untjim1995

I hope Coach Mac brings it up for the rest of his tenure here. I don't want anyone to forget how bad we let this program get. We allowed the football program to be coached by Todd Dodge for a 4th year, while playing in the Sunbelt Conference, and playing in the toilet bowl known as Fouts. If you ever allow the program to get anywhere close to that level again, you might as well close up shop. From facilities, to conference affiliation, to coaching, and to overall funding, we are about 180 degrees away from where we were in the fall of 2010.

Oops on the 2105 typo...as you all know, typing isn't my specialty!!

Who knows if it holds up, but they have 4 commits already with 3 of them being 3* recruits, giving them a ranking of #33 in college football. I will say it again, but UTSA has a lot of potential--more than anyone else in CUSA, IMO. A lot of us may not like them, or look at them as if they are a pest, but they have done absolutely everything right, up to this point, in building up their program. I give them a lot of credit, from a personnel standpoint and from a marketing standpoint. Very solid leadership down there. http://247sports.com/Season/2015-Football/CompositeTeamRankings

Maybe it was just "Opposite Day" when he mentioned these...you know, the same "Opposite Day" that 6 year old kids like to play.

I can assure that you are in the minortiy on enjoying my spare posts, but I do appreciate the compliments!!

I think 7+ wins this upcoming year is very reasonable. The CUSA schedule isn't that tough, we play a bad FCS team at home, and then have a fellow non-AQ at home. Plus, the game at Indiana is very winnable. I see us being 2-2 in OOC (wins over SMU and Nicholls St.) then wins in CUSA play over UAB, Southern Miss, La Tech, Florida Atlantic, UTEP, and FIU. That gives us 8 wins right there. I see games at IU and UTSA as winnable, but we will probably lose somewhere besides at UT and at Rice, so those two places are my guess, as of now. Look, I think that there's not a game ont he schedule that isn't winnable, even Texas. They probably win easily, but maybe not. I watched Arky State go down and whip Mike Sherman's Aggie team in his first game there because they couldn't stop the run. Is it that out of the realm of possibility that this same thing could happen in Austin for Charlie Strong's first game with a new QB and a whole new system to learn? Not at all. Not expecting the game to be close, but this is the first bodybag game that we will play in years that I think we could at least compete in. The rest of the schedule is not filled with any great teams. Obviously, Nicholls State is our bought win, but SMU is not going to be good next year. Indiana is getting the benefit of the doubt because they are in the Big Ten, but this is the exact kind of AQ team that you want to play. Rice was good last year in conference play, but they weren't that good outside of CUSA play. No one else on our schedule even scares me a little bit. I think USM and La Tech have at least another year to go before they are competitive again. I think the Florida Airports are about what they have been in the last few years, capable of winning games at home, but not very good on the road. UTEP and UAB are terrible. UTSA is probably with Rice as the teams that I worry most about on our schedule in conference play, only because Coker and Bailiff are good coaches and knwo how to develop players, just like Coach Mac does. I bet we play in the No Bowl, Independence Bowl, or bowl game in Mobile next year, with a record of 8-4.

Its amazing how well things have worked out at this place when we hire coaches who have been actual head coaches before at a college...its just too bad that it has happened exactly twice in the last 45 years.

I should tell you guys that I am really Johnny Jones... Miss me yet??

I still believe to this day that if Baylor and TCU had switched places in the old Big XII (when it was really great) and MWC, you would have seen the exact same results for the lone private school in the Big XII and the lone Texas school in the MWC--the budget TCU had in the MWC was the highest, while Baylor's budget in the Big XII was the lowest. TCU is showing that they cannot compete week in/week out against these bigger AQ teams. And Baylor has become a great program in the Big XII when it got watered down to the level of being the weakest AQ conference. Interchangeable.

We will beat SMU at home--and I think it won't be close, either. Just my opinion--and I'm not exactly considered the eternal optimist around here...

