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Firing Rick Villareal doesn't seem like a change of heart to you?

I personally enjoyed the headline more than the article itself. Well played Vito, well played... "UNT playing Rick Villarreal $384,906 in buyout "

Hattiesburg Hustler

I wish i could be bad at my job and get a fat payout.

Southwest Airlines is having a flash sale and just booked round trip ticket to New York LGA for $135.96 - out late Friday night back Tuesday night. Great deal and watching the calendar turn to fall should be spectacular in that part of the world. Go UNT beat Army.

This is what I mean by saying we have squandered the past 10 years by pretending to be a 1-A program when we should have been the big dog in the conference. Thanks, RV, BOR.

If Neil was just going to hire Hank Dickinson he wouldn't have even started all of this in motion. Hank was the easiest choice for the next couple months. He won't be the choice for the next five years.

If only RV had negotiated for UNTs schedules as succesfully as he did for his buyout....

There is no talking and giving it is called contracts.

This is unlikely. If true, I'm handing in my Mean Green resignation.

Updated

" Villarreal has agreed to step on June 20 down after more than 15 years guiding UNT’s atheltic program." June 20th is going to be crushed. Spell check must not work on Saturdays.

The semantics are interesting. Resignation combined with buyout aren't usually two terms you see together. Looks like a mutually beneficial negotiation that saves face for everybody. I don't mind that he'll likely get his pension, which I don't see mentioned in any of this.

I guess stepping down really meant pushed down. Semantics semantics.

He should use the free education he received and try to get a job somewhere.

$ well spent!!

Maybe so, but running off a guy who at the time was contributing at least $5k a year to your program isn't really smart, even if it is a dream come true for you personally. And it used to be more before I cancelled basketball tickets Thinking like this is why UNT is a 35k school, 100k alumni within 100 miles, and yet has a fan base of 3 to 4K. So pat yourself on the back, Lifer. You can proudly proclaim how loyal you are to UNT while making fun of those that don't give a shit. I think certain people in this fan base revel in that role. Instead, I'll spend exactly $20 this year on UNT football. I'll invite no extra people to tailgates or games. So by all means, President Skatresk, keep forwarding those emails to Rick Villarreal for the next week and his replacement after. I'll continue to do all of my communication with you in a VERY public forum.

MGB: http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2016/06/unt-playing-rick-villarreal-384906-in-buyout.html/

