MeanGreenTexan

Here we are over a month later & almost 2 weeks away from NSD, and… … nothing.

I think a lot of non-NT fans (especially WKU fans) still see us as Javion-less, and he was the motor of last year’s team, so we should be struggling… but we’re not.

Courage.

One that he most-certainly wouldn’t get, for 2 reasons: 1. He’d be transferring to North Texas. 2. It’d be his 3rd school. Precedent wouldn’t paint a virtuous reasoning for the waiver.

Are you sure about that? I don't think this ever happened.

Being the husband of an elementary teacher, I think I can help offer a different point of view here (because I hear about it all the time): Any good teacher who cares for their kids does not want to go virtual... at all. Administration also does not want to do this. I'm willing to bet most parents also don't want to go virtual again either. However, hospitals are starting to fill up again with Covid patients. So, desperate times call for desperate measures. There are some wacky options out there that School districts are trying to utilize (like this weird one in Boston) to keep in-person education happening. I assure you a lot of thought goes into it, and every teacher worth a damn in Boston would rather open their windows ALL THE WAY UP than go back home & try to teach virtually. Granted, Omicron seems to be much less deadly than it's predecessors (normal for viruses to mutate in this way: increase communicability, decrease fatality, to provide itself the best chances of spreading & staying alive), it's still this new virus that we're unsure of. And, the original (much more deadly) SARS-CoV-2 is still out there as well. So we're not yet to the point of going back to normal. Hopefully we can soon. I'm hoping this latest surge of Omicron might be the last one, and we can start getting back to normal after this.

TCU's school is for a MD degree. NT's school is for a DO degree. I believe they'll both remain separate entities, but utilizing the same space. I don't think NT's DO program is going away.

This is what I'm betting. Posting went up online likely means the hire has already been identified.

I was wrong to forget about Adeyi. You could probably argue he was outperforming both Johnson and Ragsdale when at his best.

None here either!

Bloesch's unit is notably better than Langston's in every way. You can't not notice this. Cobbs' unit was 3-deep (without Adaway), and was able to roll with an entire midseason philosophy shift that put the onus on them to produce the entirety of the offense. You can't have 3 dudes able to do this, seamlessly, without knowing what you're doing. We didn't have fumble issues out of any of them either. That's coaching enhancing their talents. I wouldn't necessarily give Petrilli a lot of credit for the Murphys either. Those guys are obviously very talented. I think a better coach might be able to get more discipline out of them though. I think with Bennett's defense, we saw a case of a rising tide lifting all boats. Be honest, in looking at Passwaters' pedigree, it's not out of line to say he was WOEFULLY underqualified for his position. I think, had Littrell/Bennett retained coach Mathies (a proven DL coach), the DL may have done even better. But again, if bringing Passwaters on was necessary baggage to get Bennett, that's fine. Bennett can coach up his S-I-L to be a good DL coach eventually, I'm sure. He knows what he wants out of DL in his scheme. It just doesn't make Passwaters a good DL coach right now.

This isn't necessarily a glowing endorsement. And honestly, I feel like this is not giving credit where actual credit is due... players' abilities/talents, and Bennett's overall scheme. Also, we found that the oustide rushers (Murphys) were actually moreso under Coach Petrilli than Passwaters. And believe me, I saw with my own eyes, multiple times, when Passwaters would try and coach either Murphy, he was ignored. Look, if having him on staff is what it takes to get Bennett, that's fine. It doesn't make him a good hire though.

Replacing McCormick is going to be as easy for them as replacing Darden was for us.

You listed 3 nice replacement hires. May as well mention Marty Biagi and Jeff Koonz too, because that's about it when it comes to difference-making position-coach/coordinator hires since Littrell's original staff (which was excellent). The graveyard is a lot more full though if you want to go back in look at it, so @MGNation92's point stands. For as good as Bennett is, the Bowen hire was a disaster. For as good as Bloesch is, the Langston hire was a disaster. For as good as Cobbs is, Reeder, Wallis, Joseph, Scott, Jennings, Mathies, re-hiring Ekeler, & allowing Passwaters were bad hires. Let alone his bumbling of last years' STs due to splitting that duty between 3 coaches (not fully-trusting Petrilli to actually do his job). Obviously your last sentence is much easier to type than to actually do.

Yost is going to FIU. Friggin FIU!!!! We most-definitely could've had him here. https://www.miamiherald.com/sports/college/conference-usa/florida-international-university/article257008847.html

Thank You Jones family!

Were you at the game? Were we missing any players? I really don't know anything about what happened during the game to comment. I just know the overall big picture when it comes to both teams. Jalie has had some pretty rough seasons with injuries & player defections. Hoping this season unfolds for her kinda like McCasland's have over the past few seasons... where the team gets better as the schedule goes along.

Admittedly, I don't pay a ton of attention to women's b-ball, but to trash Jalie because of this loss is ignorant. Even I know about MT. Just go look at MT's schedule so far. They do this to everyone. In C-USA play so far, they're 3-1, beating 3 teams (including us) by over 20pts, and dropping a head-scratcher to UTEP. In non-conference, they have wins over Illinois & Vanderbilt, and a 1pt loss in OT to Marquette. MT WBB have been the best C-USA WBB program ever since they joined with us back in 2013. Willing to look past this one.

Don’t get my hopes up.

I wish he was in Morris' role. Being the primary communicator of NT's recruiting, and usually the first person a HS coach talks to in order to set up the coaches visits at their school. He could learn the ropes from Walerius and eventually take over when Walerius gets poached (because it's coming). I don't know how well that role pays though. He's probably making more coaching at Lovejoy.

As he should have. He was a bright spot in the game for sure. Those rugby-style punts drive me crazy sometimes, but Rodriguez is making them work for the most part. And he seems to be getting the right spin on them to get UNT bounces if they fall.

Oh, absolutely. I think the HC move window is slamming closed. I highly doubt anything is going to happen on that front anymore. I was kinda hopeful maybe just after the bowl game, but then thought maybe Baker was being a good man & not firing somebody right before Christmas... then maybe this past Monday, but it hasn't happened, so I doubt it will. Watching for a gigantic splash with the QBs hire. Wren should be able to throw a lot of money at this person.

Agree with the first three sentences, although it would be hard for me to believe Baker or Smatresk truly think Littrell is going to be the guy to take us where they envision this thing going (UCF level). As for everything being speculation, not necessarily. There are facts that are difficult to get around if Baker is going to get UNT football where he wants it to go: NT Football is 14-21 over the past 3 seasons after Littrell's terrific start. Recent results are not matching the expectations Littrell himself set in those first 3 seasons. NT Football is 0-fer in 5 bowl games under Littrell. One of which was literally set up to be a slam dunk win - A game in our own backyard against a middle-of-the-pack MAC team, sponsored by NT's biggest donor. And we crapped the bed by inexplicably abandoning the run game that got us to the bowl to begin with. And before you or anyone else cites NT's history and how much better we have it now than under previous regimes, I'll preemptively say again: Things are different now. This is not RV's athletic department anymore.