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So, I finally listen to the RV interview in the podcast. So many issues, but this is the one I'd like to address currently. What the F is up with the club seats? Because RV didn't make anything clear in that interview. First, if RV is thinking about raising the price of the MGC donation after a 1-11, 5 home game season to which RV shares a huge portion of the blame, he should be fired on the spot. Talk about driving people away. But not only does he talk about raising the MGC donation level, he talks about giving people 5 years to pay it off! WTF is that about? That sounds like a one time bump of a SIGNIFICANT amount. Like to $5000 level. This is probably just RV again F'n something else up, but as a club seat holder, when are the planning on telling me about this increase? He also promised things being explained in person to every club seat holder. I'd bet the farm THAT never happens and just becomes something else the RV said because it sounded good at the time. I'll be waiting for that call. If anyone can explain what the hell is going on with club seats, please post here, because RV sure as hell didn't in that interview.

Could have done wit that 2012 team... RV'd

Bill Elliott, the head coach at Celina, has gotten to know Littrell, who helped recruit his son to North Carolina, over the last few months. Nathan Elliott is a freshman with the Tar Heels. "He likes coach Littrell," Bill Elliott said of his son. "He thinks he is a great coach and a lot of fun. They run a wide-open offense with a fast tempo. They are so productive. There is a lot of excitement to it." UNT is close to finalizing its decision that could bring Littrell -- and that excitement -- to UNT. If UNT settles on Littrell, he would likely not be available to have an introductory press conference until Sunday at the earliest. North Carolina plays Clemson on Saturday night in the ACC title game. read more: http://www.sportsdaydfw.com/college-sports/untmeangreen/2015/12/01/source-north-texas-discussed-parameters-contract-seth-littrell-ad-says-schoolstill-process-hiring

I have it on ROCK SOLID authority that a support banner for RV, probably paid for by RV himself, will fly very soon. My guess would be the day the coaching hire is announced. I can easily find out the date and time. The question is do we want to do anything about it or let him have his banner day? We could always fly an opposing banner at the same time. It is pretty clear that the billboard will not make it, and I will be refunding that money soon. As always, the response to this post will determine what is done. If we are going to do something, it will need to be done quickly...

Take a good look around that empty Superpit this week? Remember 4 years ago when over 4K a night came to watch the best recruiting class in UNT history? Now it's just you and 1500 others and heading down. But, hey, you have your super secret mean green room so you don't have to encounter anyone of an unlike mind, so there is that. Will 2-8 finally be enough? To get something done that should have happened 3 years ago? I doubt it...

Wow...

North Texas’ search for a new head coach took a turn over the last day with TCU assistant coach Doug Meacham going from appearing to be on the verge of landing the job back to be just a candidate for the position. Meacham is still in the running for the job, according to sources at UNT, but at this point it appears as if the school is turning its attention to its other finalist — North Carolina assistant Seth Littrell. A source close to Littrell suggested that the sides have already discussed parameters of a contract, one that could be ready to be finalized. UNT athletic director Rick Villarreal would only say that the school is still in the process of finalizing its decision while denying a report Monday that the school had settled on Meacham as its next coach. read more: http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2015/11/monday-night-search-update-where-unt-goes-from-here.html/

It's nice that we provided a complete side of the stadium for the UTEP fans...

North Texas is on the verge of announcing who will take over as its new head football coach. UNT lost to UTEP 20-17 in its final game of the season Saturday at Apogee Stadium. Several of the coaches UNT is talking to about taking over the program finished their regular seasons with their current programs over the last few days. TCU co-offensive coordinator Doug Meacham and North Carolina assistant head coach for offense Seth Littrell are among the coaches in the mix. A UNT source confirmed Saturday that both are among the final few coaches in the running for the position, but said it is premature to say that the school has narrowed its focus just to those two coaches. “We have done our due diligence and will make a decision soon,” UNT athletic director Rick Villarreal said shortly after the game. “All of the things that we have to do are dependent on people’s schedules.” UNT is seeking a coach to take over for Dan McCarney, who was fired five games into his fifth season with the Mean Green. The Mean Green have posted just one winning season in their last 11 and tied the school record for losses in a season after falling to UTEP. UNT finished 1-11, matching the mark set in 2008 under Todd Dodge. read more: http://www.dentonrc.com/sports/sports-headlines/20151128-villarreal-coach-decision-coming-soon.ece

