Experienced Q B's Have Yielded Sun Belt Success

[MeanGreen61]

http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/...2.bcd4779b.html

[good_ken]

http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/...2.bcd4779b.html

Anytime I see a quote from that idiot Charlie Weatherby it still makes my blood boil.

[GreenBlooded1]

MTSU will host a major conference team for a second consecutive season when Maryland plays at Floyd Stadium on Sept. 6.

The Blue Raiders lost to Virginia 23-21 at home last season.

“It’s critical for our conference to get some of the BCS teams to come to our place,” Stockstill said. “We have sold ourselves out a little too much, although I understand why we do that. We earned the right to have teams come to us. We have beaten teams from the Big 12 and SEC. It’s time for them to come to our place.”

Man, I don't want to turn this into a stadium thread, but it is true that success has it's advantages. Just look at the MUTS... Even when (not if, but when) we begin winning consistently, we will never host a big time school till we get a new stadium. I know we've had Tulsa and Navy and others, but I'd love to bring in the likes of Texas or USC, LSU or Ohio State or any one of the other "big time" D1 Schools. I also like what Stockstill said about the MUTS selling themselves out... We UNT fans know all about that, now don't we? But who knows, one day we will go into a game like that and punch somene right in the kisser... Like Appy State did. Gives us all hope... Yes??

[The Fake Lonnie Finch]

Weatherbie. Let's see. In his career, he's taken Utah State to a bowl game, as well as Navy. And, his ULM team beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa last year. Yeah, he's an idiot for sure. How is this guy even employed?

[Harry]

I don't like him, but the guy is a good coach. He has done a lot there with limited resources.

[UNTLifer]

Weatherbie. Let's see. In his career, he's taken Utah State to a bowl game, as well as Navy. And, his ULM team beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa last year. Yeah, he's an idiot for sure. How is this guy even employed?

Another quality post by TFLF.

Did he state that his coaching success made him an idiot? No, I'm sure he was referring to the quotes Weatherbie made about Jamario's learning disability, dyslexia, a couple of years ago.

[The Fake Lonnie Finch]

MTSU will host a major conference team for a second consecutive season when Maryland plays at Floyd Stadium on Sept. 6.

The Blue Raiders lost to Virginia 23-21 at home last season.

“It’s critical for our conference to get some of the BCS teams to come to our place,” Stockstill said. “We have sold ourselves out a little too much, although I understand why we do that. We earned the right to have teams come to us. We have beaten teams from the Big 12 and SEC. It’s time for them to come to our place.”

Man, I don't want to turn this into a stadium thread, but it is true that success has it's advantages. Just look at the MUTS... Even when (not if, but when) we begin winning consistently, we will never host a big time school till we get a new stadium. I know we've had Tulsa and Navy and others, but I'd love to bring in the likes of Texas or USC, LSU or Ohio State or any one of the other "big time" D1 Schools. I also like what Stockstill said about the MUTS selling themselves out... We UNT fans know all about that, now don't we? But who knows, one day we will go into a game like that and punch somene right in the kisser... Like Appy State did. Gives us all hope... Yes??

Stockstill has a ton of connections in the ACC from his 14 seasons at Clemson. Maryland's Ralph Freidgen's span in the ACC as an assistant and head coach pretty much mirror Stockstill's there. As offensive coordinator/QB coaches, they undoubtedly have been to tons of coaching functions together and forged some kid of friendship. Coaches do favors for other coaches. Texas played at UCF last year. No surprise. He and Knights' coach George O'Leary were conference mates in the ACC for a decade or so.

That's one of the other downsides of not hiring a college coach when Darrell Dickey was let go. Dodge has no longtime coaching ties with other college coaches, programs, or conferences. There's really no one to do him - and, by extension, us - any favors as far a scheduling goes. Maybe we could get a home and home with Grapevine?

Anyway, it's a business. And, Dodge hasn't really been in the business at the elite level. So, he doesn't have enough pull with anyone to get the type of scheduling that Stockstill and O'Leary can get. Bringing in tons of high school assistants didn't do much either as far as having elite collegiate coaching ties.

But, the team will set many passing and receiving records while Dodge is here. So, we've got that going for us. And, maybe, in the end, that's better than having a good home schedule with BCS conference opponents coming to Fouts Field. Maybe.

[The Fake Lonnie Finch]

I don't like him, but the guy is a good coach. He has done a lot there with limited resources.

He's done alot in several places with limited resources.

