"That program has fallen apart"

UNT90 · February 9, 2013

Norm said it on air on the most listened to radio station in the metroplex. That's how you re-connect with alums, right?

If the AD does read this board, here is my messsage:

PLEASE DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!!!

If you cross your fingers and hope that it will get better next year, you are dooming this program to to at least 5 years of non-competitiveness. And you should be affecting your job status, but we are UNT, so who knows about that.

Buy him out. Find a way. This is your mistake. FIX IT!

LakeTravis · February 9, 2013

#Fran Fraschilla#Fran Fraschilla#Fran Fraschilla#Fran Fraschilla#Fran Fraschilla#Fran Fraschilla#Fran Fraschilla#Fran Fraschilla#Fran Fraschilla#Fran Fraschilla#Fran Fraschilla

H-towngreen · February 9, 2013

I've never been more pumped for any NT athletic teams season. I was hyping this team to anyone who would listen. I promised I would drive up for a few games. I promised I would watch every game possible.

I haven't made it to a game, nor do I want to. I watched the first few games of the season and have since thrown in the towel. I don't even care anymore. I simply do not care. Honestly, I hope we continue to lose. No, I cheer for NT to lose. That's a horrible thing to say. But Benford needs to go and more losses can do nothing but help him get the boot.

Signed,

Frustrated and Defeated once NT BBall Supporter

Greenrex · February 9, 2013

The meaningful truth of this matter is that there is almost no outcry from students/alumni/fans/media which highlights the larger truth that, "It's okay to fail at this institution."

H-towngreen · February 9, 2013

The meaningful truth of this matter is that there is almost no outcry from students/alumni/fans/media which highlights the larger truth that, "It's okay to fail at this institution."

They aren't showing up for games anymore. That is their outcry. We are not Syracuse or UNC where there would be riots if this happened.

Mean Green Matt · February 9, 2013

They aren't showing up for games anymore. That is their outcry. We are not Syracuse or UNC where there would be riots if this happened.

Bingo. If this team had taken care of business we would be getting 6-7000 at games right now. The students were just waiting for something to go crazy about, and then the kick to the nuts called Alabama-Huntsville happened.

UNT90 · February 9, 2013

The meaningful truth of this matter is that there is almost no outcry from students/alumni/fans/media which highlights the larger truth that, "It's okay to fail at this institution."

Ya, Norm prefaced his very short UNT basketball conversation with something like "I know this probably isn't on anyone's radar."

It is becoming clearer and clearer to me that the only people who truly care about UNT sports are it's minimal fan base, it's students (hey, make no mistake, we don't have the stadium without them), and those in the AD, although I am beginning to feel they care more about keeping their jobs than winning. We will find out March 8.

I don't think the BOR or the Chancellor give 2 craps about athletics. Oh, they would be happy if we win, but they aren't willing to do anything outside a certain framework to male that happen.

We used to at least have basketball to provide some hope, but now that has been taken from the fans as well.

Prove me wrong, UNT. Do something about this.

Please.

Green P1 · February 9, 2013

I liked it when Norm remarked that teams weren't just beating us.... They were lifting their legs and urinating on us. That was great.

Greendylan · February 9, 2013

They aren't showing up for games anymore. That is their outcry. We are not Syracuse or UNC where there would be riots if this happened.

We have had two consecutive classes (8 years) come to UNT, stay their whole undergraduate careers, and then leave without experiencing a single bowl game or even a .500 record in football. I'm not sure our current students realize that winning is even an option at little old North Texas.

In the case of many students I bet they heard some hype and went to a couple basketball games early in the year. Then, after recognizing that what their friends have said about UNT is true, they go back to not caring about mean green athletics--and probably will keep wearing those burnt orange shirts for years to come.

We need a cultural change, and one way to accomplish that is to show that we will no longer accept abysmal failure from our head coaches. Whether it's fair or not, there is more pressure on basketball because of recent disappointments in football.

Andrew · February 9, 2013

Wow... I must have gone to college for all of the wrong reasons. I thought college was about getting a degree so I can be a productive citizen. I guess I was wrong. Apparently college is about athletics and extra curriculars.... not education. No wonder a majority of people on here cannot do anything beside cry and complain. They thought college was about having fun and and sports. Of course if it was not about academics there would be no sports at all. I guess I am just baffled by a majority of these posts on here. Academics over sports any day.

