Which Fans Will Mccarney Get?

[Cerebus]

Fans at North Texas seem to have a Jekyll and Hyde personality.

When Dickey was here, I thought most people were too harsh on him. Not to say he didn't have his faults, oh boy did he have his faults. In the end, after leading us to 4 bowl games, the firsts one we have played in the modern era, it only took two bad years for the majority of people to want to run him out on a rail. No excuse, even if they were valid ones like failing health, mattered. this was 180 degrees different that we treated his successor.

When Todd Dodge was here, people were falling all over themselves to make excuses for him. When we couldn't beat teams Dickey's worse years had beat, there were excuses. When he never won as many games ad Dickey did in his worst year, there were excuses. Now, some of them were valid, but the fan base was much more willing to listen to them even if they weren't. Even at the very very end, there were plenty of people who wanted to give him another year.

So, what is McCarney going to get? Let's look at the situation. First, he was the favorite of few going in, and he took the job from someone who had grown to be the favorite of many fans. Two, he is getting paid more than any coach in our history. Three, he is piloting the biggest investment North Texas has ever put into athletics, the new football stadium. Fourth, SMU and TCU and having success.

To me, this means McCarney is going to have a short leash. He is going to need to come in and be positive and sell himself to the fan base, and tell them how much potential he sees at NT and how he is glad he is the one who will be realizing it.. Reports that he had to "mull over" a million dollar offer have already gotten that off on the wrong foot, but he can over come it.

Most importantly, he is going to need to produce on the field right away. I think the proper term to use is "tolerance". There are fans who recognize he is the new head coach, and even though he wasn't their choice, they are going to fall in line and support him, but they won't be able to tolerate much failure. If his teams come out and struggle, the fan base will start to fracture at the worst possible time.

I, for one, wish him nothing but success. I hope to be hanging out in NO come a December very soon. GMG!

[NT03]

I'm hoping for some UNT students who are currently UT fans who will probably be looking for a new team to cheer for next season

[C&S]

Fans at North Texas seem to have a Jekyll and Hyde personality.

When Dickey was here, I thought most people were too harsh on him. Not to say he didn't have his faults, oh boy did he have his faults. In the end, after leading us to 4 bowl games, the firsts one we have played in the modern era, it only took two bad years for the majority of people to want to run him out on a rail. No excuse, even if they were valid ones like failing health, mattered. this was 180 degrees different that we treated his successor.

When Todd Dodge was here, people were falling all over themselves to make excuses for him. When we couldn't beat teams Dickey's worse years had beat, there were excuses. When he never won as many games ad Dickey did in his worst year, there were excuses. Now, some of them were valid, but the fan base was much more willing to listen to them even if they weren't. Even at the very very end, there were plenty of people who wanted to give him another year.

So, what is McCarney going to get? Let's look at the situation. First, he was the favorite of few going in, and he took the job from someone who had grown to be the favorite of many fans. Two, he is getting paid more than any coach in our history. Three, he is piloting the biggest investment North Texas has ever put into athletics, the new football stadium. Fourth, SMU and TCU and having success.

To me, this means McCarney is going to have a short leash. He is going to need to come in and be positive and sell himself to the fan base, and tell them how much potential he sees at NT and how he is glad he is the one who will be realizing it.. Reports that he had to "mull over" a million dollar offer have already gotten that off on the wrong foot, but he can over come it.

Most importantly, he is going to need to produce on the field right away. I think the proper term to use is "tolerance". There are fans who recognize he is the new head coach, and even though he wasn't their choice, they are going to fall in line and support him, but they won't be able to tolerate much failure. If his teams come out and struggle, the fan base will start to fracture at the worst possible time.

I, for one, wish him nothing but success. I hope to be hanging out in NO come a December very soon. GMG!

1000+

[Cerebus]

I'm hoping for some UNT students who are currently UT fans who will probably be looking for a new team to cheer for next season

Amen. All that mostly stopped during the bowl years, but its back now with a vengeance.

[SilverEagle]

Fans at North Texas seem to have a Jekyll and Hyde personality.

When Dickey was here, I thought most people were too harsh on him. Not to say he didn't have his faults, oh boy did he have his faults. In the end, after leading us to 4 bowl games, the firsts one we have played in the modern era, it only took two bad years for the majority of people to want to run him out on a rail. No excuse, even if they were valid ones like failing health, mattered. this was 180 degrees different that we treated his successor.

