GrayEagle

I trust Coach Harrell on this. Admittedly, it's almost impossible to believe that Martin, in his first year as a starter, threw for nearly 3,500 yards and 46 touchdowns while earning Greater Houston Newcomer of the Year without receiving one FBS offer. Bottom line...if Graham's evaluation is correct, I believe that we've found a hidden jewel.

In a heartbeat.

For the record I don't like the recruiting results either. But it's too early to condemn the entire recruiting staff and their selections. They haven't had the luxury of being able to build any relationships until this recruiting class. Seth has only been in P5 programs so he should know three star talent when he sees it. This year's offerings have been thoroughly evaluated and I believe that the coaches have seen something in each recruit that translates to team improvement. Some of the talent is raw, mostly late developing players, and you don't wan't to miss the true jewels. Since heart is not a measurable there will be misses on even the three and four stars occasionally. If this were at the end of their senior season you would have a much better perspective of how they stack up against other G5 opponents, especially conference mates. The alternative, wait until you see who is being recruited by others in the conference, will get you killed. In many cases so will waiting until recruits are evaluated by rating services or seeing who will offer. That means that we'll see some NAs and few or no offers from time to time. Now, if those are the only offers that we are making, we'll be fighting a losing cause. Look at what's happening. The vast majority of our offers are for players who end up with ten or more offers and most are from P5 schools. Recruiting is so much more sophisticated than in the early days due to videos of all games by highschoolers. Staffs go over these videos with a fine tooth comb on the players that catch their attention. They also study the rated players and who has offered them before they make their selections. It will take at least two years before we know whether those evaluations are on the mark.

I'm guessing that a torn ACL had something to do with his lack of production. He only played in one game during the 2016 season. He gained 89 yards on 10 carries.

It's hard to believe that it would be Syptak. He has an offer from every Ivy League school except Harvard. He also holds an offer from Rice. This is one smart dude. Not that we are terrible but we can't match top notch academia. It sure would be nice though.

If you drop track, and take away the six sports that it sponsors, we would no longer qualify as a Division 1A (FBS) university. It's unfortunate that the money was there but the planning was rushed and not thought through. I suppose that they'll continue with what they did this year as far as practice but we saw the results with a ninth place finish by both teams in the CUSA championships. I hope that the new signees will understand and stick with the program. At least the Athletics Department recruited in good faith so we can't fault them. One of my favorite sayings is "the course of true love never did run smooth" and that has surely fit North Texas athletics for a long time.

Individually, probably not. But what if there were multiple games with self-proclaimed p6 conference members that might lead to AAC membership? After all, Wren does know the commissioner of that conference. My point is that we don't know the reason for the change. It could have been that Army wanted out of those years and we are obliging them. It could be to set up home and homes with other major (or Texas) p5s. I don't know his motives and I seriously doubt that anyone else on this board does either. I do know that he is trying to eliminate the "money" games and this could be a part of his plan. So far, I've found little to complain about related to Wren Baker's handling of the Athletic Director's job. In my opinion this board is making much ado about nothing. Well, it could be nothing. I would only be upset if the scheduling of Liberty was a favor to Ian McCaw. If I find that to be the case then I'll jump in with both feet. Wren Baker is not Rick Villareal!

I agree that Baylor will not voluntarily close down football (nor should they). However, to appease some of their supporters who believe in adherence to Christian values, I would like to see Baylor take a self-imposed one year moratorium on their football program. Most of the perpetrators have been dismissed and the football program (especially) should be closely monitored for years to come. An in-house investigation should be conducted and all paid personnel who had knowledge of the unlawful events and didn't report it should be fired as well. Any players who took part should be permanently dismissed from the university. Baylor used to have very strict standards and they need to return to those moral values as an example for other Christian institutions.

http://247sports.com/Player/Matthew-Groeschel-79523 247 now shows him as a 3-star player with an offer from Purdue.

Maybe I'm just a cockeyed optimist but I think that an improved offensive line may help the quarterback and running back situation. A big part of the improvement that I'm hoping for hasn't even enrolled yet. It may put a quick-learning burden on three of the linemen but I feel that Mayfield, Mose, and Newman will work their way into the two-deep with one of them eventually a starter. I believe that the coaching staff correctly identified Mose and Newman as under-evaluated and that they will "coached up". Newman may have to be moved to guard because I like Barr's play at center. Right now, the OL is the weakest unit but the season opener is more than three months away.

The DL! Makes me wish they'd run a 4/3. With Young and Hamilton on the outside and English and Tauaalo on the inside they'd be hard to beat. Now, depth could be a problem but the front four shall not be moved.

What ogs's cat said! Seriously, we don't have an open spot and even if we did they're too far away. I'm big on 12 team conferences with 14 being the maximum. At 14 you could go 6 years or more before you had a home game with someone from the other division.

To me, there was little arrogance in the AAC taking the Power 6 approach. They primarily set goals of 90% graduation rates, attendance improvement and other criteria that would make them worthy of a power conference. Yes, some of their promotion is self-aggrandizing but necessary if you are to advance your cause.

I wish the best for Jeremy. I hope that he is fully recovered and can really contribute to LSU's success.

247 reported that Gage decommitted from UNT on April 21.

There must have been a lot of interceptions for an offensive lineman to have 32 tackles.