[FirefightnRick]

Not sure I would tie Maryland in with the term "Big Time", if they are big time then Baylor is too? But since we are counting, we have hosted

Houston, TCU, Baylor, Navy, smu and Oregon State at Fouts(Did I miss anyone?).

Rick

[greenminer]

Not sure I would tie Maryland in with the term "Big Time", if they are big time then Baylor is too? But since we are counting, we have hosted

Houston, TCU, Baylor, Navy, smu and Oregon State at Fouts(Did I miss anyone?).

Rick

Maryland is a mid-ACC team, actually 4 or 5 years removed from runner up, I believe.

Baylor is about 4 or 5 years removed from a Big XII toilet.

[UNTLifer]

Baylor is about 4 or 5 years removed from a Big XII toilet.

They were removed?

[good_ken]

Weatherbie. Let's see. In his career, he's taken Utah State to a bowl game, as well as Navy. And, his ULM team beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa last year. Yeah, he's an idiot for sure. How is this guy even employed?

I apologize for lack of use of the English language. I meant to say that he's a poor excuse for a human being. I don't really have any problem with his football skills.

Yes, I still hold a grudge against him for the things he said about Super Jamario.

[AnotherEagleFan]

Not sure I would tie Maryland in with the term "Big Time", if they are big time then Baylor is too? But since we are counting, we have hosted

Houston, TCU, Baylor, Navy, smu and Oregon State at Fouts(Did I miss anyone?).

Rick

What my Southern Miss Eagles dont get credit. I like to think that we better then the teams mentioned above.

[GreenMachine]

Not sure I would tie Maryland in with the term "Big Time", if they are big time then Baylor is too? But since we are counting, we have hosted

Houston, TCU, Baylor, Navy, smu and Oregon State at Fouts(Did I miss anyone?).

Rick

didn't we also host Vanderbilt one year? I realize they aren't big time but a school everyone has heard of none-the-less.

[Charlie NT 73]

In the "old" days, at Texas Stadium, NT played Univ of Houston, Okie State, Tx A & M, Army.

At Fout's, remember the FL State game in the snow, San Diego State, Louisville, Oregon State.

Just a few I remember.

[Eagle1855]

What my Southern Miss Eagles dont get credit. I like to think that we better then the teams mentioned above.

Are they though? Because Im pretty sure I watched your Golden Eagles take a good beating at Robertson Stadium a few years ago...

Besides the obvious Texas teams, So Miss and Tulane are another reason why I'd like to be in C-USA. I don't care much about the eastern schools like Marshall and ECU, but I've always liked the Golden Eagles.

Edited May 2, 2008 by Eagle1855

[FirefightnRick]

In the "old" days, at Texas Stadium, NT played Univ of Houston, Okie State, Tx A & M, Army.

At Fout's, remember the FL State game in the snow, San Diego State, Louisville, Oregon State.

Just a few I remember.

I was just considering Fouts since the additional seats were added.

Rick

[Danish42]

Weatherbie. Let's see. In his career, he's taken Utah State to a bowl game, as well as Navy. And, his ULM team beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa last year. Yeah, he's an idiot for sure. How is this guy even employed?

Hey Lonnie, what makes this coach a jerk? Just asking.

[good_ken]

Hey Lonnie, what makes this coach a jerk? Just asking.

Lonnie didn't. I did (but later retracted to refer to him as a worthless excuse for a human being).

[The Fake Lonnie Finch]

Not sure I would tie Maryland in with the term "Big Time", if they are big time then Baylor is too? But since we are counting, we have hosted

Houston, TCU, Baylor, Navy, smu and Oregon State at Fouts(Did I miss anyone?).

Rick

The discussion started with a post about Middle Tennessee pulling in Maryland. None of those teams you mention have been contracted to play UNT with Dodge as the head coach. My counter to the original post was that the head coaches at Maryland and Middle Tennessee have a professional relationship dating back some two decades, then pointing out that Dodge had no such ties to get favorable scheduling.

Same thing with Texas going to UCF. Mack Brown and George O'Leary knew each other from their ACC days, for over a decade. It's a business. People in business over a long period of time do favors for each other. It's just another thing you realize we didn't get when we went with a high school coach to lead the program. We got a "high school coaching legend." Middle Tennessee and UCF got guys with long time ties to BCS conferences.

It's no big deal. But, you don't have to wonder why these other teams get better than Baylor-grade BCS teams in their stadiums and we don't. Our formula is the same now as it was before - go on the road to get pounded for cash. The only difference is, when the old regime was here, the poundings took a shorter time to complete because we weren't throwing the ball in the fourth quarter, down by 60 points with 20 second left on the play clock, then throwing interceptions or incompletions.