When Todd Dodge was here, people were falling all over themselves to make excuses for him. When we couldn't beat teams Dickey's worse years had beat, there were excuses. When he never won as many games ad Dickey did in his worst year, there were excuses. Now, some of them were valid, but the fan base was much more willing to listen to them even if they weren't. Even at the very very end, there were plenty of people who wanted to give him another year.

So, what is McCarney going to get? Let's look at the situation. First, he was the favorite of few going in, and he took the job from someone who had grown to be the favorite of many fans. Two, he is getting paid more than any coach in our history. Three, he is piloting the biggest investment North Texas has ever put into athletics, the new football stadium. Fourth, SMU and TCU and having success.

To me, this means McCarney is going to have a short leash. He is going to need to come in and be positive and sell himself to the fan base, and tell them how much potential he sees at NT and how he is glad he is the one who will be realizing it.. Reports that he had to "mull over" a million dollar offer have already gotten that off on the wrong foot, but he can over come it.

Most importantly, he is going to need to produce on the field right away. I think the proper term to use is "tolerance". There are fans who recognize he is the new head coach, and even though he wasn't their choice, they are going to fall in line and support him, but they won't be able to tolerate much failure. If his teams come out and struggle, the fan base will start to fracture at the worst possible time.

I, for one, wish him nothing but success. I hope to be hanging out in NO come a December very soon. GMG!

I just figured it out. The North Texas fandom/community is like the family in the movie "You Can't Take it With You"....only with most of them(us) being cynical and ascerbic.

So based on that, you can try and guess what sort of reception he'll get.

[GoMeanGreen1999]

I honestly believe most will be fully on board for support at least for the first couple of years. Come Tuesday we will all be on board and by January I am sure we all will be predicting an 8-10 win season.

[GrayEagle]

I agree with the short leash. If Coach Mac doesn't win at least five games the first year we may have an Akron-type situation with our new stadium. I put the mark at five games because I sincerely believe that at least four on our "list" could do just that, including Mike Canales.

He has a good nucleus to work with. The big problems are at quarterback and the offensive and defensive lines. Another hit at linebacker primarily because of the loss of Robertson. He should have some answers at shoring up the defense. All in all, not that bad when you've lost 23 seniors.

[meangreendork]

Amen. All that mostly stopped during the bowl years, but its back now with a vengeance.

UT was trash this year. Shouldn't be hard to accomplish if McCarney can post wins consistently.

[GrandGreen]

Fans at North Texas seem to have a Jekyll and Hyde personality.

When Dickey was here, I thought most people were too harsh on him. Not to say he didn't have his faults, oh boy did he have his faults. In the end, after leading us to 4 bowl games, the firsts one we have played in the modern era, it only took two bad years for the majority of people to want to run him out on a rail. No excuse, even if they were valid ones like failing health, mattered. this was 180 degrees different that we treated his successor.

When Todd Dodge was here, people were falling all over themselves to make excuses for him. When we couldn't beat teams Dickey's worse years had beat, there were excuses. When he never won as many games ad Dickey did in his worst year, there were excuses. Now, some of them were valid, but the fan base was much more willing to listen to them even if they weren't. Even at the very very end, there were plenty of people who wanted to give him another year.

So, what is McCarney going to get? Let's look at the situation. First, he was the favorite of few going in, and he took the job from someone who had grown to be the favorite of many fans. Two, he is getting paid more than any coach in our history. Three, he is piloting the biggest investment North Texas has ever put into athletics, the new football stadium. Fourth, SMU and TCU and having success.

To me, this means McCarney is going to have a short leash. He is going to need to come in and be positive and sell himself to the fan base, and tell them how much potential he sees at NT and how he is glad he is the one who will be realizing it.. Reports that he had to "mull over" a million dollar offer have already gotten that off on the wrong foot, but he can over come it.

Most importantly, he is going to need to produce on the field right away. I think the proper term to use is "tolerance". There are fans who recognize he is the new head coach, and even though he wasn't their choice, they are going to fall in line and support him, but they won't be able to tolerate much failure. If his teams come out and struggle, the fan base will start to fracture at the worst possible time.

I, for one, wish him nothing but success. I hope to be hanging out in NO come a December very soon. GMG!