Nealie Sanchez | Staff Writer @NealieSanchez Despite many subpar performances on the field, UNT athletics found success in the classroom, finishing 2014-2015 with high APR scores, according to an NCAA report. A team’s APR score is comprised of both student athlete GPA and retention of athletes. Each student athlete can receive two points for his or her team: one for passing, and one for staying with the team. UNT had multiple sports with perfect scores: men’s golf, women’s cross country, tennis, women’s track & field and volleyball, while various other sports ranked among the top in the NCAA. The football team finished with an APR of 993, which is the top 10 percent of all NCAA football teams. Men’s and women’s basketball finished with an APR score of 938 and 939 respectively, placing them in the bottom 20 percent in the NCAA. Super Pit / Coliseum – 600 Avenue D. Tomas Gonzalez | Visuals Editor Outgoing UNT athletic director Rick Villarreal said these types of improvements are possible because the athletics department prioritizes academics. “My philosophy is that there’s some kids that we have that are good enough to go to the next level. But out of the 25,000 student athletes in the last four years, we’ve got five of them making a living [in sports], and the rest of them are out working in the real world,” Villarreal said. “I’ve always made it clear to our entire staff that the degree has got to come first.” For cross-country head coach Stefanie Slekis, the improvement is something that doesn’t go unnoticed. “This year we had our highest semester GPA ever, a 3.64,” Slekis said. “My first semester coaching here it was a 3.04. It’s great to see how much they brought up their GPA.” Upgrading academic spaces UNT was docked scholarships in 2009 for poor academic performance, but it has made strides in ensuring student athlete success since then. One step Villarreal took during his tenure was improving the student athlete academic center. “When we came here in 2001, we worked in a room that was probably 20 feet by 16 feet, and it had two tables and eight chairs with no computers. That was kind of our study hall for student athletes,” Villarreal said. “Unfortunately, at that time graduation rates were about 32 percent for student athletes, and so that to me has always been one of my main focuses.” UNT athletic director, Rick Villarreal. File Photo The improvements included a larger space, technological upgrades, staff members and an entire program dedicated to coaching freshman into a successful first year at college. Track & field senior Connor Bey is one of many student-athletes who has used the center since the beginning of his college career and said it’s clear how UNT prioritizes academics. “Freshman year, all student athletes have eight hours of mandatory study hall,” Bey said. “So it really sets the tone for how important it is.” The study hall remains mandatory for any athlete with a GPA under a 3.0, but students with higher GPAs can still utilize the space. Student athletes also have the added pressure of doing homework while they travel with their teams for away games. “It’s important to get our schedules so that they can do work while they’re on the road or before they’re on the road, or make arrangements if they’re going to miss a particular test while they’re out of town for three days,” Villarreal said. With many classes emphasizing online coursework and the use of blackboard to turn in assignments, getting homework done on the road has become easier, Bey said. “Online helps a lot and everything is sort of online now. I’ve taken my laptop with me out of town for homework,” Bey said. “I was at conference last year on a Wednesday and Thursday, and I had an assignment turned in on Thursday night.” From classroom to field Each Mean Green team seeks the same thing: students who excel in classes so their dedication originates outside of their uniform and carries over while wearing it. “A lot of the same work ethic translates [to classwork], and we try to find good students to join our program,” Slekis said. “They’re working really hard to finish what they started here at UNT, and it shows the dedication levels of the athletes in our program.” While every university is competing to win on the field, Villarreal insisted UNT would never sacrifice the academic success for a few wins here and there. “We want to win as much as anybody, and so we’re not excited that we don’t win,” Villarreal said. “But the fact that we know that our students here are doing what they came here to do – they have made academics a priority, and it’s been a priority across the board for everybody involved in our program.” Student-athlete success in the classroom was one of Villarreal’s biggest points of pride before stepping down as athletic director last month. “When somebody asked me what my greatest accomplishment is, was it building a stadium? Was it moving us from noncompliance Title IX to compliance Title XI? For me, it’s that we have set up a system that our kids academically have graduated and stayed in school at numbers that compare with the best in the country,” Villarreal said. “That’s the biggest thing that I can ever hope students do.” Featured Image: Apogee Stadium – 1251 S Bonnie Brae St. Tomas Gonzalez | Visuals Editor View Full Article

^. F smug. Beat them and own CUSA-W. I don't understand how we can't terrorize this division. As far as consistent competition in the division there is La Tech and a bunch of nobodies. We should own the west year in and year out. We can decide our own fate.

I agree with a lot of what he was saying.

My company let go of one of its executives with a $500k buyout. I hate that she got the money, but the company will come out ahead because her incompetence cost the company 100x more than that over the prior years. It's like the old joke, why is divorce so expensive? Because it's worth it. (Says the guy having his 20th anniversary this year)

I wouldn't call it money "well spent". That is a lot of money just get him to walk away. I would think we could have just reassigned him to another department within the university until his contract expired. If that wasn't possible, then I'd call it "money that had to be spent". Time to move on, and find the best possible AD to move our programs forward.

Except that RV played UNT.

Yeah, this really needs to stop

I guess he could always kill two birds with one stone by turning the sign around and work for food.

But..but....but...I thought he resigned?

So, essentially ODU's new stadium isn't competitive with CUSA stadiums nor Collin County Texas High Schools.

I see a "Ricky V's" sports bar and buffet in his future. In Hattiesburg of course.

So the new thing is now libel attacks against the Kuehne's? Awesome.

......and how is this different than many other successful NT alums who graduated around the same time frame as McIngvale?

