BillySee58

It’s hard to see because schools wipe dudes from their roster when they hit the portal, save for a few exceptions like if they stay on through a bowl game. I’m sure it was at least somewhere in the high 270s or low 280s. He hasn’t updated his twitter profile in a long time by the looks of it, and he looked like an average sized FCS offensive tackle out on the field in the footage against us.

He started 9 games for them this season.

But he went in 2020, during a season that already didn’t count against his eligibility.

For sure. Rogers’ JUCO year was the 2020 season that already didn’t count towards his eligibility to begin with. The intent with that eligibility freeze that year was to make sure everyone had 5 years to play 4 not counting 2020. Not to make sure everyone had 6 years to play 5. He got his 5 non-Covid seasons at the FBS level. Agreed. Move on and save that scholarship for an actual 18-year old.

I do too. Really wanted to see what he could do under a more competent DC as an upperclassmen. Oh well. Walkon True Freshman Quinton Hammonds was listed as the first name with he and Jackson being co-starters for the bowl game. Hopefully Hammonds ends up being a stud and we don’t end up missing Jackson. Definitely a risk from bringing in a new DC but a risk we all know was needed.

Sure. And that’s part of my point. I think our fanbase has standards that forced the Littrell dismissal. My original point was in response to the “If UNT is ever going to get out of the shadow of itself, we have to stop making ourselves feel better after losses and focus instead on how to win.” I just don’t think that’s what us holding us back, as evidenced by the hypothetical backlash you mentioned that was waiting had they kept Littrell after that 7-win season.

I get all that. I think in the end it doesn’t matter if we feel optimistic after losses or come on here and talk about how we much we suck. I don’t think either approach changes our situation. The fact that we fired Littrell after a conference championship game loss indicates that we have bigger aspirations. Definitely not the move a complacent program or fanbase makes. Morris has to win something significant here or he’ll be let go. There is reason to think he can but whether you feel like he can or he can’t, we don’t have to worry about him being judged by something other than results.

We got him. Yanta, Blair, and Nnanna should be a really experienced interior offensive line with a ton of career starts amongst them. Nelson and Obidegwu at the tackles and you’re looking at an offensive line with over 110 career starts collectively at the division 1 level, by my count.

Yes, I would say most first-time transfers are either guys who want more playing time, guys whose coaches were hired away or fired, or guys whose stock is just too high for them to pass up the NIL opportunities presented elsewhere. Here is pretty much all of the guys who hit the transfer portal after the last two seasons who were actually starting or getting a lot of playing time: Chandler Morris - transferred from TCU DT Sheffield - transferred from Wash State Oscar Hammond - transferred from UCO Tyler Mercer - signed out of HS by Morris Chandler Rogers - transferred from ULM Ja’Mori Maclin - transferred from Mizzou Trey Cleveland - transferred from TTU Jordan Smart - transferred from UTPB Ayo Adeyi - transferred from Harding Oscar Adaway - signed out of HS by Littrell Ethan Miner - transferred from Ark State Febechi Nwaiwu - former walkon brought in by Littrell Phil Hill - transferred from UNLV Logan Wilson - transferred from ULM Patrick Smith - signed out of HS by Littrell By and large, the key players who we have lost to the portal were transfers here.

Morris has talked about it before but with high school signees there is a much stronger relationship built with them and their families, as well as between them and the University itself. To a high school signee, this is their home and the only college they have ever known. To a transfer portal it’s just the next stop and a chance to bump up their stock for a better NIL/program opportunity. A freshman comes in and has a good season, they’ve successfully taken the first step at UNT in the plan they laid out when they came here. A transfer has a good season here and they’ve gotten what they wanted out of our school and program and typically will leverage it into a better opportunity. In terms of retaining players, you’re gonna have more success with the guys you got out of high school. But even if it’s just for a season, you still take guys who can produce like Morris and DT out of the portal all day. All about finding the right mix now. Definitely agree about the o-line and play calling. Looks like we have some quality help coming to supplement guys like Blair and Nelson. Play calling definitely has room for improvement, especially on those money situations on 3rd down and in the red zone where we weren’t near as highly ranked as our overall offensive statistics were.

What if we stopped patting ourselves on the back for being disappointed at the result after losses and see if that works? Maybe that’s what’s holding us back. Being so proud that we don’t accept moral victories instead of actually figuring out how to get real victories. Everyone is always so happy to say they don’t accept moral victories on here when we lose without actually digging into the details to refute the optimism beyond a simplistic statement. Almost every good season we have had in the last 20 years was followed by a losing season. Most of our good seasons were followed up with losing seasons. A lot of our losing streaks were preceded by wins that showed weaknesses that could be exploited by better teams (i.e. FAU this season). Some of our best winning streaks were on the heels of losses where we played tough against a good opponent, like Iowa in 2017. All that to say, it’s not all black and white. We can and should analyze the nuances and details in between. Our HC has done nothing but churn out elite QB play from 3-star and below rated QBs for the last decade as an HC and OC, most recently evidenced by one of the most wild instances many people around college football have ever seen. We hired a DC who had a top 25 defense in the FBS and is bringing 5 starters and 2 more of his backups from that defense with him. There are logical reasons for optimism coming out of this bowl game and acknowledging that doesn’t equate to complacency or prevent us from turning the corner as a program.

