BillySee58

In order to get a medical redshirt/hardship waiver for this season he would also have to prove that his initial redshirt (last season) was taken because of injury as well. I don't think we can prove that with him having been suited up for every game.

Exactly. As long as it's just a part of our strategy then it's a good idea. Relying too much on that isn't. As long as we're in CUSA we should take advantage of kids like that taking up a spot or two each class.

Yeah, even if we're recruiting well I still like the idea of saving a few spots for guys like that in January and into signing day (Dillman and Chumley are a couple of examples). That being said, I don't think that strategy can carry your recruiting class alone when you're not winning recruiting battles well.

No, we have 15 scholarship seniors but we also currently have just 80 (by my and NorthTexan95's count) total scholarship players on our roster out of a possible 85. So that's 5 more spots right there. There may be another few walkons who get awarded scholarships in fall camp, but when you also include players who quit, transfer out, etc by the 2016 season we have plenty of spots. This time last year we had around 17 scholarships seniors and about 80 scholarship players total and we still ended up signing a full 25 players in our 2015 signing class. Even after that full class we're still 5 scholarships short heading into the this season. So we have plenty of room for this 2016 class. He's just saying he expects us to go with what he calls "plan powder" where we save up most of our spots for the end of the cycle. Then we go after the players who waited out the process and waited too long where some of their offers are no longer on the table, players whose stock has dropped, etc. Then go after those guys rather than focus as much on early recruiting when most of a recruits offers are still valid.

In the article he says we've been recruiting him for almost two years now. That offer has been listed on there for at least almost a year ago when I first stumbled upon it. Early on in the recruiting process he could've gotten the idea that we had offered him, since we were seriously recruiting him. He could've easily reported what he thought was an early offer, and may have been, but it does not sound like we have a true commitable offer (or even a non-commitable offer) out to him.

I don't think Dodge was some kind of abnormally good recruiter. He was good, and he certainly brought in recruits with better offer lists than Mccarney has for the most part, despite recruiting to Fouts and going 2-10. And they did go on to become good players and live up to their offer lists. I just don't think it takes Todd Dodge to get those recruits. I also think we have decent recruiters on this staff (Perry, Patrick, etc). It doesn't matter how close a recruit is to their personal recruiter. If they can't develop a relationship with the head coach then why would they sign up to play for him? Maybe I'm way off, but I think the problem starts and ends with the head coach. Although I do think the staff as a whole does need to be much more active on Twitter.

I don't know if you're referring to the same ones that I am, but the 3 players listed on rivals as a QB with an offer from us who I know of are Easton Underwood, who said we haven't offered in the article with Vito, as well as Tony Brown and Deshun Qualls who are both being recruited at other positions.

Right, but you guys are talking about the actual coaches. Ben said the athletic department. Sure coaches tweet general tweets about getting a commit all the time, but you aren't going to see a general release by the AD, say, through meangreensports.com talking about how recruiting is going.

Committed to SMU. They are one spot behind the University of Texas right now in 247's team recruiting rankings.

Not if we were getting commits with good offer lists. Yeah you may lose a commit here or there as we get closer to signing day, but if you are winning recruiting battles then you can get another well-recruited player to fill that spot. 2 commits is the surface issue, but the big picture issue is inability to sell the program to recruits to the point that they pull the trigger despite having other schools recruiting them and months remaining to play out the recruiting cycle and seek more offers. There are no general recruiting comments being made by any school's athletic departments right now about recruiting. None of them touch recruiting until they get signed LOIs.

Well, technically they can't comment on recruiting whether it's going good or bad, so that's not exactly a valid complaint. But still, whether we use "Plan Powder" or not, things have to pick up from the coaches end. Hoping players fall in your lap is not a great strategy by itself. Still have to get the kids other schools want.

