untjim1995

In 1998, Steve Kragthorpe turned us down after the man (Matt Simon) who hired him here as his OC got fired by Craig Helwig, who was about 180 degrees different from the current AD. IN 1998,we played in the Big West Conference and our home games were at Fouts Field with NO FUTURE of a new stadium anywhere near. Not to mention the little fact that he would make significantly less at UNT than at Tulsa. Nowadays, his wife has a serious illness that has caused him to leave A&M this time, so he may or may not be available any way for this place. He has children in their teens, so that could be a factor if she passes away or is completely incapacitated. Trust me, he would listen this go around with the new stadium and the AD we have in place. As far as Franchione, don't even try to use leaving Alabama, who was about to go on probation, and leaving A&M, where he couldn't get past the other teams in the toughest division in college football, to insinuate that we shouldn't look at him for this vacancy. He would probably be a better fit here than even Kragthorpe. He is #1 on my list.

Post of the Year!! Make this happen!!

You can't make this stuff up. No fiction writer could sell the various ways we find to lose games. A blocked XP after scoring a TD to tie the game with 30 seconds to go? UNBELIEVABLE. It just wasn't mean to be, Coach Dodge. It just wasn't meant to be.

I don't really care too much about thisn pitiful radio station running us down, but it does bring up the real problem in that, due to our location, we get very little interest down in the Metroplex media becasue we are in Denton and they only care about Big Xii schools first, then other BCS schools next, then the local private schools, and if there is time left, oh yeah, that teachers' college played someone. It really is difficult to imagine how you get past this since those media outlets don't care much for non-AQ football (exception being TCUs ascendency). You can say, "Winning will cure this", but it really doesn't, as we saw during the SBC Championship years. Most of the media just ignored us, said the conference was just glorified Texas High School football, and that DD would probably leave as soon as he got the chance. I just don't see how a new stadium and winning again in the SBC is going to change that lack of respect. I go back to this, but earlier this year, we beat UTA in a great basketball game in Arlington. Easily, UNT and UTA are the two best local hoops teams and have been for a while. We won in double OT. Afterwards, there was not one single video clip of that game on one of the local TV sports stations. That game was in Arlington, too, so there wasn't any reason to blame the traffic or distance. It is just an example of what we deal with the DFW media.

Texas defense was really getting headlines, until after this UCLA game, but someone made a good point about the fact that their defense is geared to stop Big XII--spread offenses (see Tech, OU, Mizzou, etc.) A team that can just run the ball within a traditional offense obviously gave UT problems. I thought OU would win the Big XII this year, but both UT and OU look really overrated. The entire Big XII looks down to me, though. Alabama, Oregon, Boise State, and yes, even TCU, would run rough-shod over the Big XII this year, IMO.

Man, its so funny to see how things come around full circle. In 2006, we had post after post on this board about how Dickey's run-oriented offense was putting us all to sleep becasue of the boredom it caused amongst the fanbase and media. We fire him, hire TDodge, in part, because he would just "open it up on offense and air it out". Now, 4 years later, we are back to the Buick-style offense being put into place to steal a win. We live in interesting times as MG fans.

We used to go to lots of games as well back in the SWC days in Ft. Worth. I still love watching games at that stadium. You mentioned that UNT loss in 2002 earlier, which was the game where the Dickey Draw play was really at play, hence the frustration for losing 16-10. But nothing will compare to the 2000 game in Ft. Worth when our fanbase simultaneously started yelling "Throw the Ball" at our sidelines. Our only points were a FG that got setup by a fake punt. My TCU friends were laughing so hard, while we continued to run a draw play on 3rd down and gladly sent out the punter. That was my "sigh" game, where I remember going into the 4th quarter, thinking, "Man, we are only 10 down here and will have the ball to open the 4th. This is where we open it up and win this game." Well, we handed the ball off three straight plays, ran off about three minutes off the clock when we punted, and TCU went down and scored. Our coaches just wanted to get out of the stadium with healthy bodies and the paycheck. It was a shame, too, because we totally held LT in check that day (less than 100 yards), and he ran for 400 yards in his next game against UTEP, IIRC!!

