Pellom

North Texas: North Texas athletic director Wren Baker showed rare patience last season after North Texas started 1-6. Seth Littrell won five straight games to close the year, clinch a bowl bid and likely preserve his job. Progress is expected again this season, as Littrell is just 14-21 over the past three years. He has one year remaining on his deal after the season ends, and he'd be owed nearly $1.3 million if he's fired. Littrell is well liked on campus, which is why UNT leaders have shown patience after he couldn't maintain a hot start that included back-to-back nine-win seasons in 2017 and 2018. He has made bowl games in five of six seasons, but three of those bowl teams finished with losing records. The AAC league upgrade looming means there's some urgency for improvement. https://www.espn.com/college-football/insider/story/_/id/34374227/college-football-coaching-carousel-hot-seats-breakdowns-all-10-fbs-conferences

He acted like he said it once but the release from Venables said Gundy said it multiple times. Just stupid.

Tennessee just paid $8M for a QB. I doubt SMU will be able to compete with the big boys. But with the AAC defections, there’s no reason you guys shouldn’t be running the conference.

Interesting to see a couple of folks report Aune looked OK - judging by Twitter and a couple of reporters that were there, Aune turned the ball over on three consecutive drives.

I don’t know which level it will begin at, but it seems the natural progression would be to pay college athletes a salary and get rid of these NIL “collectives”. Boosters are going to realize they are not getting the bang for their buck when they spend a ton of money on a player just for him to transfer after one or two semesters. Pay players at whatever rate work study students get - and pay them for their hours in the gym, on the practice field, in film study and on the field on Saturdays. And then allow boosters to donate to the fund to make this a reality.

Hard to compare to the NFL because even if salaries were the same, high school prospects would still choose P5 programs with better facilities and more fan support.

From the few videos, Aune is running with the 1’s, which I suppose is not surprising given we are so early into fall practice.

I don’t doubt the disinterest or apathy, but I think it’s because Littrell raised the floor tremendously with two straight 9 win seasons. I understand we all wanted to take the next step to bowl wins and conference titles and that hasn’t happened - but making 5 bowl games in 6 years is literally unprecedented here. I’m not arguing Littrell is a savior. I’m not arguing that he can’t be fired even if we have a losing season. I think it’s very possible he would be. I am just saying it is very odd to me to see all the disinterest when things have been much worse for this program for the majority of the lifetime of every single person reading this post.

Outsiders (probably correctly) think what Littrell has done in Denton is borderline miracle work.

I think the entirety of the lack of identity goes to not trusting your QB to make basic reads and basic throws. I posted this in another thread but I have rarely seen a QB with worse footwork than Aune. He is continually moving backwards and throwing off his back foot. When they design specific throws for him, he runs backwards and to the sideline before getting his eyes up. Some of the issue is offensive line - no doubt about it - but at some point as a QB in the kind of system Littrell wants to run, you have to stand in the pocket and zip a ball into tight windows. Aune showed very little ability to do that consistently. I don’t know if Gunnell is the answer. But if he has the moxie to stand in there and make the designed throws, I think it will go a long way.

I have been watching the 2021 games again in preparation for the season - Aune is so bad in the pocket. When he gets his feet set he is a good QB, but Gunnell should run away with the job in camp.

NIL is fine. The big schools were always paying for players. The portal really sucks the life out of it for me, though. I think a really good way to meet in the middle on this is schools offer 4 year scholarships instead of the one year terms that are standard now. Protects the kid from being cut or told to go elsewhere and also protects the school. Of course you would need to insert a hardship waiver for certain transfer instances.

Just my opinion, but Littrell raising the floor to 6-6 - that we feel disappointed by that prospect - shows just how far the program has come since he started.

I’m with you - I’m skeptical the smaller schools will get these features. So I reached out to Matt Brown (the person with the initial report) and asked him who he got the FOIA from, and he said Miami of OH. So at least for now the smaller schools are being asked to furnish their fight songs and traditions. We’ll see if they make it into the final version of the game.

EA used to have limited space per disc so they could only include so much. I imagine this game will be much more in depth because each individual holds the data on their console.

It appears I like Coach Littrell more than the majority of posters here. Like someone said earlier in the thread, he’s good enough that the season won’t be a disaster, but unfortunately there’s not much reason for excitement either. I’d say we’re looking at 5 or 6 wins.

I imagine it will drop down quite a bit - but man, not having to play on Stadium and CBS Sports Network is such an added benefit itself. I tend to believe UNT (and schools like us) will probably need to strike while the iron is hot in regards to the new TV money because, as you said, it won’t last. This is our one chance to hire a legitimate HC with a track record. Or, of course, to build a new basketball arena or start up a baseball program.

Exactly what I was thinking given the funds that will be at our disposal from the new TV deal. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.