Welch

I addressed this in my first post. When did this discussion ever become one on revenue? Sorry to prove your point wrong, but there are plenty of schools without football teams that are doing great. UNT is not making money with football so why do you even bring this up? College athletics isn't always about making money.

Track for 4 yrs.

I could not agree with this more. We need to stop defending what is not working. It is time for a new AD. We should have enough love for UNT to get leadership that represents it well.

I am tired of you guys trying to defend everything that is pathetic about our athletic program! RV sucks. Dodge sucks. They should be producing and they are not! We won Basketball and Tennis championships this year. Woopty do. WKU has destroyed us this year at championship events!

I'm sorry for the miscommunication. I was referring to football. Hence my references to Dickey and Dodge.

My entire time as a student athlete at NT, all I saw was RV taking away from other programs so that the football program could succeed (funds, athlete numbers, marketing,etc.). It made me sick while I was competing and it is making me even sicker now. He should get out of this mess and tend to his family. I will give him that he has built up a decent basketball team (well all he did was hire a good coach). But, the other programs suffer at the expense of a football program that is horrible. And don't give me the argument that we couldn't do it without football! There are plenty of other schools doing it without football! There are other ways of funding and that is a fact. That is besides the point though. I am not for ridding NT of football. I just think that we should put some funds and man power towards other programs for the time being. There are too many other powerhouses in Texas football for us to compete right now. Also RV should be shown the door because he can't hire a coach. As stated already in this thread, he wanted to let Dickey go after 0-5... Dickey turned it around. He hired Dodge and he obviously can't get it done. Almost any AD could get us a new stadium with the crap we have now! I give him no credit for the stadium. The students did most of the work anyways. Let us protect the school that we love and not back up coaches or AD's because we think they deserve it for various reasons. We should expect the best no matter who is representing our university. Let's wipe the athletic department clean and start with a fresh batch of goodness to win some conference championships all around! GMG!

This is also where Thompson grows some balls and wins a game.

Do we really need a mammogram commercial on game-day on KNTU?

Awkward silence...

I don't understand why some of you guys seem to be more protective of Dodge than you are of the football program itself. I don't think those that are stating that Dodge needs to find a new job are so much against having Dodge as a coach as they are for having pride in the school. Personally, I think Dodge needs to pull a 180 ASAP or he should not come back to play in the new stadium. It is nothing against him. He seems like a great man and I have been behind him the entire time he has been head coach and will be until he is not here. But for the good of the school, I think some things should change. Let's not let our love of Dodge get in the way of the pride we have for our school.

That is what I was wondering... Western shouldn't even be considered a cakewalk!

PROS: Dunbar is doing an amazing job running. Our passing game is where it should be. CONS: Within the last two seasons we have thrown game after game away in the second half... especially the 3rd quarter. P.S.: Dodge should keep his little boy away from the QB position.

I don't think that Burroughs had much to do with the foreigners recruited at Iona or ACU. He took over a 1st place team when he came into ACU. Pretty much that entire team that he took over was foreign. He basically inherited a fourth place team. It is very difficult to change a cross country team within one year. MTSU is really the only foreign powerhouse in the Belt right now. WKU has a couple of decent ones and so does UALR. Arkansas State's foreigners are not worth calling foreign and USA has gotten rid of most of their foreigners and is going to an all American team. Our cross country team has finished 3rd and 4th the last couple of years. MTSU and WKU have stood in the way both years. I think his first priority should be finding American guys that want to put in the work, after AND ONLY AFTER THAT he should go foreign. There are American guys that will run just as well as most foreigners and cost less money, the key is putting the effort into recruiting them. He also has to be a decent coach to get them into the kind of shape to compete.

Carl Sheffield is not coaching anymore. One of his athletes, Sammy Dabbs, has taken over his position and has done a great job at it the past couple of years. Watkins has hired former ACU coach Sam Burroughs as the distance/cross country coach. He took over ACU two years ago. The team he took over was a national championship team, and as far as I have seen, he did nothing with that team. This will be interesting to watch. He is a young guy that is energetic about his job, which is far opposite from what UNT had at this position.

