New Head Coach?

[thecoachingtree]

Obviously there are a lot of names floating around for this job. I think most of us would agree that whether in football or the business world, a lot of the time the person gets the job has a connection to the team/business or a member or that organization. For that reason, here are my 4 candidates to lead the Mean Green:

- Tyrone Nix

- Steve Kragthorpe

- Phil Bennett

- Jim Leavitt

**4 candidates - North Texas Head Coach**

Thoughts?

[Mean Green Matt]

Phil Bennett? Really?

What exactly is the nutty thought process behind that suggestion? Can we please stay away from people that got fired for bad performance, and stick to people that are either great head coaches at a lower level, or coaches that got fired for either locking Craig James' son in a closet, or ONE TIME hitting a player.

Edited October 24, 2010 by Mean Green Matt

[Marty]

Please, not Phil Bennett.

[NT03]

Phil Bennett? Really?

What exactly is the nutty thought process behind that suggestion?

There will be a mass riot if Bennett is named HC. The other 3 are all strong possibilities

Edited October 24, 2010 by NT03

[Green Dozer]

I liked the idea of Tyrone Nix the last time. I hope he gets consideration for the job this time as well.

[thecoachingtree]

Phil Bennett? Really?

What exactly is the nutty thought process behind that suggestion? Can we please stay away from people that got fired for bad performance, and stick to people that are either great head coaches at a lower level, or coaches that got fired for either locking Craig James' son in a closet, or ONE TIME hitting a player.

I know what you mean. He has proven himself as a coordinator, so the question is how important head coaching experience is. I would say that no head coaching experience is better than being an experienced losing head coach, but I don't know if that is what the AD is thinking.

[Rudy]

Phil Bennett? Really?

He couldn't win at SMU, against some of the same competition that we hope to be playing soon.

Id rather take on Applewhite.

[eulessismore]

There will be a mass riot if Bennett is named HC. The other 3 are all strong possibilities

There would be mass hysterics among members of Ponyfans, I'm pretty sure. I guess everybody likes a good laugh.

[jtm0097]

Lets hire Phils brother Jerry, he is a personal friend of mine. He has his 2A team Linden Kildare ranked number 2 in the state right now haha.

[NT80]

Obviously there are a lot of names floating around for this job. I think most of us would agree that whether in football or the business world, a lot of the time the person gets the job has a connection to the team/business or a member or that organization. For that reason, here are my 4 candidates to lead the Mean Green:

- Tyrone Nix

- Steve Kragthorpe

- Phil Bennett

- Jim Leavitt

**4 candidates - North Texas Head Coach**

Thoughts?

NO, to 3 of the 4, plus a penalty for even suggesting Phil Bennett. But thanks for playing.

[GrayEagle]

I'd say no to Nix also. If we were coming off of a few decent seasons then I think that he'd be worth the gamble but with as few wins as we've had in the last six years I believe that we have to nail this one. We know that he'd be a good coordinator but he needs head coaching experience for this particular opening.

Edited October 24, 2010 by GrayEagle

[Varsity]

Mike Cavan.

[Green Mean]

If Bennett wants to be our defensive coordinator then that would be alright by me.

[wardly]

Phil Bennett? Really?

What exactly is the nutty thought process behind that suggestion? Can we please stay away from people that got fired for bad performance, and stick to people that are either great head coaches at a lower level, or coaches that got fired for either locking Craig James' son in a closet, or ONE TIME hitting a player.

regarding ONE TIME hitting a player, suck one _ _ _ _ and you are a _ _ _ _ sucker forever.

[McKinneyMiner]

regarding ONE TIME hitting a player, suck one _ _ _ _ and you are a _ _ _ _ sucker forever.

Lollipop...??

Edited October 24, 2010 by McKinneyMiner

[FirefightnRick]

None of the other three candidates built a program from nothing like Leavitt did. Hell, Franchione and even Mike Leach couldn't claim that.

Rick

[Mean Green Matt]

regarding ONE TIME hitting a player, suck one _ _ _ _ and you are a _ _ _ _ sucker forever.

So you don't think Leavitt deserves another chance? That same logic can be applied to Leach as well.

[meangreen]

Leavitt needs to be given another chance. If North Texas wants to win and fill the new stadium, then they need to hire someone with credibility and a proven record of success. Leavitt built USF from the ground and into a BCS conference. Hire that man right now. What happened in the past should stay in the past and be forgotten just like the past 4 years of NT football

[UNT90]

The only thing I worry about with Leavitt is losing recruits because mommy and daddy are scared that Leavitt is going to puch out their son (people aren't always informed). Recruiters from other schools will make an issue of this. If Leavitt can explain how he will recruit against this tactic, and it is a viable explanation, then I have no problem with this issue.

Don't even put the Leach incident in the same catagory as Leavitt's incident. If someone doesn't want to send their baby to UNT because Coach Leach may hurt his feelings and embarras him in front of his teammates by making him stand up for a couple of hours in an air conditioned, 400 foot room, I don't want the momma's boy, anyway. This will be a non-issue in recruiting.

[forevereagle]

So here is what I am getting from the board lately.

