Why Leavitt?

[CaribbeanGreen]

I think he is saying that while the team did accomplish something in those 4 seasons, the coaching staff, athletic department, and the university failed to capitalize on it.

Which is fine... if we're only talking about what went on after that run, that's a fair assessment. One of the few things that really gets to me in where we live today, sports, is the belittling (even with those subtle little qualifiers) of that run. We should bask in that run as though it was the light from the briefcase in Pulp Fiction, especially with our history. And frankly, I think that someday we will - probably when those in school at that time are the old timers around here.

Sometimes, timing just fails you. If that group, coming off that run, had had facilities above the level of a struggling 3A school, a university that allowed tailgating and created a strong game day atmosphere, and the promise of a shiny new stadium, I like to think we'd have "capitalized" a bit better. Do I think we'd be at the "Boise State!!!1!" level some people see as our birthright? Absolutely not. We wouldn't be winning 4 straight titles remotely regularly either... but we'd be in a hell of a lot better position in the W column.

Yeah.... screw it - I'll say it.... I wish that Darrell Dickey had had HALF the advantages, facilities, and support that Todd Dodge had. It may not be a popular opinion around here, but I'd have sure as hell loved to have seen what might have happened.

[Green Mean]

I think he is saying that while the team did accomplish something in those 4 seasons, the coaching staff, athletic department, and the university failed to capitalize on it.

This. Carribean, you are completely right that had all of the things happening today in Denton been offered to Dickey then perhaps he would have been able to continue his run of conference but we will never know that of course. Don't get me wrong those 4 championships were great and it showed how we can dominate this conference if our head is right with ball. Hopefully the new coach can build the status of the program the right way and we get attention from our peers that are in better situations eg cusa or mwc.

[MizzouTigers]

haven't seen this posted yet

I figure that with the way I have seen a large proportion of you write, this website will hit a chord.

Everyone who went through the Dickey era knows this website feels eerily familiar. Why would you want to go through that again? You don't even have to peruse the website just read the homepage. Pretty much sums up the Dickey era for me. I don't know what the future holds but if we have to go through that again it won't be very rosy. Maybe Leavitt has grown since USF and the incident with the player, but I wouldn't count on a changed man.

All I care to remember is that Dickey had a hot streak in a talent poor Sunbelt conference that won besides its self on almost every occasion. The lack of discipline was deplorable at times (anyone who witnessed the grenade celebration can relate). Call it swagger if you are inclined to do so but you really know what it is. One of a myriad of program building traits of our next coach I will look for is accountability for ones actions on and off the field, for players and coaches alike.

Sorry for the brain dump but hiring Leavitt in my estimation would be a mistake. My glass at this moment is half-empty and that might just empty it.

^^^^^^ This is what happens when you let women post on a man's sports messageboard

[FirefightnRick]

Yup. The downplaying of and scoffing at the (at WORST) second greatest run of football success in school history is utterly mind-boggling. Frankly, it's embarrassing. Sure, if we become Texas and grow that kind of history, a 4-year conference win streak blends into the ether a bit more. But here? For us? Why the EFF would anyone run down that run?!?

LOL!!!!!! Not laughing at you CG, but just at the reaction you have. But your going to need to get used to it as it's a common theme here at GMG.com. I hope your around 20-30 years from now and watch how newer ignorant generations come on here and trash the accomplishments of era's they never witnessed with BS arguments and stats and such.

I wasn't around during the Fry or Blakeley days but I damn sure wouldn't trash what those men accomplished if nothing else but out of respect of those men, the university I love and the folks I know here who were. But that hasn't stopped the new generation from doing it for sure.

Gotta keep educating them on our past and hope somehow a light goes on and they realize that each time they trash our past they trash themselves.

Rick

[SilverEagle]

I couldn't agree more with the above statement. We can win and run a good program at the same time. I have no interest in becoming the second coming of Miami. I don't know who that coach is, but I will trust RV to make the right decision.

even based on his last decision about a HC?

[cwb]

Why? Because he was born in Texas. Time to come back home coach.

[BrkArrow]

LOL!!!!!! Not laughing at you CG, but just at the reaction you have. But your going to need to get used to it as it's a common theme here at GMG.com. I hope your around 20-30 years from now and watch how newer ignorant generations come on here and trash the accomplishments of era's they never witnessed with BS arguments and stats and such.

