Do We Really Want To Hurt Nt Athletics?

[OldTimer]

I am as discouraged at our lack of success as any of our posters are. But I don't come on this board trying to hurt our players, our team, our school, hurt the prospects of a new stadium, and to articulate over and over and over again fire the coach. I'm really believe most of these posters have no intent to hurt our players, our team, our school and to handicap the efforts to finance our ability to raise funds for this new stadium. Sometimes I wonder if there is a personal reason behind some of these posts other than just our teams record?

It seems like # 1 poster of a dozen or more posters will post critical of our teams play or of the coach... the other dozen or so will contribute. Then # 2 comes up with a fire coach post and most of the same dozen or so posters agree, then Number 3 post a fire the coach and the same followers contribute the same info, time, after time after time. It got so bad that one poster had nothing to complain about so he made something up...to complain in essence about not having anything critical to say on the weekend our team didn't play.

Coach Dodge will apparantely be back next year....So lets keep on being critical of him and keep on posting fire the coach ....lets do this to keep him from having success recruiting this year to improve our team and record for next season. IE our post don't get him fired...lets just keep him from successful recruiting to ensure we are correct and he is fired. Of course UNT will have another bad season if he can't recruit players to help our current team. It also hurts our prospects to raise funds for our new football stadium...

Folks current players parents and many recruits and their parents read our gmg board. If our prospective recruits and/or their parents are onvineced Dodge won't be here next year or the year after next...why should their son go to North Texas, and our constant fire the coach will have hurt the team, the schools athletic program, prospects for donations for a new stadium....just to satisfy and justify our fire the coach threads.

I have enough respect for our president and our athletic director that they will do what is best for UNT. I am not a big Rick fan (remember umbrella gate) but I am impressed what he has done to improve our athletics...facilites, budget, new athletic center, academic center, Title IL requirements on and on and playing a major role in pushing for a new stadium.

I may be in the minority here but we have over 3,000 gmg members.....just how many of these are we hearing from on this subject.

[oldguystudent]

Folks current players parents and many recruits and their parents read our gmg board.

Really? A bunch of peanut gallery anonymous people on a message board with no official affiliation to the university is going to trump all other contributing factors to a recruit's decision to attend or not attend UNT? Damn! I didn't know I held so much sway in the world. Perhaps I should run for office or something!

Edited November 23, 2008 by oldguystudent

[NT03]

We have the one of the worst teams in COLLEGE FOOTBALL HISTORY , it doesn't take a message board for people to figure that out

[Side Show Joe]

If they don't want to play here, I would think what is happening on and off the field, will have more of an effect on that decision, then what a few angry poster have to say on this board.

[GreenMachine]

people think this board is way more influential than it is. Very few supporters know about this board let alone post here. This is just a small place for people to come and vent, nothing more, nothing less.

[Side Show Joe]

people think this board is way more influential than it is. Very few supporters know about this board let alone post here. This is just a small place for people to come and vent, nothing more, nothing less.

Exactly. I've watched North Texas for 20 years, and just found this board earlier this year.

[SUMG]

If we buy season tickets and are MGC members....we are sort of like....uh....Customers. And quite frankly I've gotten very little "bang for the buck" on what I've spent on DodgeBall.

So yeah, I think I have the right to complain.

But, I will be back next year...as a season ticket holder and a MGC member...no matter who the coach is.

[The Fake Lonnie Finch]

The flip side, of course, is that players and parents and potential recruits may look at us in a more positive light if our AD does the right thing and gets a real football coach in here:

(1) To the players, it would signal that he cares about their overall career and their choice to spend it at UNT. You only get five years to play four. Getting these guys a real coach while their eligibility clock is ticking would be a show of respect to them and their committment to come here.

(2) To the parents, it would demonstrate that the well being of their kids' psyche is more important than the ego of a grown man who "coaches" football.

(3) To potential recruits, it would prove that the program is serious about getting better; and, thus, no one man is above it. It would show that the University of North Texas athletic department is about winning, not waiting.

