If DD were to get fired?

chrisfisher · September 17, 2006

We know DD won't get fired, but..............Last night I was so angry at DD and our offensive "plan" I was about to pull my hair out and renounce football altogether. My poor heart can take this - it must have been around 180bpm. While I cursed DD and wished him fired (among other things), I had the thought, "with our limited budget, would we end up with someone better? Would we start COMPLETELY over with a 1-12, 2-9, 3-9 record for the next 5 years while we rebuild?" ... scary stuff, but I may be ready for it. I can't take these OOC blowouts. Oh, the game finale for me: I baked Lasagna during the 4th Q as a distraction/anger reduction technique, and just as the game ended, I pulled the Lasagna out of the oven only the burn my hands and drop my entire dinner on the floor... the irony.

Edited September 17, 2006 by chrisfisher

September 17, 2006

None of us can know the answer to the question that you posed because no single person has the answer.

IF this is Dickey's last year we will go one of two ways. Either the BOR will commit to excellence (and a new stadium) and do as others have done and hire the best coach available, within reason. Look for us to have to pony up a minimum of $500,000 plus incentives to get the caliber of coach that we need. A plus for doing that is, if the coach is well-known, he and his name might command a tremendous boost in donations. If the BOR will not make a committment then you try to select an up and coming coach from the consensus of a selection committee. I'd lean toward someone who has been a head coach because there's often a big learning curve between coordinator and head coach. Right now, either way seems to be a plus.

PlummMeanGreen · September 17, 2006

chrisfisher, but were you able to salvage the lasagna?

Edited September 18, 2006 by PlummMeanGreen

untbowler · September 17, 2006

If Idaho can Dennis Erickson and Ohio can get Frank solich, there is no excuse for RV and the BOR to not go out and get a mainstream coach, someone who wants to win. I am afraid once they fire DD, that they will take the easy way out and hire RF to be coach since he is such a wonderful offensive guru

eulesseagle · September 17, 2006

As for one alumi I am sort of tired of Darrell "keep 8 in the Box" Dickey's play calling and strategy.

No adjustments throughout the game. He is still trying to keep the game close to the 4th Quarter except this time Darrell "keep 8 in the Box" Dickey GAVE UP and put Meager in. Darrell "keep 8 in the Box" Dickey basically told me that he ran out of "GAME PLAN OPTIONS" by the 4th quater and decided to lay down and die. Other coaches reach deep down inside to mount a "COMEBACK" but not for Darrell "keep 8 in the Box" Dickey.

NT plays Akron next week and Akron knows what it is like to mount a comeback against North Carolina State University, for one. Do you think they are going to give up?????

NT has better football talent than what Darrell "keep 8 in the Box" Dickey gives them credit for. We have JT in the backfield which given 1/2 a chance can bust some yards but not with "8 IN THE BOX."

NT has some great recievers but why throw when you can run into "8 IN THE BOX."

NT appears to have a solid defense this year but they get over shadowed when the offense only get less than 90 yards per game in two of the three games this year by having the HC and OC plan 40 some odd runs between the tackles and 11 some odd plays through the air.

I was truely optimistic this year with the excitment of having WW play and the somewhat promise that Darrell "keep 8 in the Box" Dickey would OPEN the OFFENSE up.

If this 75% running between the tackles and his infamous 3rd down draws continue then I have no hope for the talent that NT has on "O" & "D" for us to even get to 3 or 4 wins (maybe).

With this execution of game planning NT may only have wins against either FAU or FIU and we can look for UNT in ESPN's Bottom 10 and have a reputation like Buffalo.

Like I said before.....by the end of September we, as alum, should know where our program is headed.

El Paso Eagle · September 17, 2006

Mike Price’s original contract was for a base around $250K. He has incentives based on performance and getting increased season tickets sales and butts in the seat for game days. In other words he gets more pay to be successful and to sell the program to the fan base. He wins and the University wins.

PlummMeanGreen · September 17, 2006

Mike Price’s original contract was for a base around $250K. He has incentives based on performance and getting increased season tickets sales and butts in the seat for game days. In other words he gets more pay to be successful and to sell the program to the fan base. He wins and the University wins.
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BINGO!

Monkeypox · September 17, 2006

+

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ntmeangreen11 · September 17, 2006

It seems that all of the new, or innovative playcalling we saw last week, was gone, I turned it off at the half. The worst part is, I heard from a friend who knows a school board member, and the board member said that Ramon brags about how simple his offense is. He also brags about how they run simple variations of 7 plays. Simply sad to hear. It looked alot better against SMU, but runs up the middle will not work anymore. This isn't high school football.