In 2009 Darius Carey had a standout true freshman season racking up 509 receiving yards. Not sure what the record was before that but here are the top true freshmen seasons in terms of receiving yards since, by my research: 378 - Miles Coleman 2024 363 - Landon Sides 2023 295 - Wyatt Young 2024 281 - Jaelon Darden 2017 253 - Carlos Harris 2012 240 - Deonte Simpson 2019 151 - Darvin Kidsy 2013 146 - Tyler Wilson 2016 97 - Rico Bussey 2016 These guys on our roster are in really good company being atop some real ballers on this list. NFL guys, 1,000 yard seasons, etc. Two takeaways here are that you can make an impact early here, especially at receiver, and that even in the transfer portal it’s still important to sign top high school talent as they seems to be the guys more likely to remain loyal when they otherwise would have good stock in the transfer portal/NIL market.

This is where I am. I think we’re looking pretty solid across the board offensively. Maybe some questions at tackle but we added a multi-year starting left tackle from a MAC program. 7 guys from the Sam Houston defensive two-deep including 5 starters should give us a fast track on the installation of the defense and raise our floor there. My biggest question is who will step up and be the all-conference caliber guys to take us to the next level. Haven’t had enough of them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksRHn8K2osI We are joined again by Adam of Mean Green Nation to talk Texas State and transfers.

I think the offense we see will have more designed QB run plays and some fun stuff sprinkled in to keep the weight off Mestemaker and make his life as easy as we can. Calling at least one Wyatt Young pass this game. But yeah, hope we can lean on them in the run game.

Looks like they have been hit harder than us in terms of volume. Really we’re only down 3 guys and if Blair and Duncan are back, I’d say our o-line has upgraded from our last few games with Mercer. Also sucks to lose Morris but he was a shell of his pre Tulane injury self those last few games.

Than a bowl game we’re about to play in, in Dallas against an in-state opponent that we have historically played more than anyone besides SMU? 8 of the top 17 threads in this forum have NIL and/or transfer portal related thread titles with a handful of the other 9 eventually getting hijacked with NIL/transfer portal discourse. Could we make this forum actually about the UNT football program again? Of course transfer portal and NIL is very relevant and discourse on it is necessary, but it has completely overtaken this forum to the point where it’s hard to find actual discourse about the team itself and not just in the offseason.

Why? Those guys actually have a path to getting on the field or already are. Cash didn’t have a path to getting on the field here. No QB is going to stay to backup a guy with the same amount of remaining eligibility.

Merry Christmas to @aztecskin indeed! And everyone else too!

Yup. Will be interesting to see how it plays out. For now I have everyone’s eligibility listed in this depth chart based on if the rules continue to count JUCO seasons towards the traditional 5 seasons to play 4.

Updated for adding Sam Houston’s leading receiver Simeon Evans, offensive lineman Ugonna Nnanna who started about 9 games in his career at Virginia, and offensive lineman Jaymon Lamb who started at tackle for SFA this season.

I think technically Breylon Charles goes from being a Junior this season to now being a sophomore next season eligibility wise. Also O-lineman Julio Madero and D-lineman Demetrie Morgan who we just signed would be freshmen eligibility wise next season.

Honestly I have Young down there because I’m expecting him to transfer. I believe he took UNT stuff off his socials and he came here because of Caponi. Hopefully it ends up being a fit from both sides because I agree that he would be a player for us, and the other secondary spots have been well addressed.

Yes, will definitely be more attractive than ever. Still, I think you can beat out JUCOs for the vast majority of kids as a school like North Texas. FCS and DII will have more trouble. Either way, definitely will incentivize getting your freshmen on the field as a four-year school.

No, I’m saying it is becoming increasingly smart to recruit high school players in terms of maintaining your roster. The high school signees are the ones who are much more likely to stay despite having enough success here to be able to command P4 offers through the portal. For example, Brian Nelson is a 6’ cornerback who had 4 picks this year. Braydon Nelson started 9 games as a true freshman including about half at left tackle. They would both have a host of P4 offers if they hit the portal, but they have chosen to stay. For guys who we bring in through the portal, if they have seasons where they could command as many P4 offers as the Nelsons could right now, they are basically locks to enter the portal. But the guys who have been here since they graduated high school have shown far more loyalty in terms of staying out of the portal when they have the stock to get P4 offers through it.