GrayEagle

Look again Deep, that is sTh (for St. Thomas) across the front. Actually the S and H are smaller capital fonts; the middle large font T is the end of the St. and the beginning of THomas.

I wish the best that life has to offer and a long and happy marriage.

Well, it appears that 247 gave him the highest mark because he received a composite rating of .8681. That's still excellent and that would be the third highest mark of a recruit that actually enrolled and was not a transfer.

What happened to the three that tested positive earlier?

GREAT!! Glad to have you T.J.

Whoa! I just started to buy three and the price was over $300. In fact the sales tax was more than $38 according to the invoice. The only thing that I didn't understand about the billing was after the line item was the letters NOK. Anyone know what they're talking about? Edit: I just found out that this is the currency amount for another nation. I'll have to call to find out how to change it to U S currency.

It's necessary in this world. The university can't police that everyone follows the rules and believe me if anyone caught the virus they would complain (and yes, file a lawsuit) that it was transmitted to them on campus. It seems that most who have caught the virus don't know where, or often when, they became infected. There are way too many students for social distancing but I do understand that the university will furnish masks for both students and faculty. The good news is that there will likely be a vaccine available this fall.

Milo posted that the governor had announced that the state would be open to professional and college teams to start at 50% capacity on time.

I also saw that he did not play at Commerce and wondered why. He could have had a high school injury that he needed to strengthen and/or wasn't offered a scholarship. Maybe he just wants to be on the scout team in order to stay in shape. At least he can say that he was a member of a FBS team.

Hasn't California already done the same thing?

I count 105 including the signees but not three walkons. The 88 includes 4 who have already reported (McCrae, Lee, Jackson and Stout). The other 17 are due to report for fall workouts. Note: There are three names without pictures in the list of 88. Those are probably the three walk-ons. They are Booker-Brown, Osuofa and Nobriga.

His Top 4 are Colorado State, Nevada, North Texas and San Diego State. Since the other three are in the West and he is in the West, I don't feel good about this one.

Well, we kinda sorta did last year. DE Ladarius Hamilton was named to the second team defense (but as a LB).

Despite the fact that we have some fine running backs I really look forward to Oscar Adaway joining that group. He is just oozing with potential. An offensive lineman who was dominant in high school was Daizion Carroll. He was an excellent center but I see they have now moved him to guard. I hope that they will move him back because center seems to be the weaker position this year. I hope to see Simpson pick up where he left off last year and would like to see his high school teammate Damon Ward this year as well. On the defensive side I am hoping that Alex Morris will develop along with Gaddie to give us a solid defensive backfield. I think that Garnett Burke will be another strong defender but I don't know if he'll make it yet since he will be a true freshman. I'd like to see what the Murphy twins and Taylor Jacobs can do at linebacker. This team has the talent to be one of our best; it only lacks in experience.

Coach Gales was an outstanding person who never knew a stranger. My condolences to his family.

That would be great if CUSA wasn't already at 14 teams. Further, those 14 teams are too scattered for even that number to be workable unless you are a P5 university. If CUSA could dispose of four teams and cherry pick Louisiana, Arkansas State, Troy and Appalachian State they would certainly improve the quality of Conference USA football. However, that might also lower the quality of basketball, especially if Western Kentucky were one of the eliminated teams. What I would prefer to see is the two conferences divided on an east/west basis with UL-Monroe returning to the FCS. CUSA would keep the seven schools currently comprising the Western Division and add Louisiana, Texas State, Arkansas State, Troy and South Alabama. You might even take New Mexico State instead of South Alabama which would give you more strength in basketball and football and a basketball travel partner with UTEP. However, selfishly that would mean that we would play La Tech every third year roughly and also place Louisiana and La Tech in the same division. I don't like 16 team conferences and the only ones that I remember is the failed WAC and the old Southern Conference that eventually broke up. Even the P5s stop at 14.

I totally agree that Abner is deserving but one problem is that he was in the AFL, not the AFC. I think that Abner was one of the most exciting players in college or pro football. He could eat you up whether running, receiving or returning. I was told that when Abner came to Denton to try to get a scholarship he was denied by Coach Mitchell. That was pretty common for Coach Mitchell; there was no Texas Football and what you were able to do at Dallas Lincoln carried little weight with him. When he first saw Abner he thought that he was too small for college football. But, Abner and his brother were persuasive and Odus decided to give him a tryout. He put him in pads and they kicked off to him. Long story short...he wove his way through the entire defending team. In addition, he was a great person. He had to be because he may have taken more verbal and physical abuse than any other college player. Oh, his teammate Leon King didn't have an easy time of it either but little compared to Abner who was the star. If there's any way that I/we can do to help please tell us who to write.

