Yellow Snow

I think many of us feel the same way you guys do right now. Awesome win! http://cyclonefanatic.com/forum/general-college-sports/178225-danny-macs-mean-green.html

Great job guys!

I'm now convinced that Baylor is pretty good. They gave us the worst beating we have taken in ISU football history (point spread wise), and we've rolled out some pretty bad teams in the past against Oklahoma, Nebraska, etc. when they were winning national championships. That said... I still don't trust Baylor to win out. I'm sort of conflicted on this. I don't know if you saw the ISU-Texas game... or the Iowa game... or the Tech game... but we have to be the BEST 1-5 team in the country right now. Lol! Baylor flat out took it to us and we had no answer, it was a straight up beatdown. I don't think that Baylor has been challenged defensively yet though. We are certainly inept in that category. K-State had the blueprint to beat them.

I'd love that match-up! Since my Cyclones are 1-5 this year so far, it looks like I'm all in on the Mean Green this year during bowl season. There are a ton of ISU alums in the Dallas area, and if you play Iowa, you'll get a great walk-up crowd of Cyclones in green

Breach of contract (A&M) or Tortious interference with a contract (SEC). I'm actually quite in favor of this move, and I think KU, KSU, Mizzou, ISU, Baylor, and possibly TT should all be in this camp as well. If any of these schools end up harmed by A&M's departure, the law provides for them to receive compensation from A&M (or the SEC). A&M signed a contract saying they'd be in the Big 12. Lots of plans were made based on that contract (i.e. funding a new practice facility). A&M shouldn't be able to walk out of it just because they got a better offer. If A&M wants to walk out, then they can propose a negotiated settlement (waiver of ISU's rights for $$$). Refusing to waive your right to sue isn't the same as actually doing it. Why SHOULD Baylor waive their rights. As you said, there are no damages YET. The 1.2 Billion dollar B12 TV cotract with Fox was predicated on aTm being a member AND the conference wouldn't drop below 10 members. They signed on the dotted line. When CU and Nebraska left the TV contract remained unchanged, no damages, no court case at all. In this case if the B12 dissolves due to aTm's breach of contract I think it is a trivial point to prove damages. Why doesn't the SEC just say "the heck with it" and give aTm an unconditional invite if Baylor there is no case?

When Mac started at ISU he held open practices. That policy changed when "injury reports" started showing up on Cyclone message boards. Comments like "so and so was taking snaps with the first team while so and so wore a boot on the sidelines" started popping up on the internet. The policy isn't so much about giving away schemes or plays but giving away injury information. I think it's a good policy...

Not to get in the middle of this, but.... I don't like "coachspeak" either... but trust me when I say that Mac is a straight shooter. He's not saying these things to give himself an out later, he's simply telling the truth as he sees it. If these things he says were only excuses to save face later, you'd still have Dodge as your coach. Obviously, based on your earlier records, there are some "issues" that need to get fixed. When somebody asks him what these are, he's going to tell them. No excuse making, just an answer to the question. If he answered a question like, "What have you had the players work on the most since becoming head coach" with "no comment", you'd be on here saying he doesn't know what he's doing or he'd answer the question... am I right? Well, he's just answereing the question. He did the same thing at I-State. Came in and told it like it was (we went 0-10-1 the prior year) and proceeded to fix it. You keep saying you want him to "just fix it". How should he answer the questions then? What do you want to hear from him? I'm honestly curious as to what you would like to hear him say regarding the program he took over.

You'll beat Indiana... y'all will be a home underdog so take the Mean Green and points. Easy money Mac will give Lance 40 carries...

He's still greatly admired by the vast majority of Iowa State fans. When he was let go, 50% of the fanbase thought we needed to go a different direction and 50% wanted him to stay. The real problems began when Gene Chizik was hired as his replacement. Wow... he proceeded to go 5-19 over two years FORCING the anti Mac people to justify their desire to let Mac go and get Chizik. Those people still can't let it go. So any thread that comes up about Mac, they have to beat that dead horse again and point out any shortcoming they can remember. They looked so bad after the GC debacle. Good stuff... Also, I wouldn't read into the assistant thing too much. Mac didn't have a problem picking good assistant coaches, he had a tough time KEEPING them. They all left for better jobs and more pay. Iowa State didn't give Mac what he needed in assistant pay to keep anybody good. He had to replace his OC every other year. Not because they sucked, but because they had too much success for us to hang on to them. I do agree with one thing though. Mac would still be at Iowa State if we'd have had a kicker in 2004 and 2005.

