Idaho Hanging in with Mich st

jgb0607 · September 2, 2006

Given MSU is not UT, but this is interesting

NT80 · September 2, 2006

Dennis Erickson was hired as Idaho's coach this year. They sold 4000 new season tickets in February when he was announced as coach! Gee, maybe a new coach "can" make a difference.

jgb0607 · September 2, 2006

Dennis Erickson was hired as Idaho's coach this year. They sold 4000 new season tickets in February when he was announced as coach! Gee, maybe a new coach "can" make a difference.
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Food for Thought

PlummMeanGreen · September 3, 2006

Dennis Erickson was hired as Idaho's coach this year. They sold 4000 new season tickets in February when he was announced as coach! Gee, maybe a new coach "can" make a difference.
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Leaving our present coaching situation out of all this, but a new "name" coach at most any non-BCS school like a UTEP, Idaho, etc, etc, etc, seems to most always make an immediate impact. Players eagerly look for a fresh start and fall in line behind such a high profile hire and the fans get all excited (again), get the pocket books back out and start re-newing season tickets and re-joining football booster clubs. But (also) with the high profile hire, many non-BCS schools (like an Idaho) start selling thousands of additional football season tickets.

IMMEDIATE IMPACT YOU SAY? Mike Price at UTEP had the Miners in the Top 25 in 2-3 years--for a non-BCS school how much more impact can it get than that? How close is our program of being Top 25 caliber now?

Yet (sadly for all concerned and thats most all on this forum) I don't think this present group of UNT leaders would ever go for the high profile coaching hire if there ever became an opening at "Extension State U" even after this season (unless things really go south for DD). One has to wonder what UNT's next head football coaching shopping list would look like? Good ol' boys and buddies of present UNT athletics leaders who want to help their buddy out? Or friends of a friend of friend who some UNT leader went to school with or even coached with who would never (and I mean NEVER) be considered for a head football coaching job at any other NCAA D1-A outpost except, uh....................... NORTH TEXAS, of course?

IMHO, we have a couple on our UNT Board of Regents who (if they only would) coul just say "this is what we are going to do, Mr. UNT System Chancellor and Madam UNT-Denton President" and thats for UNT to go with the high profile hire. Because FWIW, hasn't most our "higher profile NCAA D1" success been with such a hire B4 in Denton?

Yet wouldn't it be interesting to sit in on our present UNT Board of Regents future meetings to see who (really) is in line with Chancellor Jackson and our new lady president of our main campus?

Edited September 3, 2006 by PlummMeanGreen

ForneyGreen · September 3, 2006

How much is Erickson making to coach at Idaho? Just curious to compare to the Sun Belt coaching salaries.

Quoner · September 3, 2006

Leaving our present coaching situation out of all this, but a new "name" coach at most any non-BCS school like a UTEP, Idaho, etc, etc, etc, seems to most always make an immediate impact. Players eagerly look for a fresh start and fall in line behind such a high profile hire and the fans get all excited (again), get the pocket books back out and start re-newing season tickets and re-joining football booster clubs. But (also) with the high profile hire, many non-BCS schools (like an Idaho) start selling thousands of additional football season tickets.
IMMEDIATE IMPACT YOU SAY? Mike Price at UTEP had the Miners in the Top 25 in 2-3 years--for a non-BCS school how much more impact can it get than that? How close is our program of being Top 25 caliber now?
Yet (sadly for all concerned and thats most all on this forum) I don't think this present group of UNT leaders would ever go for the high profile coaching hire if there ever became an opening at "Extension State U" even after this season (unless things really go south for DD). One has to wonder what UNT's next head football coaching shopping list would look like? Good ol' boys and buddies of present UNT athletics leaders who want to help their buddy out? Or friends of a friend of friend who some UNT leader went to school with or even coached with who would never (and I mean NEVER) be considered for a head football coaching job at any other NCAA D1-A outpost except, uh....................... NORTH TEXAS, of course?
IMHO, we have a couple on our UNT Board of Regents who (if they only would) coul just say "this is what we are going to do, Mr. UNT System Chancellor and Madam UNT-Denton President" and thats for UNT to go with the high profile hire. Because FWIW, hasn't most our "higher profile NCAA D1" success been with such a hire B4 in Denton?
Yet wouldn't it be interesting to sit in on our present UNT Board of Regents future meetings to see who (really) is in line with Chancellor Jackson and our new lady president of our main campus?
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Half the board craps the bed whenever bringing in somone like this is mentioned - he has a questionable past and obviously wouldn't want to prove anything to move back up or anything.....

so obviously he couldn't help us or drive interest....

