[DRC (updated with story): Littrell -- Aune remains UNT's starting QB after today's scrimmage]

I’ve trashed Aune over the past couple of months, but Gunnell is legitimately pushing him and good on him for winning the job. 
 

It looks like we have two capable QBs. Good spot to be in. 

[Pete Thamel (ESPN) Hot Seat Watch for 2022]

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

[Sooooo….. OU's running back coach Cale Gundy has resigned]

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

Just stupid. 

[SMU is about to shock the nation on NIL]

35 minutes ago, SMU2006 said:

This initiative goes far beyond the $25k for each player that Tech has published for their NIL. If all goes according to plan, SMU will have the largest NIL fund in the country.

Its a moonshot.  

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. 

[Scrimmage thoughts?]

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. 

 

[Paying coaches vs Players]

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. 

[Paying coaches vs Players]

16 minutes ago, TIgreen01 said:

Um, why not just look to the NFL for answers?  The salary cap is currently $208 million.  Coaches salaries are hard to find beyond HC and coordinators, but average staff size is 15 with most assistants making $500k or under (from what I can gather). Head coach and coordinator salaries are much higher but top out at $8mil for HC and  ~$2mil for high end coordinators.  Total it all up and NFL teams might spend $20mil on coaching, or less than 10% of what they spend on players.

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. 

[North Texas Fall Camp 2022 Updates]

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. 

[Dave Campbell's Football Magazine 2022]

13 hours ago, greenminer said:

Those outsiders are probably still not interested in coming to see a game, and UNT attendance - call them insiders - are losing interest.

I don't consider that miracle work, even by Denton standards.

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. 

[Dave Campbell's Football Magazine 2022]

19 hours ago, untlynchka1 said:

Also, I know it’s probably coach speak, but had the opportunity to talk to Coach Patterson while he was a regular at the restaurant I worked at, at the time, and he was a big fan of Littrell. Really super complimentary. 

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

[One of my theories regarding Littrell]

1 hour ago, meanrob said:

Guess my point is that at our peak we had talent and infrastructure on offense. 

The last couple years we lacked infrastructure which may have affected our talent although I'm not sure Aune is the answer. 

Hopefully with infrastructure this year and possible new talent, we get back on track. 

 

 

 

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. 

[Speculation: Gunnell will start, and he will be the missing piece]

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. 

[UNT FB Morale at All Time Low?]

6 hours ago, akriesman said:

I am not as down on UNT football, as much as I am down on college football overall.   The NIL and transfer rules have pretty much ruined it for me.    That is why I don't really look forward to the coming season.

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. 

[UNT FB Morale at All Time Low?]

9 hours ago, MGNation92 said:

I've been a fan since 2013, and this is by far my lowest point. 2015 sucked, but McCarney was fired so there was hope for a change.

I feel like we're gonna be 5-7 or 6-6 every year as long as we have Littrell with no end in sight. That's the most disheartening part.

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. 

[EA Sports CFB '23]

28 minutes ago, BillySee58 said:

I don’t doubt that. I just doubt the band programming would be so in-depth to the point that they would have other songs our band plays throughout the game (besides the fight song on scores).

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 Sports CFB '23]

20 hours ago, BillySee58 said:

Pretty sure they didn’t even have our fight song in the game, much less “Fly Like an Eagle.”

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. 

[UNT 2022 FB Schedule Predictions]

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. 

[DRC (updated): UNT's move to the American moving forward, school expected to depart C-USA next summer, join new league in July 2023]

2 hours ago, UNT18Grad said:

Wonder how massive of a hit the AAC will take with their TV deal payouts once they turn into CUSA 2.0.  Each school currently gets around $6 million, but not only are they losing by far their 3 most popular teams they are going to go from 11 members to 14 members decreasing the average per school even more.

Big 12 commissioner speculated that losing OU and Texas would cost the remaining Big 12 teams around $14 million of their $28 million annual TV payout..would have to imagine the AAC would be set to lose about the same percentage if not more.  

Still should be a nice step up from CUSA money for us though even if we are only getting around $3 million.

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. 

[DRC (updated): UNT's move to the American moving forward, school expected to depart C-USA next summer, join new league in July 2023]

31 minutes ago, UNT Texas Hooligan said:

Just in time for a new football coaching staff to come in and hopefully hit the ground running in a new conference, exciting stuff

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.