In my mind, Dodge at least never ran down the program and from afar seemed to work very hard at righting the ship. Dickey was no doubt a better football coach but constantly put down the school and the fans. After his successes still in my opinion primarily based on one phenomenal recruiting class, Dickey put a lot more effort into getting a better gig than he did recruiting. His us against the world approach did nothing for the program and his constant put downs of his situation certainly didn't help recruiting. I know DD had health issues as well as personal, but DD basically fired himself. Your employer might put up with your arrogance when you are performing but when you can't out recruit Southland schools; a change has to be made. Did you notice a little difference in the way Dodge and now Canales handled their termination versus DD?

I don't think people in general give Dickey enough credit for his on the field record of four straight championships and 26 conference wins. However, he was running the program into the ground his last few years and a change had to be made. Unfortunately, the Dodge hire was a disaster on the field but I really don't thing Dickey would have done any better on the field and the program definitely didn't need his baggage.

As far as McCarney mulling over an offer, get real. Very few people don't take a while to think over offers even if it is their dream job. Most employers would be in shock if someone immediately agreed to an initial offer for a job of this level. As far as fan tolerance, there is not going to be much no matter who they could have hired, be it Leach or Canales. This is a very important hire for NT and hopefully they did all they could to insure it was the right one. NT is not in position to eat a big contract, no matter what the circumstances. I join you in hoping that McCarney is the right hire because if he is not, NT is going to miss a golden opportunity to grow this program.

[Cerebus]

As far as McCarney mulling over an offer, get real. Very few people don't take a while to think over offers even if it is their dream job. Most employers would be in shock if someone immediately agreed to an initial offer for a job of this level.

Really? Then what is an acceptable amount of time to think it over? There has to be some upper limit on that, if a coaching candidate said "let me get back to you in three months", I don't think anyone would stand for it.

So what is that time period? A day? A couple days? A week? What if you found out a candidate had taken longer than that to decide? Would that change your mind?

[PlummMeanGreen]

I agree with the short leash. If Coach Mac doesn't win at least five games the first year we may have an Akron-type situation with our new stadium. I put the mark at five games because I sincerely believe that at least four on our "list" could do just that, including Mike Canales.

He has a good nucleus to work with. The big problems are at quarterback and the offensive and defensive lines. Another hit at linebacker primarily because of the loss of Robertson. He should have some answers at shoring up the defense. All in all, not that bad when you've lost 23 seniors.

The new stadium will get many more casual/borderline fans out no matter who our coach would be because many of that group wouldn't know old Dodger baseballer PeeWee Reese from PeeWee Herman.

I agree, GrayEagle, I think "any" coach would win 4 next year, but I expect a HFC with the experience that Coach Mac has to win a few on his own like FAU's Coach Schnelly' probably did against us at least a couple times a few years ago before FAU became 'Belt elgible.

A question mark with Coach C was we didn't know much about his recruiting even in 1 year at UNT and that question mark will be the same with Coach Mac until we see what he and staff can do, but he did hone his recruiting craft from one of the best when he was an assistant coach for the Iowa Hawkeyes.

GMG!

Edited November 29, 2010 by PlummMeanGreen

[Cerebus]

The new stadium will get many more casual/borderline fans out no matter who our coach would be because many of that group wouldn't know old Dodger baseballer PeeWee Reese from PeeWee Herman.

It will for a game or three, it won't for any length of time if we aren't winning.

[FirefightnRick]

I figure the type of fan base he will get will be a patient one, as we have always been unfortunately. We had over 20,000 show up for a team that had won 5 home games the past five seasons for the opener this year.

For me, I'll spend the next 6 months explaining to co workers and friends who in hell he is. Everyday at work someone asks me, "So y'all got your head coach yet?". So I know I have to brush up on his resume so I can try and garner some kind of interest to those I'm trying to convince to get on board this train. With Dickey it was near impossible. Other than the two wins over Tech and Baylor people just didn't give a crap because the offense was so boring and our OOC record was pathetic. I couldn't sell the fact that we had one of the nation's best defenses. With Dodge it was easy. Everyone knew of him and many were/are dissapointed

he didn't work out.

So like most of you, this time around, as people ask if we hired Mike Leach or Fran yet I'll go into my spill of talking up how great Coach Mac was at Iowa State etc......because I love NT and am a patient person.

Rick

[NT80]

Really? Then what is an acceptable amount of time to think it over? There has to be some upper limit on that, if a coaching candidate said "let me get back to you in three months", I don't think anyone would stand for it.