It would be interesting to see how that compares to Helwig's last year at UNT. Why so low? Losing is only one part. We lost throughout the Dodge years and still averaged 17k a year. Here are other factors. Season tickets: One reason is the failure of the AD to increase season ticket sales. Probably cut into dinner time with the big donors. But seriously, these tickets get counted even when buts aren't in seats. That's why last night's attendance was announced at 8k when it was really no more than 2500. Failure to increase this base is a main reason for the fall in attendance. The season ticket base actually declined for 2015, probably because of... A shit scheduling effort: This was the year I warned you about for the last 3 years. All I got was a bunch of "trust RV" bullshit from the usual crowd. What we got was the worst schedule in FBS. No game on opening day, no bye week, homecoming scheduled on Texas-OU gameday against a FCS (that beat us by 59 points), a 6pm start on Halloween, and a thanksgiving weekend home game to close out a pitiful effort in putting together a home schedule. Add in 2 whore road games, and you have a recipe for disaster. I literally could have tacked a schedule to the wall and thrown my own feces at it and come up with something better. No doubt this was a bad football team, but the schedule did it no favors. At all. Another lost generation of students: They didn't come back after the Portland St game, and I doubt they come back next year. The cost of that game will last for several years (absent a wildly successful winning season, which I think we all agree is nowhere on the horizon, even if Nick Saban was name coach on Monday). It will also have effects with alumni season ticket holders, many of whom will become former season ticket holders next year. The refusal to completely clean house after Portland St: Leaving Rick Villarreal in place will further drive away season ticket holders, as they are tired of zero accountability for the Hattiesburg Hustler. It drove me from trying to get anyone to go to games this year, and will next year if I even go to a game. I'm sure it drove others to the same behavior (even UNT90grad posted about this, and no one would ever accuse him of being a negative Nancy). Dont expect a full rebound in attendance next year. There will be a substantial drop in season ticket sales. Will any big donor or the UNT administration care? Probably not...

A high of 49 degrees with a 60% chance of rain. Long way off, but if this forecast pans out, there may be less than 1k in attendance. Thanks RV.

https://www.gofundme.com/kf9xrrn8 We just got our doors blown off, again, by a conference foe who scored 31 by halftime and lost interest after that. A former Sun Belt member. Freaking MTSU. If we are going to do this, we need to step it up. If we aren't close by a week after thanksgiving, this just won't happen. Up to you, Mean Green fans.

As I watch the highlights of the Tennessee game on the SEC network and ESPN, the comments by the announcers tell you everything you need to know about where this program stands right now. They talk about us like we are a FCS team, or worse. That is the perception of this program. That is "the brand" at this point.

He said he was going to, but then it never happened. Hmmmmmm.

https://www.gofundme.com/kf9xrrn8 Here is the link to the billboard account. It isn't cheap, and I'll let donations dictate whether we do this or not, just like the banner. Small contributions are extremely welcome. The more contributors, the less the "minute few" claim can be made.

Its a good time to review the 2015 schedule, it's affect on losing, and it's overall affect on the future of Mean Green Football. I have long pointed to this particular year as a year that there would be 5 home games. This was due to the Iowa whore game scheduled in 2009 and the Tennessee whore game scheduled in what seems like the 1990s and moved to 2015 in 2011. So Iowa scheduled in 2009 and Tennessee in 2011. Remember that. As we headed into 2015, we tried to buy our own whore, something we had to do to simply get to 5 home games. We apparently let our whore name the time, if not the place, as RV wasn't even skilled enough to purchase a whore for opening day. While every other college in America opened football season, UNT sat in their dorm rooms. Then we opened at SMU to a beat down, returned home for a Rice beat down, whored ourselves to Iowa for a beat down, then... Had homecoming on Texas-OU weekend with a 4PM start time, barely after Texas-OU had ended. So those with kids and Saturday morning sports got to tailgate for 2 hours, maybe. And this wasn't for TV. There was none. But we played the game at 4PM. Maybe Rick and the 17 had dinner reservations on the square at 8:00? Priorities. And it's clear this season was one to RV. So, the whore we bought named the date and rolled us for 450k. Rolled us hard. To the tune of the worst loss in FBS history. But why did we have to buy a whore anyway? Because of Tulsa, right? I mean, that's what RV said. Tulsa screwed us out of a 6 home game season when they left the conference in 2013. Except we already had 2 whorin dates scheduled for 2015 when that happened. Those were scheduled in 2009 and 2011, remember? Oh? You say SMU series must not have been scheduled until after Tulsa decided to leave in 2013? Wrong again. It was scheduled in 2008: http://m.meangreensports.com/m/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/062708aaa.html So, surely Tulsa was originally scheduled in place of Portland St. to be at UNT in 2015, right? That has to be it. Except it isn't. Because UNT would have been playing at Tulsa in 2014 if this were the case, correct? Well... UNT played at UT and at Indiana in 2014. UT had been scheduled years earlier and Indiana was a return of a 1 and 1. So, if Tulsa would have been an away game in 2014, SMU would have been our only home game. So to recap, RV has said Tulsa caused this year's 5 home games. UNT played Tulsa in 2011. That was the last game of that contract.In 2013, we entered a conference with Tulsa, and played at Tulsa again. If there was a new contract, Why wouldn't Tulsa have played at in 2014? When is that return Tulsa game owed? It isn't. It's a lie of convenience by Rick Villarreal, and a lie he has re-issued several times. Then the next home game is a Thursday night against WKU. Shocked that only 10k showed up to present UNT on national TV? Then we FINALLY get a Saturday game at 6PM... On Halloween... If you wanted a game to have a 2:00PM start, this game was begging for it. But no, this AD thought 6PM on Halloween was right. And about 10k fans tolerated the decision. And then, after all that crap ass scheduling, we get 3 straight road games in November, followed by a game in Saturday after Thanksgiving against UTEP, a team that normally brings a large amount of fans to Apogee... Unless it's the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The lack of effort and foresight put into this schedule is reason enough to fire an AD, much less when it's reason number 1362. The loss to Portland St has put this program back at least 8 years in how this program is perceived. That is a direct result of lazy schedule management. Would we have won more with a better schedule? Maybe. Especially with one more home game. Did this schedule ensure a less than 3 win season when it became clear we had no option at QB? You better believe it.

