TIgreen01

Is this real? Or an elaborate hoax?

At the end of the day they were all at fault. Baylor absolutely has/had a culture problem. I haven't been around the school in a while, but what he's saying about the school's policies discouraging reporting of incidents is absolutely true. That said, it's not a secret. There have been stories of a double standard going around down there for decades. One that I know was from the early aughts. A member of the women's basketball team was kicked off the team and out of school after she became pregnant out of wedlock. The very same year they had a fluff piece running in the men's basketball program touting how great a Dad one of the players was---to his kid he had out of wedlock that year. This kind of stuff was a joke and these stories were numerous. Someone should have done something sooner. Briles, specifically, was absolutely in a position where, if he wanted to, he could have helped bring about that change. Instead, he followed the status quo and now points fingers at everyone else.

They have one of the easiest (at least according to preseason rankings) schedules in the country. With lots of experience coming back. https://philsteele.com/2018/03/21/toughest-opponent-records-for-2018/ In fact, those 3 Sun Belt teams that are ranked at the top of this thread are all facing bottom 10 schedules. Check out UAB. Another reason they are getting so much love.

If it's Harry, he's disguising his voice. Just based on listening to years of podcasts it sure doesn't sound like the same guy.

Those guys were critical to the team last year, no question. I think the hope is not just on their specific replacements, because I don't think a Trevor Moore is replaceable. He's maybe the best kicker we'll ever see in Denton. To me, the hope is on other areas of the team maturing and becoming strengths and the staff building around them, instead. We were completely built around Wilson in 2016, and really mostly still last year. You saw it emerging last year, but we've got more playmakers emerging on that side of the ball and I expect we'll be less focused on having a RB setup the passing game than we have been. The offense is going to be good. The big question to me is on defense. We're not ever beating an FAU with what we fielded last year. I don't care how good the offense is.

This. As my group left the Cotton Bowl on January 1, 2014, I literally told my buddies that we should retire from UNT football fandom right there...or at least hibernate for a couple of seasons until things had a chance to pick back up. After the previous 10 seasons, I was just whipped by the constant rebuilding in Denton and knew we were in for more. Of course, they talked me out of it and you better believe I let them have it during that terrible stretch. As a lifelong UNT fan, I can dang sure spot a really bad team or major rebuild coming....and we're not there now.

Has there ever been another FBS level coach get on TV and claim that he had the hardest job in America? There were a couple years there where it seemed that he went out of his way to bad mouth the program every time he got in front of a camera. I can't remember a single other coach, at any school, behaving this way. There were times I loved DD, and times I could not stand him. So I think it makes sense that opinions on him are so wildly different from person to person.

I thought the story was that they fired him before the game and word spread to the locker room. So all coaches and players found out the day of the game...

Guyton has to be able to get downfield to make an MVP type impact. For that to happen we need the RB core to step up. So I picked Smith.

I wonder if the Pit Crew would still be around....Benford'd. I try not to think back to what could've been. Just makes me sick to my stomach. I work with some tied in LSU alums and they think he's about the dumbest/worst coach on the planet. No amount of arguing from me can convince them otherwise. The spoils of the SEC can be great, but the scorn is unmatched if you fail. Some of my friend's kids went to school with JJ's kids when they were here in Denton. They echo the stories here....JJ and his family are great people. I'm always pulling for him to do well.

Yep, coaching change is inevitable. ASU is a great example of how to do it right, as well. Despite the carousel of coaches they've had after Roberts, they have kept roughly the same identity/philosophy. I don't think the talent level at ASU has yet reached where USM was in their heyday but they've gotten to the point where you're surprised if they aren't the best team in their conference any given year.

I tend to agree with this line of thinking....usually. BUT we're returning 8 or 9 starters on EACH side of the ball from a 9 win team that had been made up of mostly underclassmen. That's another year in the system for both lines. This team has the potential, on paper, to be the best team we've fielded since the 1970's. I would be predicting a blowout win over dirty smu if they didn't just hire Dykes. That guy has been a whiz at the G5 level and his team is going to be able to put up points in buckets. I think we beat them, but he's not going to make it easy.

Just keep doing what we're doing. The next time a coach leaves or is fired, don't completely pull a 180 philosophically with the direction of the program like we always seemed to do under RV. Keep building onto what they are building now. For the 10 years after DD we were constantly in a cycle of trying to fit square pegs into round holes on both of our lines. Keep some continuity going so we can get to a point where our lines are mostly upperclassmen who've had years to develop. The very best teams we've had in my 20+ years following UNT always had experience on the lines. Its the best way to have a fighting chance to upset a P5 AND to win in conference. Same thing goes in basketball. Until they do away with the one and done rule, the best way for G5s to compete with the blue blood programs is to beat them with well oiled, experienced teams. So, I guess the program I always admired the most was Southern Miss football from the 90s - the 00s. They did the whole "more with less" thing better than anyone. I think if we had a run today like they did back then we could go a long way to changing the perception around our programs. Sustained success here, with our huge alumni base, enrollment and location has the potential to really bring in game changing dollars. Right now we're always playing second fiddle to smu in conference positioning. Every realignment scenario depends on them leaving so we can fill in the "metroplex" spot in the next conference up the ladder. We have to get to a point where we can turn the tables on that if we ever want UNT to get to where we all know it can go. A UNT football or basketball program that legitimately operated at the same budget levels as their smu counterparts could not be ignored. I don't think they could compete with us if we ever got to that point. Accomplish this and I think the top of the G5 is a given, if not more.

A single upvote isn't enough, so I had to quote it. Upvote * a billion.