Edited February 9, 2013 by Andrew

Mean Green 93-98 · February 9, 2013

Wow... I must have gone to college for all of the wrong reasons. I thought college was about getting a degree so I can be a productive citizen. I guess I was wrong. Apparently college is about athletics and extra curriculars.... not education. No wonder a majority of people on here cannot do anything beside cry and complain. They thought college was about having fun and and sports. Of course if it was not about academics there would be no sports at all. I guess I am just baffled by a majority of these posts on here. Academics over sports any day.

College is primarily about academics. This board is primarily about college sports.

Andrew · February 9, 2013

College is primarily about academics. This board is primarily about college sports.

I understand that, but to attack the administration for not focusing on athletics is ridiculous. I also do not see thenlogic on wanting to fire Benford and bring in a new coach. You have to pay coaches. You fire Benford because he loses this year and hire a new coach then do you fire him if he loses next season? Where is all of this money going to come from? You will just have to lowerthe salary the you pay the coach and then who do you expect to land? There is no logic...

GreenMachine · February 9, 2013

Norm said it on air on the most listened to radio station in the metroplex. That's how you re-connect with alums, right?

If the AD does read this board, here is my messsage:

PLEASE DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!!!

If you cross your fingers and hope that it will get better next year, you are dooming this program to to at least 5 years of non-competitiveness. And you should be affecting your job status, but we are UNT, so who knows about that.

Buy him out. Find a way. This is your mistake. FIX IT!

Agree and if not, RV needs to go. I think he has long worn out his usefulness.

GrandGreen · February 9, 2013

Norm said it on air on the most listened to radio station in the metroplex. That's how you re-connect with alums, right?

If the AD does read this board, here is my messsage:

PLEASE DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!!!

If you cross your fingers and hope that it will get better next year, you are dooming this program to to at least 5 years of non-competitiveness. And you should be affecting your job status, but we are UNT, so who knows about that.

Buy him out. Find a way. This is your mistake. FIX IT!

This board is probably a bad read for RV, McCarney, Benford and others; but if they care about their customers, they should be reading all of it. I am sure they think that the majority of posters are sports idiots but we are mostly NT sports idiots that support NT at some level.

GreenMachine · February 9, 2013

Wow... I must have gone to college for all of the wrong reasons. I thought college was about getting a degree so I can be a productive citizen. I guess I was wrong. Apparently college is about athletics and extra curriculars.... not education. No wonder a majority of people on here cannot do anything beside cry and complain. They thought college was about having fun and and sports. Of course if it was not about academics there would be no sports at all. I guess I am just baffled by a majority of these posts on here. Academics over sports any day.

College teaches you about life and the real world. In life and the real world there are winners and losers. Score is kept and not everybody gets a blue ribbon.

Andrew · February 9, 2013

College teaches you about life and the real world. In life and the real world there are winners and losers. Score is kept and not everybody gets a blue ribbon.

Did I ever say otherwise when it came to life has winners and losers? I cannot stand the everyone makes the playoffs or gets a trophy mentality a lot of fouls put off. I am contending that an education is the reason you go to college, not athletics. If not then CJ and jw would have been playing at the end of last season. Instead they both learned there lesson and at this point Jordan is really turning into a good student and a fine ball player.

Mean Green Matt · February 9, 2013

I understand that, but to attack the administration for not focusing on athletics is ridiculous. I also do not see thenlogic on wanting to fire Benford and bring in a new coach. You have to pay coaches. You fire Benford because he loses this year and hire a new coach then do you fire him if he loses next season? Where is all of this money going to come from? You will just have to lowerthe salary the you pay the coach and then who do you expect to land? There is no logic...

Bad athletics make the academics look bad. Welcome to reality. The only exceptions are schools like Rice...wait, nevermind they have baseball...and Duke...wait, nevermind they have basketball. MIT and Caltech are good examples.

Edited February 9, 2013 by Mean Green Matt

GoMeanGreen1999 · February 9, 2013

Norm said it on air on the most listened to radio station in the metroplex. That's how you re-connect with alums, right?

If the AD does read this board, here is my messsage:

PLEASE DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!!!

If you cross your fingers and hope that it will get better next year, you are dooming this program to to at least 5 years of non-competitiveness. And you should be affecting your job status, but we are UNT, so who knows about that.

Buy him out. Find a way. This is your mistake. FIX IT!

Not going to happen. That would be the AD having to admit yet another horrible hire.