You are dead-on about the KSU connection. I believe that was the biggest reason for sure. But, if SMU had gone to a bowl game that year, I wonder if SMU might have tried to keep Dickey on staff, since he didn't really make a ton of cash when he was hired here, and they may have been euphoric about feeling relevant in college football again. I guess we'll never know.

Where did you go to high school? CBL, how about you? I grew up there, too. Graduated from Southwest in '91. Always liked TCU, felt bad for them when they got screwed by the SWC breakup, and I now laugh at their fans always griping about not being in an AQ league, even though that has really helped them become the program that they have become.

I sort of agree about K-State, except that they had a major built-in advantage on us. Since they were in the old Big Eight when Snyder took over, he knew that he would have home games against big name schools that the students and alumni would be attracted to already. So by knowing that either Nebraska or Oklahoma was coming to town, along with either Kansas and Colorado, every year, KSU knew that they had at least two games each year that would bring people to the stadium. Add in Oklahoma State, Mizzou or Iowa state each year and you had three or four reasonable games to draw season ticket buyers in with games that were less than stellar for the other three. He knew that there was no reason to schedule money games or big name OOC competition because they already had the $$$ from being int he Big 8. He knew that what KSU didn't have was enough fan support, which meant that the facilities were below par. Voila, a schedule of North Texas, Northern Illinois, and New Mexico State became the norm, and as they won, the Cat Backers started showing up for ANYONE on the schedule. And the pollsters started ranking them as the wins followed and the climb up the Big 8 became obvious. This is where being the step-child of Texas universities (athletically) really has hurt over the years. We don't have the scheduling advantages or financial advantages of being in a conference with other well-known and supported programs the way K-State did. In the old SWC, the old guard extended their hand to Tech and UH, but not us. Hell, even UTEP has been extended a welcome hand by the other Texas schools with their inclusion in CUSA. But not us--I realize that most of that is on our own administration, but it has always been made clear that the other Texas schools aren't too interested in being in a conference with us, so we have had to find our own way. I completely believe that if UNT pulled off a K-State type miracle turnaround, there are many people who would say something like, "Well, they should be able to do that, they are in Texas and have all that talent to recruit from." Those who would say that are completely ignorant of just how little respect we have in this state, from the media to fan support to conference affiliation. Trust me, Barry Switzer was dead on when he said that Bill Snyder should have been named "Coach of the Century" for what he pulled off in Manhattan, KS. But K-State had some things in place already that we could only dream of here in Denton. And its why I feel that there is the very real possibility that we won't ever have a program that will reach the level of where Fry's teams did back in the 70s.

??? I'm sure this will be a witty response, which is what I enjoy about your posts, but I am to dense to get this one, so....

Two things come to mind about this thread: 1.) Coach Fran won at New Mexico and took them to the old WAC Conference Championship, then immediately left to go to TCU, where they were coming off a 1-11 year. (Funny thing about the 1-11 year, TCU beat SMU in the last game of the year, giving them their only win and keeping SMU from going to a bowl game even though they finally had a winning season at 6-5. The 6-5 winning season attracted the attention of Craig Helwig, though, so he hired their OC by himself, thus we got DD!!) It might be a better job than UNT because of conference affiliation, but they let their best coach get away from them because TCU paid more--nothing more, nothing less. 2.) Leach ain't the best interview. It has been said that many higher profile schools were very interested in his services (UCLA, Washington, Miami, etc.) while he was at Tech and it was fairly well-known that he wanted out of Lubbock. But after his invterviews at each place, he never got another sniff at their openings. His ego is large. Would he be a great hire here? Most likely, he would be awesome. But his ego wants a big-time job, his wallet will demand pay that will be close to what he had at Tech, and he wants nothing to do with glad-handing with alumni or the fans. That last part is what the Tech administrators hated most about him, was his lack of interest in doing anything PR wise for the program. Leach is a weird dude, but he is also a winner. His offense will put butts in seats, and I have always believed that a MWC-type school will get him one day. UNM would be a perfect fit for everything that he wants and what their program needs.