I don't think that anyone yet knows how this will play out and we could be getting our panties in a wad over nothing. One thought is why should anything change? P5 already controls Division I and there is little incentive for them to change anything. If they just try arbitrarily to kick everybody downstairs they could be subject to anti-trust. If they make unreasonable qualifications to be in P5 then they might have to kick some of their members out because there are some G5s who have bigger stadiums, better attendance, in bigger markets, etc. that would then be P5s. Another scenario is that the P5 members bolt the NCAA and form a new association. That would move the the current G5s up to P5s; or there might not be a need for a top tier and some of the better FCS members could move up to FBS. Schools like North Dakota State, Montana, JMU and others could hold their own while moving up. Just set standards for them to meet and allow them in after they have qualified. Then we might divide the current members and qualifiers into regional conferences, saving thousands of dollars in travel. Our contracts might bring in more money than we currently get because we won't be just the leftovers...we'll be the strongest of what's left. Some who are G5 members now could fall back to FCS if they don't meet qualifications. That would eliminate the 'good old boy' clique. They could also make the P5s even more elite by taking the top 32, 40 or whatever that are in the largest markets and draw the largest crowds and move them to a new association; leaving the lesser lights to remain in the NCAA. In the name of money they would be willing to tear up 140 years of college football. They can call it what they want but I'll call it greed.

Just a reminder but La Tech and Louisiana were in the Sun Belt Conference at the same time for ten years. La Tech doesn't have a huge budget and I believe that they would welcome the reduced expenses of playing Louisiana (their closest conference mate). You're absolutely right. However, I believe that the vast majority of president's would follow the advice of their athletic director unless it increases the school budget. I'd bet that Neil Smatresk would start the ball rolling if we have no hope for a better conference.

Assuming that we are unable to get into the AAC or MWC (or even if we can) I agree that CUSA, as it now consists, is unworkable and that we should be a part of that change. First of all I'm not giving up on a conference change until Wren says it won't happen. We have far more to offer than in the past including a better connected athletic director, a more respected university (better scholastics and research) and president, and very good facilities. We have a good location with more than 200,000 alumni in the area which would likely give North Texas and SMU combined control of athletics viewing in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. I didn't totally care for the conference as Mississippi Today envisioned it but much of the strength is there. I would replace the two Georgia schools and Middle Tenn with Texas State, UTSA and UTEP or just have an 11-team conference for the time being. We could also consider not offering South Alabama and go with ten teams. I agree that UTEP is too far from the Texas rivals but really budget straining for the eastern division universities. There's much less to worry about with Louisiana being in the revised conference than if we tried to include ULM. LaTech and ULM are both in the same small market whereas Louisiana is no threat to LaTech fans (other than on the field). They could even be placed in a different division so they wouldn't have to play each other as often. This conference would look a little more big-time because all have at least a 30,000 seat stadium except LaTech, who is a little under that number now due to remodeling. Attendance should be pretty good as all of the schools except USA and Texas State have (or had) 20,000+ averages. I also see it as pretty competitive. The least competitive would be South Alabama in the east and UTEP in the west. Rice is rebuilding and it might take them another year or two to be a solid factor. Texas State is pretty weak but I think that much of that is that they don't have any other Texas football teams in the Sun Belt. I think that they would go into a rapid rebuild.

He is in the transfer portal. Color him gone. I suppose that if he received no offers he might stay but I just can't believe that would happen.

I'll do the necessary also.

I don't know the number of scholarships but they now sponsor nine women's sports and seven men's sports.

Another factor in the hiring of Lee Jackson was that he had been a state representative from Dallas for ten years and it was believed that he had contacts that would help in acquiring state funds. I'm not saying that he was effective but since he only held a master's degree (and chancellors usually hold doctorates) that was the reason given and not so much that he was an ex-Dallas County Judge.

Amani Gilmore committed to Kentucky last year so I'd guess that he sits out the 2020 season. He is a 6-2 200 pound left-handed pro style quarterback from Amite (pronounced a-meet) LA. Last year he had a composite rating of .8464.