Only way I see this changing is to clean house over in the AD. I sure don't want those folks hiring another major sport.

realitycheck · February 9, 2013

We have had two consecutive classes (8 years) come to UNT, stay their whole undergraduate careers, and then leave without experiencing a single bowl game or even a .500 record in football. I'm not sure our current students realize that winning is even an option at little old North Texas.
In the case of many students I bet they heard some hype and went to a couple basketball games early in the year. Then, after recognizing that what their friends have said about UNT is true, they go back to not caring about mean green athletics--and probably will keep wearing those burnt orange shirts for years to come.
We need a cultural change, and one way to accomplish that is to show that we will no longer accept abysmal failure from our head coaches. Whether it's fair or not, there is more pressure on basketball because of recent disappointments in football.

For part of that eight year period there was four year period (07-10) in which students only saw the team win three home games in football. After we beat Indiana in 2011, I went to watch the Talons light the tower green. There was student there who was a senior at that time who mentioned that was the first home game that he had attended in which the team won. That is not how you build a fan base.

Green P1 · February 9, 2013

It should be stated as well that Norm has always been fair to us in the past. He's always taken the time to praise us when we didn't suck in the past.

Greendylan · February 9, 2013

Here's a list of the 30 largest state universities (in other words, our peer group):

1. Arizona state

2. Ohio state

3. Central Florida

4. Minnesota

5. Texas

6. Florida

7. Texas a&m

8. Michigan state

9. Washington

10. Penn state

11. Illinois

12. Indiana

13. Michigan

14. Wisconsin

15. Purdue

16. South Florida

17. Florida state

18. Florida international

19. Arizona

20. UCLA

21. Rutgers

22. Maryland

23. Houston

24. Temple

25. Cal state Fullerton

26. California

27. Cal state long beach

28. Cal state north ridge

29. North Texas

30. Georgia

How many of the above schools are consistently bad at football, basketball, and baseball?

Rivals ranked our football recruiting class at 117. Our men's basketball team has an rpi of 265. Honestly ask yourself this question: are we keeping up with our peers? Also, the idea that athletic success comes at the expense of academics is easily dismissed by this list.

oldguystudent · February 9, 2013

How many of the above schools are consistently bad at football, basketball, and baseball?

That's an interesting list. The only one that jumps out at me is Cal State Northrdige, who consistently sucks at everything (I believe they don't even have lights on their baseball field, and they play basketball in what amounts to a high school gym with fold out wood bleachers.)

Fullerton has baseball, but is generally mediocre at basketball, and when they had football, were, believe it or not, actually worse than Todd Dodge's teams. In their last season of existence, I saw them lose, badly, at home, to D1-AA Sacramento State.

Long Beach has had good years in basketball and baseball, but those seem to be increasingly past tense.

But 3 out of 30 certainly makes the case that big schools generally excel at something athletic.

CMJ · February 9, 2013

We have had two consecutive classes (8 years) come to UNT, stay their whole undergraduate careers, and then leave without experiencing a single bowl game or even a .500 record in football. I'm not sure our current students realize that winning is even an option at little old North Texas.
In the case of many students I bet they heard some hype and went to a couple basketball games early in the year. Then, after recognizing that what their friends have said about UNT is true, they go back to not caring about mean green athletics--and probably will keep wearing those burnt orange shirts for years to come.
We need a cultural change, and one way to accomplish that is to show that we will no longer accept abysmal failure from our head coaches. Whether it's fair or not, there is more pressure on basketball because of recent disappointments in football.

Actually...that'd be seven conecutive classes, right?

oldguystudent · February 9, 2013

Actually...that'd be seven conecutive classes, right?

I think he's going for something along the lines of cycles.

emmitt01 · February 9, 2013

Did I ever say otherwise when it came to life has winners and losers? I cannot stand the everyone makes the playoffs or gets a trophy mentality a lot of fouls put off. I am contending that an education is the reason you go to college, not athletics. If not then CJ and jw would have been playing at the end of last season. Instead they both learned there lesson and at this point Jordan is really turning into a good student and a fine ball player.

You clearly DON'T get it. North Texas coach is the only job in America that I can think of where absolute, unmitigated, total, unabashed failure won't result in termination. Why? Because complete and utter fools like you will still stand around in a circle jerk chanting "next year". Hell, at North Texas being mediocre gets you a contract extension.