What North Texas Needs In A New Coach

[MeanGreen61]

http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/archives/2010/11/what-unt-needs-in-a-new-coach.html

[UNT Mean Green]

Winning sells tickets. Tickets = Money. Money = Happiness. Winning = Happiness.

[Cr1028]

I agree with Vito. Winning is the #1 priority. Buzz is secondary.

[NorthTexan95]

That's what many of us have been saying. It doesn't matter if it's "big name coach" or Canales or a coach from another team. The most important thing is to find the right fit - the right guy. Winning will bring a much bigger bang for the buck over the long term than "big name coach" with struggling teams.

Now if we can get both "big name coach" and winning ... then that's the jackpot and we'll take it.

[BIG DAWG]

I have no problem with Canales getting the nod if he DOES something. Beating Western Ky. and being close in the other games isn't enough for me. We have been talking about close losses for a LONG TIME now. I don't want to be talking about "hope" with the next coach. I want to be talking about how either Canales beat W.Ky., Troy, La-Mon, and MTSU, or a name guy who has done it before.

The ONLY way I go with Canales is if he goes 4-1 over the next five games. Beating Westen Ky. and La-Mon will not be enough. It either needs to be a clear cut decision, or another direction.

[Cr1028]

I have no problem with Canales getting the nod if he DOES something. Beating Western Ky. and being close in the other games isn't enough for me. We have been talking about close losses for a LONG TIME now. I don't want to be talking about "hope" with the next coach. I want to be talking about how either Canales beat W.Ky., Troy, La-Mon, and MTSU, or a name guy who has done it before.

The ONLY way I go with Canales is if he goes 4-1 over the next five games. Beating Westen Ky. and La-Mon will not be enough. It either needs to be a clear cut decision, or another direction.

Agreed.

[KingDL1]

Brett buddy I got to tell you have this thing all wrong. If you think Dodge a High School coach, is comparable to a proven Head Coach from an Auto bid conference is the same thing and it is just about buzz you are missing the point. We want a guy the has done it before and will draw new fans. Canales is not proven and will not draw new people at all. I don't care if he wins out or not, there are still plenty of coaches that should be considered and hired before Canales. We have a new stadium and we need to sell the seats and build some momentum. NOT another experiment period. You may want to rethink this one. All people on this board don't matter much because they are already involved, we need the new sponsors, the casual fans, the donors on the fence.

[Quoner]

Does anyone besides the weird groupies think Canales has already won the job? I keep seeing the posts addressed to these legions of Canales backers and I can really only think of 3 or 4 people who have said he deserves the job already. Let's go yell at the sky!

[eulessismore]

Does anyone besides the weird groupies think Canales has already won the job? I keep seeing the posts addressed to these legions of Canales backers and I can really only think of 3 or 4 people who have said he deserves the job already. Let's go yell at the sky!

Win tomorrow, that's all I ask! Until Sunday.

[GrayEagle]

Brett buddy I got to tell you have this thing all wrong. If you think Dodge a High School coach, is comparable to a proven Head Coach from an Auto bid conference is the same thing and it is just about buzz you are missing the point. We want a guy the has done it before and will draw new fans. Canales is not proven and will not draw new people at all. I don't care if he wins out or not, there are still plenty of coaches that should be considered and hired before Canales. We have a new stadium and we need to sell the seats and build some momentum. NOT another experiment period. You may want to rethink this one. All people on this board don't matter much because they are already involved, we need the new sponsors, the casual fans, the donors on the fence.

This!

Plus, who says proven head coach won't win? We all want a winner; that's a no-brainer. But...if a coach that has done it before and wants to do it again applies he's not as risky as someone that has won a few games and he'll recruit better, attract more fans and donors and won't have the learning curve to hurdle.

[wardly]

This!

Plus, who says proven head coach won't win? We all want a winner; that's a no-brainer. But...if a coach that has done it before and wants to do it again applies he's not as risky as someone that has won a few games and he'll recruit better, attract more fans and donors and won't have the learning curve to hurdle.

if chico wins 3 of 5 games, he should get serious consideration. discounting k.state, winning 2 of 3 remaining conference games, 2 of which are on the road, would be a strong finish.

[KingDL1]

if chico wins 3 of 5 games, he should get serious consideration. discounting k.state, winning 2 of 3 remaining conference games, 2 of which are on the road, would be a strong finish.

You are really missing the point aren't you? There is no reason other then if RV completely strikes out that we should even consider Canales as HC, and then we have bigger problems. This a a key time in our history and an unproven carry over is not the answer period.

[SilverEagle]

Brett buddy I got to tell you have this thing all wrong. If you think Dodge a High School coach, is comparable to a proven Head Coach from an Auto bid conference is the same thing and it is just about buzz you are missing the point. We want a guy the has done it before and will draw new fans. Canales is not proven and will not draw new people at all. I don't care if he wins out or not, there are still plenty of coaches that should be considered and hired before Canales. We have a new stadium and we need to sell the seats and build some momentum. NOT another experiment period. You may want to rethink this one. All people on this board don't matter much because they are already involved, we need the new sponsors, the casual fans, the donors on the fence.

Ok, what "proven coach from an auto-bid conference" would want to come to North Texas, unless he's been fired from that job. And the last time that a proven coach was fired, and I mean for no good reason (striking a player is not a no good reason) that came to North Texas was Hayden Fry.

I keep trying to get a conversation going about this but "proven" is a very relative term. Like it or not, North Texas is not like other schools. You have to have a coach that is part X's and O's genius, super sales person, and a group therapist. North Texas has had such a negative view of itself for so long, that you have to have someone who is not only great at motivating the team, but the fan base and doners as well.