I am opposed to playing Texas or Oklahoma because not only are we not competitive with their talent or resources, but the negative perceptions associated with losing to them amongst Texas citizens get reinforced as to just how much better they are than us, even academically, which is not always true. If it were me, I would schedule my bodybag games each year with the Iowas of the world in the future. I know that we have them schedueld twice going forward, but I wouldn't play the top schools in the Big XII or the SEC for my cash anymore. With demographics as they are, the South has much more in its favor going forward than the Rust Belt, and I think that plays more in favor of at least having a decent game with them. We at least have a chance with our talent to match up more favorably against Big Ten or Big East teams. Seriously, we should not play Texas, OU, LSU, Florida, or Georgia for cash when Wisconsin, Iowa, Purdue or Michigan can pay out a lot of money to play them, too. I have always thought that going to the Big Ten to play cash games at least gives you a 1-2% chance of winning against their big boys, which isn't even counting the percentages of playing a close game that can help with your recruiting and image. Last year, Arkansas State come within an eyelash of beating Iowa, who went to the Orange Bowl. I guarantee that game gave their fanbase more pride and $upport than their butt-whipping at the hands of Auburn this year. Playing those other top SEC and Big XII teams have paid a lot of bills for our AD, but I haven't seen much good that has come with getting beat badly by those schools over the last 15 years. I would take my chances in a game at Wisconsin or Michigan at least being competitive versus the odds of getting pillaged when we go to Baton Rouge, Austin, or Norman.

Were the crickets chirping throughout this meeting?

I have always believed that Leach will end up at a school like this. Its in a non-AQ league where football isn't close to being the #1 sport and he won't have to glad-hand a lot of people. UNM would be a great fit for him, not to mention that they are in a league that can support higher-paid coaches and you can actually get a chance at being in a BCS bowl if you win that conference outright. He will get good pay, play Tech still for revenge, deal with little media, and will probably get lots of control. And, don't forget the pull that Steve Alford might have here with the AD at UNM. Bob Knight loved Mike Leach out there at Tech and I think that Alford has probably heard his old coach say that once or twice!!

Wow, that was bad. I don't know who hired this guy as a consultant, but if it was RV, then I am extremely worried about our ADs ability to hire the next football coach. If it wasn't RV, then I am going to assume that RV is banging his head against the wall, as that was money he could have used toward expenses in the AD. Extremely underwhelming. I just don't understand what this was supposed to do for us. We are all excited about building this new stadium, but I am still of the belief that we aren't really all that serious about sports here at UNT. I am coming around to the understanding that the SBC, for many different reasons, is just going to be our home for years to come, even though it will never be a place that will encourage extra attention from fans or the media in the area. I just don't see how we are ever going to get this thing (athletics) turned around here in Denton. We talk about if we have a winner, then the support will follow. Well, we had a winner in football during the early years of the decade and attendance was less than now. Meanwhile, men's hoops starts winning and going to the NCAA Tournament, but we see nothing close to improvement in attendance that you would expect from the depths of the Trilli years to JJ's tenure. I know that our fanbase is frustrated beyond all belief, but this type of report does the exact opposite of what we were hoping to read. To me, it just reiterates that our university doesn't really care if athletics builds upward or not, which seems so ironic since we are finally building a new stadium. I just think we will know our answer for sure if we hire some no-name coach in football for $275K after this season.

So very true. That said, I still don't understand why we can't get a coalition of state schools to come together and form a nice conference. UNT, LA Tech, ULL, Arkansas State, Memphis, UCF, USM, UAB, MUTS, UTEP, UH, and FAU would be a fun conference with like-minded schools and big markets. Seems simple to me.

Or bring back a coach that will probably be 5-43 at the end of the season to go into the new stadium!! Feel the excitement!!! I am really glad you have nothing to do with coaching decisions at our alma amter right now. You and Al Hurley would have gotten along great!!