It's money and connections. We have neither. You can't hire money, but you can hire connections. We didn't do that either. MUTS and UCF did, and they reaped the benefit in landing home games with Maryland and Texas.

And, those people who pooh-pooh Maryland...please...are you even paying attention to any football outside of the Sun Belt? Before the Terps hired Ralph Friedgen, the program had only been to one bowl game in 15 seasons. He's taken them to five in seven years. They won 55 games in the 14 seasons prior to hiring him; they've won 56 in the seven years he's been there.

Maryland is consistently on TV, consistently ranked, they've been in the Top 10 and skinned Top 10 teams plenty under Friedgen...they bring a game and the money. Middle Tennessee is getting something much more than Baylor in having the Terps on their field. They are getting what we don't get with our high school coach - real nation exposure beyond the pie-in-the-sky "Wow! They Hired A High School Coach!" monkey piece. They're getting a legitimate BCS Name School with a Name Coach on their turf. It's real.

Look, I've said it before and I'll say it again (and again and again): I hope Dodge does well, but the odds are heavily stacked against him, and my allegiance is always to my alma mater over this coach or that. What I want is smart moves by the people in control. We don't get that. Everyone gets a piece of the pie except us. We're still like the small puppy just fighting for a spot on the hind teat. We're not making any moves to change it either.

The 2008 season cannot be a losing effort. All we have in the eyes of the national collegiate football press is a stretch of a hire. It was an interesting story last year. This year, a ton of losses will just mean that - UNT with a ton of losses again. Nothing changed.

Some people here talk about giving five years and its just nonsense. This isn't 1997 or 1998 when we were brand new to the I-A game. We're more than 10 years into it, have had some success and need more to be taken seriously. If we go out there and show our backsides again in 2008...that's not good enough, nor will it be progress. The kids with speed and power don't care what Todd Dodge did in Southlake three, four, and five years ago. They want to win, they want to go to bowl games, they want on television. Another season of blowouts, and the "he's a high school coaching legend" won't sell to anyone outside of his own kid and a few of the Southlake kids.

2008 is the year. Troy gets BCS pelts and press, and could jump out of the Sun Belt. MTSU simply needs a conference title. They've got the coach to pull in some favors. Our athletic department and coaching staff need to turn in up ten notches pronto or we fall even further behind.

Seriously, you all.

Edited May 5, 2008 by The Fake Lonnie Finch

[Eagle1855]

good post, TFLF.

[PerryG2480]

So...maybe we can get UCLA to come play in Denton? Did DeLoach's short time there earn him any PAC 10 ties?

[greenminer]

So...maybe we can get UCLA to come play in Denton? Did DeLoach's short time there earn him any PAC 10 ties?

heh, a weird way to put what I was just thinking.

Overall, Lonnie, a good post. But I have to wonder how much weight these BCS ties carry? I just don't see how this business has O'Leary calling up Mack and saying "hey ol' ACC buddy, remember way back when? Those were good old days. What say you bring your team down to my place for a game in my backyard." I don't see that carrying much more weight with Mack then if Dodge were to call him up and extend an invite? It might be a little easier to for O'Leary to break the ice with Mack, but he still is going to have to pose an argument for Texas playing in UCF's house. It could have been their new stadium, it could have been O'Leary's old BCS ties. I can't really prove or disprove either.

Ultimately, I think risk/reward is the biggest factor for OOC scheduling, and not necessarily ol' friendships.

Just throwing that out there.

[FirefightnRick]

I should have checked it out first that Maryland has played in one more bowl game than North Texas has the past 7 years before saying they don't remind me of the big time. But they still don't remind me of the big time, of course, I don't live in the north east either so what do I know?

Greenblooded1

but I'd love to bring in the likes of Texas or USC, LSU or Ohio State or any one of the other "big time" D1 Schools.

I'm certain coaching connections can play a part in who you schedule, and Friedgen should have a lot of them considering he's been doing it at the college level for 38 years, the first 28 as an assistant that started at The Citadel. But I can't help but think availability and accomodation(including ticket sales) plays just as big a role?

For me, it's difficult to fault or claim TD has no ties in college football simply after one season? I don't know that for sure and I doubt anyone else here does either. He did hold one position as an assistant here when we were 1-AA and the fact that he was offered(as far as we know) two head coaching positions(Rice and NT) and one assistant position for Parcells' Cowboys tells me he must know someone else other than Bob Ledbetter and Dennis Parker, right?

