Dan Mac Radio Show

[The Fake Lonnie Finch]

Yep, Sacramento St. Damn sure doesn't have the talent of Oregon St., but they don't need that excuse this week.

Neither did James Madison last year when they went into Virginia Tech and came out with a win (and then went 6-5 against a FCS schedule).

Those teams faced a far greater talent gap than we did against FIU. They found a way to compete. That's what I expected from this staff last week. All this bulsh about the huge talent gap we face against Sun Belt competition is just that. Bulsh. Yes, FIU and Troy are more talented, but not by a huge margin as many on here would have us to believe. To listen to some, we would be lucky to beat FAU this year because of the massive talent gap, nevermind they were the Sun Belt coaches pick to finish last in conference.

Less talented teams often find a way to compete and win games they shouldn't. That's what I expected from this staff last week. What I got was a completely unacceptable coaching performance.

Okay, I'm fully back on the "It's Coaching, Stupid" train. Forgot about Sacto State nutting up on Oregon State.

FIU is Sun Belt. We are Sun Belt. Can Dodge's recruiting have been so piss poor that our talent level is less than an FCS school? Surely not.

I'm expecting better. The coaches - namely Dan McCarney, who is happening to be our head coach this season - said, "No Excuses."

Fine. No excuses. Get you ass out there and win!

[Green Oracle]

Just quoting for posterity, as I had never seen this come out of your internet-mouth. Welcome to the "it ain't all coachin'" reality of the situation.

UNT is now going on year 7 of the same song and dance, but I'm encouraged that this is going to change very quickly. Finally.

Can't come quick enough. Need wins now. We can't wait through three- more years of this.

[Mean Green Matt]

While I agree with most of what you say, bear in mind that when you say "with the coaching staff we had" Mac took more than 5 years to begin the turnaround at Iowa St. I'm not saying it will take that long here, and I know the circumstances are very different (plus he's a more experienced coach now), but the one bit of evidence we have on record for Mac is a slow turnaround.

* this isn't always a bad thing - it's still impressive as hell, and it is usually more sustainable long run. Just be careful with the timeframe.

You can have your numbers...I'll keep my kool-aid.

[FloMoGrad]

Gents, we came out flat, and when I say flat, I mean west texas roads flat. I mentioned this once, but in being on the first row of the visitor sideline behind our team, I expected to hear a snarling bunch of caged beasts foaming at the mouth to go knock the golden panther piss out of their opponents. What I saw instead was a team that was preparing for a trip to the library. Here's hoping someone lights a season turning fire under some arses and we see a team come out with some ferocity.

I'll say again, the TY Hilton show whooped our arse. We're not good enough to play with fire, and we did from the opening kickoff on. Everybody learns from this, it's not how far you fall but how high you bounce back.

No excuses, show up and hit the guy in the mouth that lines up across from you.

[untjim1995]

If the team gets crushed this season, then that says more about Dan then anything else.

You literally have no idea how college football works, do you? Was June Jones a terrible hire at SMU? He went 1-11 in his first year and that win was over Texas State. I think it has worked out ok since then for them. How about George O'Leary at UCF? His first team went 0-12, but they went to a bowl game in his second season.

If Coach Mac's tenure here turns into either of the previous coaches mentioned above, we will have hit a jackpot, no matter how he does this year. If anyone thinks we made a huge mistake in hiring Coach Mac after this season, even if we go winless, should probably just find a good Longhorn T-shirt to wear, because he is going to be here for a while and we need to give him plenty of time to get this turned around. If we are here at the end of the 2013 season and we are 3-8 and haven't even gotten close to 5 or more wins, then the rants of him being disappointing will have lots of merit. But, financially speaking alone, Coach McCarney will be here for a while--we all might as well as give him a chance to build things up around here from the ashes that we currently sit in.

For those who want to raise expectations here, please understand that I am right there with you. But I will not raise expectations beyond reality when the new coach has had to follow a coach with a completely different philosophy on how to play football, practice, and recruit players. My belief is that this year will be our rock bottom year, as the current players are having to go through a complete culture change. This is exactly why I posted that if Coach Mac gets us to 5 wins this year, he should be SBC Coach of the Year. My realistic expectations for next year (2012) is to get to 5 wins or more and then to compete for a bowl berth and SBC championship in 2013. This is what FIU did when they hired Cristobal--who wouldn't want trade places with them right now? If FIU did it, then we should be able to do it, too.

