untjim1995

Tech and UNT have a state that they share and they are both large public schools. After that, I see ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in common. You mention their conference is much better--when you have alumni that care and an administration tries to compete with UT, OU, etc., you get what they have. They have been very competitive with those schools, unlike another school that cannot compete at all with SBC teams. That location you talk about being so bad--well, it has allowed many traditional college students a chance to go away and have a true college experience away from home, which helped create a bond with the university and led to increased donations, unlike the commuters that dominated this school for decades. Not to mention that our location is so close to DFW, that decent conferences won't even look at adding us because the other universities in the Metroplex are already in them or the large alumni bases in DFW have it covered strongly. Lubbock might be a hole, but Tech has created an image that many HS kids like. BTW,I like Dodge and agree he should get another year--not because he deserves it, but because we financially cannot take the hit.

Best post of the year--no better analogy of what UNT is, why we are who we are, and what happens if we don't figure out a way to build something.

A few things: 1.) You say $$ is the only thing that gets the administration's attention. You are 100% right about that--which is why our Athletic Department has been WOEFULLY UNDERFUNDED for a university our size for going on FOREVER. Our alumni have never given at a level to get their attention--you know kind of like you are doing. So you claiming to withhold dollars to send a point is about as dumb a post as I have ever read. You realize that the administration would be swayed GREATLY by $$$ if they actually have it. Heck, it could even sway some music and arts BORs to pay attention to the football program if they had money that was ear-marked for athletics. Whether its you or a moderator that is doing that, you are hurting the overall athletic department, especially track, soccer, volleyball, tennis, etc. 2.) A new coaching fund isn't coming from a bunch of spares on an internet board. Oh sure, this board can get togehter to feed the team or do some repairs around the facilities, but they aren't going to come up with $450,000 to buy out a contract for the AD. Trust me, if they could, this program would be in the Big XII today--we would have never been a 1-aa team, nor would we be in the SBC. That buyout comes from the university's administration and BOR, not anyone else. You may get lucky in that next year will be Dodge's last year unless he gets us to a bowl game. The university cannot afford to fire him now, but they aren't going to extend a contract that ends in 2011, unless 2010 is a huge year. With the new stadium coming in two years, the increased revenue will help get the new coach hired and pay for the buyout of the reminaing year.

Troy 48 UNT 21 Probably not ready to really compete with this group yet, but I hope I'm wrong. A close game with Troy would really be a great example of more improvement in this team from the depths of last year.

The alumni and students follow the lead of the administration, faculty, and BOR.

And against teams that college fans aren't jumping up and down to go see

Thanks, Emmitt. Two things--first, the high school coaches on staff now seem to fit in ok. I just don't think that we are losing because the OC doesn't have D1 experience. The offense is Dodge's anyway, so I really consider him the true OC. I understand he is also responsible for the defense, too, but I think that is DeLoach's baby now and that Dodge focuses most of his energy on the offensvie side, simlar to what I think Dickey did with DeLoach when he was here the first time. Secondly, I don't think we have the talent that Troy has either, but I think that we could get back up to their level again at some point in the future. Now if that is with Dodge or without him, I don't know. But I do think that we can get back to the top of the SBC again. I will say this--whether Troy's standards are lower, their stadium is better, or the coaching is just more experienced as compared to us right now, they are a program that I have grown to enjoy watching and I think they are going to be at the top of the SBC for quite a while. Their university seems to understand that winning in football attracts interest and money, which then allows you to get more donations for the rest of the school. They have grown to be the #3 football program in a state that puts a premium on college football. I guess that would be equivalent to being the 6th best team in Texas today--which I would take that in a hearbeat. I just don't know that our administration, BOR, faculty, and AD will ever be on the same page to have a similar goal for our UNT Football program.

Emmitt, I have a few questions regarding the future for UNT Football starting today. What is the plan that you would like to see realistically put into place for our program starting now? Who would you target, how much would you pay and for how long? Assuming that we had to actually pay Dodge a buyout that was large, what would you recommend we do to help cover that buyout? Trust me, I am just curious to hear your opinion. Not meant in any way to be derogatory--I am just interested in your thoughts about this situation. You are one of the most visible UNT fans we have ever had, so I would imagine your take would be similar to other MG fans, too. Jim

I wish we had a sellout every home game for the last 25 years, but since we have historically drawn somehwere below your typical suburban texas HS on a Friday night, expecting our fanbase to fight through anything is probably not in your best interest. But, since we are making wishes, I will say that I wish we played in the Big XII, that it never rained on gamedays in Denton, and that the temperature was always a balmy 78 degrees!! When all three of these occur, I will believe that our fanbase will be as "faithful' as Michigan and any SEC school.