I'm told that Rod Rust was an X's and 0's genius, but he had no interpersonal skills to either recruit or get the fan base excited. After he finally flopped (after Odus Mitchell's players ran out of eligibility) he was fired and the students were so depressed and/or apathetic that they tried to vote to drop football....and they almost succeeded. This is what Hayden Fry walked into, and he not only turned that situation around, but he almost totally changed the negative/apathetic culture at North Texas.

So I repeat, the coach that takes the job needs to be part X's and 0's genius, part salesman, and part group therapist. Being successful at auto-bid schools does not translate into being a success at North Texas. Those auto-bid schools don't have our psychological baggage to deal with.

Leviatt is a great coach, but he built a program from NOTHING. They had no previous negative baggage for him to deal with. Everyone at South Florida just followed his lead without question. How do you think he would have dealt with a fan base that almost always questions what you're doing....or appears to be somewhat indifferent to what you're doing.

Fran was successful at TCU, but they had past big time positives and all he needed to do with the fan base was tap into that. What are OUR big time past positives?

DD had no idea about how to deal with our fan base. His response to our issues was to go into a bunker mentality and basically say "screw you ungrateful people".

IMHO, It takes a lot of genius, salesmanship, self confidence, and unlimited energy to be successful at North Texas. A "big name" will not substitue for all those things.

This is a great exaggeration, but we need someone kind of like this......

Edited November 6, 2010 by SilverEagle

[untjim1995]

This is what gets me about just hiring Canales and everything else will fall in line if he wins. Well, at UNT it will only happen if we beat non-SBC teams that PEOPLE KNOW. For example, we have to win OOC games against former SWC teams because PEOPLE KNOW THEM. We have to perform reasonably well against the AQ-BCS teams becasue PEOPLE KNOW THEM. It has been proven that winning in the SBC isn't enough for the simple reason that the other teams do not resonate with fans. Oh sure, winning would probably get us to average 20k or more per year in a new stadium, but we realistically need to get to 25k as the minimum for UNT to even begin to gain attention in other circles. Obviously, there are no guarantees anywhere on the next hire. We could hire Fran or Leavitt and it could turn out to be horrible, just like every other hire we have made since Fry. But the on thing we know we haven't tried since Fry is to hire an experienced HFC that people know of and has a history of winning. Its why we really should try this route first, IMO.

[UNT90]

if chico wins 3 of 5 games, he should get serious consideration. discounting k.state, winning 2 of 3 remaining conference games, 2 of which are on the road, would be a strong finish.

UNT, striving to lower expectations on a daily basis.

[UNT90]

Ok, what "proven coach from an auto-bid conference" would want to come to North Texas, unless he's been fired from that job. And the last time that a proven coach was fired, and I mean for no good reason (striking a player is not a no good reason) that came to North Texas was Hayden Fry.

I keep trying to get a conversation going about this but "proven" is a very relative term. Like it or not, North Texas is not like other schools. You have to have a coach that is part X's and O's genius, super sales person, and a group therapist. North Texas has had such a negative view of itself for so long, that you have to have someone who is not only great at motivating the team, but the fan base and doners as well.

I'm told that Rod Rust was an X's and 0's genius, but he had no interpersonal skills to either recruit or get the fan base excited. After he finally flopped (after Odus Mitchell's players ran out of eligibility) he was fired and the students were so depressed and/or apathetic that they tried to vote to drop football....and they almost succeeded. This is what Hayden Fry walked into, and he not only turned that situation around, but he almost totally changed the negative/apathetic culture at North Texas.

So I repeat, the coach that takes the job needs to be part X's and 0's genius, part salesman, and part group therapist. Being successful at auto-bid schools does not translate into being a success at North Texas. Those auto-bid schools don't have our psychological baggage to deal with.

Leviatt is a great coach, but he built a program from NOTHING. They had no previous negative baggage for him to deal with. Everyone at South Florida just followed his lead without question. How do you think he would have dealt with a fan base that almost always questions what you're doing....or appears to be somewhat indifferent to what you're doing.

Fran was successful at TCU, but they had past big time positives and all he needed to do with the fan base was tap into that. What are OUR big time past positives?

DD had no idea about how to deal with our fan base. His response to our issues was to go into a bunker mentality and basically say "screw you ungrateful people".

IMHO, It takes a lot of genius, salesmanship, self confidence, and unlimited energy to be successful at North Texas. A "big name" will not substitue for all those things.

This is a great exaggeration, but we need someone kind of like this......

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=LI_Oe-jtgdI

Completely disagree.

We are not the same UNT that we were when you or I graduated. There were 24K people on hand for the home opener, for a team that had won 5 games the previous 3 years.

We need a coach that can recruit players, develop those players, and coach a football game. We need a coach that can win, and win against more than the Sun Belt conference.

Win, and win OOC games, and everything else takes care of itself.

[PlummMeanGreen]

Brett buddy I got to tell you have this thing all wrong. If you think Dodge a High School coach, is comparable to a proven Head Coach from an Auto bid conference is the same thing and it is just about buzz you are missing the point. We want a guy the has done it before and will draw new fans. Canales is not proven and will not draw new people at all. I don't care if he wins out or not, there are still plenty of coaches that should be considered and hired before Canales. We have a new stadium and we need to sell the seats and build some momentum. NOT another experiment period. You may want to rethink this one. All people on this board don't matter much because they are already involved, we need the new sponsors, the casual fans, the donors on the fence.

[Green Mean]

North Texas needs a coach who can coach and recruit players who can fit his system where we can be successful in college football.