BillySee58

We need him for recruiting. Since Anwar's recruits (Flash, Coleman, and Arthur Casimiro) are set to be seniors this year, we'll need him to find sufficient replacements to match their production.

I wouldn't say Means was that much of a diamond in the rough. He held a Boise offer at one point. I think his offer list was what it should've been, considering he didn't have great production. I really McClain. I could see him starting early in his career. Yeah, we're going to keep getting these diamond in the rough type players. My hope is that we can have a steady mix of those guys and guys who we had to win recruiting battles for.

Little follow up on Bendy's commitment, he now has a 247 and Rivals profile and is listed as a commit. Rivals rated him a 5.4 2-star, just shy of being a 3 star. Could easily get it with a big season or big summer on the camp and 7on7 circuit. Also, an ETSN article on his commitment. http://etsn.fm/john-tylers-rodney-bendy-commits-to-north-texas/ Update: has now added an ESPN profile. http://espn.go.com/college-sports/football/recruiting/player/_/id/198985/rodney-bendy

There's been some debate on here recently about the coaches and their ability to light the world on fire with recruiting, i.e. beating top schools out , getting early commits, stringing together top rated classes, and just being able to sell the program to these kids in general. As up for debate as that may be, I really do like the coaches evaluating skills, especially with the lower-profile recruits who the coaches have offered. A guy like Fred Scott was a good example, as was much of the 2013 class. I really liked the Rodney Bendy offer, even though we were his first, and was very excited when he committed. Hopefully we start bringing in these Tee Goree type recruits more often, but the coaches do know what they're doing and who they're offering. Even if we're a kid's first offer, more times than not it was warranted and he earned it.

6'2" 220 lb linebacker from Killeen Shoemaker HS. Plays a lot on the line of scrimmage as a standup rusher, 9 tech. Likely a linebacker in college, but could potentially grow into a defensive end. We appear to be his first offer. Highlights: http://www.hudl.com/athlete/2227658/kerry-walker http://recruiting.scout.com/a.z?s=73&p=8&c=1&nid=7496063 http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/recruiting/player-Kerry-Walker-160957

6'0" 162 lb receiver from Waco Connally. Could project inside or outside in college. We are his first offer. Had 470 receiving yards and 7 scores. http://inagist.com/all/466751750062370816/ Highlights: http://www.hudl.com/athlete/1917654/israel-williams

5'11" 210 lb linebacker from Waco Midway high school (same school as 2014 target Christian Beard). Plays middle linebacker, where he likely will in college. We are his second listed offer. Currently committed to Houston. Highlights: http://www.hudl.com/athlete/1370337/lenoy-jr-jones http://247sports.com/Player/Lenoy-Jones-Jr-28738 https://sports.yahoo.com/footballrecruiting/football/recruiting/player-Lenoy-Jones-146316 http://tcu.scout.com/a.z?s=360&p=8&c=1&nid=7377930

6'2" 210 lb linebacker from Killeen. We are his first listed offer. Highlights: http://www.hudl.com/athlete/2227659/diamon-cannon http://247sports.com/Player/Diamon-Cannon-47499 http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/recruiting/player-Diamon-Cannon-160955 http://recruiting.scout.com/a.z?s=73&p=8&c=1&nid=7390334

6'3" 225 lb defensive end from Canton. We are his 5th offer. Also holds offers from Memphis, Nevada, and UTSA. Highlights: http://www.hudl.com/athlete/601571/sam-miller http://recruiting.scout.com/a.z?s=73&p=8&c=1&nid=7552707 http://247sports.com/Player/Sam-Miller-55092 http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/recruiting/player-Sam-Miller-162826 http://espn.go.com/college-sports/football/recruiting/player/_/id/198995/sam-miller

Offensive lineman from Longview. Plays left tackle for Longview, but will likely play on the interior in college, likely center. We are his 6th offer along with Lamar, Louisiana Lafayette, Houston, Arkansas State, and New Mexico. Highlights: http://www.hudl.com/athlete/2603377/broderick-washington http://247sports.com/Player/Broderick-Washington-58960 http://recruiting.scout.com/a.z?s=73&p=8&c=1&nid=7719736

