What are your expectations that DD must keep ?

[calvin]

I was just curious to see what people thought. Is it just being competitive in OOC games ? Is it going undefeated in conference games and being competitive in OOC games ? Averaging 400 yards on offense ? Recruiting 10 or more Dallas Morning News top 100 ?

Obviously winning 4 conference championships and having a top 10 defense and having back to back rushing champs isnt enough.

I dont support everything that the coaching staff does, like the penalities, and the always conservative play calling, but I do respect them for what they have done for UNT and making things better around here.

[El Paso Eagle]

I was just curious to see what people thought.  Is it just being competitive in OOC games ?  Is it going undefeated in conference games and being competitive in OOC games ?  Averaging 400 yards on offense ?  Recruiting 10 or more Dallas Morning News top 100 ? 

Obviously winning 4 conference championships and having a top 10 defense and having back to back rushing champs isnt enough. 

I dont support everything that the coaching staff does, like the penalities, and the always conservative play calling, but I do respect them for what they have done for UNT and making things better around here.

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For me we need to put a competitive, disciplined team on the field. Do I expect us to beat or hang with Texas –no, but every other OOC game should be competitive? In the Belt – 1st or 2nd place.

My biggest issue with DD is his arrogance towards the fans. I don’t expect him to be as fan friendly as say a Mike Price, but please make the effort.

[LongJim]

For me we need to put a competitive, disciplined team on the field. Do I expect us to beat or hang with Texas –no, but every other OOC game should be competitive? In the Belt – 1st or 2nd place.

I totally agree with this view--with a couple of qualifications. I think we should be competitive in OOC games yes, but it also depends on the quality of the opponent. No, UNT shouldn't have been smashed by Tulsa or KState. I felt like the MG could have played those games within 15-20 points, and against Tulsa, I thought there might be a W. In hindsight, that was obviously wishful thinking.

I know I've said this more than once, but UNT is not at the point--YET--where they can simply re-load, or even semi-reload every year. They have some--SOME--very good players, and some very good up and comers, and must continue to improve their recruiting EVERY YEAR in order to keep moving up. At the point the program is now, there are going to be down years here and there.

Having said that, I also expect UNT to compete for the SBC title every year.

My biggest issue with DD is his arrogance towards the fans. I don’t expect him to be as fan friendly as say a Mike Price, but please make the effort.

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I don't disagree with this, but I want the guy to keep working the HS arena here in Texas for better players, and keep building inroads into the state talent pools like Houston, DFW, and the east and west texas schools. I don't know what his reputation is among HS coaches, but IMO, building and nurturing those relationships is paramount. The relationships with donors is the other big thing, in my book.

As far as I'm concerned, he can bad-mouth the armchair qb's all he wants--and I definitely fall into that category. But from what I've read on this board, he seemed like a pretty cool guy during that fundraiser football game, but whatever--Just win, baby.

Cerebus made a very good point in another thread: You don't have to love DD, but don't make him bigger than the football program at UNT, because he isn't.

[Coffee and TV]

I could beat a dead horse and go into a long Plumm-like response, but I guess I'll keep it short and just say that I expect to not get beat by Tulsa by 52 points.

[El Paso Eagle]

I know I've said this more than once, but UNT is not at the point--YET--where they can simply re-load, or even semi-reload every year.  They have some--SOME--very good players, and some very good up and comers, and must continue to improve their recruiting EVERY YEAR in order to keep moving up.  At the point the program is now, there are going to be down years here and there. 

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The problem is that this year was not a reload; it was more of where the hell did everything/one go. Then for DD to come out with we need to get together and find out what went wrong???? If our staff had no idea things had fallen so far, do they really have the means to put corrective actions in place? I hope the answer is yes.

[gksmith]

Show progress.

This year was bad. I am not ready to dump Dickey yet.

Next year I don't think it is too much to ask for UNT to do the following:

1. be competitive in the OOC games (score a few points on UT at lease)

2. take back the Sun Belt Conference (no worse then 2nd or a very close 3rd)

3. be bowl eligible (even though no one else from the SBC will go to a bowl other then the conference champ)

4. BEAT SMU!

[shaft]

A hug after every game. And a nice hand written thank you note for everyone in attendence.

[Tramp96]

Only one expectation: No more players lost to academics. That is unaccepatable, and if we had some of those players this year, the outcome may very well have been much different.

If the current coaching staff would wake-up and realize they have to provide the discipline needed to make sure these young men go to class and do their work, then they may not have to face a season with key players ineligible.

[CMJ]

A hug after every game.  And a nice hand written thank you note for everyone in attendence.

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[PHSCoach]

Only one expectation:  No more players lost to academics.  That is unaccepatable, and if we had some of those players this year, the outcome may very well have been much different.

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This would be the only program in the NCAA not to lose players to academics.