=

And

=

[Graddean]

UNT 90 is right. College students and parents are not the same as they used to be. If we are honest with ourselves, recruiting for UNT is not easy in the best of times. Maybe these guys would be okay, but we should not kid ourselves that their past will not be a problem with some parents and potential recruits. We can minimize the problems all we want and talk about giving people second chances as a parent do I take a chance. Remember the recruits will have other options. At least, we hope they have other offers.

[gangrene]

The only thing I worry about with Leavitt is losing recruits because mommy and daddy are scared that Leavitt is going to punch out their son (people aren't always informed). Recruiters from other schools will make an issue of this. If Leavitt can explain how he will recruit against this tactic, and it is a viable explanation, then I have no problem with this issue.

You know...that's something I have an issue with too. When I heard about the Leavitt situation last year I didn't really pay it much attention. Just like most people, I heard he was accused of "hitting" a player - which I interpreted as a closed-fist punch. I'm sure many others have that same thought but I don't really consider a slap as a punch, which is what Leavitt was officially accused of doing to Joel Miller. A slap is a far cry from a punch and is generally meant to serve as an "attention getter" rather than to inflict pain in the manner a closed-fist punch would. I've been slapped by women on more than one occasion and I'm willing to bet they applied a great deal more force than Leavitt did.

Now, I'm certainly not condoning that behavior, but football is a contact sport. Anyone who's ever been piled on while trying to recover a fumble has had far worse happen to them.

But, you're right, that's exactly what other coaches will tell potential recruits and their parents. Bobby Knight didn't seem to have a problem with recruiting post-incident. I'd hope any prospective UNT recruit would at least let Leavitt tell his side of the story, and that's all you can really expect.

[gangrene]

UNT 90 is right. College students and parents are not the same as they used to be. If we are honest with ourselves, recruiting for UNT is not easy in the best of times. Maybe these guys would be okay, but we should not kid ourselves that their past will not be a problem with some parents and potential recruits. We can minimize the problems all we want and talk about giving people second chances as a parent do I take a chance. Remember the recruits will have other options. At least, we hope they have other offers.

I think I'd like to take the chance. "Kids" and their parents want to play for a winning team. Right now that's not us. Dodge couldn't even talk many of his own SLC players into playing for UNT. However, June Jones has at least 5 former SLC players on his team. I'm hoping Leavitt, along with Canales and former USF staff would be able to pull a few Florida players to UNT. Canales has been trying but so far we've had no success in getting any Florida players to commit to UNT.

As a side not, the SMU-Houston game was interesting to watch from a UNT perspective. The game featured two former SLC QBs, Kyle Padron for SMU and David Piland for Houston, facing off against each other. By my count, that's six former SLC QBs that Dodge had a hand in coaching (Piland may be excluded from that number) that have played or are playing QB at the BCS level.

In addition, one of the broadcasters was Mike Leach.

[UNT90]

You know...that's something I have an issue with too. When I heard about the Leavitt situation last year I didn't really pay it much attention. Just like most people, I heard he was accused of "hitting" a player - which I interpreted as a closed-fist punch. I'm sure many others have that same thought but I don't really consider a slap as a punch, which is what Leavitt was officially accused of doing to Joel Miller. A slap is a far cry from a punch and is generally meant to serve as an "attention getter" rather than to inflict pain in the manner a closed-fist punch would. I've been slapped by women on more than one occasion and I'm willing to bet they applied a great deal more force than Leavitt did.

Now, I'm certainly not condoning that behavior, but football is a contact sport. Anyone who's ever been piled on while trying to recover a fumble has had far worse happen to them.

But, you're right, that's exactly what other coaches will tell potential recruits and their parents. Bobby Knight didn't seem to have a problem with recruiting post-incident. I'd hope any prospective UNT recruit would at least let Leavitt tell his side of the story, and that's all you can really expect.

Don't get me wrong, I think it should be a non-issue, but in the world of college recruiting, I'm sure someone will try to use that against Leavitt at his next job. I don't pretend to have any idea whether it would be an issue with recruits are not. I would think that many have been slapped on the helment by their high school coach on many occasions (hell, my pee wee coach used to do this to get our attention), but who knows.

[Green Mean]

The only thing I worry about with Leavitt is losing recruits because mommy and daddy are scared that Leavitt is going to puch out their son (people aren't always informed). Recruiters from other schools will make an issue of this. If Leavitt can explain how he will recruit against this tactic, and it is a viable explanation, then I have no problem with this issue.

Don't even put the Leach incident in the same catagory as Leavitt's incident. If someone doesn't want to send their baby to UNT because Coach Leach may hurt his feelings and embarras him in front of his teammates by making him stand up for a couple of hours in an air conditioned, 400 foot room, I don't want the momma's boy, anyway. This will be a non-issue in recruiting.

There may be a few cases where recruits' parents may think that but I don't forsee that being a problem. Bob Knight is a known nut job but he did fine all these decades. Sure he didn't win national champions in recent times but he still did great and gave great exposure to TT. I think the board is making a bigger issue than what it is regarding the coaches legal problems. I really don't think any of this will be an issue. These hires will ignite a fan base and we will get just as much attention then those other two schools in the area. Well maybe not TCU so much if they are in the top 5 but you know what I mean.