[yyz28]

Look -

I think it's easy to hit the panic button after this game. There were some REAL screwups on all sides of the ball and by the coaching staff...

...but let's not forget - they are playing freshmen at key positions for a reason. Other than that first quarter, once the team settled down, the DEFENSE won the remainder of the football game. Now, I can't tell you the last time I've been able to say that about this football team. Hell, the DEFENSE scored 16 points. You combine last year's offense with that defense, and we win most games we play.

...so, the $64,000 question is what in the name of GOD happened to the offense? Well, Same OC as last year, who really did some impressive stuff the second half of the season, so no change there in scheme. QB change, and a pretty major one. Went from a QB that was a threat in every way to having a tall slow more prototypical QB instead of a mobile guy, so the opposing DLINE didn't have to worry about the QB hauling ass, and could key in on Lance alone. ...Receivers dropping EVERYTHING in a sloppy wet game. Lance handed his ass (just like he was last year) by a DC and defensive squad that has his number.

To me, it was just a whole lot of stuff going wrong that caused the defense to be absolutely impotent.

Bottom line, you have the defense even show a SIGN of life in the first quarter and then have an offense that was marginally as effective as they were last year, and you would have had a game we were right in the middle of.

As much of a beating that we've had as fans over the past stretch of years, its REAL hard to see the upside to a loss like this when we all have been drinking the Kool-Aid all off season, we're fired up about our new Football Palace and I think by and large, universally like the coaching staff on paper. ...but give this team a little time before we judge how this new project is working out. I see a coach who is pissed off and not making any excuses. This is a pretty big change around here.

[LongJim]

You literally have no idea how college football works, do you? Was June Jones a terrible hire at SMU? He went 1-11 in his first year and that win was over Texas State. I think it has worked out ok since then for them. How about George O'Leary at UCF? His first team went 0-12, but they went to a bowl game in his second season.

If Coach Mac's tenure here turns into either of the previous coaches mentioned above, we will have hit a jackpot, no matter how he does this year. If anyone thinks we made a huge mistake in hiring Coach Mac after this season, even if we go winless, should probably just find a good Longhorn T-shirt to wear, because he is going to be here for a while and we need to give him plenty of time to get this turned around. If we are here at the end of the 2013 season and we are 3-8 and haven't even gotten close to 5 or more wins, then the rants of him being disappointing will have lots of merit. But, financially speaking alone, Coach McCarney will be here for a while--we all might as well as give him a chance to build things up around here from the ashes that we currently sit in.

For those who want to raise expectations here, please understand that I am right there with you. But I will not raise expectations beyond reality when the new coach has had to follow a coach with a completely different philosophy on how to play football, practice, and recruit players. My belief is that this year will be our rock bottom year, as the current players are having to go through a complete culture change. This is exactly why I posted that if Coach Mac gets us to 5 wins this year, he should be SBC Coach of the Year. My realistic expectations for next year (2012) is to get to 5 wins or more and then to compete for a bowl berth and SBC championship in 2013. This is what FIU did when they hired Cristobal--who wouldn't want trade places with them right now? If FIU did it, then we should be able to do it, too.

You're ok in my book, 1995.

A vicious circle was set in motion around 2005. Recruiting falls off-->Team loses-->Recruiting falls off-->Team loses-->Coach is fired-->Recruiting falls off-->Team loses...As many have said here many times, it's not rocket science.

That's why coaching hires at this level are critical, because escaping that wheel is very difficult. UNT has been fighting that circle with the additional albatross of Fouts as a nice bonus prize.

It doesn't matter to some that freshmen are starting for UNT now. There's nothing wrong with that, but in a perfect world, your starters are at least sophomores. It doesn't matter to some that the zone-read/spread running attack UNT uses was best run by a quarterback who ran a legitimate 4.5 and is no longer on the roster, and his replacement is not a running threat, or that most of the OL are inexperienced.

