BillySee58

Commits to Colorado

I think we should temper our expectations for the late-arriving JUCO players. The other risk with these late arriving guys is that even if they do make it in grade wise, they are still on a very tight time crunch to get acclimated. Like Jareid Combs last year, who was highly recruited, had great JUCO production, and had the size/speed combination, yet he had zero sacks in his first year here. Any impact Hoston and co. can have in year one should hopefully be more of a bonus than something we're counting on, but with our limited numbers we honestly are leaning more towards counting on it.

They led the conference in season-ending injuries, return their all-conference running back who went out for the season early against Tech, and got the grad transfer QB mentioned above. They probably won't compete for a conference title, but considering they were 5-7 last year, expecting them to go 7-5 with all those upgrades makes sense.

One factor that often gets overlooked in the whole "start your whole career at 'X' G5 school, or wait your turn and never play at 'Y' P5 school" is that the coaches at the P5 schools are usually better recruiters than the G5 schools' coaches. So the challenge isn't just getting kids who have a better product to choose, but the salesman selling that product is elite as well.

A few roster updates. JUCO QB Devin O'Hara has been added to the roster, JUCO OL Jalen Thomas has been added to the roster (with a sweet jersey number of *), PWO Corey Mann has been added, and former tight end Wylie Reinhardt has been moved to offensive lineman. This is interesting to me. O'Hara and Thomas were late additions who were blueshirt candidates. The fact that they are listed on the roster doesn't rule them out as blueshirts, but that theoretically means if they are then they are paying their own rent right now since they can't be put on scholarship until the beginning of fall camp. Also seems weird that Baulkman and Mylam Peters aren't on the roster since they are supposedly in Denton. Baulkman took an official visit and was introduced as a signing of NSD, so he can't be a blueshirt. Peters I believe is a blueshirt candidate. So still too early to know what to make of everything, but just an update.

Butch Jones didn't offer that many of Texas' signees. You could make that claim about any of the other programs around the top 10 as well. The truth is, there is a lot of pressure by the many subscribers of those services subsites to bump their commits. Not just Texas. Also, saying a class is ranked X or a recruit is a 3-star, etc is not really a straightforward statement now. With four major recruiting sites, classes are ranked differently and most people will call a recruit a 5-star even if three sites have him as a 4-star. I think people feel specifying which service's rating they are citing may be a waste of breath lol.

On signing day Texas was 11th on 247, 10th on ESPN, 13th on Rivals, and 8th on scout. http://sportsday.dallasnews.com/college-sports/collegesports/2016/02/03/national-signing-day-class-rankings-signees-instant-analysis

They are preferred walkons. They are guaranteed a roster spot. The walkons who are not guaranteed a roster spot will not be put on the roster until they officially make the roster

Blueshirts would be put on scholarship during fall camp, before then. And theoretically they should be on the roster even before that, since walkons are listed on the official roster as well.

I personally don't think high school recruits care how good or bad we've been the last 20 years because they likely have never seen a UNT game live or on TV if we were not recruiting them until the winter, after Littrell was hired on. You get to paint the picture for them. If you can get them to buy what you are selling, it doesn't matter. And JUCOs are one thing, spring JUCOs more specifically are another. That's where I disagree with Littrell's strategy. Especially when you factor in that we probably we be that good in the first two years anyways. I'd rather use those scholarships on guys who will be here in year 3 or 4 but Littrell is seemingly going all in on years 1 and 2 as well. I guess he wants to make an early splash to help attract those good high school players, but either way he is going to be expected to have something going by years 3 and 4.

That may be so, but if those JUCO guys don't make it in then that is on Littrell for sub-par roster management. Mccarney was awful at roster management, and it showed once all the Dodge recruits were gone, but banking on a bunch of spring JUCOs who don't actually make it in would compound the issue.