Rick

[The Fake Lonnie Finch]

O'Leary, Brown to meet again

The coaches match up for the first time in a decade at the debut of Bright House Networks

Stadium.

Kyle Hightower

Sentinel Staff Writer

September 11, 2007

Their names are the biggest reason that Saturday's matchup between UCF and Texas to open Bright House Networks

Stadium was even brokered by ESPN two years ago.

But before George O'Leary was being hailed as a savior at UCF and Mack Brown was winning a national title at Texas,

the pair was a long way from the national spotlight as two up-and-coming 40-something coaches in the Atlantic Coast

Conference.

The year was 1995.

Brown, then 44, was in his eighth season at North Carolina but was just starting to turn the corner after a rocky start to

his Tar Heels' tenure. O'Leary, a 49-year-old longtime Georgia Tech assistant, had just taken the reins of a Yellow

Jackets' program that was stumbling following the less-than-stellar tenure of Bill Lewis.

While Saturday's game will be the first time they've met on a football field in over 10 years, Brown and O'Leary will

actually be meeting for the fourth time as head coaches, having faced each other three previous occasions as ACC foes

from 1995 to 1997.

"Those three meetings as head coaches is what everybody remembers, but people forget that Mack was coaching at

Carolina in 1990 when O'Leary was defensive coordinator at Tech," said Georgia Tech play-by-play voice Wes

Durham. "Tech, of course, won the national title that year going 11-0-1. But that one tie against Carolina, it kind of

started there I think."

Durham, whose first season doing Tech radio was coincidentally also O'Leary's first season, vividly remembers three

closely contested meetings between the coaches.

O'Leary won the closest of the three games, a 27-25 decision in 1995, and Brown took the next two, 16-0 in Chapel

Hill in '96 and 16-13 in '97 back in Atlanta.

Though O'Leary was the older coach, Brown was actually in his third head coaching stint, having spent one year at

Appalachian State and two at Tulane.

"We had some real battles," Brown said Tuesday. "All of them were very close. I've always had a great respect for

George. We always competed as staffs and played some really tight games."

O'Leary said that respect has remained even after they left the ACC.

"I've known Mack for a lot of years," O'Leary said. "But coaching is a funny deal. Rarely do you get calls from other

coaches during the season. We run into each other at conventions and stuff, though.

"He's obviously done a wonderful job at Texas from the very storied tradition they've been able to develop."

That legacy of growing a program actually extends back to UNC, according to Wes Durham's father Woody Durham,

who is entering his 37th season as the Tar Heels radio voice.

Following back-to-back 1-10 seasons in 1988 and 1989, Brown was 6-4-1 and 7-4 before going to consecutive bowl

games in '92 and '93.

"Mack kind of got Carolina rolling from what he accomplished in 1992 and 1993," Woody Durham said. "That was

emphasized even more after Mack left [in 1998], with Carolina winning only one of the 10 games since then. That's

pretty significant when you look back on the matchup between the two schools."

Durham said for a fan base that didn't really know Brown when he came over from Tulane and a fan base that didn't

really know O'Leary as more than a coordinator, there is a similarity in how they won over their respective schools.

"And I think they had a good respect for one another putting it all together then and now," he said. "I know certainly

that Mack respected George when he worked with [former Tech Coach] Bobby [Ross], and then when he took over and

continued to build their program."

A big part of that friendship and lineage can be plotted through current Texas offensive line/assistant head coach Mac

McWhorter. McWhorter went over to the Longhorns from O'Leary's staff at Tech following a brief stint as the Yellow

Jackets' interim coach when O'Leary left in 2001 for Notre Dame.

"They have both remained the same type of guys even following their stops at Tech and Carolina," Wes Durham said.

"Mack has solidified what he's done through [offensive coordinator] Greg Davis. And I also think [uCF quarterback

Coach] George Godsey is the legacy carry-over from Tech in a unique kind of way. George has a lot of guys on his

staff now, but he's a guy I can see how the [former Tech offensive coordinator] Ralph Friedgen touch is still involved."

And even though the Longhorns program is currently on a higher tier than the Knights right now, he said that he isn't

surprised O'Leary would look to his old rival to help usher in a new era at UCF.

"That game will go a long way in helping UCF build up its program," he said. "It's the kind of game he likes to play

because it allows him to immediately measure where his program is at nationally. We got better here at Tech those first

two years playing games like that. He's doing the same thing at UCF."

Kyle Hightower can be reached at khightower@orlandosentinel.com.