Fran In The Mix

[MeanGreenTexan]

...His option offense. Frankly, for most of us it's just boring to watch. Efficient perhaps in burning the clock and allowing his defense to rest, but boring. And casual fans don't just want to see victories, they want to see exciting ones.

Have we heard this before? It's never dull when you're producing Heisman hopeful RB's. UNT has done rather well in the RB department.

Finally, considering how much money he's already earned, I would be concerned he would be your version of Dennis Erickson at ASU. Meaning he would be highly motivated his first couple years and then just get tired of working hard and start coasting, knowing that if he's fired, he can just retire.

My guess is you could get him. However, if you do, you know he's going to be short term. Because if he gets bored, he will retire on the job. If he doesn't, he will leave ASAP for greener pastures. (Check how long he stayed at Alabama after aTm offered a better package.)

Retire before the contract is up, or leave for greener pastures... either way, if he has turned us into a winning team, then it will be a destination for another good coach to enter (or in an ideal world, we could have a Gary Patterson dropped on us).

[SleepingGiantsFan]

This should be a real concern. Fran could easily use UNT as a "golden parachute." We do no need that kind of coach!

I should come clean that part of my interest in your hire is I want to see your football program take off. And I want that for self-serving reasons based on the composition of the MWC. Has to do with concern about contraction and expansion of the conference, as in TCU perhaps leaving for the Big East and what I consider to be horse crap schools like Utah State being debated as possible replacements. Schools in Texas would bring SDSU additional recruiting grounds. Utah State would be nothing more than replace Utah and BYU with another school from a state which produces very little in the way of football talent which will therefore just keep taking California kids away. Ah, now I feel better.

Anyway, retirement on the job is what Ted Tollner did at SDSU. He used his predecessor's recruits to fashion two 8-win seasons, then had a down year but followed that up with a bowl season. That was pre-Rivals and pre-Scout and I naively thought things were really going well. However, a couple other fans with contacts within the coaching staff told me Ted had gotten lazy and simply wouldn't go out on the recruiting trail to act as a closer as he previously had. It's a grind for sure but you simply can't win without it. Well, I thought they were crazy but they proved to be correct as two years later Ted put together back-to-back 3-8 seasons and he was fired. Pre-SDSU, Ted had been the head coach at U$C for four years and offensive coordinator for the Browns so he was already wealthy and therefore no longer motivated by fear of losing the SDSU salary if he got canned. I really worried that if SDSU hired Franchione, he might have been Ted redux.

[DeepGreen]

Better watch out....Plumm will tear you up!

Plummer is waaaaaay in the back of the line on this one. 60 is not old. Tell that to O'Leary and UCF.

[SleepingGiantsFan]

Have we heard this before? It's never dull when you're producing Heisman hopeful RB's. UNT has done rather well in the RB department.

Retire before the contract is up, or leave for greener pastures... either way, if he has turned us into a winning team, then it will be a destination for another good coach to enter (or in an ideal world, we could have a Gary Patterson dropped on us).

Don't misunderstand. I don't disagree with that. All I'm saying is that unless you're Alabama or U$C or another one of the big boys, every candidate is going to have both positive and negative attributes. I could have lived with Franchione at SDSU. I just thought at the time and am now convinced that Brady Hoke was a better choice. Maybe Franchione will be the best choice for you guys, but maybe not. Personally, I think that if you could get him, Terry Bowden would seem to be much, much better. But then you may be privy to info I'm unaware of. (And BTW, I'm not pimping for Bowden.)

[gangrene]

Meh...the thought of Fran does nothing to excite this UNT alumn.

[jazzer88]

Meh...the thought of Fran does nothing to excite this UNT alumn.

Now that's a bold statement!

[NCMeanGreen]

Coach Fran interviewed for both the UNLV and San Diego State jobs as well...but was not selected for either job. But, that does tell me he is interested in getting back into coaching...and would not be adverse to a non-BCS job.

Good hire??

[PlummMeanGreen]

Plummer is waaaaaay in the back of the line on this one. 60 is not old. Tell that to O'Leary and UCF.

60? I turn 60 in about 4 weeks.

I walk softly......and you who know me know that when I'm wrong I will admit it, but in my heart I know I'm right this time about ? ? ? ? ? ? Now let me go do some research so I can see what I'm right about.

[NorthTexan95]

If Fran was the choice I would be satisfied but I wouldn't be thrilled. I would be worried about his age and I would be worried about his style of offense. Like others have said I don't know if he would have the ability to stick around long enough to turn this around considering his age. Rebuilding is a tough job and he's already done it twice but at a much younger age. That being said, I would be satisfied with the hire and hopeful everything works out well for UNT. He does bring a lot of pluses.

