My God man you guys have been the class of the Sun Belt and then 2-7 this year with perhaps the most talented team on paper in North Texas history. What happened and do any of you think Coach Dickey will turn things around next year

North Texas is a victim of their own success. After a while the lustyer wore off a program playing in the Sun Belt. The caviat on North Texas was yeah they won four conference championships but they play nobody. North Texas is a first class program, but the Sun Belt is not a first class conference. Even if your winning recruiting becomes difficult. Recruits after while would rather play in a better conference than against glorified 1-aa schools. No one is excited by the prospect of getting to play la-la, la-m, Middle tenn fau or fiu. Plus there is absolutely no television exposure in the belt. North Texas's fall was inevitable because of the shape of the belt./ However with a new stadium and athletic village on the way UNT will be able to leave the belt. There is nothing other than the Sun Belt stopping UNT from being a perenial top twenty five team. I think the same argument can be made for troy both schools deserve better.

It's all about the coaching.
We have the players but the coaches have no clue how to use them best or adapt to an opponent.

Come on I think this is at the feet of DD.

You go into 2004 and lose the heir apparent QB and know Hall will be a senior. Recruiting season starts and the staff puts all their eggs in the basket of one December juco player they think they have locked up and don't work on a plan B. He ends up signing elsewhere and there is no plan B to turn to.

It's not like UNT needed a great December juco, just a competent one that could pass just enough to keep defenses honest instead of stacking up stop the twins.

UNT has been hit hard by academic casualties. The staff didn't try or at least failed to parlay recognition and success into recruiting guys that were less of an academic concern.

Unless my memory is faulty, UNT hasn't even been signing full classes. Most everyone has a gray-shirt program to store players until spots open up. UNT has had a number of spots open up with no one waiting in the wings to fill the spots.

ASU's starting fullback and one defensive back were both walk-ons who quickly earned aid when spots opened up.

I've not noticed UNT trying to expand its recruiting area very much. Success even in the Belt will get more kids in more places to listen who wouldn't have listened before, yet UNT has seemed to be content to stick to the base that built the success. Problem is part of that success was circumstances. ASU and ULL fired unsuccessful coaches after 2001. ULM fired its coach in mid-2002, then fired the replacement just after spring drills prior to the 2003 season. I'd say that given that those happen to be the three teams left in the race, they've elevated their game. Despite the struggles of FIU and FAU my observation watching them is that they have superior starting talent to Idaho and are better coached than what we saw from Utah State. The OOC success hasn't been there but remember that UNT's success under Dickey came at about the halfway point of DD's fourth season. ASU and ULL are following a somewhat similar model in the fourth year of Roberts and Bustle.

The start of each year at any college program is the start of a new five year plan. You always have to be planning on which incoming recruits will red-shirt and be the nucleus of the team as fifth year seniors and planning to fill the various gaps each year along the way.

No its not an exact science. Since Roberts arrived at ASU, we have twice thought we signed the savior QB. The first a freshman who suffered a career ending neck injury in spring drills as he was preparing to compete for the starting job as a red-shirt freshman. The second was a December juco who ended up a credit short and couldn't come in until August and by then was too far behind Noce in knowing the offense to replace him. Noce should be a junior but we pulled his red-shirt to try to spur a late season rally because we hadn't expected him to be the future. It didn't work out right and slowed our progress but there was an identifiable player management plan in place. I don't follow UNT that closely but I don't sense that sort of management, it looks more like recruiting to fill current holes, throwing the guys into the fire and hoping for the best.

That said. UNT looks to have a decent core returning next year.