5'11" 175 lb athlete from Keller Central. Named 1st team all district 4-5A cornerback last year as a junior, while tallying 9 interceptions. Also plays receiver, where he had 350 yards receiving and 3 receiving tds. Likely projects to cornerback in college. Robinson was teammates at Keller Central with 2014 signee TJ Tauaalo. We are the 1st to offer. Highlights: http://www.hudl.com/athlete/1401040/taylor-robinson http://northtexas.scout.com/a.z?s=353&p=8&c=1&nid=7765711 http://247sports.com/Player/Taylor-Robinson-62954 http://espn.go.com/college-sports/football/recruiting/player/_/id/197136/taylor-robinson

Formerly from Arlington Bowie http://247sports.com/Player/Caleb-Potter-52378

6'0" 200 lb safety out of Fort Scott CC in Kansas. Another offer out to a JUCO safety. Our JUCO offers have gone out to safeties, outside receivers, and d-linemen so far. Had 6 interceptions last year as well as 68 tackles. Covers good ground and lays the wood pretty well. We are Gray's first offer. Highlights: http://www.hudl.com/athlete/2915484/james-gray https://rivals.yahoo.com/hovpen/football/recruiting/player-James-Gray-159641 http://recruiting.scout.com/a.z?s=73&p=8&c=1&nid=7710762 http://247sports.com/Player/James-Gray-63703

One thing is for sure, we're going to be very thin in the front court. Both weight and depth. Not to mention short, with Flannigan being are tallest at 6'8" and the rest either 6'7" or 6'6". Outside of Voss, the other guys are right at or less than 200 lbs. Ahmed is listed at 210 and probably projects better, body-type wise, to small forward but we desperately need him down low. Flannigan was listed at a generous 200 lbs and did get pushed around a lot last year because of it. Combs and Wesley are both under 200, with Combs likely around 180.

I'm not sure. I give little stock to outside receivers' weights. I give even less stock to listed numbers (height, weight, 40 time) unless they are verified and the 40s are laser timed. He's skinny, we'll beef him up some, but he'll still be on the skinny side. There is plenty of physicality on the outside and they can't be twigs out there, but at the same time we won't ever need Bendy to weigh much more than 200 lbs, if at all. IMO I think taller receivers make better blockers than short ones. Even if they are skinnier than the shorter receivers. You aren't asking for drive blocks out there, just staying locked up and not letting them get around you. There's more to being a good blocking receiver than that, just stating that I don't think being skinny is as big a liability in blocking as some might think.

If you're legitimately in the 2-deep you're actually seeing the field. The coaches trust you on the field. "Backup" is a very general term. There's a huge difference between a guy legitimately on the two deep and guy who never sees the field except for garbage time. Both are technically backups, but the difference is major. One may start if they transfer to a school like UNT. The other will be in not much better a situation if they transfer here. That's been the case, every time.

How are those exceptions? That's almost every major college transfer who has come here lately. Let's name the rest of the recent big school transfers then. We got 1 in our last class, in former 4-star LB Anthony Wallace from Oregon. He didn't hardly play at all at Oregon in two years. Where's he on our two-deep? At his position (MLB) we have 2-star Fred Scott starting, backed up by Blake Bean. Darius Terrell couldn't crack the depth chart at Texas, but this was mainly because of the experiment they tried with him. They tried moving him to tight end because he was a bigger WR, but that wasn't a good fit. He transfers here and he's stuck behind a a former walkon and two sub 5'9" receivers who had no other offers coming out of high school. This year he's currently starting ahead of two sub 6' WRs who came here as walkons. I think highly of him. He should contribute plenty this year and he's far from a bust. But just because he had a great offer list and was 6'3" hardly meant he could just come in here and start from day 1. Then everyone's favorite, Brock Berglund. Talent wasn't an issue here, talent wasn't an issue there (Kansas and Scottsdale CC). Just because he was a 3-star, had offers from Pac 12 schools, had a great arm and great mobility, and was 6'3" didn't mean he could come in here and start right away. Not to mention 4-star Jordan Richmond who just transferred from A&M, and is now gone already. Guys can improve their situations coming here. But not nearly as much as you're saying.

The kids who play like scrubs and transfer here don't play here either. Look at our recent transfers. Cam Feldt was a 4-star but he never even sniffed beating anyone out at Arkansas. He transferred here and it was much of the same. Same with Tyler Stradford. He was a reach for OU, never did anything there, and came here and did nothing. Likewise, take Reggie Pegram and Marcus Trice. Pegram played in his two years at Purdue. He had two tds in there bowl game. He went from a solid back, 2nd or 3rd in their RB rotation, and comes here and again is a solid back, 2nd or 3rd in our rotation. May even start this year. Trice was in the two-deep at safety and got caught behind an NFL safety and NCAA All-American in Tony Jefferson. Goes from the 2-deep in a loaded safety core to starter here in a thin safety core. The difference between UNT and P5 schools is not huge. If you're riding the pine there, you're not going to come in here and start and light the world on fire. It can be the difference between a guy being legitimately in the 2-deep and actually being the first guy off the bench at a P5 school, and being a starter here.