Linked is a thread from Cyclone Fanatic discussing Coach Mac. I thought some of you might find this interesting. As usual, when the subject of Coach Mac comes up, we Cyclone fans start arguing. It's great... http://www.cyclonefanatic.com/forum/football/122605-coach-dmac-rivals-com-homepage.html

Brent Blum is a quasi radio personality in Des Moines. He's a die hard Cyclone fan so I like him, but he's just throwing this out there... Gene Smith hired Mac at Iowa State so I can see where he is going with this, but seriously... He's not like a "news" outlet of any kind. He writes a column for Cyclonefanatic.com and does a radio show.

I got to watch Mean Green Insider up here in Iowa during the football season, so I think you might be underestimating the value getting a simple thing like a weekly TV show on the air provides.

I have a few comments about the way the B12 TV deal works. The TV revenue is split in half, one half is divided equally amongst all the schools and the other half is split based on TV appearances. The current TV deal strictly pays out on TV appearances. In addition, the whole pie got significantly bigger. Our old secondary rights deal went from around 1 million per school to around 4.5 million guaranteed (half of total payout split 10 ways). The second half is payed out for every game you play on TV. Everybody wins. Texas maintains rights to their own TV network (as do all of the schools) and they also get the increased TV money for secondary rights. You are exactly right that an unequal share of B12 money for Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, etc. is better than we could get on our own. That said, only the B10 and SEC make more in TV money per school than the Big 12 will under this new contract. It's a no brainer to stay. Aligning with Louisville, Cincinatti, or TCU doesn't make any sense at all. When all is said and done with the new tv deals (primary rights are up in 2015), Iowa State is looking at about 20-25 million per year in TV revenue. That DWARFS what we'd get anywhere else not named SEC or B10. In fact the B10 teams made about 23 million off of tv last year. If anything THEY need to worry about conference stability when Ohio State and Michigan see the crazy money Texas is bringing in that they are missing out on by not having the ability to form their own tv outlets. Why should Iowa State complain? Sure Texas makes more, but then again they SHOULD make more. WE make more too (like double what we'd make in any conference not the B10 or SEC). I don't think you see the real ramifications of the revenue gap clearly. The law of diminishing returns comes into play. So what if the revenue gap between Iowa State and Texas gets larger... They already have more money than God. How exactly is this new money going to add to their advantage? I suppose they could gold plate their urninals to attract better recruits, but really, what do they need that they don't already have? We are using this money to bowl in the south endzone, add a 6 million dollar high def jumbotron scoreboard (15th largest in the country), and build a stand alone "football only" facility with new weight rooms, locker rooms, etc. These make more of a difference to Iowa State than Texas, because Texas already has these things. Give a rich man a 20 and he lights a cigar with it, give it to me and I buy a case of beer.... much more beneficial to me i say... Do you think UNT could use and extra 5 million more wisely than... say Oklahoma? It would add more value to your program than theirs for sure. So technically the money gap gets wider but the facilities gap closes. You can build things with that money that they already have.

This is a great point. Don't expect Mac to take many early commits. At an underdog school like ISU, accepting early offers was risky. There is no guarantee the commit would hold when other more high profile offers came in under the gun. However, he WILL turn the tables on other schools last minute when these borderline BCS recruits finally realize they won't get an offer from Texas, OU, or whoever... as an added bonus these dudes will all play like they have flames coming out their asses. They feel slighted... something to prove...

I like the blog.. he nailed it. McCarney had to do alot with little at I-State in order to succeed... and he did. The advantage you guys have this time around is the fact that the gap between good and great teams in the SBC is smaller than the gap between the haves and have nots in the B12. Mac got us to the point where we were playing the last conference game of the season for the B12 North title TWICE in a row. We lost both in overtime but the fact of the matter is he had us in that position in the first place. He went 6-6 against Iowa. I take issue with the comment that I-State is a second tier football school, but that's for a different day. In 2002 we climbed all the way to number 9 in both polls. We went 7-5 in 2005, with four of those losses on the road in overtime (including Nebraska), then lost the bowl game, 27 - 24 against TCU in Houston. The bottom line is that we were WAY more competitive than people gave us credit for. That all points back to Mac. UNT is going to be on top of the SBC in no time at all. You guys have all of the pieces to win it. Helluva coach, new stadium, fertile recruiting grounds....

Evidently Iowa State is recruiting Dominic Ramacher and Conner Crane from Denton. Do any of you guys have any insight on these two? They sound like good players, any additional info you guys could provide would be welcome. What are the chances UNT gets involved? I kinda hope you stay away http://iowastate.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1206579

It'll add up in September and beyond. Mac will use team grades on the recruiting trail, at least he has in the past. The recruits themselves may or may not be impressed by team GPA's but their parents certainly are. Convincing the parents that UNT is the place for their kid goes a long way towards convincing the athlete as well.