I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure this is a case of upgrading coaches... aka, not the coach's choice to leave the program. In that case, this should be a good change (of course depending on who is brought in).

Two of the assistant track coaches have left the program. The distance and cross country coach, Dr. Robert Vaughan, and the multi event coach (can't remember her name) have both gone their separate ways. It will be interesting to see who is brought in. Dr. Robert Vaughan was a well accredited coach known around the country for coaching skills. I will always wonder why he could not make things work for the mean green distance runners (Perhaps a lack of funds and support coming from above?). Rick Watkins remains as the head coach. It seems as the sprinters have their act together so maybe we can get a distance coach and multi event coach that can produce more than they have in the past. This could bring the track team to compete on a more national level if we can bring in a decent distance coach. I have heard rumor that the former Abilene Christian distance coach (coached ACU to a few national championships in XC and track) has applied. Supposedly he has African connections. I'm not sure if anyone cares about this but I will update as I hear news.

If anyone here does have a job for the kid, make sure you pay him correctly and make him work the correct amount of hours for his pay.

I'm thinking that we should first try and schedule cross "town" games with SMU and TCU before looking out of town.

I've come to grips, especially during my years on the team, with the fact that track will never get much attention outside of its already established fan base. Not only here, but nation wide. And it is understandable due to the way everything is set up. Football makes the money and track does not. Therefore, I am a football fan too. But please, just because of one bad weekend, don't assume that the track program is in need of repairs. It is one of the most consistent sports NT has. Thanks for the welcome! I've been visiting here on and off but never have posted until now. I will be sure and update on track and field/xc. Go mean green! Edit: I don't think that the team has the max number of scholarships that it can have while WKU most likely does. Plus, the guys have the max amount of guys on the team that RV has allowed (title nine). As for 6 championships a year... cross is different from track and indoor is different from outdoor. Events are different in each. That plays a big role in it. Also, it is difficult to stay in shape for all three championships year around. But, I think this all comes back to limited resources. The cross country guys have only had 6 guys on the team when all others had 7. This has hurt the team the past couple of years. And WKU dominates indoor and outdoor for the reasons I have already stated. While I do give these excuses, I too would like to see championships. Its sucks seeing the program be consistently at the top but never winning one. I think regionals and conference has always been an issue in track nation wide. While the coaches are expected to produce regional qualifiers, they are also expected to do well in conference. Sometimes these meets work together, but sometimes they don't. This is the first year that conference winners are not automatically qualified to regionals. I'm not a fan of it. As far as the press releases let out, I don't think they tell much because they don't believe people care. I'm sure if you were to email them they would tell you everything. I don't know though, but I do agree with you. More info on the team would be nice.

I think it is past time for RV to look at the football program. But that is beside the point. As an alumni, I follow the track team and have been since I finished competing. This is my first time on this board. As a letterman this is what I have seen... It is not necessarily the program that needs replacing or fixing, the fact is the team's resources are slim. The coaches are great and are some of the best ones anywhere around. The men's program has been hit hard with title nine and the budget is next to nothing. WKU has been tearing a part the conference the last few years because of two main reasons: they have a at least 10 foreign athletes and they have a ton of athletes (I think almost double what NT has). They can field athletes in pretty much every event and we can't. That is a huge advantage in track and field. If you look at it though, this is the best team NT has had in years. They have more regional qualifiers than previously and finished 2nd in indoor. Bad meets happen. It just sucks that the bad meet was conference. NT has been placing consistently in the top 3 to 4 the previous years. Same with cross country where most of the guys are walk-ons. The cross country team can't even field a full team because the football team needs back up kickers (title nine). It is frustrating to see you guys not give a crap about track but once a year. They do a hands down better job than the dadgum football team yet you think they suck because they don't win conference. Wake up, they are one of the better teams NT has. With more resources, no telling what those coaches could accomplish.