This is where we have to take advantage of our size and annual revenues. Mid we could somehow push our budget into the $40M+ range where we are on par with MWC and AAC schools we will really start putting distance between ourselves and the rest of the conference.

The Cowboys don't need another linebacker and have told him so. They could have been mean and ignored him, but at least someone went out and told him he doesn't have a shot. He go some nice publicity out of this, but it's time to stop

Now that some years have passed since his acrimonious departure, I'm fine with the practice fields being named after Dickey. He did a lot for football in the time he was here. The winning streak and bowl win were great achievements for a program that had suffered for so long.

I don't think smu has as much pull as y'all think. Plus if we start winning consistently it really won't matter what they want.

His contract ran through Feb 2018., His base pay was $275,000 + ~10K in allowances. He received $100k bonuses in 2013, 2014 and 2015. Not sure if he was scheduled to get them in 2016 and 2017. He still had ~20 months left of base salary, which comes out to ~$310,000. Looks like the university paid him more than what he had left on his base contract to get him out the door.

Do we know is covering what UNT completely owed him? or this a fraction of what we was owed?

Your M.O. is hilarious. If the roles were reversed, you would be calling people out for attacking you or namecalling. Your passive aggressiveness towards those that disagree with your approach towards the AD or your opinion has become as predictable as the sun setting in the west.

5 out of 25,000 seems like a stretch there R.V. just sayin.

Ahh, wondered when you would jump in with personal attacks. You are so predictable.

McIngvale was a big donor to NT until Dickey was fired. Dickey should have been fired, but now that RV is gone; I assume NT will try again to get in his good graces. By the way, he was a good not great player at NT. He donated a lot when Dickey was here, in fact he was probably the biggest donor ever to NT athletics at the time.

Lost TV revenue is hurting all C-USA schools. I believe there will either be budget cuts in our AD or we will continue to play at least 1 maybe 2 body bag games per year to make up for the lost TV revenue.

I certainly hope so. He needs to move on and stop embarrassing the University and the athletic department. Geez, the image of him holding that cardboard sign and wearing a North Texas t-shirt is going to be used against us by every school that we compete with for talent. Starting with SMU. This is worse than the standard "If I want to deal with a NT graduate I'll just order a pizza" joke that all the SMU, TCU and Baylor grads out there throw at us. With this as the background music.

That's exactly what is bothering me. Now, the Dallas Cowboys organization is not going to have a negative view of NT because of this guy because they have enough people on staff - not just player, but staff - to know this guy is the exception. But others don't know that. Anyone know if he got a degree or not?

Why not try Canada or Arena? I think he is going about this the wrong way. The Cowboys aren't in the business of handing out jobs. Presentation is key. If he really wanted to impress them he would have a full suit on with a professionally done sign, a briefcase containing his resume and highlight dvds, and a gym bag containing workout clothes on the chance they ask him in. They gave him a shot to showcase his skills and they said no thanks. It is time for him to accept that playing for the Dallas Cowboys is not a possibility presently. He should try another league to make some noise where a NFL team might eventually notice. This is starting to become sad and his cardboard sign, along with his Mean Green Workout clothes, don't exactly portray the university in a positive light.

Shouldn't he have an agent seeking out opportunities for him with teams that need LBs? Or, whether someone in the CFL needs LBs?

Peyton named top qb at illinois camp in Dallas!! http://www.scout.com/college/football/recruiting/story/1676965-top-performers-from-illinois-camp-in-dallas?s=169

You know what would have made this the best.. If the receiver he was throwing to was Dillman. He picks up the ball and fires a rocket right back at him and yells "thats how you throw the damn ball" seriously that would have been golden.

Ernie wanted to keep RV. Smatresk wanted to fire RV. Ernie allowed RV to be fired only if his family picks the new AD. And throw a scholarship for the 15 year old grandson in there too.

The only renovations I care to see to the Super Pit are a better basketball team and more butts in the seats.