Seminole Indian

Well, UNT (for sure), ULL and ASU all reportedly had opportunities to jump to the WAC recently but choose not too. Just did not add up. Lets face it almost everyone feels that the WAC and even CUSA are unstable and I think UNT felt it was better to focus on spending it’s dollars on facilities improvements and upgrading it’s other sports. Football is not a problem and UNT wanted to invest its dollars in correcting the problems before the next opportunity comes around. A school like La Tech, who got trapped in the WAC, simply has not, is not, in a position to keep up with UNT, ASU or some other SBC schools in improving their infrastructure. That will be a problem when the chips began to fall.

Arkansas committed recruiting suicide when they joined the SEC. IMO. ←

---In the short run it may mave been a smart move to leave... since the SWC has so much corruption in their programs and Arkansas and Texas (especially under Royal and Broyle ) seemed to stay with the rules. The conference also was not viewed that good anymore with several very weak teams...Rice, SMU, TCU....but long term it may have hurt them.... They would likely be a Big-XII team now instead of Baylor and that would have helped their recruiting area. --Baylor obviously benefited from their departure. ←

ASU and all the SBC teams have a variety of revenue sources, as do all 1A programs, and as the SBC matures and the TV exposure and bowl tie-ins increase, the revenue opportunities will increase. Who knows the Waltons just might decide to support some SBC team. The critical step to the future, as far as football was getting in position to met the new 1A requirements, which the SBC teams have, and matching schools that are similar when it comes to their level of play. The problem in the SEC in football is you really have a top division of real BCS contenders like Florida, Tennessee, LSU, Georgia, Alabama and Auburn, and I think eventually South Carolina, then a noticeable drop-off to the other programs. These smaller schools simply do not have the ability to hang with the upper group on a consistent basis and realistically just hope for enough wins to get an a bowl game. Over time the competitive gap between these two groups will increase. Arkansas is the good example of a former football powerhouse that has no way of getting back to the top as long as it stays in the SEC. It just hope it can have a wining season again.

State doesn't compete in anything on a national level. You're in a town with 6 people, and you're in arkansas. More and more it looks like the same can be said about the U of A. Not sure I agree with that part of your post about the populaton of Jonesboro, looked outside and it looks like there are more than six to me. Not sure that the negatives associated with ASU's location, being in Arkansas, is not offset somewhat by other factors, like being one of only two 1A's in the State and being located in a region of the State that has always had a regional identity. Those other schools you mentioned, while they are in great markets, have strong competition in those markets and that does dilute the advantage a little. They may insure that the SBC gets a better TV deal but the schools in the rural areas will benefit just as much from the coverage.

, your corners had issues all year... and it showed in the bowl game that your opponents had watched ASU game film. I think both of our teams are better this year.. we sure cant do much worse? I also saw some good things from the Ragin Cajuns last year, so we could have a three-way race for the top spot. Good luck to the ASU guys, and let's hope your corners and our QB play both improve this year. (the ASU fans at the Bowl game were awsome, and fun to be out there with) GMG!!! ←

Went to the ASU scrimmage Saturday and while the scrimmage part was just for fun but they had an intense situational type scrimmage to start and that part showed a lot. Exceptional team speed is what stood out. Most of the talk at the scrimmage was about getting a QB back that had switched his commit to Alabama on signing day a couple of seasons ago, then went the pro baseball route. Some were saying he committed to ASU this week and if that is true it might take some of the sting out of the last minute switch to Miami by another QB commit this year. They need another QB in the mix. As for the QB’s actually on the team, Leonard and Hewitt, both are athletic, with good and accurate arms and are above average runners. Leonard in fact appears to be an outstanding runner and may be making a strong push to start. Both are pretty cool operators but practice is not the same as a game so the jury is out on this position. Look for ASU to try and follow in the footsteps of those four UNT teams that won SBC titles by focusing on running the ball, even when the other side knows they are going to. Their OL and the quality of their defense may enable them to do it. Easely and Arnold are as good or better than last year’s running backs (Warren and Bracey) but not sure anything is behind them. The Defense, headed by an exceptional group of linebackers and safeties, is simply outstanding. Not many teams in America have better talent at those positions and I look for them to be ranked among Americas best units in the preseason magazines. Williams may be the best player in the league. Good luck this year and let’s hope that ASU and UNT make a run at the top this year. Both are a lot better than last year so I think both will be a load for the other SBC teams.