Who cares--it keep getting smaller as we go!! In all seriousness, a stadium that seats 28K will end up being ok, I just wish it seated 32K, like at UH. Anything will beat Fouts!!

Are you implying that he fabricates the truth? If so, maybe he fabricate to future recruits regarding a 40K stadium here at UNT that will be top of the line!! Who cares is it only seats 25K, right?!!

If you really believe we have to get into a new conference in the next 3 years or we will be irrelevant, I have some bad news for you--we're gonna be irrelevant then. We ain't going to a new conference that soon, I can promise you that. First of all, there is nowhere to go--unless we go to the WAC, which isn't going to help our situation. If CUSA had an opening, they will add a team in the SE to add balance. The non-Texas schools don't want another Texas school and the other Texas schools don't want us either (i.e., SMU likes LaTech). As for attendance dwindling, I just don't see it happening so dramatically that we lose half our fanbase by the end of next year. Either we get a new hire going into a new stadium, which will bring big interest for two huge reasons, or we start winning and the attendance gains we have seen over the last 3 years will continue. BTW, there was also the question about why would Coach Fran or Kragthorpe come here when the pay isn't great. Well, two reasons--one that was mentioned earlier by TTG is that Fran wants to coach badly again and has more money that he will ever have a need for in his lifetime. My biggest fear with Fran would be that he pulls a Dennis Erickson--leave after one or two years to go get another big job somewhere because of his past success at everywhere but A&M, which is looking more and more like a program that cannot compete in their league instead of being the place that Fran destroyed, as most Ags think right now. Kragthorpe is going to need a place to rebuild his reputation--no BCS school is going to hire him again as a head coach. Now, he could find contentment in being an OC and make a lot of cash, but I bet you his success as a head coach at Tulsa has more impact on becoming a head coach again instead of just giving up and going to be an OC with less control. The $$$ will matter with him, but I think we could be in a place by next year to compel him to look our way, too. All said, what I really want in all of this is for Todd Dodge to have a great amount of success and be the coach here for many years to come. He is a good guy, a great recruiter, and a man that I would want my son to play for. And believe it or not, I haven't given up on him yet, even with the poor record. He has a lot of work to do, but I think he can do it and that success will happen here during his tenure.

TTG is right about this if we could do both--arbitrate a deal with TDodge while also having a contingent deal ready to go with a Kragthorpe or a Franchione--type hire. But, my guess is that the price tag would still be too high right now, which makes enxt year a compelling year for eveybody involved. Either Dodge win 8+ games or he is gone and we can begin a legitimate search while the season is unfolding to see who would be available and how much the cost would be as we enter intot he new stadium.

Here are my simple questions for you: where do you get the money to pull this off and how do you get off saying that we cannot afford Dodge? First of all, in three of the worst seasons that our alma mater has faced, our attendance is way higher than it ever would have been under Dickey or Simon and its not even close. This is as much a reason as any that we only have one $$ game on the schedule. Secondly, the trouble with your scenario is that a financial problem is hard to overcome--as in, we pay said coach $250K a year and his contract is for 5 years. He is in his third year, meaning he has money due to him for the remainder of said contract--or two years, if you will. If we fire said coach at the end of this year, we owe him $500K, unless you settle with him for less (say he walks for $350K if he leaves now.) However, Dodge doesn't seem like an idiot when it comes to money, as he knows that in this economy, a high school job might pay $100-125K somewhere, at the most. So the chances of him settling for anything less is almost nil. But, in your scenario, we fire him. You know, we, as in UNT, that famously rich school that has an abundance of $$ that they just throw at the Athletic Department. Oh wait--I meant UT, not UNT, where we have almost no money whatsoever and are trying to figure out a way to LOWER COSTS so as to still build a new stadium. If we fired Dodge at the end of the year, we will have to pay for 2 more years of his salary (roughly $500K) then go and pay a new coach. Now I guess you can go hire another high school coach, or an unknown assistant/head coach from Division 2 or NAIA, but that person will still require a salary--probably around $200K or so, at the minimum. As I have said before, when the other Texas schools pay their coaches at least 3x what we will pay, I can't see a scenario where that works out too well, i.e., similar to what we have witnessed for the last 5 years for sure. So, yeah, like him or not, Dodge stays here for year 4, unless someone finds a ton of cash and wants him fired--it has to be both, too, not either or. You answer those, then we can talk about possibilities at the end of the year.