If there's anything good about this, it's that we did alot better than we did last year. We lost by less than half of what we did last year, so we're an improved team. We'll give Akron a run for their money next week.

Edited September 17, 2006 by ntmeangreen11

GangGreen · September 17, 2006

Would we start COMPLETELY over with a 1-12, 2-9, 3-9 record for the next 5 years while we rebuild?"
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If we play like we did last night, 1-12, 2-9, 3-9, is a good possibility.

September 17, 2006

I think we've been rebuilding for the last nine years. Except for one year it's always been that we have a young team.

The only way that I think that we have a poor record for that long is if we hire Helwig to pick the next coach.

fan19740 · September 17, 2006

Is this a board for comments, or a board for English majors. Some of you have way too much to say. We lost to a better team. Get over it.

GrandGreen · September 17, 2006

Don't forget that DD is signed thru 2009. If the buyout is not a lot less then his current salary then this would be a great obstacle to making a coaching change. I would still like to know what the logic was in extending DD and RV contracts. Either one would have been gone in a heartbeat if another opportunity was extended. I can see giving extensions but why long term contracts that seem to tie down no one but the University?

Big pay for coaches does not guarantee success. At this point, I think making a change would be of benefit even if we go with a current staff member such as Evans. Anyone that at least as a positive approach would be a big improvement imo. However, I do agree that making a statement like hiring a perceived "big time" coach would greatly benefit the program. At that point it becomes just a benefit versus cost analysis that measures projected revenues versus costs. Paying a head coach a big salary that can substantially increase ticket sales and serve as a catalyst for a new stadium would be a bargain for the University.

Truth is there are not going to be any changes until after the season, if at all. My best-case scenario is that the team wins out and DD gets his dream job. The worst case is that NT limps to 4 or 5 wins or less in the Belt and no change are made.

UNT_playmaker · September 17, 2006

UNT would go after the best looking high school coach in central Texas and bring him in here to coach a Div1 football program....Like Dennis Parker worst coach at UNT ever

We have to deal with Dickey and OOC losses

the green rokemi · September 17, 2006

We lost to a better team. Get over it.
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Losing is one thing. Our offense looking like a bad rugby team is another

As far as replacing DD if he were to be fired, which I doubt (DD will probably or should make the O-line coach and OC scapegoats)...if we want to take the next step we should spend the money and hire Slocum. Our team is already geared toward Slocum ball it is just a matter of having the master run it.

Edited September 17, 2006 by the green rokemi

NT80 · September 17, 2006

JUST DO IT!

e-bone ver2.awesome · September 17, 2006

Nothing can happen in UNT football that can surprise me anymore. Well, except for consistency and sensible coaching.

There is no accountability for coaches within the athletic department. Poor performance does not lead to anything, and good performance leads to contract extensions before the season is over, which are usually followed by tanking a season. There are seemingly no consequences for not being able to progress a program after a significant number of years. Unless you are a swimming coach.

The mediocrity that has been allowed to continue for the past several years in most UNT sports is really getting to me. It's as if nothing other than the status quo is required of our coaches.

chrisfisher · September 17, 2006

Nothing can happen in UNT football that can surprise me anymore. Well, except for consistency and sensible coaching.
There is no accountability for coaches within the athletic department. Poor performance does not lead to anything, and good performance leads to contract extensions before the season is over, which are usually followed by tanking a season. There are seemingly no consequences for not being able to progress a program after a significant number of years. Unless you are a swimming coach.
The mediocrity that has been allowed to continue for the past several years in most UNT sports is really getting to me. It's as if nothing other than the status quo is required of our coaches.
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Has any sent a letter with signatures from those in the community to the UNT president stating that we want accountability in our sports, especially from our football coaching staff? This may be a pie in the sky idea, but you never know, it might facilitate change.

GrandGreen · September 17, 2006

UNT would go after the best looking high school coach in central Texas and bring him in here to coach a Div1 football program....Like Dennis Parker worst coach at UNT ever
We have to deal with Dickey and OOC losses
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Hardly think Marshall is in central texas. I would take Parker's offensive scheme in a second over DD and I never heard Parker be anything but positive about NT.

Parker did not win and he was replaced, an unique reaction. As far as worst coach at UNT ever, not even close.

shaft · September 17, 2006

Dennis Franchonie

KingDL1 · September 18, 2006

Has any sent a letter with signatures from those in the community to the UNT president stating that we want accountability in our sports, especially from our football coaching staff? This may be a pie in the sky idea, but you never know, it might facilitate change.
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Chris,

I would be glad to sign such a document, I would imagine that a quick trip around the Orange parking lot before a home game would land you quite a few signatures.

