FW*Telegram Hunt begins will it be a hard sell

OldTimer · November 14, 2006

The hunt begins, but will job be a hard sell?By TROY PHILLIPS

Star-Telegram Staff Writer

DENTON - North Texas' search for a new head football coach officially began Thursday after Darrell Dickey's firing Wednesday. The interviewees might have more questions than the interviewers.

Most programs outside the powerful BCS consortium have internal issues to overcome. North Texas is no exception, but as TCU coach Gary Patterson reminded, Division I-A jobs are in high demand.

"I think you'll have a lot of people [show interest]," said Patterson, a friend and former Kansas State teammate of Dickey's. "There aren't many chances to be a head coach at this level, only 119 of 'em. You have to get your feet in the door somewhere."

Dickey will coach UNT in its final three games this season. The Mean Green plays at Louisiana-Lafayette at 4 p.m. Saturday.

Patterson said Dickey will land on his feet and that he did "as good a job as anybody could do at UNT."

At the same time, Patterson touted his own offensive coordinator, TCU's Mike Schultz, as a "good candidate" for UNT. Schultz interviewed for the Rice job last year.

UNT athletic director Rick Villarreal isn't saying which direction he'll go or ruling out any coaching demographic, from high school head coaches to college assistants, coordinators or head coaches.

Carroll coach Todd Dodge, the most successful high school coach in Texas in the past five years, was a North Texas assistant in 1992 and '93. His spread offense wouldn't hurt recruiting, either.

"Things are so premature now, but if they saw fit to call and wanted to visit, I would after we got through with our obligations," Dodge said. "I keep the same philosophy I've always had. You look at it and make sure it doesn't get in the way of what you've got to do at where you're at."

Before arriving at UNT in 2001, Villarreal was associate athletic director at his alma mater, Southern Mississippi, for three years. Southern Miss associate head coach Randy Butler or offensive coordinator Jay Johnson could be candidates at UNT.

Other possibilities:

Sam Houston State coach Todd Whitten or Texas State coach David Bailiff . Both have strong Texas ties and have had recent national success with Division I-AA programs.

UCLA secondary coach Gary DeLoach was UNT's %defensive coordinator/secondary coach from 1998 to 2002. Villarreal also has past ties to San Francisco 49ers tight ends coach Pete Hoener , a former Texas A&M and TCU assistant .

James Madison head coach Mickey Matthews won the 2004 Division I-AA national title and is a former Georgia assistant with stops at TCU, Houston, UT-El Paso, Texas State and West Texas State.

Texas Tech co-offensive coordinator/receivers coach Sonny Dykes , who was a finalist for the Rice job last year.

UNT can sell its practically new $8 million athletic complex/dorms to candidates, but 30,000-seat Fouts Field remains one of the more unattractive stadiums in Division I-A. UNT is far from raising the estimated $60 million needed to replace Fouts, or a lesser amount for a major renovation.

Recruiting against other Texas schools is a challenge, as is UNT's need for "payout" games against far superior nonconference teams.

At the same time, there's obvious pressure on football to produce revenue when no other UNT sport does - much to ask of a program that has lost 17 of its past 21 games .

"We've built new facilities and created a situation where we think we can have a program that's competitive in our conference and should be on a national basis," Villarreal said. "That's where we have to be, regardless of other peripheral things."

ONLINE: meangreensports.com

untbowler · November 14, 2006

nice article to try and prove DD's point. Give me a break we whore ourselves out once year for money then play mid-BCS teams and mid-majors, then the cupcakes of the Belt. A coach should love that schedule over most of the other Belt schools playing 3 or more $$ games.

RV has been providing better and better schedules and DD failed to produce.

We should be excited when RV announces the new coach.

JUST WIN!!!

Eagle1855 · November 14, 2006

Patterson said Dickey will land on his feet and that he did "as good a job as anybody could do at UNT."
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ahh, I love the backhanded comments.

reading all these articles from the various news outlets in DFW really affrims everything I have ever thought about people having gross misconceptions of UNT. Or maybe they all just want NT to remain bathed in mediocrity (or worse) so that it doesnt represent a challenge to either of the golden children of the metroplex, SMU and TCU.

why is this such a hard sell? i imagine there are many coaches in the state and nation that would have loved to have a schedule like ours this past year- and would have seen that as an opportunity to wil a lot of games.

Edited November 14, 2006 by Eagle1855

good_ken · November 14, 2006

Give me a break we whore ourselves out once year for money then play mid-BCS teams and mid-majors, then the cupcakes of the Belt. A coach should love that schedule over most of the other Belt schools playing 3 or more $$ games.
RV has been providing better and better schedules and DD failed to produce.

Perception come from history. And we have a history of playing those body bag games. It is gonna take some time to change that perception (losing by 77 points in those games doesn't help that perception either).

Tramp96 · November 14, 2006

At the same time, Patterson touted his own offensive coordinator, TCU's Mike Schultz, as a "good candidate" for UNT. Schultz interviewed for the Rice job last year.

Oh hell no. Why would we replace one boring offense with another? That would be a monumental mistake by RV to go in that direction.