I also expect the MG to kick your collective Arkansas ass this year. The only "stepping down" UNT is going to do is on your hillbilly throats. ←

The biggest problem with your proposed playoff system is that you just automatically make it a level playing field by automatically inviting teams from the weaker conferences and that will not happen. There will be no automatic invites to any school outside of the power conferences to any BCS Bowl or playoff system and that is just a fact that will not change short of Congress getting involved. The same checks and balances put in by the power conferences in the BCS System will be included in any playoff system. This is as close to fair as they will allow us to get in the foreseeable future. Besides the addition of the 12th game shut the door on a playoff system.

I sure hope so, because the new BCS arrangement is the best arrangement for the SBC at the present time. When we replace the Big East as the #6 Conference that may change. The most vocal proponents for a playoff in collage football are known ‘parasites’ whose only interest is to make money off of it at the expense of the Universities. Besides, basketball and football are totally different and the value of the non-BCS bowls to a school like UNT or ASU cannot be measured. Add to that that we now have access to the BCS bowls. The opportunity to sell a recruit on going to the NO Bowl as a reward for a good season or going to a BCS Bowl with a great season cannot be understated.

Who knows if this rule will ever be enforced? In my opinion, it should be. Otherwise, let's do away with all of the other requirements and open it up to one and all, regardless how popular their program may be. ←

I hope some of the info about ASU was informative , and accurate, because I really enjoyed following the progress of UNT this spring on this message board. One thing is for certain, it is not very likely that either team will suffer a repeat of this past season misfortunes. Hopefully, the adversity of last year will pay dividends next season for both teams. I think it will. I know in the case of ASU that hope was reinforced when we asked long time trainer, Ron Carroll, if he would compare this past seasons injury situation, losing so many players for the season, to a typical season and he said he could not compare it to a typical decade. Well, if it does happen, I guess ASU could make the NCAA happy by changing its name to the Limping Lizards.

I had hoped no one noticed but the 'r' sometimes sticks on my keyboard. Where is the edit button when you need it!

Some cannot sign because of academics and go the JC or other route. Still for comparison getting a top 10 player in Arkansas is like getting a top 100 player in Texas and getting a player in the next ten is like getting a player in the next hundred, so on and so on. Not all of the Texas top 100 can or do sigh with a 1A school. Well, ASU in the past has not gotten many players from that group and the ones we have gotten have been very, very good players.. Those who have played in the Belt are Cory Williams (All-SBC), Jonathan Adams,( two 1000 yard seasons), Antonio Warren (All-SBC, two 1000 yard seasons) and Jonathan Bradley (All-SBC). That is the sum total of top twenty Arkansas players recruited by Hollis and I do not remember but a handful more over the twenty years prior to Hollis and they were without exception outstanding players. As for ASU they have excelled when they were able to land players in the next group (those ranked between 21-35) and that has not always been easy because schools like Memphis, La Tech, Oklahoma State, Tulsa, and similar schools recruit these players hard. They almost always start for ASU at some point and ASU can win when they get a good number of them. I looked on the roster and ASU will have ten top twenty players on the roster next year (5 top ten and 5 from the next ten). They have 15 from that 21-35 group. They had five top twenty players committed this past recruiting season before losing one to Miami. The fact is there no way of predicting what the impact of this many players from that pool of recruits will be, because ASU has never had this many. It might be disruptive.