Tony

UNT_playmaker · September 18, 2006

Dennis Franchonie
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No

shaft · September 18, 2006

No
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Yeah. We should really stick up our nose at a guy knows Texas and can win in the SEC.

foutsrouts · September 18, 2006

Yeah. We should really stick up our nose at a guy knows Texas and can win in the SEC.
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Hey if he's willing to take the 90% salary cut sign him up!

PlummMeanGreen · September 18, 2006

WHO DO WE HAVE AT UNT WHO CAN (AND WILL) TAKE THE BULL BY THE HORNS AND RIGHT ALL THE WRONGS THAT ARE NOW REARING THEIR UGLY HEADS? :

SUB-TOPIC: IF WE DON'T RAISE A LITTLE HELL, FOLKS, ALL THOSE EXTENDED CONTRACTS WILL JUST KEEP ON A-COMIN' IN MEAN GREEN COUNTRY...

YET.........wouldn't most agree that the first step for any mid major to show that it is truly a program that is progressing or one that is on the rise is being able to beat (with regularity) such schools as Tulsa, Akron, La Tech, Air Force, etc, etc, etc, AND.............if a school like UNT is not beating such schools, just what is the hook or reason (other than the obvious with our Extended Contract Gone Wild gang) that causes some on the UNT campus (and a hardy handful on this message board) to want to persevere all this; that is, a football program that is standing still which at the NCAA D1-A level usually means you are going backwards.

Salary buyouts? It's been done before at UNT and FWIW, UNT leaders in the past have always been able to find the monies to take care of wht they decide they need to take care of as far as personnel is concerned. But could our leaders have a new mini-crisis on their hands with all this going on off campus such as a fan/alumnus revolt that may very well translate (soon enough) with crowds such as the now infamous "Pull the Plug" photo showed in a photo on this forum?

And the Pull the Plug photo showing of an extremely sparse crowd at Fouts Field in what I think was DD's 1'st or 2'nd year at UNT? BTW, anyone have a copy of that photo to post on GMG.com to serve as a reminder as to what can happen when our Mean Green fan base starts making their own statement to our UNT leaders? The only downside to such a protest are that our present MG football players who signed on to all this get the wrong impression that this is all about them who are being protested against and nothing could be further from the truth. Many just think new leadership in the near future can even brighten their own futures at UNT; that is, to those Mean Greeners who are our most recent signees from the last 2 or 3 recruiting classes.

Yet at UNT the last 2 or so decades, we seem to go into some kind of brain dead "duh" mode when it comes to hiring coaches at UNT that truly fit the needs of our students, Exes and Mean Green fans base. Hiring selection committees (which we did not have one that was fully functional during Dickey's faster than white lightnin' hire); yet past selection committees didn't seem to do the necessary research OR even more importantly, observe what other Texas schools of similar scope as UNT did to hire those who had turned their (sublimenal utep) football programs around almost 180 degrees.

As of late, though, we do seem to go with the hiring practice that seldom has really ever succeeded at UNT and thats going with the "good ol' boy" hire after a few buddies recommended another buddy? Anyone remember when that ever worked at UNT? Wasn't the Dennis Parker hire basically tantamount to a "good ol' boy" hire? His name was put on the table then all his Texas HS coaching buddies started making the calls on his behalf? Then we had a particular NT VP under Dr. Hurley who no more knew Texas D1-A intercollegiate football than some of us know Washington D.C. politics make the final decison with Coach Parker from all that some of us heard about that failed bit.

OK, ONE MORE TIME.................... How many UNT'ers even had one iota of a say in the hiring of DD? As I've posted to the point of ad nausem to even myself that was pretty well a Kansas State Koup at the expense of some sleeping NORTH TEXANS who really got caught off guard.. Sure we had SBC success in the lower ranked depths of NCAA D1-A and FWIW, no one can really ever take away from those 4 bowl game appearances inasmuch as we still didn't have to beat schools like a Tulsa, Akron or La Tech to get to the NO's Bowl. YET............ even in our losing 3 of 4 of those bowl games at least they did give our school national TV exposure on ESPN and even more importantly, a new Athletic Center, so all has not been negative even at the lower depths of D1-A.

YET............after reading this forum one week after an SMU win and observing how so many have suddenly changed their tunes, it seems most of our Mean Green elect (not just posters on GMG.com or Scotties board either) have moved on beyond the "4 bowl game" era to a (seemed) brand new era for a much larger group who all seem to now have a desire for much higher accomplishments for Mean Green football (and athletics in general). With what I am reading, there seems to be a growing concensus who have seen the light and believe a fresh new start in Mean Green Country will ultimately be an important decision that many are waiting on our upper echelon UNT leaders to make. The time-table for that to happen will turn out to be the $64,000 question, though.