This has become interesting, embarrassingly so, to follow. We are now down to 139th in the country on 247. We are 125th out of 128 FBS schools (ahead of New Mexico, Georgia State, and Idaho), with 14 FCS schools ahead of us. We are also 13th out of 13 in CUSA, and 12th out of 12 FBS schools in Texas, and 13th overall with FCS Sam Houston State ahead of us as well. This staff really needs to pick it up.

Committed to Kansas State

The comparison would most likely have to come from another one of the big 3 high school football states (Florida or California). I would say either USF, UCF, San Diego State, or maybe Fresno State, to a lesser degree. All are public schools situated in great recruiting bases but with states with a very high amount of competition for those high school players. They won't get the top players, but there are plenty of players in that area that are G5 prospects where if you can outrecruit other G5 programs for then you can field a very competitive team. Those schools have at various times in recent years.

Either way he's going to have to win recruiting battles. JUCO players get very good exposure at most JUCO football programs, so if you want a good player you'll have to outrecruit some other schools, just like the good high school players in the metroplex. If you look at the JUCOs who have done well for us under Mccarney they had good offer lists. James Jones had offers from schools like Houston and Mississippi State and Andrew Power had offers from schools like Memphis and, at one point, Tennessee. You have to in order to get the good ones who can actually help you win games and rely on.

I'd say that's a good comparison, but from a recruiting base standpoint I think they more closely resemble UTSA. Both UTSA and SJSU are from talent rich states (California and Texas) but are situated in the area that is not necessarily the hotbed of recruiting in the state (NoCal as opposed to the hotbed of SoCal and San Antonio as opposed to the hotbed of the DFW). We are situated in that hotbed so we have that going for us. Now as far as us taking advantage of that..

Depends what your definition of "turns around" is. Will we be better than 136th in the country, have more than 2 commits, and start passing some of these FCS programs like Elon and Mercer? Probably, and we better. Will we have a respectable CUSA-level class after the weekend? It would certainly have to be better than last year for that to be the case. Last year, looking off the article and going off of memory, we gained a commitment from Abdul Beecham (who had no other FBS offers and eventually double signed with DII Midwestern State and JUCO Trinity Valley), had Ashton Preston in who had already been committed, had Creighton Barr in who committed about a month and a half later, tried to get Myles Cheatum to commit but he didn't, and turned down a commitment from Graham Mcwhorter (told him we "needed to see his transcripts first"). Also had Chett Munden in who committed a few days later to us over one other offer (ULM). A big camp weekend with a few commits would help, but we need to start winning recruiting battles and leaving good impressions.

It's sad, but our recruiting really has reminded me this whole cycle of a staff and coach that thinks it/he is about to be fired after the season. Not a coach who is heading into the 2nd year of a 5-year extension.

Commits to SMU. Their class is up to 48th in the country on 247. Ours is down to 136th.

His top 6. We didn't make it, although 3 Sun Belt schools did.

I wasn't following UNT recruiting as closely for a lot of these guys but I'm almost certain 8 is Means and 9 is Chumley. Also pretty confident 2 is Greer.

Considering we're down now to 135th in the country, yeah, probably one of the lowest amounts.

He might get a long time. I think Chris Miles will move over to left tackle in 2016 after starting at right tackle this year, then lock down left tackle from 2016-2018.

For sure. Just saying that lining up in the I and trying to pound the ball while not relying much on the passing game (or not having a QB to rely on) against a legit power conference team is just not a formula that has proven successful. True, although that Florida team was not even a bowl team, unlike the Tennessee team will likely be. But you're right, that misdirection and play execution gave them a chance when they otherwise wouldn't have. They still didn't have to rely heavily on lining up and out-manning that Florida team straight up, even though they weren't throwing.

Exactly. And that touchdown was a passing one. We want to line up and pound the ball, but you can't do that against these teams. In the 4 money games of the Mccarney era (Alabama, LSU, Georgia, Texas) we have rushed for a a grand total of zero touchdowns. If you're the little guy you have to be able to pass the ball to have a chance.