PlummMeanGreen · September 3, 2006

Half the board craps the bed whenever bringing in somone like this is mentioned - he has a questionable past and obviously wouldn't want to prove anything to move back up or anything.....
so obviously he couldn't help us or drive interest....
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Quoner, the main problem is over half the board fears the unknown and the unchartered waters of having an upwardly bound NCAA D1-A football program (again) that can actually win an OOC game (even against Top 50 D1-A schools); and by all means, forget the Top 10 schools for now. UT has a new Jumbotron that would light up our entire campus at night! They'v got the resources in Austin I think we (and most of the other 118 NCA 1-A schools) will never have.

Fry came to UNT after having been fired at SMU so he was not exactly a hot commodity when we hired him, either; also........... many older nestors (NTSU employees) on campus didn't think we'd be able to even hire Fry with his SWC name value and ID. Neither was Coach Price at UTEP with his Topless-Bar-Gate situation; Idaho's new Coach Dennis Erickson lost much of his previous luster by recent non-success; but FWIW, most any high profile name head coach a non BCS school would be able to hire will have some kind of blemish; but non-BCS schools have proven to be just what the doctor orders for both their football program and the high profile coach trying to get back in the mainstream. To do that, he "MUST" have a high profile success at his new non-BCS coaching job, right?

I just fear UNT is back to its "going back to the womb" mode with our athletic program and all that beginning minutes after Pohl resigned as our president.

SO HERE IS THE ONE WHO WILL HIRE OUR NEXT COACH: IF DD has to be replaced after this or next season, we will be force-fed (a la Craig Helwig) and have to accept non-UNT graduated employees choices for our next head football coach. Lets see now, don't we already have more than a handful of present UNT varsity coaches with multi-year under .500 W/L records who seem to keep getting contract extensions (that BTW, have to be approved by the NT Board of Regents? So doesn't that just give us all the warm fuzzies and that special "feel good" feeling about our football future? Folks, get your NT varsity sports media guides out---WE OF UNT AINT ALL THAT SUCCESSFUL IN INTER-COLLEGIATE SPORTS ATHLETIC HIRING IF WE CAN USE W/L RESULTS OF THE LAST 2 DECADES AS PROOF, RIGHT?

Hopefully, a certain strategic and key UNT Board of Regent who attended UNT will take all this bull by the horns come future new UNT coaches hiring time and tell our new leaders:

HEY! HOW 'BOUT LETS TRY DOING SOMETHING DIFFERENT FOR A CHANGE?!?!?! WHAT WE'VE BEEN DOING AIN'T SELLING TICKETS A SCHOOL OUR SIZE SHOULD BE SELLING, IT AIN'T CAPTURING THE ENTERTAINMENT IMAGINATION, VALUE OR ASPECTS OF OUR PRESENT FANS AND.......... FOR DAMN SURE IS NOT PUTING NEW BUTTS IN SEATS........

............................................................

So just who is UNT athletics for anyhow? Is it for UNT students and faculty? Is if for NT Exes? Is it for Mean Green fans? Or............is it an intra-departmental vehicle for NT athletic staff-types to butter each others bread (contract extensions?) while biding time as they wait for the Big 12 (or anyone in some cases) to come a-callin'?

Edited September 3, 2006 by PlummMeanGreen

eleazar · September 3, 2006

Awesome post

GreenBlooded1 · September 3, 2006

Agreed... good post. BUT I must ask...