I grew up in FW and went to TCU games alot growing up. The old SWC was so great, and it helped build up support for TCU, but IMO they have achieved their greatness because they play schools that they can compete with year-in and year-out. The only issue with that is the sad fact that most Metroplex fans aren't too interested in schools that are far away (i.e. California schools that are not Pac-10, teams in Colorado, or teams in other such outposts). Hence, 30K is normal attendance at TCU. What TCU has done on the field is terrific and it has changed their image--but I do think if you switched TCU and Baylor, for example, and made TCU compete every year against 11 of the biggest ADs in America, I doubt they would be Top Ten--ever. Think about Baylor when they entered the Big XII in 1996. Back in the SWC, they were a stalwart program--often ranked, went to bowl games regularly, and had great support. Then, all of a sudden, they have to compete against those 11 state-supported schools every year--they quickly became the Vandy of the Big XII. I think if BU got to play teams like TCU gets to play--comparable traditions, facilities, fanbases, and $$$ support, I believe that with the Texas-talent on Baylor's team (as with TCU) that they would be great. In the old SWC, most years TCU was terrible--Baylor wasn't at all. So what changed--Baylor sold out for the BCS dollars and hasn't been to a bowl game in 15 years. TCU decides to put more emphasis on their program, hire two GREAT coaches for their city and school, and decide that they no longer need any conference affiliation with other Texas schools so as to separate themselves. It has all worked out extremely well, except for one thing--$$$. Last yar, TCU finishes in the Top Ten, beats unbeaten Boise State in one of the best bowl matchups of the year, and gets LESS $$$ from their bowl game than Baylor got for being in the Big XII and staying at home in Waco, as usual, in December. The attendance in FW is good, but I don't think it will ever get much higher because TCU is private and they play teams that are just too far away to bring good crowds (exception is BYU). Its why I think when TCU does fall back down, the thud we will all hear will be pretty loud. Their fanbase is somewhat limited and depending on non-alumni is dicey at best--similar to what we complain about with Denton and Denton County. I promise you that most of Tarrant County cares MUCH more about the Big XII than who TCU is playing in the MWC on any regular week of the season. Its why we at UNT have to continue this great trend of the last 10 years where support amongst the student body and recent alumni has gotten much better and could lead to big things IF we could ever build a winner, much less be a winner in a conference with teams that our fans want to go see every week. TCU is a great example for SMU to follow and believe in--for me, UNT needs to follow what UH or UTEP has done. Use those large alumni numbers to better use with a nice facility that can bring in name OOC opponents and good coaches.

That "standard" was there before Dodge--the previous coach had 5 years where he won 3 or less, too. Both of them have been less than stellar--don't let the 4 SBC championships cloud that fact.

CBL and I are completely on the same page concerning the current state of our program. The improvement is drastic, but there are no wins with it--that is just how amazingly poor we were last year. If that's Dodge's fault, I won't argue, but the AD cannot fire him. There is just no money for our AD to do this. I have heard about this re-shuffling the deck in the AD and moving Dodge to some other position, but I just don't see Dodge leaving to go be a high school coach again and somehow saving the AD $$$. More likely is the case where we are paying two coaches at the same time, which we did with Dickey--while he was also the OC at Utah State. How did that work out for us when it came time for Dodge to get assistants? We got a bunch of high school coaches. Like it or not, Dodge will be here this year and next year. The new stadium should be able to provide enough revenue streams to allow us to buyout one year of Dodge's contract and get us a new coach to enter the 2011 season. But buying out two years or more isn't gonna happen--unless we just don't win another game this year AND lots of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ are found to make the change.

Also, FAU is one of six winless FBS schools left--not much to puff our chest out about this year.

I will have my 4-year old in tow with me tongiht and I am looking at taking him up to the bonfire tonight. It shows on the unt.edu website that the Bonfire and Yell starts at 8:15. Is that when the bonfire will be lit--at 8:15? Or is the expected lighting supposed to be earlier/later? Anyone who has any knowledge of this, I would appreciate your feedback. As you can imagine, getting an accurate time is of great importance when dealing with a 4-year old boy!! Thanks in advance!!