There is no way under the current setup that a G5 school can survive without student fees. Remember, they are not included in the "losses" shown by the Texas Tribune. Since I don't see that these fees are running anyone off at any of the state universities, the administrations must not be overly concerned. There are only two universities in Texas (Texas and Texas A&M) that have revenue that exceed their expenses. Texas A&M is way out front of UT so that means that the Aggies are managing to keep stadium costs from showing in their expenditures because they spent a ton of money remodeling Kyle. Although private colleges are not included in the Tribune's report I doubt that any of them make a profit...especially in Texas. The article made for interesting reading but in the grand scheme of things probably didn't register very high on the average reader's concern list.

It isn't. The only football related info that I could find on him was that he once caught 7 passes in a high school playoff. Mann was a great high school linebacker but he needs about another 20-30 pounds without losing speed for the college game. Maybe Kody Fulp develops quickly.

I really don't see CUSA and the Sun Belt merging as they are now aligned. The problem is that there are a couple or more schools that won't be in conferences with other colleges. You also realize that we almost never kick a university out of a conference once they have been a member. In fact, the only time that I can remember that happening was when Temple was "kicked out" of the Big East. One possibility for realignment is to form a new conference; inviting nearby universities. For example, let's say UTEP, North Texas, Rice, UTSA, LaTech, and Southern Miss resigned from CUSA and formed say, the Southwest Conference. They invited Texas State, Louisiana, Arkansas State and, if UTEP is amenable New Mexico State. We might even talk to Tulsa, Tulane, SMU and Houston. I doubt that we'd get any takers from the last group but we could offer. Although I prefer all-sports conferences, we could even consider UTA and UALR for basketball (or all sports except football). That would be a fairly tight league, especially when compared to the current CUSA and Sun Belt Conferences. The NCAA should allow a little bending of rules since they've created this monster. And yes, I realize that someone holds the Southwest Conference naming rights but it might be worth the cost if the price isn't too high. That would leave 14-16 universities from the two conferences: ULM (appeasing Louisiana Tech), UAB, Troy, South Alabama, Florida Atlantic, FIU, Georgia State, Georgia Southern, Coastal Carolina, Charlotte, Old Dominion, Marshall, Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee, plus the two basketball schools. Eight are from CUSA and eight are from the Sun Belt so they could keep either name or combine them. That way, no one was "kicked out" of their old conference. Maybe we can beat this one to death. Realignment is my favorite over uniforms and scheduling and right up there with recruiting and player progress for off-season topics.

I totally agree with Cooley regarding Brice and Brown. Brice was already good in what came natural for him, namely rebounds and shot blocking. He was the best that we had with those skills per minute played. He could've even been better at other skills had he been coached up. He was foul prone but a lot of centers are because they're the last line of defense and fight for rebounds offensively. Still, if some coach had worked with him I believe that they could've eliminated some of the out-of-position fouls that he committed. In this era of the 3-pointers, centers are no longer great scorers but Ricky contributed decently without time to get any rhythm going. By conference time he seldom got more than five minutes per game. And, don't forget, he was 7'1" and that's pretty intimidating to anyone trying to drive for a bucket. Brown was a decent basketball player but he didn't seem to have a position and I don't where they would have put him this coming year had he stayed. I have no problem in letting him go somewhere that he can get decent playing time. White-Pittman, for whatever reason, has never blossomed since he's been here. He was the top scorer in Louisiana as a senior but didn't get anywhere near those scoring averages in any game since he's been here. In fact, he's usually had the lowest scoring average in every year. He should have been the other departure with Brown. We haven't seen a lot out of Fuller but I believe that he had a legitimate injury last year so maybe it's proper that he receives another chance.

He "retired" but had many earlier shady dealings with paying players through off-campus jobs and his seat was getting very warm. He came out of retirement a few years later to be the DC at the University of Florida for a couple of years. Pruett is nearing his middle 70s and I don't believe this to be a viable threat.

Cade definitely had the play of the day. A 40 yard pass into the 30 mph wind that Bussey didn't have to break stride for. He has a lot to learn but boy does he have some tools. Another beautiful play was about a 40 yard pass that Chumley caught with a defender hanging all over him. (I believe that Quinn threw that one but it was downwind). He's making great improvement. Add Bussey, Guyton, Smiley and Lawrence and the receivers look much better than last year.

I'm really disappointed that he is leaving. With another good year I believe that he would be a Hall of Fame candidate. He is a tremendous, athlete, scholar and person and I wish him well.

Wow! I'm not sure where you were going with this oldguy. I know that you've been beaten down with Benford the last five years but I believe that you are thinking about former WAC commissioner Karl Benson, who has been gone from the WAC for four years and is actually doing a decent job with the Sun Belt. I believe that the WAC's new commissioner, Jeff Hurd, is responsible for Grand Canyon being in the WAC. Now Hurd has also brought in some weirdies such as Denver and Chicago State, both a long way from the base. Next thing you know the WAC will bring in the University of Phoenix.

I have no information on this nor do know the MO of Wren Baker when it comes to raising funds for projects. I only know what past ADs have done at the insistence of administrations in the past. Until you have approximately 55% or more pledged, do not go public with your proposal. If that's the case, then there is at least one large benefactor willing to give a large portion of the cost to build the IPF. Hopefully, there is no thought of going to the students to raise the athletic fee to finance this. There is no guarantee that the increase would pass and that would be disastrous should that fail. I know that Baker and Mosley are much more adept at raising funds than our former AD so I'm hoping that a large donor (or donors) is/are willing to underwrite any shortcomings to obtain the needed capital for completion of the facility.