Oh, I agree whole-heartedly on that statement. If I were the AD, though, and I was choosing a coach, I wouldn't have hired a life-long recruiter who wasn't known for x's and o's, and just happened to be a graduate of a school in my state that has superior resources to hire him away just by saying "Come Home." I have no problem hiring a coach, like Danny Kaspar, Steve Shields, or Bob Marlin and watching them succeed and take an AQ job. But I wouldn't have hired any of them if there was another university in the region that would be ready to pounce if said coach showed even a bit of success because that was their alma mater and would be an easy choice. Not one part of that scenario I just mentioned would have made Tony Benford an attractive hire, even beyond the fact that he was a recruiter, primarily, and had never even been a head coach anywhere before. Just too risky.

The thing about hiring Benford was that it was bad for two reasons--if he did well here, I have very little doubt that he was going to be hired by Tech to come home and coach his alma mater. If he sucked, then you have what you have, which is 3 more years of paying for sorriness. That's why I wasn't all that onboard with the hire. We were going to be a stepping stone very fast if Benford had anything. But, instead, he has very little as a head coach, so we are stuck.

Its always been my belief that the administration feels this way because the clear majority of students, alumni, faculty, administration, and Denton citizenry feel that athletics at UNT is a waste and takes away from music, arts, and education. I cannot disagree with this mindset more, and I know it has gotten better in the last decade or so, but there is still a huge majority that is anti-UNT Athletics. Its why we have kept bad coaches (and ADs) around when its obvious they aren't the right fit.

A big part of avoidance of these games is just simply cost--both in terms of $$$ and time. We live in a world that seemingly demands more time than we have, so taking out 4 hours for a football game isn't as easy as it used to be, especially when you factor in traffic and waiting in lines for food, drinks, and to go the restroom. Investing in a great HDTV at your home with the drinks you want to drink for 1/4 the price is just really attractive when you compare it to going to a game at JerryWorld, for example. Maybe that's just me, but the numbers mentioned in this story seem to suggest that I'm not alone in this view.

Be real careful with what you are saying in that last sentence...it has happened here before.

Apparently, in his case, self-awareness is hard...

This is so true...I'd give you a +1000 if I could. Great compliment to Coach Mac, the UNT program, and to Coach Joseph himself.

LSU in basketball has a very rich history--losing our coach to his alma mater that has been to Final Fours and plays in an AQ league is probably as complimentary to the success he had at UNT in the SBC as we have ever had in any sport. As far as losing coaches to Memphis and Indiana, they have bigger budgets and better conferences to get paid better. Memphis Football may be way down, but their hoops program is always good to great, which brings in a lot of money to their AD. We don't have that luxury. IU football is usually very bad, but then again, so has UNT football, for the most part. But the B1G gives schools like Indiana a ton of bowl money even when they don't go to an actual bowl game--guess what they get to do with that cash? Pay their coaches and administrators, who all hope to have a good season in a place like Bloomington, which gets attention in places like Austin, Norman, Baton Rouge, and Columbus, meaning another huge raise comes down the pike. We lost our defensive coordinator to Kansas a while back--a place where wins on the gridiron happen less frequently than their losses on the basketball court. But he got a huge raise. You cannot compete with that. Can you with Memphis? Eventually, if you build a national winner in football or basketball to build your overall budget up, or get into a conference that brings people out to watch those two sporting events and gives you unearned bowl revenues and NCAA Tournament revenues. Until one of those two things happen at UNT, these types of coaching moves are going to keep happening--just like they will at UTSA, UTEP, Rice, MUTS, La Tech, etc...

Coaching salaries at these AQ schools are just so much more than what lower-rung non-AQs can compete against, especially those who are value oriented. ITs just how it goes when you are a non-AQ that wins. Those above you start to notice. The difference between today and when this happened under Dickey is that I truly believe Coach Mac will pick good replacements and develop the younger coaches, just as he does with his players. One thing does worry me, though, about the lack of news on an extension for Coach Mac. Although I completely believe he will get this extension announced soon, I guess its the Battered Mean Green Fan Syndrom that I carry that has me worried that either we aren't offering him an extension yet or that he isn't ready to sign what is being offerred. I know that both of those are very low probabilities, but history is certainly on my side in having those worries.