It doesn't matter to some that the DT position produced exactly nothing last Saturday--didn't even appear in the stats--and DL in general got their ass whipped all night to the tune of 5.2 YPC. It doesn't matter to some that the OL generated a whopping 2.6 YPC on Saturday in the running game, despite blocking for the best running back in the league. It doesn't matter to some that TY Hilton has olympic speed and NFL-caliber talent and is going to get his yards and catches no matter who is defending him. It doesn't matter to some that the WR corp couldn't get open with the exception of a handful of plays, or that one of their leading members is not on the team.

This is all old hat. We're in the 6th or 7th year of this. Third coaching regime. 4th or 5th DC/OC. Still all about coaching, though.

Mac is already making positive changes in strength and conditioning and recruiting. Depth is still an issue a whopping 9 months later. But this is a surprise apparently. It's going to change for the better, and it already is, but but we won't know how quickly until the next recruiting class.

Until then it'll be "unacceptable", "it's about putting players in position to succeed", "they should scream more during the pre-game", and other tail-chasing and drum-beating. It's counter-productive. It's the definition of the word inane.

My personal opinion has never been that the talent level discrepancy OVERALL for UNT in comparison to other SBC teams is great. There is discrepancy between the OL/DL for UNT versus the rest of the league--particularly the DL. Mac was hired to fix this. I believe he will, and quickly. We should see improvement by the end of the year, and troops coming next February.

[untjim1995]

You're ok in my book, 1995.

A vicious circle was set in motion around 2005. Recruiting falls off-->Team loses-->Recruiting falls off-->Team loses-->Coach is fired-->Recruiting falls off-->Team loses...As many have said here many times, it's not rocket science.

That's why coaching hires at this level are critical, because escaping that wheel is very difficult. UNT has been fighting that circle with the additional albatross of Fouts as a nice bonus prize.

It doesn't matter to some that freshmen are starting for UNT now. There's nothing wrong with that, but in a perfect world, your starters are at least sophomores. It doesn't matter to some that the zone-read/spread running attack UNT uses was best run by a quarterback who ran a legitimate 4.5 and is no longer on the roster, and his replacement is not a running threat, or that most of the OL are inexperienced.

It doesn't matter to some that the DT position produced exactly nothing last Saturday--didn't even appear in the stats--and DL in general got their ass whipped all night to the tune of 5.2 YPC. It doesn't matter to some that the OL generated a whopping 2.6 YPC on Saturday in the running game, despite blocking for the best running back in the league. It doesn't matter to some that TY Hilton has olympic speed and NFL-caliber talent and is going to get his yards and catches no matter who is defending him. It doesn't matter to some that the WR corp couldn't get open with the exception of a handful of plays, or that one of their leading members is not on the team.

This is all old hat. We're in the 6th or 7th year of this. Third coaching regime. 4th or 5th DC/OC. Still all about coaching, though.

Mac is already making positive changes in strength and conditioning and recruiting. Depth is still an issue a whopping 9 months later. But this is a surprise apparently. It's going to change for the better, and it already is, but but we won't know how quickly until the next recruiting class.

Until then it'll be "unacceptable", "it's about putting players in position to succeed", "they should scream more during the pre-game", and other tail-chasing and drum-beating. It's counter-productive. It's the definition of the word inane.

My personal opinion has never been that the talent level discrepancy OVERALL for UNT in comparison to other SBC teams is great. There is discrepancy between the OL/DL for UNT versus the rest of the league--particularly the DL. Mac was hired to fix this. I believe he will, and quickly. We should see improvement by the end of the year, and troops coming next February.

Exactly--I laugh every time I read that we are losing because of anything other than the fact that our lines cannot block, tackle, rush the passer, or keep themselves healthy. If "coaching them up" involves recruiting and strength and conditioning, then I agree, we need to "coach" them up. But when you read the stats that you posted above about this last game against--gasp, an SBC team!!--, the point gets made fairly clearly that we have nothing there yet, that it will take a few years to get there. It befuddles me how some read Coach Mac's comments when he got here in the spring and all during the summer on how bad of the shape the lines were in, yet all we read on this board was that this was just "coachspeak" and that if you bought that, then you are just missing the boat. This isn't even talking about having an inexperienced QB and the loss of one of the few playmakers on the whole team. But, again, the biggest reason we are losing is because of coaching, you know, since this is the SBC, not the SEC...