What this all boils down to is not wins and losses...but rather attendance. TCU has how many 10-win seasons in the past 6 years? And what does their attendance look like as a result? Not that much better than UNT, relatively speaking, to be completely honest.

UNT is in a very precarious position right now. It NEEDS to drastically up it's attendance or it's bye bye Division I. You need an exciting offense more than you need wins to get people to come to your games. ATTENDANCE should be RV's ONLY focus in determining the next head coach.

A pass-happy spread offense is the only way to go. It worked for Tech, Louisville, Boise St., Hawaii, Kentucky...the W/L records didn't really improve THAT much for these schools, but the attendance numbers skyrocketed. That in turn brings more money to the program, which means it can afford more capital improvements, which attracts recruits, which improves the program, which increases attendance, etc. etc. etc.

This hire by RV is his watershed moment as AD. This is how his tenure as AD will be judged. He has the chance to bring in someone that will take UNT to a new level in attendance and excitement about the program. Hopefully he realizes this and realizes that bringing in an offensive coordinator from a boring-ass offense like TCU's would be a screw-up of monumental proportions.

Eagle1855 · November 14, 2006

It NEEDS to drastically up it's attendance or it's bye bye Division I.
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No. we average as many or more per game than many C-USA, MAC, and WAC teams -not to mention other Sun Belt teams.

Win games, people will come. Get into C-USA and play teams that people have heard of and even more will come.

Winning is the #1 thing.

Tramp96 · November 14, 2006

No. we average as many or more per game than many C-USA, MAC, and WAC teams -not to mention other Sun Belt teams.
Win games, people will come. Get into C-USA and play teams that people have heard of and even more will come.
Winning is the #1 thing.
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Didn't work for TCU. They won games and played good opponents (Utah, BYU), and still struggled to get to 30,000.

30,000 fans for a 10-1 team? That's ridiculous.

So wins isn't it....it's excitement. You have a boring offense, and people don't want to come watch, even if you do win 17-10.

But if you have an offense that lights up the scoreboard, people are entertained, and they will come to watch it.

VideoEagle · November 14, 2006

Didn't work for TCU. They won games and played good opponents (Utah, BYU), and still struggled to get to 30,000.
30,000 fans for a 10-1 team? That's ridiculous.
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We would kill for a 30K crowd! That would fill the stadium within a few of capacity.

If we can get our average crowd to around 22K, we could completely drop the body bag games.

MeanGreenBuzz · November 14, 2006

A more exciting offense coupled with Ws and we would be easily at 22k. We had no trouble getting butts in the seats this season even after a losing year last year.

Tramp96 · November 14, 2006

We would kill for a 30K crowd! That would fill the stadium within a few of capacity.
If we can get our average crowd to around 22K, we could completely drop the body bag games.
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But I think you're missing my point. Wins alone doesn't do it. 30k for a 10 win, Top 15 team is not good. It's very, very bad.

TCU won, but was boring to watch, and that's why their attendance was really bad considering their success. If UNT wants to consistently have an average attendance above 20,000, boring wins won't cut it. You need a game that is entertaining to the average Joe Q. Public to get them to come.

yyz28 · November 14, 2006

We would kill for a 30K crowd! That would fill the stadium within a few of capacity.
If we can get our average crowd to around 22K, we could completely drop the body bag games.
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Dern tootin!

...and we could quit wondering IF but start SERIOUSLY asking WHEN in regards to our new stadium.

KBJ · November 14, 2006

If we can get our average crowd to around 22K, we could completely drop the body bag games.
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Sorry but the 22K would not make up for the 3 mil that the program lost in 2004 with two body bag games per Indystar.com

The AD needs to start doing something to get money into the school

CaribbeanGreen · November 14, 2006

I think even more backhanded from Patterson was "you have to start SOMEWHERE..."

risinggreen · November 14, 2006

"You have to get your feet in the door somewhere."

Sounds like Patterson is echoing his buddy DD's "bottom of the barrel" sentiments toward North Texas. Good riddance. Can't wait until we get an opportunity to kick TCU's butt and help bring Patterson back down to earth.

Cowtown · November 14, 2006

Schults is a good recruiter, but I agree his O is about the same as what we have been running.

And I have always had a feeling that the horned frog faithful are waiting for two bad years in a row to send Patterson & Co packing. While everyone loved Fran when he was at TCU, no one seems to like Patterson.

TCU attendance numbers have steadily risen over the last 8 years. It is a slow build, but I think you will find they are averaging close to 38K per game this year (I haven't looked it up, just a guess)

They have Ark & UT coming to the Fort in the next few years as well as Baylor.

GMG

Eagle1855 · November 14, 2006

But I think you're missing my point. Wins alone doesn't do it. 30k for a 10 win, Top 15 team is not good. It's very, very bad.
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You arent taking into account the fact that TCU's alumni base and student enrollment pales in comparison to NT's.

mrsgreengoblin · November 14, 2006

You arent taking into account the fact that TCU's alumni base and student enrollment pales in comparison to NT's.
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I was just going to mention this. They are a much much smaller school. And this past year they have had a very good turnout.