Tomorrow over campus from 12:30 to 1:30. Those in Denton please grab a pic. Please share on Twitter with whomever you think appropriate, especially UNT grads in the local sports media. Why tomorrow? Well; the UTEP game is likely to be the lowest attended game in Apogee history, and tomorrow is the day before basketball season. The banner will be seen by students, and will also take a turn or 2 around the square before heading over campus. Much larger number of eyes will be turned upward. A billboard will cost, at the cheapest, $3400, and that is for a smaller one. If we still have the interest, I will open a gofundme account for that and I will be the first contributor. The banner needs to fly. And it will tomorrow.

Todd Dodge was fired mid season 2010. At he time we weren't the worst team in FBS college football, but we were in the bottom 10. Since that time UNT has opened a beautiful new stadium, increased coaching salaries (both for the head coach and all assistants), and seems to have grudgingly made a surface commitment to athletics. And how has that surface commitment paid off? We are worse now than in 2010 at playing the game of football. Zero sell outs of a beautiful, on campus stadium. Multiple promises made to supporters by the AD about the new stadium (concerts, better opponents, no more 5 home game seasons, etc...), all of which have been broken. Attendance levels at pre-2008 lows. No football game on opening day of college football season. An FCS as our only home OOC (both in 2015 and 2012), with the 2015 FCS designated as homecoming and played on the same day as Texas/OU. And that FCS whipped us by 59 points, the worst loss in college football history. And here we sit at 1-8, with the very real likely hood of finishing 1-11. Why is there no outrage by the leaders of this institution at this complete lack of performance by a 15 year Athletiic Director? Why does the president of this university call the donors who are livid at this turn of events "a minute few?" If that is true, UNT should absolutely drop football, because no one cares. Rick Villarreal is paid $350k plus each year to provide results. Probably the second or third highest salary at UNT. He hasn't. In the last five years, Villarreal has also hired a coach that has destroyed a once promising basketball program. Yet there is zero accountability. None. Zip. Nil. Instead, Rick Villarreal will again hire a head coach. A hire that history has demonstrated will fail. But we let him make that hire anyway. Will the University of North Texas ever take athletics seriously? I hope donors withhold support until UNT finally decides to hold the AD of this university accountable.

Will the line be over 45? It was 30 for La. Tech. Can UNT hold Tennessee under 70? So many questions.

-29 to La. Tech. La. Tech. Not Alabama. Not LSU. La. Tech.

North Texas will soon be hiring a third permanent head football coach since 2006 and a number of vocal university stakeholders don’t want athletic director Rick Villarreal making the hire, citing his history of choices to lead the school’s major sports programs since taking over the athletic department in 2001. “Under the leadership of athletic director Rick Villarreal, we have become birds of pray,” reads a postcard sent to school president Neal Smatresk. The card shows an imposing eagle representing the school’s mascot overlooking the words. Another alum said he was part of a group that has purchased an airplane banner that will circle Apogee Stadium preceding today’s 6 p.m. home game with UT San Antonio. Its message: Fire Villarreal. Their list of grievances are headed by a record in football and men’s basketball — the “money” sports — and women’s basketball that is 133 games under .500 under Villarreal-hired coaches. In football, following the controversial firing of Darrell Dickey in 2006, the program is 28-74 under Todd Dodge and Dan McCarney, who was fired five games into this season. The Mean Green enters today’s game 0-7 overall and 0-4 in Conference USA. UTSA is 1-6, 1-2. View full article Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/college/football/article41992233.html#storylink=cpy

After Saturday, I am considering asking for additional donations. Several have brought up billboards in Denton as a better and longer duration for the money option. Id like thoughts on this. Banner or billboards? The amount of posts indicating support will determine what happens.

For those with Twitter accounts, spread the word via Twitter about the banner flying tomorrow. Hit up local media. Link the go fund me account. That is all.

After 18 hours, we sit at $1300. $600 to go. Donate here: https://www.gofundme.com/qd6qjzk8#