Also this is under the AD's area. The coaches have no one on staff to help with grades.

[SilverEagle]

A hug after every game.  And a nice hand written thank you note for everyone in attendence.

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You're talking about a hug from the North Texas Dancers aren't you?

If you mean the coaching staff, then I'll let you have mine....especially from a "certain" coach.

[MeanGreen61]

I could beat a dead horse and go into a long Plumm-like response, but I guess I'll keep it short and just say that I expect to not get beat by Tulsa by 52 points.

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Thanks for sparing us!

[MootPoint]

This would be the only program in the NCAA not to lose players to academics.

Also this is under the AD's area.  The coaches have no one on staff to help with grades.

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But they can provide consequences to ones that don't go to class or let their grades slip. . . .

[PHSCoach]

But they can provide consequences to ones that don't go to class or let their grades slip. . . .

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After pratice you will see the ones that are not going to class doing some extra running plus they have been TALKED too during meetings

[mad dog]

This would be the only program in the NCAA not to lose players to academics.

Also this is under the AD's area.  The coaches have no one on staff to help with grades.

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I believe Coach Gailey is in charge of academics.

[PHSCoach]

I believe Coach Gailey is in charge of academics.

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Yes Coach Gailey is the go between for student academics, but in Mr Villarreal's contract he could receive and amount greater than "$275,000 annually for incentives for season ticket sales, post season play, conference championships, eagle club memberships, student grade point averages, and graduation rates."

Edited November 28, 2005 by PHSCoach

[ipEAGLE]

Yes Coach Gailey is the go between for student academics, but in Mr Villarreal's contract he could receive and amount greater than "$275,000 annually for incentives for season ticket sales, post season play, conference championships, eagle club memberships, student grade point averages, and graduation rates."

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That may be correct... but in the end it all falls upon the players that don't make the grades. If we can't trust them in the classroom can we trust them on the field?

[Monkeypox]

I totally agree with this view--with a couple of qualifications.  I think we should be competitive in OOC games yes, but it also depends on the quality of the opponent. 

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Should we, in your opinion, put up a harder fight than say.... Appalachian State?

http://www.2theadvocate.com/stories/rescue...u_foot001.shtml

"I told our team that I thought that we were in an awkward position," Miles said, "by the fact that we played North Texas, a Division (I-A) team that had had success, that we really manhandled, maybe beat them too easily -- and then we had a really good Division I-AA team come in, (plus) the idea that we play another opponent thereafter that’s very important on our season."

That opponent, of course, is "that opponent."

Appalachian State, the opponent Saturday, provided much more resistance than North Texas a week earlier. LSU’s 14-0 halftime lead was decidedly less comfortable than its 28-3 lead at the break against North Texas.

Appalachian State came by the tighter margin honestly, rolling up 164 yards of total offense in the half. The Tigers gained 204 yards during the same two quarters.

[UNTSIG]

I also don't expect our fans to be content with 2-9 like some tend to be.

[flyonthewall]

This would be the only program in the NCAA not to lose players to academics.

Also this is under the AD's area.  The coaches have no one on staff to help with grades.

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This is a BS statement. Have you seen the new acadamic center?!!!!! I am sure that Virgil and Gayle Strange who donated their time and money to complete the Academic center would love to hear that no one is on staff to help with grades!!! Coach Rick Gailey is in charge of academics. It is his job to make sure the kids go to class. Every other sport in the program controls their own kids. Can the AD suspend the kid in the spring so that he can work on grades alone to be eligable in the fall???? No way, the football coaches wouldn't have it.

We have every tool in place now to help these kids make grades. There are no more excuses available in any area. New soccer complex, new tennis complex, indoor driving range for golf team, volley ball has own gym, new on campus softball field, remodeled locker rooms for mens and womens basketball, the list goes on.

Rick Gailey needs to be accountable just like everyone else. It starts with Darrel Dickey. No more excuses, please Coach Dickey.

[C&S]

Coach Rick Gailey is in charge of academics. It is his job to make sure the kids go to class.

And how do you propose Coach Gailey do that? You are talking about athletes on full scholarship who get the opportunity to play D1A football. Shouldn't that be enough incentive to get up and go to class?

When these athletes get out into the real world, do you think their bosses are going to make sure they come to work every day? Call them and wake them up? Send someone to wake them up and make breakfast for them?

GIVE ME A BREAK!!!!!

To the majority of the team, it is important to get up, go to class and stay elegible.

After all that is part of being a team player. UNT had 28 football players on the Sun Belt Honor Roll for the last 3 semesters. I think there were 4 UNT football players on the Commissoners Honor Roll. UNT had the most football players and athletes on the Sun Belt Honor Roll than any of the Sun Belt schools. Obviously, it was important to these athletes to go to class.