I wasn't around during the Fry or Blakeley days but I damn sure wouldn't trash what those men accomplished if nothing else but out of respect of those men, the university I love and the folks I know here who were. But that hasn't stopped the new generation from doing it for sure.

Gotta keep educating them on our past and hope somehow a light goes on and they realize that each time they trash our past they trash themselves.

Rick

[BrkArrow]

Ditto.

[Green Mean]

even based on his last decision about a HC?

Is being a nice guy valid justification for the right hire?

[rcade]

Calm down dude. I wasn't putting down the players or Dickey himself necessarily. That run of 4 years were nice but it didn't improve our football status or even athletics status one bit.

That run of success is a big reason why we got the athletic facility upgrades. I don't think students would have ever supported a new stadium without the Dickey years. To suggest it didn't help "one bit" is nuts.

It's amazing what some people are posting here lately. Are we running a contest for the most uniformed post of the month and nobody told me?

[rcade]

^^^^^^ This is what happens when you let women post on a man's sports messageboard

That's your idea of an insult -- to call somebody a woman?

[untgirl04]

^^^^^^ This is what happens when you let women post on a man's sports messageboard

*sigh* As fans of this university know, women can successfully contribute to a sports conversation without sounding like a complete moron. Phyllis George

Perhaps if some men were kept from posting on message boards without thinking, the messages boards would be a community of fresh ideas, insight, and productive conversation.

[Mean Green 93-98]

even based on his last decision about a HC?

You're right.

With this next hire, RV needs to immediately discredit what everyone here on this board has to say, and do the opposite.

[Censored by Laurie]

Perhaps if some men were kept from posting on message boards without thinking, the messages boards would be a community of fresh ideas, insight, and productive conversation.

Please...we don't need our legitimate football conversation cluttered up talks of shades and color schemes of uniforms, flare on helmets and aesthetic decorating ideas for our new house...

Oh. Crap...maybe we are all women.

[Got5onIt]

Please...we don't need our legitimate football conversation cluttered up talks of shades and color schemes of uniforms, flare on helmets and aesthetic decorating ideas for our new house...

Oh. Crap...maybe we are all women.

I saw a car driving through the parking lot at the Denton WalMart with a Breast Cancer Awareness sticker on the bumper saying "Save the Ta-Tas". Laughed my ass off as I was walking in.......

[MeanGreenTexan]

Please...we don't need our legitimate football conversation cluttered up talks of shades and color schemes of uniforms, flare on helmets and aesthetic decorating ideas for our new house...

Oh. Crap...maybe we are all women.

Which host of The View would you most like to see interview the new stadium? I just have to go with Barbara Walters. She's so funny, yet so sophisticated.

[Got5onIt]

Which host of The View would you most like to see interview the new stadium? I just have to go with Barbara Walters. She's so funny, yet so sophisticated.

And so intelligent. Who else can have such conviction in the message of conservation and the refusal to use foreign oil as she skidaddles around the country in her private jet.

[eppy4life]

I hope your around 20-30 years from now and watch how newer ignorant generations come on here and trash the accomplishments of era's they never witnessed with BS arguments and stats and such.

But that hasn't stopped the new generation from doing it for sure.

You're right Rick. Everyone from 'the new generation' lacks respect and appreciation for what came before them.

Lets not turn this into a generational battle between 'The Good 'Ol Days' and 'The New Generation.'

[UNTLifer]

We can either get serious or we can model ourselves after an upper middle class white suburban high school eg SLC. You have no interest in becoming Miami...well with that attitude we will never get anywhere. Miami is nationally visible with hardcore alumni that will be connected to the university forever. It is that type of attitude why North Texas is where it is today. Athletics is the window to the university but it is the regular alumni and fan base that will make our university what we want it to be. If it takes us in becoming Miami I will accept it and embrace it with open arms.

If the window to my university is a brawl with FIU with an alumni color man on the broadcast throwing out ghetto slang, or being a bunch of classless morons like the ones that showed up in the Cotton Bowl and whipped Texas, then I would prefer that window be boarded up.