If you have this in hand, who might you go recruiting to be our next coach??

PlummMeanGreen · September 3, 2006

Agreed... good post. BUT I must ask...
If you have this in hand, who might you go recruiting to be our next coach??
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MORE OF THE SAME DAMN LAGNIAPE WITH A FEW VARIATIONS

First of all, let me say that I am not vying for the post of the week award with this or any other post. Many just feel we are being cheated out of having a good athletic program at UNT because (basically) we have almost my whole adult life a history of UNT officials hiring athletic personnel who usually don't get a job much higher than........NORTH TEXAS. Again, just check out your UNT varsity sports media guides and go down those corridor of years with our W/L records for all UNT sports if you need further proof.

Obviously, I am also not trying do all the right things (whatever those would be) to be awarded another Ulys Knight Spirit Award if that possible (of which the one I did very proudly receive back in 1996 along with Jub-Jub some may want to take back by now) (Seriously, though, I really feel an NT Ex can be a good alum by not always following the status quo of which most of you I know wouldn't want to be accussed of being a part of either). I think most of you on this board are actully the kind of fans a Notre Dame, OU or (gulp) even a Texas would be proud to have as fans and that's the honest truth.

BUT............... FWIW, I am not alone with my feelings (some have stronger ones than mine but just won't post them) that I have posted in the above post to the point of ad nausem for many of you who I personally know but also, I ain't going to stop posting or caring about UNT until I just feel the inmates have completely taken over the asylum up in Denton and go completely zonkers! extending contracts to coaches that few (if any) NCAA D1-A school would probably not even consider keeping on their payroll, least of all extending contracts to. UNT seems to be an easy hit, ie, an easy place to work and get to stay for a long time and all you have to do is buy a few beers, be one helluva' good bull-shipper and dangle a few carrots to keep some of our masses excited. How damn sad........

I also actually believe I can count about 25 or more of you posters on GoMeanGreen.com (after having read your own philosophies the last few years) who could come up with better ideas and be part of selection committees who would offer more sensible advice to "our people" as to what kind of hires would must make more sense (cents) for a school that annually hovers toward the bottom of NCAA D1-A (even during those bowl years).

I believe some of you who I have known personally for awhile could come up with ideas for varsity coach hirings that would fit the "whole" UNT community compared to what we have been getting force-fed to us most of the last 2 decades. Come on, folks, some "genius" at Idaho U came up with the suggestion in one of their meetings asking such a question as this: Why don't we ask Dennis Erickson if he would be interested in coaching our Vandals." You know, I still would like to believe we have a few smarter sports savvy football people affiliated with UNT here in the sovereign state of Texas, you know, where football is king compared to a "freakin" Idaho, where, uh, the potato is king? :

Do I have a suggestion at this time for a head football coach at UNT? No I don't have a suggestion, and thats only because we don't have a vacancy for the head football coaches job at UNT. I have to think UNT would somehow/someway go outside the box we've seen of late to come up with ideas (a la Idaho) if the day, month or year arrives that our new UNT president needs to put together a selection committee for a new head football coach at UNT BUT...................

............hopefully, she would also take a veru long look at our track record of past selection committees and who they've had on their short list for varsity coach hirings by borrowing someone's UNT sports media guides on campus so even she could do her own unbias research as to what the hell have we been doing wrong in Mean Green Country that has created so many losses in th "L" column compared to the "W" column the last 2+ decades. Also, hopefully she could come up with her own suggestions as to what do we have to do to get this Mean Green football program in the Top 50 NCAA D1-A football schools? As we all know, a good start toward Top 50 would be wins outside the Sun Belt Conference and the NO's Bowl.

And FWIW, even a win over SMU this Saturday night (which I think will happen) will still not change the overall direction of where this program has been pointed by those who won't care about UNT's future athletic welfare 5 minutes they are off its payroll. Lets do keep this SMU game in a proper perspective, too, since we are talking about a Mustang football program that has had, uh, "1" winnning season the last 2 decades, right?

Edited September 3, 2006 by PlummMeanGreen