutes ago, greenminer said:

What if we don't lose to Florida State in Bowden's first year?

What if we were not Bill Snyder's first win at Kansas State?

What if Bozeman misses that 3 with 1.5 seconds left?

What if Andrew Smith hadn't been in a tragic car accident?

What if we never dropped to AA, and the admin votes in favor of athletics?

What if Johnny Jones won that NCAA game vs. Memphis?

What if Jamario is never injury prone?

The amount of dumb, hard luck this program has endured leads me to believe that there is some cosmic force pissing on us every chance it gets.

Don't forget the covid year.  Record didn't show it but they were  a complete team and rounding into form right at the right time only for the tourney to be canceled.  Will always believe that was our Sweet 16 (at least) team that just didn't get a shot to show it.  The next year was the year we beat Purdue.

[keith]

On 3/4/2025 at 2:45 PM, TIgreen01 said:

Don't forget the covid year.  Record didn't show it but they were  a complete team and rounding into form right at the right time only for the tourney to be canceled.  Will always believe that was our Sweet 16 (at least) team that just didn't get a shot to show it.  The next year was the year we beat Purdue.

That's when I knew we must have pissed off the sports gods at some point in the past and they were going to hold it over us forever.

Edited March 6 by keith

[Cougar King]

In that timeline, I don't defect from UNT and am known as Eagle King where I constantly antagonize Coogfans.

[UNTcrazy727]

On 3/3/2025 at 9:16 PM, Cooley said:

Nick Saban, head coach of North Texas

Wasn't aware of any of the candidates, but was told that Nick Saban was our #1 guy to become the next Head Coach after the firing of Corky Nelson. Saban came to Denton for his final interview but the money wasn't quite right. We instead settled on Dennis Parker. Can anyone confirm? 

From a very reliable source

No idea about Saban, but its always been rumored this is what happened with Jim Harbaugh when we eventually hired Todd Dodge. 

[SilverEagle]

Don't know about Saban or Harbaugh.  But "back in the day" I read in an article, either by the DRC or NTD, that Corky Nelson had been knocking on our door for a while before he was finally hired. Most notably he tried to get the job when Bob Tyler got hired.........against the advice of just about everybody in the SEC. The administration was just bound and determined to hire Tyler, and only God knows why.  Could things have been different if we had hired Corky Nelson instead of Bob Tyler? Corky would have been able to recruit, (in a very familiar territory), as a 1-A coach and as a result the 81 season might have been completely different.

[Tommy Gadberry]

On 3/10/2025 at 2:23 PM, UNTcrazy727 said:

No idea about Saban, but its always been rumored this is what happened with Jim Harbaugh when we eventually hired Todd Dodge. 

I had heard RV wanted to hire Harbaugh but didn’t have enough money.

[Mean Green 93-98]

On 3/10/2025 at 2:23 PM, UNTcrazy727 said:

No idea about Saban, but its always been rumored this is what happened with Jim Harbaugh when we eventually hired Todd Dodge. 

Kind of.  Harbaugh interviewed with Stanford within a few days after we interviewed him.  I suspect money would not have been our only obstacle once Stanford decided they wanted to hire him.

[GreenEggs&Ham™]

Was not aware of Corky Nelson's interest and NTSU hiring Tyler instead. Good grief what a stupid decision or perhaps intentional sabotage. Despite Corky's demons, he could recruit in Texas and his potential to win against a big-time opponent was very real.

I was a student at UNT when Dennis Parker was hired & his name is mostly what I heard on campus from other students during the search process. Dennis Parker was a H.S. coach from Marshall, TX as I recall. I don't remember Nick Saban being mentioned back then nor reading his name in the NT Daily. Parker could recruit Texas for sure and NT didn't want to pay a real coach's salary back then. But Nick Saban. Dang.

[NT80]

1 hour ago, GreenEggs&Ham™ said:

Was not aware of Corky Nelson's interest and NTSU hiring Tyler instead. Good grief what a stupid decision or perhaps intentional sabotage. Despite Corky's demons, he could recruit in Texas and his potential to win against a big-time opponent was very real.

I was a student at UNT when Dennis Parker was hired & his name is mostly what I heard on campus from other students during the search process. Dennis Parker was a H.S. coach from Marshall, TX as I recall. I don't remember Nick Saban being mentioned back then nor reading his name in the NT Daily. Parker could recruit Texas for sure and NT didn't want to pay a real coach's salary back then. But Nick Saban. Dang.

 

I had never heard Nick Saban mentioned.   Not sure I believe it.

Jerry Moore was a Nebraska assistant hired to replace Hayden Fry.  But he tried to repalce Fry's wide open offense with a Nebraska running game and it mostly failed.  He went 11-11 and luckily Tech hired him away.  He learned later how to really coach at App St.  

Moore was replaced by Bob Tyler, a former Miss St head coach, with baggage.  He only lasted one season at 2-9 in 1981.  Corky Nelson was next.  He had been a former NT asst in 1970.   NT also made the poor decision then to drop to 1-AA.  Nelson was a good coach and got more big wins and fans pumped for NT as a 1-AA program since Fry.

Dennis Parker was a Texas high school name coach, won State at Marshall (an early Todd Dodge) as we tried to get media attention and recruiting inroads with him.  Nice guy, had a bit role in the movie Necessary Roughness.  But an 11-21 record couldn't get it done at the 1-AA level.

We finally made the decision to return to 1-A football and hired Matt Simon.  1995 we were Independent during the transition and had the most brutal schedule in our football history, before or since.   

[GreenEggs&Ham™]

What an awful decision and terrible mismanagement at NTSU that resulted in dropping to 1-AA briefly. Highly compensated people need to have very high job performance expectations. That must not have happened back in 1980 at NTSU. I am sure they all kept their highly overcompensated roles at NTSU and NT is still feeling the effects from the mismanagement.

Dennis Parker forgot to take the playbook to one game as I recall. I think it was against Nebraska. He also punted on 3rd down against OU in 1991. I was there in person to witness that. It was a quick kick though. He was out of his depth at the college level, but he could recruit really well. I wish someone more knowledgeable than me could list up some of his top recruits. Anthony Bridges?

[EAGLE83]

Bob Tyler,family did not join him in Denton

[UNTLifer]

1 hour ago, EAGLE83 said:

Bob Tyler,family did not join him in Denton

Incorrect. His son, Cam, played at Denton High School. 

[Cooley]

4 hours ago, GreenEggs&Ham™ said:

What an awful decision and terrible mismanagement at NTSU that resulted in dropping to 1-AA briefly. Highly compensated people need to have very high job performance expectations. That must not have happened back in 1980 at NTSU. I am sure they all kept their highly overcompensated roles at NTSU and NT is still feeling the effects from the mismanagement.

Dennis Parker forgot to take the playbook to one game as I recall. I think it was against Nebraska. He also punted on 3rd down against OU in 1991. I was there in person to witness that. It was a quick kick though. He was out of his depth at the college level, but he could recruit really well. I wish someone more knowledgeable than me could list up some of his top recruits. Anthony Bridges?

I know that Parker brought some of his kids with him from Marshall High (or transfer from Marshall): Willis Hudson, Lorenzo Washington, Stacey Anderson. The star was Trency Clough but his went another route prior to signing day. Benny Valentine was the QB that I think we signed via transfer.