I believe their average enrollment for undergrads and grads is 8,000 students.

My mother has worked for the school for 13 years, 11 being with athletics. You should have seen the crowd for the Tech/TCU game. It was insane. There were several thousand that came that didn't even have tickets. They just tailgated.

Wins is what we need. Everything else will fall into place.

LongJim · November 14, 2006

TCU draws so "badly" because they play in the MWC. Nobody cares about Wyoming, SDSU, etc.

If they played teams that anyone in Texas cared about, they would be drawing 40-45K every game.

They draw what they do now (~35-38K) because they are WINNING. If they ever jump to a bigger conf with regional rivals, their attendance will increase even more, because those teams should travel better than the Utah's of the world.

If Patterson has some down years against the nobodies in the MWC, the Frogs attendance will be in the 25K range quickly.

I agree that an entertaining offense is important, but if UNT could end it's OOC schedule at 3-1 or 4-0 pretty much every year before hitting SBC play, do you think people would give a crap whether they're running the Spread or the Single-Wing?

Stan R · November 14, 2006

I agree that an entertaining offense is important, but if UNT could end it's OOC schedule at 3-1 or 4-0 pretty much every year before hitting SBC play, do you think people would give a crap whether they're running the Spread or the Single-Wing?
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No - people will come to see wins - with a caveat. If you are winning squeakers against the Baylors and SMUs of teh world, people probably wouldn't care what is on the field. But guess what - we are in the sun belt and we play 3/4 of our games against sun belt teams. Therefore you need to beat them with style points. Otherwise it is just another no-name team you just squeaked by. But crush them by 34 points with a spread offense - that's something different.

Just ask my Mom. She's the typical slightly interested "on the fence fan" who asks me who we are playing this week when I ask her to come to the game. If I tell her - oh just some sun belt team - but we will probably win - the answer is let me see what else we have planned. If I say - it doesn't matter. We're going to hang 50 on em and will throw for 400 yards - she's in no matter who it is. And I'd be willing to guess most "on the fence-ers" are in the same boat.

Tramp96 · November 14, 2006

No - people will come to see wins - with a caveat. If you are winning squeakers against the Baylors and SMUs of teh world, people probably wouldn't care what is on the field. But guess what - we are in the sun belt and we play 3/4 of our games against sun belt teams. Therefore you need to beat them with style points. Otherwise it is just another no-name team you just squeaked by. But crush them by 34 points with a spread offense - that's something different.
Just ask my Mom. She's the typical slightly interested "on the fence fan" who asks me who we are playing this week when I ask her to come to the game. If I tell her - oh just some sun belt team - but we will probably win - the answer is let me see what else we have planned. If I say - it doesn't matter. We're going to hang 50 on em and will throw for 400 yards - she's in no matter who it is. And I'd be willing to guess most "on the fence-ers" are in the same boat.
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EXACTLY my point. Even if you don't win, but you lose a shootout 42-41 or some such, it will still be entertaining to folks. And that's what it's all about...entertainment.

I promise you that even if you went 11-0 with run right, run left, run right, win with scores 17-14, you are not generating an entertaining product that will bring the masses to the games. Boring wins are not entertaining enough to bring the attendance where we need it to get to a better conference and justify building a new stadium.

Eagle1855 · November 14, 2006

I promise you that even if you went 11-0 with run right, run left, run right, win with scores 17-14, you are not generating an entertaining product that will bring the masses to the games. Boring wins are not entertaining enough to bring the attendance where we need it to get to a better conference and justify building a new stadium.
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well, we got the largest crowd in Fouts history to the Baylor game running that same boring-ass offense, so I dont see your point.

'Boring wins' (which I am assuming you mean, "wins with a boring offense") dont bring masses to the games? Tell that to the Big 10.

LongJim · November 14, 2006

EXACTLY my point. Even if you don't win, but you lose a shootout 42-41 or some such, it will still be entertaining to folks.

Losing a game 42-41 is like having a root canal. Yeah, shootouts are entertaining--IF YOU WIN.

"Well, we still lose all the time, but at least it was 42-41, and I was entertained. I'd love to come back next week for another high-scoring, 1 point ass-whipping. Please sir, may I have another?"

I promise you that even if you went 11-0 with run right, run left, run right, win with scores 17-14, you are not generating an entertaining product that will bring the masses to the games.
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I promise you that if UNT went 11-0, Fouts would draw 30K with the Wishbone.

untgirl04 · November 14, 2006

well, we got the largest crowd in Fouts history to the Baylor game running that same boring-ass offense, so I dont see your point.
'Boring wins' (which I am assuming you mean, "wins with a boring offense") dont bring masses to the games? Tell that to the Big 10.
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Yes, but that Baylor game was a 52-14 win. I think what Tramp90 was saying was that the 25-22 win over FIU is boring. However, a game with more than 300 rushing yards is still entertaining. But the fact is, our running backs can barely get 100 this year or last.

A wide open offense would rack up the yardage, which is what tends to make games more exciting for the casual fan.