Hey, I had the opportunity to get updated on UNT through this site and promised I would reciprocate because I live seven miles from ASU. Had no reason to question what the posters posted about UNT’s reported improvement. UNT was in fact a very young team and I would have expected improvement. Ditto for ASU. The times, heights, weights, ratings and comments I have posted are all from public records. While I am so-so on their two QB’s thus far, every other position with the possible exception of the kicking game is better and I mean a lot better. Even the running game, where the 1000 yard runner last year was maybe at 80% from the ULM game on, is better because they get their former starter back at 100% this coming year. They are just bigger, faster, stronger, older,deeper and from what I have seen meaner than last year, and it is really not even a comparison. That is the same thing I hear coming from Denton. In no way am I saying they are better than UNT but I am beginning to think they are in fact better and just as young. It is a fact that they return a lot of starters and it is a fact that they lost a lot of former starters for the season to injury or suspension. The team that played in Denton and in the NO Bowl was not the team that ASU started the fall camp with. No team in the SBC and probably in the nation had as many injuries as did ASU.

Well, I'm not in a position to argue the point because I did not time them. Most if not all of the times reported for the Arkansas athletes were from one of the many University of Arkansas sponsored camps. This is new ground for ASU in Arkansas because we have rarely got one of the top twenty prospects in Arkansas much less four and five a year, like the last few years. The scary thing is that these Texas players are all fast and they say Norman is the fastest of all the red-shirts.

I have no problem with that because I'm predicting a 5-2 record. I may go 5-2 for UNT also with only ULL ahead of us. ULL is very good. The speed, and talent, at ASU is real though and I have no problem telling you that ASU will put a better team on the field next year, because it’s a no brainier. They get fifteen starters back plus the players that were loss to injury or suspension. Those injured or suspended players in fact were their better players and there were a lot of them. The red-shirt freshmen and and two props are the best talent in Robert's tenure and they are just gravy for next year. But so what, from what I’m reading the same, or better, can be said in Denton. The good thing is that I do not feel that a lot will have to go right this coming year for one or both of us to make a run at the top next year and that is exciting. I do not really care if ASU or UNT wins I just want one of them to be in NO. I like them both.

No offence taken, the times are for real and the future is as fast or faster. Some of this years red-shirt freshmen and props have the size, speed and talent to shake up ASU's two-deep roster. I mentioned Reggie Arnold (5’10, 215, 4.38, he lost weight to play TB) and he ran the 4.38 when he weighed 220+ lbs at the FCA combine in Little Rock, also add FS's Evan Van Dolah (6'2, 200, 4.34, All-Arkansas, called ‘super-fast player’) and Marcus Brown (6’1, 180, 4.24, timed at U of A’s Football Camp, 16th ranked prospect in Arkansas, 2 time All State) that have made the preseason two-deep. Add prop DE Jeremy Wallace (6’5, 230, 4.5, #6th Rank Prospect in Arkansas) and LB Gregory Hardey (5’10, 220, 4.5, his Classifications Tennessee Defense player of the year) and WR Jarrier Norman (5’10”, 170, 2005 state champ (Texas) in 100- and 200-meter dash), DB Daylen Walker (5’10, 170, 4.4,three-time all-state football and track) and DB L.J. Williams (5.8, 176, 4.4) and WR Travis Jones (6’, 170, 4.5, 23.47 200 meter). Even the two red-shirt freshman OL prospects Anthony Jackson (6’4, 340, 4.9, offered by Nebraska) and Corey Meachum (6’4, 323, 4.9, #2 Ranked DL in Missouri) are quick. The slowest player currently on the pre-season two deep on defense is Prince Hickman (6’1, 280, 5.1) and he is joined on the line by Curtis Bonds (6’4, 285, 4.8), Jamarrow James (6’1, 275, 4.8), Troy White (6’1, 270, 4.7), Jonathan Najm (6’1, 240, 4.6) Brandon Rollins (6’4, 260, 4.7), and Anthony Harris (6’, 238, 4.5). These are the slow guys on the Defense.