I also thought that year 3 would be when we would be ready to make a run at 6-6 or better, but after year 2 was so bad, I had to change my expectations to make it year 4 to at least get to 6-6. This year, my expectations were to win 3 games--we EASILY could already be there now, but it hasn't happened so I will still stand by my original hope to get there. BTW, I didn't think we would even have a win yet this season when I looked at the schedule in August. I figured our first win would be against WKU, then we would beat ULM and Army at home. My fear was that we either wouldn't get to three wins--still possible, I suppose, but even worse would be that fans were leaving games at halftime because we were losting 42-7 like last year. that hasn't been the case yet, and I do think that as the year progresses, we will see some wins, maybe even more than 3 that I originally hoped for.

I believe yes is the answer on both questions. I think about the job Todd Graham did at Rice or Steve Kragthorpe did at Tulsa as great examples of this, as was the amazing job Franchione did at TCU. When Fran got to TCU, the year before they won 1 game--albeit a great win over SMU that kept them out of a bowl game (just as we did to them in 2006--hehe). The next year, Fran's Frogs went 6-5 and were awarded a bid to the Sun Bowl, in part because they didn't leave the WAC and the UTEP fans out there stood up for their fellow conference mate. That TCU team then beat USC. BTW, in each case listed above, all three coaches were gone within four years of their hire date to other schools up the food chain.

I understand your frustrations, especially when I told my dad who we were playing this weekend and his response was "Who?" Of course, I knew that response was coming and could still not come up with a good answer for him to understand why I wanted him to go with me on Saturday night. But, in reality, I think the SBC is a good spot for us right now and in the near future. Unless a new SWC gets formed anytime soon and we are actually included, then the SBC is about where we belong. As a matter of fact, one could argue that the other SBC programs probably look at us right now as the dead-weight that they are carrying around right now as conference mates.

To answer a few points here: 1.) there were maybe a few at most on here that were against hiring Dodge back then--I can pull just about any thread from back then to back this up. 2.) hiring an experienced coach is something we did the last two hires--two OCs from Division 1A teams. Sometimes, it just doesn't translate no matter how experienced you are. Remember, we have hired exactly one coach in 40 years with previous HC experience--Hayden Fry. That worked out fairly well, so in true North Texas spirit, we haven't done it ever again. 3.) The experienced college staff we should have gotten when Dodge started was not hired because of two things--Dodge's mistake in believing that high school coaching assistants would work here, but even more so, the fact that those assistants were affordable to a cash-strapped AD that was still paying for a head coach that had been fired the season before. Trust me, your frustration is noted--I agree with you on each and every part of it. I will say this, I want Dodge to be the coach here for a loooonnnng time here because he turns it around and begins winning championships. Here's the thing though--if your administration doesn't fund a program seriously, then you get what you pay for. If we do end up firing Dodge at some point, the new stadium should be the top reason that a new coach would want to come here--everything else, except for support, will be top-notch, IMO. We will know a lot about what the university thinks about our program with the next hire, whenever that will be. If we get another non-BCS coordinator, or worse, we will know the answer to that. It is going to take a commitment to make that next step up and I would love to see a guy like Kragthorpe or a Franchione be next in line. Or at least a head coach that has proven his worth at the FCS level at the worst. This would at least tell the fans and alumni that care about UNT Football that we are going to TRY and field a legitimate program that can compete at this level. I just don't want to see the next head coach at UNT being a running backs coach from Okie State or the offensive coordinator from UTEP, or gasp, the head coach from Highland Park HS.

Uhmm, I think we haven't beaten a full-blown SBC mate in two years and now have the longest losing streak against conference teams in the history of the SBC. Why can't you pick that??

Look, the record sucks--but it has sucked for a long time, even before Dodge. This year's improvement is dramatic--I remember last year that some of the most beloved fans on here were posting about leaving games for the first time before the game ended. And these were blowouts at home against such strong teams like Florida International and Louisiana-Lafayette. I want him to win games, too, but if we gave the previous two guys 4 years to get it figured out, we should at least do the same here. Look at how much attendance has grown over the last 3 years, how much better the recruiting has gotten, and also how nice it has been not to be called MFers and to hear every week how this job is the "hardest job in America". Now if we only win 2 games this year, then the firing decision is tougher--but the $$$ issue still stands. It is my opinion that if we win 3 or more games this year, then he will still be here with the next year to get a winning record. We introduce the new stadium in 2011 and I think the revenue stream alone should help pay for any buyout that will be needed at that point. But we need to give him at least though this year.