97and03

Looks like Junior Day is March 5. Let’s post here what we see about visits for Junior Day: ‘24 WR/DB Ingleside TX ‘24 RB/LB Lake Travis

Surprisingly he keeps hanging around professional football. Catch teach size, right?

I’ve seen a few prospects on Twitter saying they are planning to visit soon so maybe we see our first ‘24 commitments this spring.

Simpson was a good player for us until his arrest and dismissal. But in general, many of the top rated recruits we signed were risks, either academically, character, or out of state guys. That's why we have missed on so many. Hopefully the current staff can use the conference change and local connections to change this.

Did they ever make a conference championship, bc I don’t recall one.

The thread started based on a comparison of NT’s support staff versus the Birds lack of one. Try to keep up. You were the second person in this thread so I thought you were up to speed.

This could easily be like 2018 with a 4-0 OOC start. Let's just hope first AAC game goes better than 2018...

Just ignore RIvals and ESPN. 247 does a decent job but even they rushed evals of our guys and three have exactly the same rating. On the plus side, they had ignore Nelson who had a ton of offers and finally gave him a solid score.

Exactly. Without the same resources they crushed the recruiting class. Their class was tops in both CUSA and the AAC.

I tend to focus on the average rating more that the ranking. 247 shows the class average at 84.17, which is comparable to AAC peers. UTSA and SMUt are unfortunately the two programs that had averages way above ours but everyone else was around what we got or lower. Even Tulane coming off that amazing season didn’t have a higher average, although admittedly they score more high end three stars but brought their average down with some lower ranked players at the bottom of the class. Pretty good class given the time frame.

I don’t care if he is any good or not, sign him just for his awesome name!

Dude, it’s North Texas. Despite what you might hear on this board, for a sporting event it’s a bargain. $380 for two seats on the second row right behind the defensive bench, plus a minimum $250 donation. There are cheaper options as well and those that don’t require the donation. Sign up!

Those boys got faces fit for radio and voices for print but it was a pretty informative show. I agree with Billy on the B+ grade. I think that is fair, and the class was impressive given the short time the staff had, but probably not the type of class we would celebrate otherwise or keep U.S. competitive in the AAC. Next year will be the real challenge and a better judge of whether they can win longer recruiting battles.

Would be smart to allow it to build up fan interest.

Post signing day thoughts on the defense: Obviously the secondary is the biggest concern, with Gaddie and Whitlock gone and the uncertainty about Davis getting another year or not. There is really no obvious replacement for Gaddie on the roster and I am not sure if any of the transfers play CB. At safety, we were unstable last year, with Faulkner barely able to cover receivers and giving up huge plays over the top until Wilson got the nod and somewhat stabilized things. It seems like most of the guys we brought in are slated to get looks at safety since they will likely have three safeties on the field so I am less worried about that position, at least going forward. I think the D-line is in pretty good shape and the JUCO Moore will reinforce a fairly solid group. It will be interesting to see how they use the guys we have in the new scheme but I think we have sufficient talent there. Our starting LBs (depending on how they use the third LB) look to be in good shape with three experienced guys returning in Wood, Nichols, and Nixon but not too much experience behind them. I am a little surprised they didn’t bring in an LB transfer but that might be because they plan to use guys like Mazin Richards at LB, whereas I view them as more of an edge rusher. This would make sense and add depth to the position. I would enjoy hearing thoughts from @GMG24. @aztecskin. @BillySee58 on how they view what the defense might look like.

Glad you mentioned Jenkins. He and Bussey got NFL looks, Hamilton is with the Packers, EJ also got NFL looks and is playing professionally, and Fine is a potential CFL starter next year. Nick Smith and Wyche were competent RBs and JoJo was a decent pass rusher (although I think he was a Mac grey shirt). We can also add Pirtle to this class, btw. Yes, half the class didn’t make it here or contribute much but that is pretty much every G5 class, especially when the coach has to take risks to fill a class - also as mentioned after a one-win season. We don’t yet know which of Seth’s classes will end up being the best one but this one helped turn this program around.

Exactly, plus the whole inexperienced coordinator and new system thing.

There are at LEAST five Sun Belt teams that would have wiped the floor with us last year.

Well, I am actually still worried about it. Really excited about these recruits but there are still a ton of questions.

almost sounds like a movie plot!