That's a very good question, and I can't give you as good an answer. What I will say is that how blueshirting works is that the player comes in initially as a walkon and is put on scholarship ASAP, which I believe is at the start of fall practices. I don't see why they wouldn't be put on the roster when they are technically still walkons, as we have other walkons on the official roster. We may just be expecting them to come in later than the more traditionally brought in scholarship guys, since they would have to foot their own bill on rent from now until fall camp starts. Although that puts them in a tough spot to contribute early, or really even have that big an impact at all this season.

As it was discussed in another thread, the roster has been updated with the arrivals of the 2016 signees. Good news and bad news. Good news is that all of the high school signees appear to have made it in and are on the roster. Bad news is of the five JUCO transfers we signed who were set to graduate from their JUCO in spring, only one is currently listed on the roster (Ejodamen Ejiya). The other four (William Johnson, Dee Baulkman, Darius Turner, and Cody Hayes) are not on the roster. We also had quite a few departures including walkons and scholarship guys, notably a few o-linemen signed by Mccarney. We're down to just 10 total offensive linemen on our roster. We desperately need all these guys we've received commitments from since signing day to all make it in. None of those guys are currently on the roster but I think that's to be expected, especially if they are expecting to blueshirt. http://m.meangreensports.com/m/signingday/signing-day-2016.html

Wow. Just saw the updated roster. Walker was one we knew about, but the others were not.

Fact

look, there's no way we he Jilts thE bigger programs to come here. he was a 5-star qb who everyone wanted, he looked good as a true Freshman, and he's got 3 years of eligibility leFt. but eff it. let's say we do Get him. here is hOw it goes. 2016: sits out. 2017: taking over for aLec morris, stiDham throws for 3,380 yards with 21 touchdowns against 12 picks, we go 7-6 with a tough loss in our BowL game. 2018: comes oUt strong, leading us to an 8-1 start with a tough loss at arkansas and coach brett bieleMa. he gets INjured and mason fine Takes over, still getting us to tHE cusa championship game. we Fall to chase Litton and marshall in huntington, but rebound in the bowl game and finish 12-2. littrell takes the hc job at kansas state. 2019: with graham harrell as hc, stidham throws for 4,231 Yards and we go 14-0. we lose in the first round of the cfb playoffs to washington but stidham goes first in the nfl draft and unt becomes a top destination for hs quarterbacks.

I enjoyed the interview. The one disconcerting thing I heard him say was that he was shocked at how a recruit said the 2008 Tech vs Texas game was the first college football that kid watched. He said he was thinking "come on. You probably should've been watching college football before that." I've seen the notion on here that people believe texas high school football recruits grew up watching Harrell. Current high school seniors were 9 years old during Harrell's senior season in 2008. There are not a lot of 9-year olds watching college football on Saturdays, outside of their parents' alma mater's games. My point is I hope Harrell doesn't think his reputation with recruits, especially quarterbacks, is bigger than it really is. We've gotten 2 high school QB commitments since he's been here and they combined for one other FBS offer, from Wyoming. It's a nice ancillary tool to have when he's recruiting QBs, but it alone is not enough to win recruiting battles.

I counted who is still on the official roster. Wallace is not, Ivery still is

I count 54 scholarship players currently on the official roster, and 19 more 2016 players who have signed or committed. So that means there are about 5 players leaving or not going to make it in.

Where are you seeing that? 247 has us at 104th in the country and 9th in CUSA, and they are factoring in the JUCO commits. http://northtexas.247sports.com/Season/2016-Football/Commits

Yes, but it's a good job of successfully selling your program to a player who has options. Different from just winning straight up recruiting battles, but probably more important when it comes to getting early commitments. But I'm not telling you anything you aren't already well aware of.

Neither season was good

This still seems to be a fruitless endeavor.

Of course. I didn't make that statement under the impression that Baylor, or even Georgia Tech offered him as a QB. But even after those two, Harris had 8 other FBS offers and Pearson had 1.

Much more impressive recruiting job by UTSA. Fortunately QB is one of the most likely positions where a player without a great offer list can turn out well. Because fit for the offense and development comes into play more at QB than most other positions. If you were looking for proof that this is a good recruiting staff, not going to find much evidence here. Looking for proof that they an develop their own QBs? Maybe, here.