BUT FOR THE TIME BEING..........do we really have confidence in some of those presently in charge at UNT to better our situation even if DD were to become job-less after this football season? After all, our alma mater once turned down even giving Dennis Francione an interview so we could hire a Texas HS football coach.

Can't you just imagine using our recent history as to what our present group of UNT's leader's short list of candidates might just look like? Might it ver well look like UTEP's during their last time to hire a new coach before some progessive thinking official on the El Paso campus took the bull by the horns and said: DAMN IT, PEOPLE, LETS DO SOMETHING VERY "UN-UTEP-LIKE" AND HIRE A NAME COACH! This kind of attitude we have not had in decades and I guess some might say we have paid the price for that and will continue to do so until we go outside our box "UTEP-style?"

UTEP! UTEP! UTEP! Can we of UNT possibly learn from UTEP's school officials as to how they turned it around like no other time in their football history when they went outside their usual box and hired Mike Price? Check out how much UTEP's athletic upside increased (across the board) upon their hiring of Mike Price. Look at UNT's very own former SBC conference-mate, ie, the Idaho Vandals? Immediately after they announced Dennis Erickson as their new man, record-breaking season ticket sales would soon be that school's immediate rewards for going outside their normal box as to who they had been used to hiring.

BUT WE NEED MORE FUND$ FOR A HIGH PROFILE COACH WHEN THAT DAY COMES? Simple: Do like many businesses in the USA and downsize : Eliminate some very nicely paid ancillery athletic positions that we can most likely live without. At UNT, you could probably come up with an additional $200K to $300K by doing such without skipping a beat. That amount would even be one year's worth of a certain coach's buyout as well?

But wth a high profile coaching hire who has set objectives to win game and sell football tickets (just like Mike Price's contract at UTEP) UNT can probably make the $200K to $300K back quickly because we would have the high profile coach on our staff and campus. The upside of a high profile hire for damn sure out-numbers hiring a present UNT assistant (why would UNT want to hire an assistant coach who has also been part of DD's mutli-year under .500 football program for crissake's?...........plus a high profile hire would have a much bigger upside than even hiring some "bright, young" project type of coach 100 to 1. In football we know about impact players, right? But wouldn't most agree that any mid-major ranked toward the bottom in football (like UTEP used to be before Price arrived); anyway, doesn't such a school that meets that criteria need an impact coach?

The size (or lack thereof) of the crowd at a Fouts Field home football season opener 2 Saturday nights ago against SMU would be a clear signal, ie, a fairly big wake up call for most upper echelon college leaders at most NCAA D1-A outposts; that is, it would be a tell-tell sign of whats really going on with the MG fan base. So how long do we continue all this? Wonder if our leaders have heard the phrase: He Who Snoozes............Loses?

Folks, the SBC shows signs of passing us by (2 and 9 last year is a pretty good hint of that happening) but even if our SBC-football mates didn't completely and dramatially pass us this year or next does that even really matter as we look down the road and what this forum seems to presently all want with an upgrade of this football program? We already have a trend well in place and one that I now believe most of our elect would really like to see change and fairly soon, right? AND I SAY THAT BECAUSE...........isn't the bottom line with all this how we are ranked among all other 118 NCAA D1-A schools when all is said and done at season's end--and thats whether we go to the NOs Bowl or we don't go to the NO's Bowl?

QUESTION: Would a UNT upset win over a Texas or an OU (or any Top 25 school) do more for our football program than a win over the 3'rd or 4'th place CUSA team in a bowl game? Which one would help us get our Mr. Big Donor out of the woodwork as to want to write the first big check that gets the dirt turning for our new football stadium? Next question is: How far is this present MG football program from even beating the 3'rd or 4'th place CUSA football team in the NO's Bowl?

Some of the aforementioned may be an over-simplication, but how many of us in our own lives have stumbled over simplicity? What we need at UNT also seems to have a simple answer, but for heaven's sake, we seem to have some on our main campus who continuously keep trying to stall for time with all this (for whatever reason) and then they try to make rocket science out of all this.

And its pretty obvious that we seem to have no one on our campus who seems to have the 'nads to pull the trigger on key UNT athletic employees when they've all had close to a decade or more to prove themselves and show how they fit (or don't fit) in an NCAA D1-A athletic program whose alums would like to see get back to an upward bound mode, but this time around---at a much higher NCAA D1-A profile.

We Can Do Better @ UNT.....LETS' JUST COPY TO THE TEE WHAT UTEP & IDAHO HAVE DONE IN THEIR RECENT HIRINGS...

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Edited September 18, 2006 by PlummMeanGreen