[PlummMeanGreen]

I think this time next year many will be wondering why we gave him yet another football season (his 9'th) and to prove what? To prove that UNT can have a 9 year career coach who will probably still be around 15-25 games under .500 in almost a decade as head coach in Denton?

Being a 40 plus year college football fan who started as a UH Cougar fan, I have (as many of you have I'm sure) observed many D1 football programs, those programs movers and shakers, their marketing programs and just what kind of head football coach makes them successful. Yet in 40 plus years as I look at archives and histories of NCAA D1 teams and their head football coaches during those years, I still have yet to see a school that has been so benevolent with its head football coach as UNT has with his 8 year W/L record (and now with a 9'th year on the docket for DD).

I think we now have definite trends from the NT head football that has even more than to do with just coaching that indicates that many will be right about this with DD, too. If we were even to be wrong, what do we still have at the University of North Texas with him in charge of its football program? A school that is top of the heap of the SBC/Bottom 10 and a football program that still keeps on losing those OOC games, even the ones that most of our fans would perceive to be winnable OOC games? Do any of you really call that progress?

One more year of DD? It would be a waste of precious time for most non-BCS football schools trying to better themselves, also financially trying to keep their heads above water while also trying to hang on to some semblance of a fan base at the same time. DD is not a fan's coach whatsoever so he will do little to help sell tickets next year. Hell, he hasn't for 8 years so why would he start trying in an unprecedented 9'th year?.

Many are really protesting all this with DD in spite of some of his huggers who say they aren't. Most of the ones I know who are no way in support of all this rarely (or never) post on GoMeanGreen.com as it is. But as far as how all this plays out, I guess we will all find out together next Fall. I think recruiting in the next few weeks will also be a "tell-tell" sign that all is not hunky-dory at UNT and that even with our new facilities.

In fact, I would that the NT Board of Regents be in charge of the marketing of their guy next summer so they can see firsthand (away from the comfy' confines of their conference room and friendly academic setting) just what they will have sponsored for yet a 9'th year in Denton.

"If you set low goals, you will most likley reach them." (Dr. Norman V. Peale)

GOD BLESS TEXAS!

Edited November 29, 2005 by PlummMeanGreen

[KingDL1]

I was just curious to see what people thought.  Is it just being competitive in OOC games ?  Is it going undefeated in conference games and being competitive in OOC games ?  Averaging 400 yards on offense ?  Recruiting 10 or more Dallas Morning News top 100 ? 

Obviously winning 4 conference championships and having a top 10 defense and having back to back rushing champs isnt enough. 

I dont support everything that the coaching staff does, like the penalities, and the always conservative play calling, but I do respect them for what they have done for UNT and making things better around here.

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I would like DD and staff to be gone!

But if DD is still here next year I expect our team to be the same if not worse than this year with possibly no wins. I have not seen anything that DD has coached that leads me to believe he can elevate his players.

[PlummMeanGreen]

I would like DD and staff to be gone!

But if DD is still here next year I expect our team to be the same if not worse than this year with possibly no wins. I have not seen anything that DD has coached that leads me to believe he can elevate his players.

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OR..........elevate our football program above SBC/Bottom 10 competition, too.

What we have in Denton is (basically) a college football assistant coach who is not head football coaching material. Yet it may take him being on the UNT payroll as long as Tina Slinker (and her 17 years of an under .500 record) has been for some to realize what an unbiased to UNT or DD college football novice might be able to clearly point out to many of our elect more effectively since some of that group don't seem to think that some NT Exes really know their college football, knows what makes it marketable to the casual/borderline fan as to be able to draw much larger numbers of fans than just merely the NCAA D1-A minimum we have mostly done at UNT and (moreso) to be successful beyond an SBC/Bottom 10 level. Surely most of our fans/alums want to climb higher than where most SBC teams usually rank at the end of most football seasons, right? BTW, have you seen where UNT is now ranked at the end of this season?

These are truly sad days of poor decision-making on our campus and its not over yet. Even sadder is that there is one out there ready to take the UNT head football coaches job and quickly get us out of this 8 years of veiled and disguised success of this Darrell Dickey era, but he is being put on hold a year because 8 years of mediocrity and no real significant (Top 60?) wins that would impress anyone outside UNT or its Board of Regents has just not been a long enough time for some to still face the cold harsh reality of DD mediocrity.

GOD BLESS TEXAS!

Edited November 29, 2005 by PlummMeanGreen

[LongJim]

Should we, in your opinion, put up a harder fight than say.... Appalachian State?

Yes. But it's probably not news to anyone that the SBC is viewed by many as a conference that could probably be won by 10 1AA schools in this country. App. State isn't chopped liver--they've had 11 winning seasons in a row.

Many national football so-called "experts" believe that most of the schools in the Belt should still be in 1AA right now, based on the level of talent in the league, and the attendance, etc.

Take that for what it's worth, but yes, we should be at least as competitive as them right now.