Mickey Matthews---James Madison Coach

[SUMG]

In 2006, this guy was my second favorite choice (behind Don Carthel of WTAMU). Scottie (Voy Board) was really for Matthews. He's a Texas guy...and has been very successful at 1-AA level (national title in 2004). His JMU team beat Va. Tech earlier this year. Vito's blog has him trying to get on the short list. Doubt he has much of a chance, but I think he'd be a great choice....and be a successful move up from 1-AA (like Jim Tressel, Paul Johnson, Fran):

http://www.jmusports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=14400&ATCLID=795617

[SUMG]

The Vito blog that mentions Matthews:

http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/archives/2010/11/thoughts-on-the-wac-coach-sear.html

[VideoEagle]

Get him an interview!

[FirefightnRick]

Damn, Mickey Matthews? Now there's an exciting coach from the lower ranks I could get behind. V Tech is back up to 14th in the nation. That was a huge win for them. I hope he gets a shot.

Rick

[eulessismore]

I've thought for a while that he would be a good choice for us, all kinds of Texas ties, married to a woman from Irving, but wonder if his signing a one year contract extension last year to keep him under contract to JMU through January, 2014 could be a problem. I'm sure there is some buyout clause in all these contracts, and I'm sure if we wanted him bad enough we'd figure out a way. Here's a link about the contract extension:

Mickey Matthews contract extenson.

He's solid, but I'm not sure he's the one to take us to the next level. I'm fairly certain he could at least get us back to where we were 8 or 10 years ago, but I don't think that's what most of the people here want.

[GreenBat]

How good could this guy be, he's only a 1-AA coach. He's been there 11 years with only a 62 percent winning percentage.

I mean come on he's only won 1 NCAA championship, hell a decent coach would win the title every year. In the past six seasons NT has won four more conference games (15-11) than this guy did, tell me he's the guy we need. [by the way almost half (7 of the15 conference wins) came in 2004.]

He's a position coach at best. Anybody can coach LBs, DBs and special teams for these run-of-the-mill teams.

1978-79: Part-time assistant, Kansas State (RB).

1980-81: Assistant, West Texas State (DB, recruiting coordinator).

1982-85: Assistant, Texas-El Paso (DB).

1986: Assistant, Houston (OLB, special teams).

1987: Assistant, Texas Christian (DB).

1988-89: Assistant, Southwest Texas State (defensive coordinator, assistant head coach).

1990-95: Assistant, Marshall (defensive coordinator, assistant head coach).

1996-98: Assistant, Georgia (LB, 1996-97; DB, 1998). Georgia won two bowl games (Outback, Peach) during his tenure, and he coached first-round NFL draftee Champ Bailey.

Anyone can have success at Marshall. It led the Southern Conference in total defense four times (1990, 1993-95), scoring defense three times (1990, 1993-94), passing defense twice (1990, 1994) and rushing defense twice (1992, 1995).

I mean come on JMU has won only 5 games this year and they lost to two of the three top 20 opponents [New Hampshire (6), Richmond (20)] by a total of 17 points (28-14, 13-10 in OT). That's only one more than NT, if it beats ULM. The Dukes (James Madison's nickname) managed to squeak by then No. 1 ranked William and Mary (the other top 20 team on the schedule) by only six (30-24). This lousy coach has only outscored his opponents by 63 points. NT needs a higher powered offense.

Surely, the Mean Green deserve a real football coach, not some FBS National Championship coach ,who has five Texas Universities on his resume and doesn't have clue about recruiting for Texas football.

This entry is total sarcasm, this Mickey Matthews should get an interview and possibly be the next NT head coach!!!

[McKinneyMiner]

In 2006, this guy was my second favorite choice (behind Don Carthel of WTAMU).

From 1983-1985 Matthews, Carthel and Hal Humme were all assistants for Bill Yung at UTEP...

Matthews had followed Yung from West Texas State to El Paso...

They didn't have much success themselves at UTEP, but some of their later recruits paved the way for UTEP's finest seasons in a dog's age when they went 7-4 in 1987 and then 10-3 in 1988 with an Independence Bowl appearance against Brett Favre and Southern Miss...

I wouldn't mind RV taking a good long look at Matthews...

[buff64]

Not to mention ,he is a former WT football player, a very good one.

[wardly]

How good could this guy be, he's only a 1-AA coach. He's been there 11 years with only a 62 percent winning percentage.

I mean come on he's only won 1 NCAA championship, hell a decent coach would win the title every year. In the past six seasons NT has won four more conference games (15-11) than this guy did, tell me he's the guy we need. [by the way almost half (7 of the15 conference wins) came in 2004.]