Good for DT! Good luck to him!

I don't know that kid who you know's situation personally like you do GOMG2013, but I know a lot of early offers given out are not committable. It happens all the time. Schools will offer a kid, but won't be ready to take his commitment at that moment. They want to hold out for the guys higher on their board, but still be able to let that kid know that they think highly enough of him to have offered. Slow playing. Here's an article of that happening, and a kid committing w/o a head coach's consent. http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2014/2/18/5421956/duke-shelley-tennessee-commit-recruiting You know your stuff, so I don't think I'm breaking this to you. And I have no idea if this is evenly remotely relevant to the kid you brought up. Just bringing up another point.

If this is the roster we go into 2014-2015 with (far from guaranteed, based on the past): PG - Chris Jones, Todd Eaglin, GWP SG - Mo Aniefiok/TJ Taylor, C. Ward, GWP, D. Harris SF - Jordan Williams, Greg Wesley/Aniefiok, Muhammed Ahmed PF - Muhammad Ahmed, Jeremy Combs/Wesley PF - Colin Voss, Armani Flannigan 6th man: Who ever isn't starting between Taylor and Aniefiok. I've never seen Combs show any small forward skills like ball handling or scoring much from outside the paint. Cooley, who's seen him play live confirmed this. I don't see him at SF. As for Wesley, he has the skill set to play SF but he needs a lot of work refining his dribbling and shooting. The ability is there though, hence all those offers he had. But we'll need him in the post too.

https://twitter.com/miller_tonja/status/465883593944756225https://twitter.com/brettvito/status/465894971623481344 Miller time in New Orleans! Go Drew!

This discussion is not bad offseason discussion at all. Let me address 2 things: 1. The star system. "Billy's first law of following recruiting" states that any and all discussion about stars and the star system will eventually lead to a debate about whether or not stars mean anything. Outlier type players who were lowly rated/unrated or statistics of how higher ranked players are more likely to succeed will then be used to back up either side of the argument. The truth is, stars mean nothing for an individual player. They have nothing to do with how successfull a player will be. But there is evidence to suggest that higher rated players are more likely to succeed. For every Khalil Mack or Eric Fisher, there are hundreds of two stars who never start or even play meaningful snaps throughout their career. Yes there are a lot of politics involved with the star system. Especially if you're going to look at rivals. They're industry is run by teams' rivals sites and subscriptions to those sites. Why bump a deserving player of our ours, like Fonzale Davis, to a 3-star when we give them no pressure and a school with a sub site on rivals is pestering them to bump their 2-star up to 3? Rivals is the best IMO for the top 250 national type kids. But for us, we're more likely to get more love from 247, ESPN, and now scout with our boy Gabe Brooks doing a great job and giving us some attention. 2. Comparing our staff to other staffs. We will and should be compared to other staffs as long as we're playing them or recruiting against them. Yeah getting 2-star guys with no other offers is not necessarily a bad thing, and he might end up being a stud. But don't believe that those guys are on the top of the coaches' boards. There's a very high chance that the guys the coaches want most are also coveted by other schools. You have to win battles to get the guys you want most. As for the early commit argument at the beginning. Of course how you finish is more important than how you start. The impressive thing about the early commits is that the coaches from UTSA and such are selling their program to these kids. If you've been reading Vito's recruiting series, a lot of our targets are going to wait through the summer, into their senior season, or after it's over to make a decision. This is very common among kids waiting to see if they can get bigger offers before they commit. The difference is, other schools' coaches are convincing these kids that they don't need to wait. Commit now, because this is the school for you, regardless of who might offer you down the line. Being able to sell the program to that extent is how you're able to win the battles and get who you want. I trust this staff to win games and field a competitive team. But if you follow recruiting as close as I do, you see things that you wouldn't just from looking at our class on signing day. Our coaches are behind the curve of present day recruiting. Doesn't mean we can't sign a good class, beat teams out for recruits, and win games.

Yes. He is the only freshman to play under Benford who was actually signed under Benford. Overlander, who also bailed after a year, played as a freshman under Benford but signed under JJ