Why can't we build a program like TCU, for example, that has done it by being successful on and off the field, and by being something the community, alumni and students can be proud of? Or how about Boise State that built their program much the same way TCU has?

There's more than one way to skin a cat. Being successful doesn't mean being classless.

[C&S]

Remember whenever you point the finger at someone, there's 3 fingers pointing back at you. When will the fan base stand up and take some responsibility for improving the athletic department. This university has had football at it since the turn of the last century, thats over 100 seasons, and my first year here, after 3 conference championships, having the 2003 nations leading rushing, and witnessing one of the greatest seasons by a freshman running back ever, and the average attendance is 15-17 thousand. The fans talk about needing tradition and creating school spirit, I guess the first 100 plus years that this school has had football wasn't enough time to develop tradition. As long as I've been around this program it just seems like many of the fans on this board always find something to complain about when it comes to UNT football, even when things are going good, you find a coach to bash, or a player to bash. You do realize players parents read this website, and this site has been known to say some pretty bad things about players, and then wonder why players parents wont speak to some of you at football games. Its the responsibility of all the members of the UNT community to take responsibility for the improvement of the program. If they means giving money, then give what you can, if that means sponsoring a player on this website and always saying good things about them (remember players and parents read this website) to help them through a rough season. Mother Teresa once said "Be the change you want to see in the world" might need to be the new theme for this program.

[CaribbeanGreen]

Mother Teresa once said "Be the change you want to see in the world" might need to be the new theme for this program.

It was Gandhi, but no matter..... If someone had correctly quoted GANDHI on GMG, I might have imploded. I'm kinda glad it got screwed up.

Who would Dostoyevsky hire?

[CMJ]

Alyosha Karamazov?

[Cerebus]

Remember whenever you point the finger at someone, there's 3 fingers pointing back at you. When will the fan base stand up and take some responsibility for improving the athletic department. This university has had football at it since the turn of the last century, thats over 100 seasons, and my first year here, after 3 conference championships, having the 2003 nations leading rushing, and witnessing one of the greatest seasons by a freshman running back ever, and the average attendance is 15-17 thousand. The fans talk about needing tradition and creating school spirit, I guess the first 100 plus years that this school has had football wasn't enough time to develop tradition. As long as I've been around this program it just seems like many of the fans on this board always find something to complain about when it comes to UNT football, even when things are going good, you find a coach to bash, or a player to bash. You do realize players parents read this website, and this site has been known to say some pretty bad things about players, and then wonder why players parents wont speak to some of you at football games. Its the responsibility of all the members of the UNT community to take responsibility for the improvement of the program. If they means giving money, then give what you can, if that means sponsoring a player on this website and always saying good things about them (remember players and parents read this website) to help them through a rough season. Mother Teresa once said "Be the change you want to see in the world" might need to be the new theme for this program.

C&S, I appreciate you posting, I appreciate your son playing here, but you are wrong on this.

Over most of those 100+ years, the university leadership had PURPOSELY created a tradition of alumni apathy. The small time thinkers at the top were so scared of ceding any control to outside influence that they did their best to kill alumni giving in all areas. Did you know we had a president who ordered the refusal of all donations to the university? Over time, this thinking became the default mental mindset of incoming faculty, staff and administrators.

These people were terrified of outside influence having sway over them, and that included a intercollegiate athletics. Some of this continues to this day, but I won't bore you with the details.

Dr. Norval Pohl stepped on the scene, and he started to shakeup much of the old thinking on campus, and that is probably what cost him his job in the end. Luckily, that change seems to have made a small beachhead, and there is a group of administrators who want things to continue to change.

Yes, you are right, attendance to those bowl teams was petty bad, but look at the leaps we have made, look at the attendance last year, when the product on the field was no were near the as good. Or look across I35.

Things are starting to change, probably not as fast as anyone likes, but its happening. Thats why this is such a crucial cross roads for the program.

To get back on topic to this thread: Why Jim Leavitt? Not taking a shot at a coach of this caliber is exactly the small time thinking we have been stuck with for far too long. If we want to make that next step, it it time to do it now.

[Censored by Laurie]

Alyosha Karamazov?

I think Nikoli Myshkin is a safer bet...considering the board...

[TheTastyGreek]

I don't read commie books.

He'd hire JACK RYAN.