Hey, that’s not fair, I promised to go watch ASU and report my observations and I can only compare them to UNT. I gave you the why behind my prediction of 5-2 for ASU. My reluctance to predict 5-2 for UNT is based on what I am reading on this site. Unlike everyone else I think both Florida schools will struggle this year and the SBC Champ will come from one of the others with ULL as the favorite.

I really do not really know all that answers as to why they were so inconstant but I know some things that probably contributed to it. Part was the play of Noce, who was up and down all year, part was due to losing so many players, twelve I think, to season ending injuries, over the course of the year and Antonio Warren, played with an injury most of the season. They also started a couple of young players in the OL and although one made 2nd team All-SBC they struggled with a lot of penalties as a result. They were one of the most penalized teams in Division 1A. The also, changed defense from a 4-2 to a 4-3 and then lost there best LB for a season and as a result had to play two converted safeties and two freshmen at the position and there was a learning curve. No one close to the program called last years team a good team but the adversity did provide the opportunity for some young, talented players to get a chance to play a lot and that really is paying dividends this off season. Still have not got all the injured back but most should be 100 % in the fall. From the reports that I have read UNT will also benefit from some of the adversity they faced last year. I am sticking with ASU going 5-2 but still cannot pull the trigger and make a prediction for UNT. I am only predicting a loss to ASU and to ULL at this time, but I’m still not convinced that you have solved your problems in the trenches on either side of the ball. Better Yes, upper half of SBC, Yes, but the analysis in one of the above post points to improvement but 5-2, I do not know.

Thanks, but I am only slightly more a ASU fan than a UNT fan and I am actually a Tennessee fan stuck in Arkansas. I have no more of an emotional evolvement with stating that ASU has the best Defense and OL in the league, than I did saying UNT did , when they did. It was just a fact that the other SBC teams had to deal with and you could see it coming if you just looked.

I'll add insult to injury, another big advantage for ASU is that they are loaded with Texans like Josh Williams (one site says he might be the best LB in the nation), Kelvin Cox (big and fast off/on starter who originally signed with SMU), Montis Harrison (started and stared as a R/S freshman and has 4.3 speed), Curtis Bonds (who at 6’4 285, with 4.8 speed, will more than replace Myron Anderson the All-SBC Texan from last year), Prince Hickman (strong and tough, off /on starter), Troy White (super athlete), Jonathan Hissam (our strongest DL), Brandon Rollins (or best athlete on the line, and a ALL SBC caliber replacement for last years Texan) , Reggie Green (started against UNT and in NO bowl last year), Zellas Abby(starter prior to injury will probably be 3rd team next year), Devrett Wade (1st team All-SBC), Travis Jones, Jarrier Norman (our fastest player), and L.J. Williams (considered a blue chip corner prospect). Texas players are the backbone of our defense and Chris Easily was and is our best running back so look for his and their best effort against UNT. Shoot, I think ASU is out ‘Mean Greening’ the Mean Green.

Well, I agree with you and I am arguing that point on Tribalgrounds. Their counter points are that the projected starter at QB will either be a red-shirt sophomore, who was recruited specifically for this offence and knows the system, or a red-shirt freshman (and SEC Caliber Athlete like Wilson) who is a better prospect. They also have a freshman QB coming in that the staff says was their top prospect (impressive if true, when you consider that they’re #2 signed with Miami). The fact still remains that ASU has fewer unknowns than UNT or any other SBC team except for maybe ULL and UNT plays at their place. As for me I always look in the trenches first and that is where ASU simply has more overall returning experiences and talent (especially on offence) than the other SBC teams. On defense if ASU started their 2nd team, I would still predict that they would be the best ‘unit’ in the SBC. They are that good and have that kind of depth and it is not an issue of if they will be the best in the SBC this year but if they are the best the SBC has produced so far. By the way UNT and USM got to play against a lot 2nd and 3rd teamers last year and that will not be the case this time around.