So what is that time period? A day? A couple days? A week? What if you found out a candidate had taken longer than that to decide? Would that change your mind?

I'm thinking the sticking point wasn't the salary we were offering. Maybe it was other factors such as assistant coaches salary pool, moving family from Florida to a place unknown, any number of reasons that he needed some time to talk it over with others. In the end he said yes, and that is always a good thing if it's your first choice.

[Green Mean]

I honestly believe most will be fully on board for support at least for the first couple of years. Come Tuesday we will all be on board and by January I am sure we all will be predicting an 8-10 win season.

Hah you're pretty much spot on. As for predicting 8-10 wins....that definitely won't be me. I do however believe that we will have the talent and coaching to reasonably expect 5-7 wins NEXT season. Maybe I am wrong but it would not surprise me if we flirted with a bowl or made one next season.

[GrandGreen]

Really? Then what is an acceptable amount of time to think it over? There has to be some upper limit on that, if a coaching candidate said "let me get back to you in three months", I don't think anyone would stand for it.

So what is that time period? A day? A couple days? A week? What if you found out a candidate had taken longer than that to decide? Would that change your mind?

Oh, it's open ended; if he doesn't accept than NT goes into next season with no coaching staff. Sarcasm aside, in my experience; a candidate would get a relatively short amount of time to consider an offer and that time would be specified.

Edited November 29, 2010 by GrandGreen

[jimmyjames_99]

Really? Then what is an acceptable amount of time to think it over? There has to be some upper limit on that, if a coaching candidate said "let me get back to you in three months", I don't think anyone would stand for it.

So what is that time period? A day? A couple days? A week? What if you found out a candidate had taken longer than that to decide? Would that change your mind?

Maybe till he finishes his last game with the team he is currently coaching? So, one day... Doesn't seem to long.

Edited November 29, 2010 by jimmyjames_99

[Mean Green 93-98]

It seems many of our posters are saying, "Who?!?" But I was very familiar with Coach McCarney long before he became a candidate for this position. I was glad to see it when he brought success to Iowa State, a school that had previously known zero success. "Fan" would be too strong a word, but I generally rooted for Iowa State and McCarney during his tenure there. That said, I think he is a lesser hire than Leavitt, Fran, Kragthorpe, Bower, or Chico.

[All About UNT]

I think we can all admit that 3-4 games would not have been lost had we had a tougher defense this year. In fairness they have been placed into situations where they cannot succeed with ease due to poor field position on our behalf (Rice game comes to mind). With the improvement of both the Defense and the Special Teams....while maintaining a potent offense...we should and can expect a turnaround next year. From what the Iowa St. (and Iowa for that matter) fans state is that he excels at both of the weakspots. The question is...will the offense maintain the great year that they had? If we can shave off a TD and a FG per game (allowed) that would be a great start. Bring in Chris Ash and we can get those 4 "shoulda been INTs" against KSU into certain INTs.

There is zero reason to flamespray a man who hasn't even been given a chance to do his job. The less bickering that occurs the more we can unite behind him and the team and look forward to a successful opening of the stadium. He was not my pick....but I will support him because it is more important to me to see UNT win than it is to moan about how my choice didn't get picked

[Green Jackal]

I would break out our fans into the following groups:

The I Told You So's - The biggest critics of McCarney who secretly want to see him fail. They include those who are related to other candidates and others who have criticized the choice and just want to be proved right.

The Never Good Enough's - These are the people who were calling for Dickey's head during our 26 game conference win streak because we weren't winning enough non-conference games. Until we start beating the Longhorn's, the current program is just not good enough for them.

Win Now Fans - These fans don't want to wait until McCarney can get his recruits in here. They will expect an 8 win season next year.

Patient Fans - They understand that it will take time for the new coach to turn around the program. They are satisfied as long as they see steady improvement. They tend to focus more on the big picture instead of knee jerk reactions.

Green Kool-Aid Crew - The most optimistic of the fans, they blindly support the program. They still think Dodge could of turned the program around if given more time.

[gangrene]

Most importantly, he is going to need to produce on the field right away. I think the proper term to use is "tolerance". There are fans who recognize he is the new head coach, and even though he wasn't their choice, they are going to fall in line and support him, but they won't be able to tolerate much failure. If his teams come out and struggle, the fan base will start to fracture at the worst possible time.

I, for one, wish him nothing but success. I hope to be hanging out in NO come a December very soon. GMG!

This.