There are two sides to every coin. Right now, the clock is ticking on recruiting. We've lost our best OL committment. And, we're getting beaten so badly on the in-state and local preps front that we're desperately throwing scholie offers to every living, breathing, walking, talking, or crawling JUCO player in the country. It's pathetic.

Nothing has been established on the field, playing-wise. Nothing has been established off the field, recruiting-wise.

It's done. It's a failure. End it. End it now while we still have time to offer a good, solid, reputable, college coach. Too many jobs are opening up and more are sure to follow. Get this thing moving.

Please, Please, Please Rick Villareal. PLEASE! How many more beating by pedestrian Sun Belt teams does it take? Pull the plug now and get us a coach.

Look, do anything. Offer to name the new stadium after anyone that will step forward and buy out Todd Dodge. Make it a marketing and development venture. Do something other than sit there and watch us get whipped to the point where Sun Belt schools are pulling starters in the third quarter to keep from embarrassing us further.

I know RV reads this thing. It's like week after week of mercy, Rick. They get up on us quick, then do everything they can to quit whipping us. They're doing it for the players' sake, not Todd Dodge's, believe me.

Do something for these kids, Rick. Do something for their parents, Rick. Do something for the good of the program's long term health, Rick. Admit the Dodge hiring was wrong, bailout of it, and get serious candidates in to replace him.

Edited November 23, 2008 by The Fake Lonnie Finch

[Smitty]

I understand what you're saying, OldTimer. But every other school also has one of these boards - in some cases, more than one. And all of those other boards are full of chuckleheads just like us ranting and venting. I'm betting some of the criticism is a lot more vicious on some of those other boards than here.

Dodge's coverage in the traditional and new media here is fairly mild in comparison to many media markets. And I cannot imagine that any criticism on this board could possibly be as harmful as the weekly 30-point losses.

[nautique]

Dodge's Ego will not be broken until the savior steps in and gets his ass whipped and takes himself out of the game.

[NT80]

If fans were not upset at being 3-20 I would question the fan's loyalty to their program!

[OldTimer]

If fans were not upset at being 3-20 I would question the fan's loyalty to their program!

Notice I said I was as frustrated at every one....but I have been following NT over 52 years and have seen the "bad times" as well as the good times...don't question a fan's loyalty to the UNT program until you can say the same thing "a" fan has. This loyal fan hasn't hit the board saying fire the coach...undermining our recruiting, and yes opposing coaches will use our post to do this.

Edited: I am not questioning anyone who believes what they are posting. What I am trying to say is its not just parents and players....its that opposing coaches will use this against us in recruiting this year....don't think our boards are not checked for info to be used against NT's recruiting. Just how many of our fans, much less coaches, go to other schools fan forums...and if we saw something that could be used against that opponent in recruiting would not hesitate to pass that link to our coaches.

[Eagle1855]

This is the part where I digress and offer

it's what the title of the thread made me think. Im not sure what that says about me, but Im cool with it.

Go Mean Green

[TheTastyGreek]

Notice I said I was as frustrated at every one....but I have been following NT over 52 years and have seen the "bad times" as well as the good times...don't question a fan's loyalty to the UNT program until you can say the same thing "a" fan has. This loyal fan hasn't hit the board saying fire the coach...undermining our recruiting, and yes opposing coaches will use our post to do this.

1) Nothing here at GMG remotely resembles the sort of venom and vulgarity you'll find at BaylorFans, PonyFans, or anywhere else on the college football forum internet.

2) I recall distinctly, and a quick board search confirmed, that you posted critical remarks, frustrations with playcalling/personnel, and negatively titled posts linking to outside articles after losses while DD was still recruiting in 2006. You never said "fire Dickey", but there wasn't a whole lot of recruiting help coming from you in 2006 when YOU felt the coach should be let go (and I'd say that this post was pretty directly critical).

The fact is that different fans come to the conclusion that their coach is a lost cause at different times. A lot of people are already there. They're no more wrong or out of line in vocalizing that frustration (provided they don't do it in a moronic fashion, which may be asking too much from a few of our fans here) than you were 2 years ago.