Actually you do not know what you are talking about. This is the year that ASU has been building for and there are two certainties, they will have the best OL in the SBC and they will have the best Defense in the league. The QB position and kicker are the only question marks, I do feel that both positions will be off from last year but these are the only uncertainties when it comes to ASU. Keep in mind that Injuries and suspensions decimated ASU last year especially on defense and saying they are returning 15 starters is very misleading, they are returning many more with starting experience. The key for ASU is it’s defense. Look for Josh Williams (6’1, 255, 4.6, All-Conference, Freshmen All-American), Tyrell Johnson (‘ 195, 4.5, All SBC, Freshmen All-American),Koby McKinnon (6’3, 215, 4.6), Brial Flagg(6’1, 250, 4.7), Brandon Rollins(6’4, 255, 4.7), Jamarrow James( 6’1 280, 4.8), Khayyam Burns(6’, 190, 4.5), Dominique Williams(5’10, 175, 4.5), Darren Toney (5’11, 185, 4.3) Montis Harrison (5’11, 185, 4.4), and Devrett Wade (6’, 231, 4.6, All-SBC), all to be all conference candidates on defense. Look for Curtis Bonds (6’4” 285), Prince Hickman (6’, 280) and Troy White (6’1, 270) all Texans by the way, to join Jonathan Najm (6’1, 240, 4.6) to give ASU a better front four than last year. Zellas Abby (5’10, 290) and Reggie Green (6’4, 260) both have starting experience on the line. Kelvin Cox (6’, 190, 4.4, on/off starter) and Jerime Henderson (6’, 200, 4.4) are capable of displacing Harrison and Williams at the corners. Ben Owens (6’3, 225, 4.6,SEC offers, and ahead of Williams at this point), Elias Ellis (6’, 215, 4.5, PAC 10 offers, on/off starter) and Chris Littleton (5’11, 215, 4.5, on/off starter, and mean) are all solid backups at linebackers that ASU could win with. Add to this a group of red-shirt freshmen and props that are probably as good or are better prospects and the pieces are falling into place for ASU on this side of the ball. On offence the OL is the key, and is the best OL in 30 years at ASU. Look for Jess McDonald 6’3, 303, former JC All-American, Shawn Shoemaker (6’3, 320, HS All-American on DL), to join returning all SBC players Matt Mandich (6’3, 285, 2nd team All SBC),and Tanner Jenkins (6’1 290, 1st team All-SBC) as all conference candidates on the OL. Dale Maas (6’6, 300) should be the 5th starter. Kyle Kotes( 6’4, 307, returning starter), Vincent Thrower (6’5, 335) and Matt Reibe (6’4, 300), would still give ASU the best OL in the SBC if they could beat out the guys ahead of them. Look for the running game, led by Chris Easily (6’, 215, 4.5, starter prior to injury) to produce for more yards than last year’s group. The backups consist of Chris James (5’9, 210, 4.5, I saw him rush for over 400 yards in a game in HS), Cedric Wilkerson (5’6 185, 4.4) and Reggie Arnold (5’10, 215, 4.38). ASU’s starting Fullback, Oren O'Neal (6’ 250, 4.7) was granted a 6th year of eligibility and is the best blocking back in the SBC. ASU returns all its receivers and if the QB position develops look for Levi Dejohnette (5’10, 175, 4.5) to make All-SBC.

Well, I think the key for improvement is the play of your QB's, but one thing you are missing is that you won a lot of games in the SBC because the other teams simply tripped all over themselves trying to beat you. You had a real psychological advantage over the other SBC teams but I’m afraid that is now a thing of the past. FAU, FIU and Troy really never fell under your spell and the others seem to be finding the antidote. The reality is that UNT is somewhere in the middle of the SBC as far as talent and are still rather young. I look for improvement and for UNT to be in the upper half of the league but beating either ULL or ASU will be a chore next year. ASU is going to be a lot better team than last year and you have to play them at their place and ULL will be the best team in the league.