Pellom

Oh, we’re in the bottom half of the AAC no doubt about it. But I’m not sure what that matters when we’re competing in the CUSA this year. There’s probably going to be a culture shock for the next few years!

This is where I'm at. I'd rather win 'em all and keep Seth than lose them all and roll the dice. Some folks have their minds made up in the other direction. I just want to win.

I don't think he's coaching the bowl game if he only wins 6 in the regular season.

Instead of dwelling on what this means for the coach, why can’t we just celebrate a good win?

Part of it is because bowl games don’t mean anything anymore - and of course because we don’t play for national championships at this level. As soon as you lose a couple of games the season is over.

Well, I’m just not sure there’s much benefit to it at this level. At a P5 I understand getting a jump start on recruiting, but here so much of the recruiting work is done late because we’re waiting to take guys who fall to us. I just tend to believe there’s a ton of respect between Wren and Seth, and that there may be an agreement in place to let him see out the end of this season and replace him at that point. Unless of course the results bottom out to a point where it makes it untenable to continue down the same path. I tend to believe Steven Godfrey’s reporting on the matter - that a mutual parting of ways is coming. And if that agreement has been made, I doubt very strongly Wren will fire him before the season ends.

I’m not confident enough to say Fuente is definitely the guy, although it makes a ton of sense. But if he is, and there’s an agreement behind the scenes, I don’t think Fuente would want to step on Seth’s toes. I think there’s more respect in the coaching community than that. And for that reason I don’t think a move will be made until there’s zero alternative (or until the end of the season when there can be a mutual parting of ways).

I think it’ll be a better crowd than y’all anticipate - I don’t think the negativity has spread to the entire non-message board fan base. This game will be really telling because the teams are so evenly matched and both programs are on the fence about their coach. Oftentimes if a team thinks a coach is going to get fired they will either press harder to save his job or quit to get him out of there. Let’s see if we see any indication of that on either sideline this Saturday.

Well I would say Kent State and UNT are very similar from an 30,000 foot view but I didn’t want to bring the mood down. We’ve upped our financial commitment recently, no doubt about it, but still historically two very bad programs.

I’d love to run with capital UNT as our main logo. The black looks really good.

I’ve done the hard work, Wren. Just make the calls.

7-5 and I could be talked into a paper extension for another year as long as it doesn’t change the buyout. I think there’s some slight merit to the idea that taking stability into the new conference might be preferable in the short term.

Here’s a new name to consider: Kent State HC Sean Lewis https://kentstatesports.com/sports/football/roster/coaches/sean-lewis/970 I understand his total record isn’t that great, but we all know the limitations a job like Kent State deals with. He won the first bowl game in school history in 2019 and gave the best team in the country (Georgia) hell well into the 4th quarter last Saturday. If you throw out his first year when they were 2-10, his record is 18-17 since (Kent State as a program was 14-45 in the five years prior to his arrival). He’s going to get a bigger job - he only makes $440k a year at Kent.

Kanye is that you?

I understand the sentiment and appreciate a positive perspective, but it’s not hard to project mediocrity into the near future when taking in the evidence of this season and that of seasons past. It would be working against the trend to expect anything more than .500 football from here out. And frankly that’s not good enough in year 7. But anything is possible!

Wonder if Ron Roberts would be a candidate. Current Baylor DC, he was a successful FCS HC for a decade. https://baylorbears.com/sports/football/roster/coaches/ron-roberts/1817

Keeping tabs on Colby Carthel:

I don’t really understand why a 10 point loss vs. a 6-6 AAC team is being considered such a big step forward. Hell, it was honestly a 17 point loss if you get rid of the garbage time TD at the end.

What a pathetic thing to say.

That’s a good point. The two articles above lay out in detail that SMU boosters were so hurt about Dykes leaving because they felt like they had a winner for the first time in a long time. They threw their support behind him in a way they hadn’t other coaches because of it. If we make the right hire, our money might begin to be activated in a way it hasn’t before. If Fuente is the guy, we could see a serious “call to action” from Wren.

I really like the guy. He grew up about 30 minutes from where I grew up here in East Tennessee. I hoped Tennessee would hire him over Heupel. Maybe one of his coordinators will be on our board. I love the option offense they run.

This is a great read as well. They look at TCU the way we look at SMU.

He’s going to get a P5 soon. He was close to getting the VT job last cycle.

That and you don’t want to piss your current coach off by recruiting for his job before he’s gone. And it can get complicated to reach out to current coaches during their seasons.

90% of the work is done by search firms well in advance of the position being open. Wren will have a list of 5-7 candidates the search firm has determined fit our criteria and are also interested in the job.