MeanGreenGlory

Partially. They don't schedule with as much tenacity. They seem to lean heavily on CUSA / Sun Belt for scheduling. Their 2021 schedule is: Campbell Troy Old Dominion Syracuse UAB Middle Tennessee ULM North Texas UMass Ole Miss Louisiana Army I don't think this separates you much from actually being in CUSA, Sun Belt, or MAC. I propose maxing it out with a schedule like: Notre Dame Florida Iowa Alabama Michigan BYU Oregon UCLA Auburn Oklahoma Clemson LSU If you scheduled this, you'd be able to tell P5 players, "You're going to have an opportunity to showcase your talents against the best of the best every single week. Full stop. In fact, you'll play better teams week after week than you would if you were on a team in the SEC. Join us and show the world what you can do." Get the right hungry staff in place and you could probably create the David vs. Goliath story faster than you think... And *EVERYONE* loves the David vs. Goliath story.

Sure. Become the hard-nose team that can do that. Every game, the commentators are guaranteed to give some type of credit such as: "North Texas has the hardest schedule in all of college football. They start at Alabama, followed by Michigan, Oregon, Texas A&M, etc., and EIGHT of those are on the road. That's a schedule most schools would never even think about considering, and here North Texas is showing up and ready to play lights out. Hats off to North Texas for being brave enough to take that on because I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy."

You're might hate this idea... But hear me out... If Colorado State and Air Force leave the MWC for the AAC, I don't think the MWC is a good conference for us. I also don't think we're getting an AAC invite. So we're currently looking at sitting tight with our CUSA, Sun Belt, and MAC colleagues at the bottom of the barrel of NCAA football. This is all like an economic downturn where businesses need to adapt, innovate, and evolve in order to stay afloat. Otherwise, you become irrelevant and die (e.g. Blockbuster failing to stream and Kodak failing to switch to digital). I don't see CUSA or the Sun Belt taking any reasonable measures to create a logical conference...nor do I see CUSA taking action alone to improve its stock in the college football landcsape. This means it's up to us—as a school—to write our own story if we want anything other than the unfortunate inevitable. If we don't adapt, innovate, and evolve quickly, there's a good chance we'll be left behind and be forced to Division II as the P5 fully take over Division I. So here's the crazy idea... What if we: Went independent Hired a coach like Lane Kiffin along with a bunch of other P5 coordinators Scheduled difficult schedules year after year stacked against the likes of Alabama, LSU, Notre Dame, BYU, Stanford, Michigan, Ohio State, Clemson, etc. Used the schedule and coaching staff to attract a roster of strong P5 talent through the transfer portal Now, you're probably thinking, "That's a recipe for disaster! We won't win any games!" And you're right, we'd probably go 0–12 for a few years. But... All of those schools would pay us big bucks those first few years for their "guaranteed" game Our strength of schedule becomes one of the top in the country and could help attract top notch players that aren't getting the playing time they want at their current schools Our name stays relevant in the P5 conversation every weekend of the season (even if as the punching bag at first) Over time, iron sharpens iron; if you constantly play the top teams, you're going to get better than you would playing CUSA / Sun Belt teams every week Over time, you start to win and turn heads The more heads you turn, the more you build off the "underdog/come back" story that every sports anchor *loves* to talk about The more positive buzz you build, the more you establish yourself as a power player Once established as a power player, we either continue on as an independent or work to get a P5 conference invite Now, you might be thinking, "That's insane and there's a lot of risk associated with that. We could go independent, not win a single game for 6 years, never get an invite to a P5 conference, and just be a lonely loser of a school." But here's the thing... That's the worst case scenario... And we've been uncomfortably close to that worst case scenario in CUSA for the past couple years. So, if that worst case scenario happens, and we absolutely must join a conference, then we simply go back to CUSA or the Sun Belt and end up exactly where we would have been all along. So all in all, it doesn't feel that risky to me, and the upside—albeit a challenging uphill battle—sounds far more exciting, appealing, and worth the risk.

I just saw this article about TCU, Baylor, and Texas Tech officials meeting with Gov. Abbott about realignment. They reportedly made the case that they need to "land in good spots" and TCU made the explicit argument that they need to play in a top conference "for the city’s and state’s economy." As an outsider, it seems like all realignment is being driven by money (namely media contracts). So much so that I think the idea of evaluating conference members based on research status, academics, and location is crumbling right now. It's becoming an "in" or "out" scenario—either you're in the power league with the best teams and big money, or you're out. With that, I'm curious: How much influence do politicians have in this? What strings can Abbott pull to help TCU, Baylor, and Texas Tech? Furthermore, what motivation does he have to help them (especially given he's a UT guy and probably happy as a clam right now)?

Probably breaking up—the PAC12 won't go for UNT or a TX AAC team just to get into Texas.

FWIW, Wren ReTweeted the MGS tweet about the future being brighter. Hopefully a sign he's staying, but it could also mean nothing.

This would be a fun, regionally-aligned conference. Unfortunately, things would really need to fall apart before it would ever be considered by the more historically successful football schools on that list. Fortunately, it looks like things might fall apart faster and harder than any of us anticipated. Here's to hoping!

Out of curiosity (because I genuinely have no idea), who are a few examples of active, highly successful head coaches that call their own games from the sideline?