This is very true... in my opinion. A few of points i'd like to add. 1. The UNT football team isn't full of a bunch of stiffs. This was proven last year when Canales took over. Add in the fact that Mac knows what he is doing, and you'll be more than alright. He has a track record of getting the absolute most out of his players, not due in the least to the fact that his players tend to LOVE the guy. Your comment about being "outcoached" rather than "outplayed" holds merit. The marked improvement shown with the same players under a different coach last year backs this up. 2. Mac is an excellent recruiter. You may not win many battles against the "big boys" right away (or even ever, depending on who you put in the big boy category). That said, your competition in the SBC isn't beating the big boys for recruits either. The thing that separates you from them is the fact that Mac has a proven track record of getting recruits when up against stiff competition. Is he gonna get guys Texas wants? No... But he DID beat teams like Iowa, Illinios, Kansas State, Missouri, Oklahoma State, and Texas Tech for players while at Iowa State. The divide in "prestige" between Iowa State and all of those programs was much greater than anything UNT is going to face in the SBC. There is no doubt in my mind that you guys are going to out recruit everybody else in conference by a WIDE margin. Who in the Belt will even be close? Couple that with a coach who knows what's going on, a well motivated team, and you have a recipie for success. I understand everybodies "show me the improvement before I get all gaga" feelings... i had those same thoughts when he came to I-State. You guys have a winner... trust me. Mac wouldn't even be at UNT if he didn't KNOW he could win there. He'll get it done.

Agree with this assessment in regards to I-State. We play Iowa every year, and UNI most years. In addition to that we play Texas, A&M, Tech, and Baylor every year now. The chances of playing another Texas team in the non-con are slim.

That makes perfect sense now. Basically, the difference between UNT and the rest of the Sun Belt (including conference favorite) is pretty small, so any improvement on UNT's behalf has the potential to really, really, effect the standings at the end of the year. The incremental improvements needed by UNT to move up the standings is pretty achievable relative to the potential of the other schools in maintaining status quo. I agree with you on that one. Good point.

This isn't the first place I have read it, so not picking on you... I just don't understand what you mean by this. All of the other teams in the Sun Belt also play in the Sun Belt. It seems to be a zero sum argument to me.

I get where you are coming from, but the win/loss record isn't the only measure of improvement. No doubt the coaches agree with you that it's all about results, but you might be setting yourself up for disappointment if you expect to see a drastically better record in the first year. There is a reason UNT has struggled recently, and I don't think it can ALL be put on coaching. You need to have the players... recruiting is definitely part of coaching, but I'm not sure it is fair to expect Mac and staff to take players that haven't exactly torn up the Sun Belt and go bowling. I'd expect to see clear improvement on the field, but without knowing your roster, I don't know if it is fair to assume the improvement in play will result in more wins. I'd hope so, but wouldn't get all bent if it doesn't happen. You need to have the players. No matter how well a guy is coached he still needs to get to the ball carrier in order to tackle him. It was kind of funny when Mac took over at Iowa State... us fans were really impressed that our defense wasn't missing a gajillion tackles any more. Now our guys were putting the ball carrier down. On his call in show when asked about it, Mac pointed out that the reason we didn't miss many tackles was because we weren't getting anywhere near the ball carrier in the first place. Funny, but true. You can't miss a tackle if you don't get within 5 yards of the guy. We simply weren't fast enough. Coaching can only take a guy so far. Not saying that coaching won't IMPROVE the play on the field next fall, but maybe not enough to effect the record as much as everybody would like. Early in Mac's tenure, i looked for the little things. We quit having receivers running wild and free through our secondary while our db's covered each other. When we DID get to the ball carrier, we tackled him on the first try. We quit turning the ball over. We quit giving up crazy huge return yardage among other improvements. We still lost a lot of games at first but I could see improvement every game. The recruiting picked up, and suddenly these small improvements turned into consistent winning. It took time though. Did Dodge leave Mac a bowl quality roster? I don't know, but if he did, he must have been completely inept last year. No matter how hard Mac tries to fix it, he's pretty much dealing with Dodge's roster this coming fall. So it is what it is for now. Anyway - just throwing my 2 cents out there.

http://www.ajc.com/sports/arrest-reported-in-auburn-841586.html?cxtype=rss_news Looks like they got him. What a doosh.

This can be a positive too. You guys will have film on them, and they won't have any on you. Plus, you'll be fresh

Thanks for the kind words I enjoy hanging out here and contributing when I can. This is a great message board and I can't wait for the football season to get underway...