He's a position coach at best. Anybody can coach LBs, DBs and special teams for these run-of-the-mill teams.

1978-79: Part-time assistant, Kansas State (RB).

1980-81: Assistant, West Texas State (DB, recruiting coordinator).

1982-85: Assistant, Texas-El Paso (DB).

1986: Assistant, Houston (OLB, special teams).

1987: Assistant, Texas Christian (DB).

1988-89: Assistant, Southwest Texas State (defensive coordinator, assistant head coach).

1990-95: Assistant, Marshall (defensive coordinator, assistant head coach).

1996-98: Assistant, Georgia (LB, 1996-97; DB, 1998). Georgia won two bowl games (Outback, Peach) during his tenure, and he coached first-round NFL draftee Champ Bailey.

Anyone can have success at Marshall. It led the Southern Conference in total defense four times (1990, 1993-95), scoring defense three times (1990, 1993-94), passing defense twice (1990, 1994) and rushing defense twice (1992, 1995).

I mean come on JMU has won only 5 games this year and they lost to two of the three top 20 opponents [New Hampshire (6), Richmond (20)] by a total of 17 points (28-14, 13-10 in OT). That's only one more than NT, if it beats ULM. The Dukes (James Madison's nickname) managed to squeak by then No. 1 ranked William and Mary (the other top 20 team on the schedule) by only six (30-24). This lousy coach has only outscored his opponents by 63 points. NT needs a higher powered offense.

Surely, the Mean Green deserve a real football coach, not some FBS National Championship coach ,who has five Texas Universities on his resume and doesn't have clue about recruiting for Texas football.

probably won't get much traction from this board since he has not been fired nor has he filed lawsuit against prior employer. otherwise, he looks like someone we should want to interview.

This entry is total sarcasm, this Mickey Matthews should get an interview and possibly be the next NT head coach!!!

[emmitt01]

Not to mention ,he is a former WT football player, a very good one.

You dont have to like him, but calling him white trash is a bit harsh man.

[eulessismore]

You dont have to like him, but calling him white trash is a bit harsh man.

Why harsh? In South Euless that's just what we call ourselves. He's also supposed to be a pretty smart guy. One quote I've seen attributed to him is "Don't be an idiot son, I can't coach idiots". So, maybe he recognizes his shortcomings.

Edited November 20, 2010 by eulessismore

[eulessismore]

I think one thing this story indicates is the desirability of our HFC position this time around. Mickey Matthews is a very good coach who has done a remarkable job of turning around the fortunes of JMU, a real turnaround for that school from where they were when he arrived. It seems like he's probably getting, with incentives, around $250k a year in what must be a pretty sweet situation at James Madison, if they just recently extended his contract in an attempt to keep him there. Also, their conference, the Colonial Athletic Association, is no slouch among those in the FCS, just ask some schools in the ACC who have lost to CAA schools in very recent years, as well as some traditional FCS powerhouses.

And, regardless of what else has been said here, those previously reported as expressing interest in the North Texas job, Jim Leavitt and Mike Canales, have some very good credentials.

[FirefightnRick]

So he also coached under Fran at TxSt in 80-81?

Rick

[eulessismore]

So he also coached under Fran at TxSt in 80-81?

Rick

From what I've read (Wikipedia for Fran's record, JMU Athletics for Matthews'), Matthews was at TxSt in 88-89, Fran was there 90-91.

[Cr1028]

No thank you. I would rather have Canales if we can't have Fran or Leavitt. I don't want anything below recent FBS level success.

[MCMLXXX]

No thank you. I would rather have Canales if we can't have Fran or Leavitt. I don't want anything below recent FBS level success.

You are right. After all, we could end up with a guy like Jim Tressel who was head coach for 14 years at Youngstown State before being hired at his current gig.

[Cr1028]

You are right. After all, we could end up with a guy like Jim Tressel who was head coach for 14 years at Youngstown State before being hired at his current gig.

Or we could end up with David Baliff.

[MCMLXXX]

Or we could end up with David Baliff.

Bailiff coached for 3 seasons at TSU-SM and had one (that is 1)winning season.

[Cr1028]

Here

We currently sit better in our own conference standings than they do in theirs. Their is nothing about that record that excites me about the future of North Texas. Also, please don't give me the "only lost by X amount of points" garbage. If that crap mattered we'd be working on Todd Dodge's contract extension.