"...we were told that they want to hit transfers hard. Whether that means junior college, graduate transfers, or transfer portal players, the Mean Green will be tossing their hat into the circle for a lot of players who can step in and play immediately." Source: https://247sports.com/college/north-texas/Article/Mike-Bloesch-Tate-Willis-hired-on-North-Texas-Mean-Green-football-on-offensive-staff-Marty-Biagi-departs-142339252/ It'll be interesting to see who we pull in to play immediately.

Why would Clint Bowen be a solid hire? I get that KU is a "hard place to win." But KU's record during his most recent stint as a DC is flat out bad: 2014: 3-9 2015: 0-12 2016: 2-10 2017: 1-11 2018: 3-9 2019: 3-9 If defense wins championships...those seasons indicate defense wasn't much of a strength...

There were a handful of concerns going into last night, but I expected our offense to be potent enough to win in a shootout. Instead, SMU contained us and we struggled to get anything going. After losing the game, I flipped over to the USC vs. Stanford game only to find USC playing a freshman QB and creating matchups that the favored Stanford's Defense couldn’t control. USC’s offense looked like our offense last year, and they rolled on to upset Stanford and go 2-0. If Graham we’re still here, I think we would have walked away with a W in Dallas last night. Losing him has already had a significant impact. Here’s to hoping our new OC can fill the shoes soon.

Does anyone have a link to public plans/images of what the new locker room will look like once the renovation is complete? I'm interested in seeing the new design and features.

After recent years in North Texas football, I'm ready for the new era too! Congrats to this staff for great work thus far. #GMG

Then do more to put yourself in a situation where you won't be laughed at. That's your job - that's what you're supposed to be working on every day.

His top four list was just tweeted. It's nice to see us listed as a serious contender against those other three schools. Go Mean Green!

There are many similarities that can be drawn between EMU and UNT. It is a school that has traditionally struggled in football and sits in the middle of the Big Ten conference. It's right down the road from two powerhouse programs in Michigan and Michigan State, but it shares a conference with two other G5 Michigan schools (Western Michigan University and Central Michigan University). When EMU hired a new coach a few years ago, they took the UNT90 route and hired a winning coach who had been wildly successful in schools without many resources. Chris Creighton had been a head coach at three different schools and was a winner at every stop: 32-9 at Ottawa (Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference)63-15 at Wabash (North Coast Athletic Conference)42-22 at Drake (Pioneer Football League)His total career record prior to EMU was 137-46. (He's a winner!) Since arriving at EMU he has gone 3-21. I don't mean to derail this thread, but since EMU came up and it is a school that shares many of UNT's struggles, I thought it was worth pointing out that they took an approach similar to what UNT90 has been campaigning and it hasn't worked out for them thus far. Time will tell if he is able to turn it around, but this is one example of how prior winning records at schools with fewer resources don't guarantee winning records at a new school any more than hiring an up-and-coming first time head coach.

I think we have a pretty good idea of what Littrell will do with the offense given his play calling history and the Texas Tech guys he's bringing in. The defense side of things is more of a mystery because Littrell doesn't have history running one and Ekeler has only been a Co-DC for two seasons so we don't know how much of a role he played in designing it. Littrell and Ekeler both spent two years at Indiana, but they only spent one year coaching together. Littrell was the Co-OC for the 2012 and 2013 seasons whereas Ekeler was the Co-DC for the 2011 and 2012 seasons. 2011 IU Football Team (1-11 Record)Kevin Wilson's first year as HC at IUNorth Texas beat IU 24-21Ekeler was Co-DC2012 IU Football Team (4-8 Record)Ekeler was Co-DCLittrell was Co-OC2013 IU Football Team (5-7 Record)Littrell was Co-OCI'm interested to see what type of defense the two run at North Texas. Littrell has mentioned that he wants a defense that is aggressive and attacks the QB. Below are two videos from an IU press conference following a one point loss at Navy. Ekeler talks about running a blitz they call "Guts" because it's all out and you must have guts to run it. It sounds like they gave up points as a result of taking the risk in that particular game, but I imagine this is the character Ekeler and Littrell will build their defensive philosophy with at North Texas; the idea that we're not going to sit back and let you come to us - we're going to take calculated risks and come after you. Edit: A few questions I'd like to hear your thoughts on: How do you see Ekeler and Littrell building the North Texas defense? What do you expect to see next season?What current players do you think will shine in the new system?What type of players do you see Littrell and Ekeler recruiting to build upon it in the future?

These comments are the kind that make me believe Littrell will be more successful here than McCarney. It never seemed like the last regime had this type of outlook. Mac had his system and was going to run it whether he had the players for it or not. If Littrell is able to tweak his system to best fit the personnel we currently have on the roster, I think a turnaround will happen sooner than many think.

"CF.C HAS CONFIRMED FootballScoop.com's report that first-year outside wide receivers coach Graham Harrell is leaving Washington State. Harrell is becoming the offensive coordinator at North Texas, the source told CF.C" Link: http://www.scout.com/college/washington-state/story/1621775-source-wsu-s-graham-harrell-going-south?hootPostID=4fcd1559917bc5705e70864e2f673e18

Is it pulling a banner?

This.

Is Littrell allowed to "recruit" Ellioit to UNT? I imagine they could talk about it as long as he is on the NC staff. Does that change when Littrell signs the UNT contract?