This isn't a knock at OldTimer; I appreciate OldTimer and the work he does for this forum and I think he's a great fan. I hope that I'm able to support the Mean Green as long and as devotedly as he has. I made this same kind of post when Plumm got upset over similar issues.

My opinion is that any player who is willing to look past the conference affiliation, look past the football stadium, look past our coach's epically disastrous tenure, look past the bad publicity and everything else that hurts us in recruiting... That player is NOT going to ignore his own eyes and ears and brain, ignore his newspaper, ignore the archive of stats and game histories available at our own school's website, but then see frustrated fans who demand more from their coaches than we're getting from the one we have now and suddenly decide not to come here.

Frustrated fans on our messageboard are so far down the list of what hurts us in landing recruits... It's not even worth worrying about. We have REAL problems, not just perception issues that *might* be slightly worse (not really) than what a recruit will see elsewhere. That's what will really hurt us. Even the biggest dumbass on GMG posting "Fire Todd Dodge!" isn't worth a gob of spit in the ocean when you look at the big picture.

Anyone who wants the coach fired, go ahead and say so. Just don't be a total idiot about it.

[oldguystudent]

Just don't be a total idiot about it.

Not directed at you Tasty. Just thought it was a funny pic.

[NT80]

Notice I said I was as frustrated at every one....but I have been following NT over 52 years and have seen the "bad times" as well as the good times...don't question a fan's loyalty to the UNT program until you can say the same thing "a" fan has. This loyal fan hasn't hit the board saying fire the coach...undermining our recruiting, and yes opposing coaches will use our post to do this.

Edited: I am not questioning anyone who believes what they are posting. What I am trying to say is its not just parents and players....its that opposing coaches will use this against us in recruiting this year....don't think our boards are not checked for info to be used against NT's recruiting. Just how many of our fans, much less coaches, go to other schools fan forums...and if we saw something that could be used against that opponent in recruiting would not hesitate to pass that link to our coaches.

I was not questioning your loyalty but was saying I would be very disappointed to visit a board with a 3-20 record and not see upset fans. You (not you, but fans in general) can sugarcoat it any way you want to, but most fans on here have paid their dues (literally) to be unsatisfied with the current product and can express such.

[Side Show Joe]

I'm just an average guy, working an average job, paying an average mortgage, and I'm sure I spend more money on North Texas football stuff then my wife would like. Every year I buy North Texas tickets, hats, shirts, shorts, coffee mugs, stickers and other items. This not cheap. Every morning I fill my UNT mug with coffee, and once a week I have an opportunity to wear a North Texas shirt to work, and I get harassed mercilessly by my co-workers for it, and I defend this football program. I would be easy to be like others and jump on the bandwagon of whoever is the hot team at the time, but this is my school. This is my team. As fans we have to fight for our team, like few other universities in this country could understand. I have no problems with anyone making a fair examination of our team's situation.

[Aquila_Viridis]

OldTimer, at the level we can recruit, it is not going to make a difference if we lose some players on the bubble. Our problems are much more fundamental than that. And in all honesty, I would say to a player that has the opportunity to go to a school with an established program or at least one that has a plan to develop a successful program, they should take it.

Until our university's governors commit to a comprehensive plan to be successful in football, nothing else is going to matter in regards to our football program. Success will not come without such a plan and commitment. When I see this plan and demonstration of commitment, I'll be back. Until then all we can look forward to is the many years of frustration like you have endured. I have too many other things to do, to endure that.

I will again point out that North Texas, because of its location and some other factors, is one of the few schools left, that could capitalize on the rewards of such a commitment, that has not already done so. It is a shocking breach of the public trust for these state officials to ignore this opportunity. Instead of taking action that could materially improve the overall position of this university OF the north Texas region, they sit idly by, all too apparently swayed by adverse interests.

You and me and a few hundred others dutifully sending our checks every year in perpetuity and saying positive things will not make a difference in today's game. The university must decide to accept the vision and then WORK to enlist the many thousands of supporters that are needed. When I see that the university has accepted the vision and started the real work, I will do whatever I can to help. Untl then, you bet, about all I have left is criticism.