[SleepingGiantsFan]

If Fran was the choice I would be satisfied but I wouldn't be thrilled.

After studying up on him, that was my conclusion about him coming to SDSU - although I sure wanted him more than DeWayne Walker after all the negative stuff I heard about that guy. My guess would be that just like Walker at SDSU, you guys probably have a candidate or two who looks good on the fact of it but who, once you start digging around, could be a huge problem if you hire him even assuming he manages to win some games.

[SAM Coach]

I was part of the University of New Mexico during Fran's tenure in Albuquerque. Good guy, family man PR etc... He has no skills when it comes to relationships with his players. Especially diverse players.

[Got5onIt]

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Green Mean]

Sheesh...Fran is almost 60. Don't you folks think that UNT needs some youthful energy? This is gonna be a tough job that will require late and long hours (if the coach cares and is not just adding to his pension). I'm not implying that a 60 yr old can't manage this, but age maybe should be a factor.

You think there would be a plenty of coaches out there that are young, energetic and ready to lead a program like ours but that just isn't the case. Not saying some aren't out there but most good coaches that are credible are north of 50. A good college football coach can survive way north 60 yrs old.

[UNTflyer]

I don't know if I can stand another 5 weeks of this

[Green Mean]

I don't know if I can stand another 5 weeks of this

You've handled the last 6 years of Mean Green football. This should be joyous because there just might be light at the end of the tunnel within the next 5 weeks after we get a new coach.

[UNTLifer]

Meh...the thought of Fran does nothing to excite this UNT alumn.

Me either.

[wardly]

Now that's a bold statement!

i agree. too old,too predictable, too much money for a short timer, and at a&m, not too good. why do we focus on coaches fired from their last job?

[DeepGreen]

i agree. too old,too predictable, too much money for a short timer, and at a&m, not too good. why do we focus on coaches fired from their last job?

wardly, who do you think would be the correct fit for the UNT job? Just curious. I've read so many opinions and articles on most of the coaching candidates mentioned on this board that my head is spinning.

[PlummMeanGreen]

If Fran was the choice I would be satisfied but I wouldn't be thrilled. I would be worried about his age and I would be worried about his style of offense. Like others have said I don't know if he would have the ability to stick around long enough to turn this around considering his age. Rebuilding is a tough job and he's already done it twice but at a much younger age. That being said, I would be satisfied with the hire and hopeful everything works out well for UNT. He does bring a lot of pluses.

Coach Fran would be like a diamond compared to what we've had in Denton for almost forever. Any known coach UNT would have a chance with is going to have some kind of blemish otherwise, we wouldn't even get an interview with that kind of a formerly successful coach.

Coach Frans age? For crissakes', how old was Bobby Bowden, Woody Hayes, Schnellenberger (who beat us twice during 2 of our bowl years for heaven's sake) Joe Paterno (still active) and this list can go on and on...

Do we want young and dumb (and no FBS experience as a HFC) or older and mature with a successful background at the BCS level as a head football coach? Again, don't forget about the blemish factor because we will not hire a true name coach who doesn't have 1 or 2 of those. (Just avoid the ones with multi-NCAA infractions blemishes).

GMG

Edited October 30, 2010 by PlummMeanGreen

[FirefightnRick]

why do we focus on coaches fired from their last job?

Yeah, why is that??????????? Because the last 4 guys we hired away while they were currently employed got us 4 winning seasons in the past 19

Genius!!!!!

Rick

Edited October 30, 2010 by FirefightnRick

[MeanGreen61]

i agree. too old,too predictable, too much money for a short timer, and at a&m, not too good. why do we focus on coaches fired from their last job?

Wasn't Hayden Fry was fired by smu ? Didn't do too bad after being shown the door by the mighty smut folks.

[SleepingGiantsFan]

Yeah, why is that??????????? Because the last 4 guys we hired away while they were currently employed got us 4 winning seasons the in past 19.

Genius!!!!!

Rick

To me there should be only one absolute requirement for the hiring of a DIA head football coach. As identified by Bill King of Rivals Radio, that is that the guy has significant experience as a head coach and/or as a coordinator working at a level in which he needs to concern himself about the awarding of scholarships and the APR. You can be the greatest game day coach in history but you can't win without players. Tom Craft at SDSU is an example of how wasting scholarships on kids who can't qualify academically and not having in place a solid system to assure that kids who are admitted attend class so the NCAA won't cut your scholarships because of a low APR can cost you big time. (Craft had no such head coach experience and just two years as a coordinator. That's just not enough to be a head coach and it resulted in 52% of the kids in three of his classes not suiting up for more than one year.)