If I were putting this list together, it would look like this: 1.) Jerry Jones as GM 2.) Quinn Buckner 3.) Todd Dodge 4.) Phil Bennett 5.) Jon Hart as Rangers GM under Tom Hicks

In Coach Mac, we trust... His specialty has always been to develop linemen--strengthen them up, coach them up, and motivate them to get better. I bet we see that trend ocntinue next year and beyond. He knows how to have the right regiment for strength and conditioning for these guys and then to select the right position coaches to teach them technique. Its why he is a true bargain for what we are getting here at UNT.

No doubt on that last sentence. When we look at teams that we want to have as peers (TCU, SMU, UH, etc..), you have to realize that all of them have had the massive luxury of playing in good or great conferences in their history--conferences with major media pull and teams that their fans want to watch. We have never had that--not once in our history. Beyond the SWC/original Big XII Texas schools, TCU had conference games against teams that fans in the Metroplex care about watching IF you are winning. SMU has that same thing going for them currently in basketball. UH has had that same thing going for them in football, too, recently. When we started winning in the JJ years, we finally built the thing up to getting 4000 in the Super Pit for SBC games. SMU starts winning and they are selling out Moody already...why? Because they play UConn, Cincinatti, UH, Temple, Memphis, and others that people want to see. We have never had that luxury--I loved the story about Pat knight finally agreeing to play us in Denton after many attempts by UNT to schedule a home-and-home series that Daddy Knight wouldn't schedule (like Leach, he recognized that losing to UNT was too big of a risk, so they scheduled SMU instead)--he loses that game in OT, which leads to mounting pressure on him that eventually leads to his firing. Same thing happened with Sean Sutton at OSU. Since then, we haven't played a Big XII team at home--and probably won't for years to come if we ever have a good team again, which will be awhile considering our current coach. People always consider football as the end all be all in conference alignment and what that brings, but SMU is a good example of how basketball impacts the bottom line, too, in a very meaningful way. The AAC is a basketball league first, just as the Big East was when they joined it. They didn't join because of basketball, but in the end, because of basketball, their time in the AAC won't be an abject failure, but it will be a huge step forward for a money sport that had died on the Hilltop. That will make them stay higher on the rung than any of us in CUSA. BOth leagues are about the same in football, maybe their top end has more potential to be ranked higher at the end of the season, but the two leagues are fairly similar in potential. But in hoops, its a whole different story--and as we are seeing right now with SMUs sudden resurrection, when you win AND play teams that casual fans have heard of, college hoops shockingly still gets fans attention, no matter how much the Texas media wants to downplay the sport. College hoops does matter big time--and the sooner that the ADs in this region figure that out again, the more their whole budgets will benefit.

A number of years ago, a top ten bowl game between TCU and Boise State was played in San Diego at the Poinsettia Bowl. TCU won a great game, 17-16. Afterwards, TCU finished in the Top Ten and Boise State finished ranked in the top 15, IIRC. That same year, Baylor went 3-9, losing all of their conference games--again. At the end of the year, Baylor got more bowl money for staying at home than TCU and Boise State got combined. Now, TCU never runs into that problem ever again. The allure of that cash was too much to avoid. TCU better enjoy it as much as they can, too. Because when they get left behind again, they are gonna be glad they stuffed their coffers with all that AQ moolah when they had the chance.

Actually, they usually happen twice a week...

Think about this for a second--the athletic director wanted to fire a guy who had coached at the school for 3.5 years and had compiled a record up to that point of 8 wins and 31 losses...and was told by the BOR that he wasn't to be fired. Again, knowing who would've done the hiring and how little we were paying, we probably would have made a horrible hire, but the bigger point is that the BOR of that time wouldn't allow a buyout of an extra year even though the coach had gone 8-31. That would never have happened anywhere else in the state at the FBS level.