We'll agree to disagree here, which is just fine. But, I will say this--if someone sees UH beat us 72-0 in our first game in the new stadium with a new coach and decides that they aren't coming back again because we suck and we never should have built a new stadium, I guess that will be the breaks we have to deal with. If we beat Nicholls State in the first home game in front of 28K by a score of 35-13 and that makes people want to come back the next week and we lose to UH 42-7, I just don't see how that creates anything. As a matter of fact, it seems like we want a fanbase made up of people who want to see us play UH than Nicholls State, no matter what the score will turn out to be. Again, I respect your thoughts on the topic, but I do look forward to seeing Cougar High come to town next September. To put it all another way, if we got a home again against Oklahoma instead of Houston, that would be awesome with me, even if they probably beat us by 8 TDs. Just playing OU at home would send a huge message to the rest of the area on what kind of program we finally have at UNT, especially with the new stadium. That is how I feel about playing UH instead of SFA or Sam Houston in an opener. We can get those games any day--we need these games against named regional opponents in Denton very badly right now.

This. If we could somehow get Fran to come here, it would be huge. Don't let the Aggie thing fool you. He wasn't a fit for that school at all, so the support waned. Plus, he was in the same division as Texas (won a title), OU (was in the title game twice), and Tech (who owned them under Leach). This isn't even counting a Top 25 team in OSU or the years that Mizzou and Kansas had great teams. His MO is to rebuild teams from nothing. Even at Alabama, he took over a bad team and had them winning both years he was there. Trust me, the record that he has built up and the programs he has lleft behind, except A&M, have been pretty damn good. We could use the mastermind behind TCU's rise from the ashes here in Denton and the price shouldn't be too shocking since this is his last year on the Aggies' dime. He has gotten paid handsomely for three years while doing nothing.

Isn't everyone glad CheckFacts found his way back here through a sock puppet?

looks like we are blacked out. My apologies to John Wiley Price for my language.

What made that laughable beyond belief was that it was losing that badly to Rice. Yes, they were good, but there is no way that Rice should ever be that much better than another FBS team, especially one that recruits the same state as UNT. That game, to me, is the low point. Whether Army came close to reaching that level seems crazy to me, but I wasn't there. It just seems to me that when you look back at a coach's demise, there is always a game that stands as the place where it just became clear that this was not going to get better. For Dodge, it was that Rice game. For Dickey, I think it was the Tulsa game at home where we lost 54-2. Simon lost to Nevada in his last season something like 65-10. I am sure that our friends on the Hilltop knew that Phil Bennett wasn't ever gonna make it work at SMU when his team got donkey-punched 24-6 by UNT in 2006. There are just games that really stand out when you look back.

It amazes me at how much flack RV gets for scheduling UH at home to open the new stadium. We gripe and moan about how few in-state games we play. Not only do we get an in-state game against a very good program not named Texas, we get them at home to open up the new place. If we get rocked in our first game, it won't be the only time that will happen over the next few decades, I can assure you of that. But, if UH decides that they want to start a series with UNT because we asked them to play us in our stadium opener, then we will have "won" a much bigger deal than just the game. We need these games against other in-state schools, especially if we will never be in a conference with them. I just don't understand how beating Abilene Christian to open a new stadium will really help the situation. So, if we lose to UH the next game 72-0, that won't be as bad because we opened up our stadium with a win over a spare? Here's an even crazier thought: Let's hire someone who can actually get us ready to play a competitive game against UH in the home opener!! I know, I know, that's just ridiculous talk.

Look, the enitre reason RV brought Dodge back was because we couldn't afford to buy out two years of his contract AND pay for a new coach that the fans want. But, RV also knows that this is the make or break year for Dodge because he either stays and gets an extension or he gets fired with one-year to buyout. No one will ever be able to recruit anybody to come play for them if they are in the last year of their contract. The beauty of getting extra revenue from the new stadium is that it should allow UNT to easily payout Dodge remaining year, as well as increase the pay for a proven coach. If we cannot pay a new coach more than FIU pays Cristobal ($390k), then we need to really look at why we are even building a new football stadium.