[oldguystudent]

I went back and read some posts from 2007-2008. I'm actually encouraged that after a single game, the fan base here at gmg.com is demanding improvement and demanding it now. Empty cupboard? P'shaw! Needs time to get his players for his system? Nonsense! Ship gonna' take some time to right? Baldersdash!

We saw in the last five games of last season what a difference a coach can make. We're likely gonna' get it handed to us on Saturday. Team's just not there yet. I'm trying to steel myself for that.

At this point, I predict victories over WKU, LA-Monroe, LA-Lafayette, and one more between FAU/MUTS/Ark St. 4-8 seems reasonable enough right now, but I want to see bowl eligibility next year, and I sure as heck don't want to see any back sliding from 4-8 this year to 2-10 next.

I want to see the players learn the new system, learn to execute it without thinking too hard, and give a crap that they're losing. I believe the term is snot bubbles. We don't see snot bubbles by the time MUTS comes to town, we're in trouble.

[The Fake Lonnie Finch]

I'm just glad we didn't schedule Sacramento State or Eastern Kentucky.

[UNT90]

Other than that first quarter, once the team settled down, the DEFENSE won the remainder of the football game. Now, I can't tell you the last time I've been able to say that about this football team. Hell, the DEFENSE scored 16 points.

Most failed logic ever. FIU knew the game was over after the 1st quarter. Mentally let up.

Until then it'll be "unacceptable", "it's about putting players in position to succeed", "they should scream more during the pre-game", and other tail-chasing and drum-beating. It's counter-productive. It's the definition of the word inane.

My personal opinion has never been that the talent level discrepancy OVERALL for UNT in comparison to other SBC teams is great. There is discrepancy between the OL/DL for UNT versus the rest of the league--particularly the DL. Mac was hired to fix this. I believe he will, and quickly. We should see improvement by the end of the year, and troops coming next February.

What happened at FIU should never be acceptable. Period.

Again, we were picked by the coaches to finish above 2 other teams in this league, and those teams didn't give up 28 first quarter points to better opposition.

[LongJim]

What happened at FIU should never be acceptable. Period.

Who's saying it's acceptable?

Again, we were picked by the coaches to finish above 2 other teams in this league, and those teams didn't give up 28 first quarter points to better opposition.

Which doesn't mean jack sh!t regarding the progress or lack thereof of this program.

[risinggreen]

For now, I'm just going to blame it all on the rain since our guys hadn't seen a rain cloud for six months. Let's just forget about the rain and go out there on fire this Saturday and kick some Cougar butt. If the stadium opening can't pump these guys up then nothing can.

[Mean Green Matt]

Most failed logic ever. FIU knew the game was over after the 1st quarter. Mentally let up.

I disagree with this...I think they wanted to run the score up, and I never until the very end felt like they quit trying. The offense was terrible, but I think after some adjustments we played alright defensively for the last three quarters.

[UNT90]

I disagree with this...I think they wanted to run the score up, and I never until the very end felt like they quit trying. The offense was terrible, but I think after some adjustments we played alright defensively for the last three quarters.

Because we couldnt adjust after the 1st drive, or the 2nd, or the 3rd, but the 4th? During the TV timeout between quarters? Why not the TV timeout between the 2nd or 3rd score and the ensuing kickoff?

Major adjustments happen at half time.

[MeanMag]

Most failed logic ever. FIU knew the game was over after the 1st quarter. Mentally let up.

What happened at FIU should never be acceptable. Period.

Again, we were picked by the coaches to finish above 2 other teams in this league, and those teams didn't give up 28 first quarter points to better opposition.

Guess what? It happened last year against the same team, with the same offensive coordinator. If we compare ourselves to the FIU game last year, we got a little worse.

Let's wait until we play the other teams we played last year and see how far we've progressed in relation to them too.

Then let's determine what's acceptable progress and what's not.

Edited September 6, 2011 by MeanMag