[Mean Green 93-98]

Here

We currently sit better in our own conference standings than they do in theirs. Their is nothing about that record that excites me about the future of North Texas. Also, please don't give me the "only lost by X amount of points" garbage. If that crap mattered we'd be working on Todd Dodge's contract extension.

Very good point. While he might be a very good coach at UNT, pulling a coach out of 1-AA that had a losing record in his conference is way too risky.

[MCMLXXX]

Here

We currently sit better in our own conference standings than they do in theirs. Their is nothing about that record that excites me about the future of North Texas. Also, please don't give me the "only lost by X amount of points" garbage. If that crap mattered we'd be working on Todd Dodge's contract extension.

I am not that impressed with his recent record either. Where I have a disagreement is in the statement that a FCS coach should not be considered.

[eulessismore]

I am not that impressed with his recent record either. Where I have a disagreement is in the statement that a FCS coach should not be considered.

I agree with you on this. At this point, I do feel that Canales is a better candidate than Matthews.

[PlummMeanGreen]

Damn, Mickey Matthews? Now there's an exciting coach from the lower ranks I could get behind. V Tech is back up to 14th in the nation. That was a huge win for them. I hope he gets a shot.

Rickb

And the last time we beat a team in the Top 25 was ? ? ? Well, it may have been called the Top 20 when we actually did but........all these years later (and recently) its just so damn uncanny that we have not had one similar type of win Matthew's team had over VaTech. The law of averages never seems to average out for our program for whatever the reason.

Sun Belt? I will still say that in 10 years of this league's existence the only time we are successful in this league is when it is obviously down. We only have SBC W/L records to look at to prove it and most likely the 'Belt will have only one bowl elgible team this year?

et

The descension of Troy's football program surprises me the most as I thought they would stay the toast of the SBC until North Texas got its stuff together with our new stadium as a major reason as to why we do.

Red number or green numbers who the heck cares and whose counting except math nerds but I have never understood my entire adult life why North Texas alums never asked our powers to hire people in UNT athletics with real skins on the wall who could take us up the next level rather than BS everyone on how great things are just the way they are.

Many of us have lost count of all the schools who have passed us by who we once were at the same level and is one reason I sure as hell don't want UTSA in any league we'd be in because they have all the criteria of a school (great city and a bowl stadium) who could pass us, too, if we don't make some serious changes in Denton and I'm not just talking HFC, either.

Without UNT students vote we'd have no stadium being built as we all post and it was our alma mater who purchased the Denton Liberty property--not monies raised by anyone else.

GMG!

Edited November 20, 2010 by PlummMeanGreen

[eulessismore]

And the last time we beat a team in the Top 25 was ? ? ? Well, it may have been called the Top 20 when we actually did but........all these years later (and recently) its just so damn uncanny that we have not had one similar type of win Matthew's team had over VaTech. The law of averages never seems to average out for our program for whatever the reason.

Sun Belt? I will still say that in 10 years of this league's existence the only time we are successful in this league is when it is obviously down. We only have SBC W/L records to look at to prove it and most likely the 'Belt will have only one bowl elgible team this year?

et

The descension of Troy's football program surprises me the most as I thought they would stay the toast of the SBC until North Texas got its stuff together with our new stadium as a major reason as to why we do.

Red number or green numbers who the heck cares and whose counting except math nerds but I have never understood my entire adult life why North Texas alums never asked our powers to hire people in UNT athletics with real skins on the wall who could take us up the next level rather than BS everyone on how great things are just the way they are.

Many of us have lost count of all the schools who have passed us by who we once were at the same level and is one reason I sure as hell don't want UTSA in any league we'd be in because they have all the criteria of a school (great city and a bowl stadium) who could pass us, too, if we don't make some serious changes in Denton and I'm not just talking HFC, either.

Without UNT students vote we'd have no stadium being built as we all post and it was our alma mater who purchased the Denton Liberty property--not monies raised by anyone else.

GMG!

So, we can we put you down as "maybe" for Mickey Matthews?

[PlummMeanGreen]

So, we can we put you down as "maybe" for Mickey Matthews?

It's a crap shoot but I'm almost relieved we have Neinas running interference for UNT and the Mean Green Nation. We (and I do mean "we") of this forum don't pick well with all our past smack board choices, ie, myself being on the TDodge bandwagon last time around.

Matthews has some definite positives and the Texas background, but how many of Alabama's (Crimson Tide) past several coaches had state of Alabama's backgrounds? I don't know how important that really is anymore, although we know some of our assistants need to have Lone Star State backgrounds if our next HFC does not

?

GMG!