BillySee58

That's not the only reason they need to be tall and long. Defensive ends go against offensive tackles who are generally 6'5" (legitimately) or taller. As a defensive end, if their arms are longer than the defensive end's, then they can control you with their arms and you can't even reach their body with your hands. Imagine you're holding some candy and a little kid wants it. You're holding them off with one arm in their chest and their arms are flailing in the air, not reaching you. They have no chance of even getting to you because you have complete control of them while they have zero. A little weird/lame analagy, but this is essentially the same concept. And yes, I did see a height listing where Graham was 5'10" but hopefully he has grown since then and either way he can still be successful for us. Hopefully we can get some highlight tape up here soon.

If we can get this kid to commit that would be an amazing start and a great pair of future bookends. Look at the guys who've played for us from local powerhouse Cedar Hill and De Soto. James Hamilton and Brandon Akpunku from Cedar Hill were two of our best players in 2011 and had solid four year careers. Antoine Jimmerson and Zach Orr of De Soto are 2 of probably our best 5 players on this team, and Darius Terrell has a chance to be one of our leading receivers. Sorry guys, really excited about us getting Graham. Keep recruiting the heck out of the schools off Belt Line guys!

This is earlier than we've gotten commits the last two years. This is a huge get. He'll have a chance to play from day 1 and we can keep our De Soto pipeline going. Being a multi-year starter at that school tells me he's earned his stripes and has competed with the best. Very promising. Let's win some games now.

I really hope we hold on to him. I could see him being a future defensive coordinator.

True. Either way, somewhere, cougar troll weeps.

He's going to be a fifth-year senior this season. If he has a degree he can transfer anywhere that offers his graduate program.

Of course he'll get bigger, but if he doesn't get DT big (270+) then we shouldn't force feed him just to get him there. The coaches said Boutwell eats something like 7 meals a day to be a little over 260. His brother came here and he wasn't very big, and they seem to be about the same size at this stage in their lives with Xavier being maybe a little bigger than Tyler. Let's get some true DTs so we can keep our ends at end and linebackers at linebacker.

If it happens naturally, yes. But force feeding defensive ends to become defensive tackles is unfortunate for those players. See Boutwell and Lincoln. It's a shame they haven't had a chance to play more on the outside.

97and03 gets it

Benford is probably his lead recruiter

I agree with you TFLF, but we didn't throw downfield very much last year. This goes back to the whole "the coaches don't trust Thompson" argument. They just don't let him air it out deep very much. Whoever the qb is, the coaches have to open up the offense this year. We have a good receiving corp this year with chancellor and Darnell smith each establishing some big play potential already, as well as Harris and Terrell. I also think Darvin Kidsy has the speed and route running ability to contribute from Day 1. As for defense, yup. The line play will be huge this year, but we've got some worthy bodies out there, even without Abbe.

This. Spot on.

Yup, and those are two of the three guys who I mentioned had decent offer lists. Kidsy had offers from Illinois, Miami (OH), Utah, and Fresno St. Davis had a sweet offer list as well. We're going to have a hard time keeping Kidsy off the field.

Yeah, let's just stand pat with a qb who led us to the 105th ranked scoring offense in the country and who our coaches don't trust to throw the ball. I'm not saying Berglund should start that Idaho game, but I just can't get excited about another season of DT. Mainly because he hasn't improved and the coaches trust in him hasn't improved and possibly declined by the end of the year (WKU game). That's a huge deal IMO and I just don't see how we can improve this year with DT. I would say prove me wrong DT, but I have to see the coaches give him a chance to do so first.

Of our 13 high school signees: - 4 show no other offers on recruiting web sites (Walker, Sorge, Ellis, Minor) - 1 was only offered by us and an FCS in Montana (Dajon Williams) but according to Vito he might've held an offer from Louisiana Tech - 5 others had exactly one other FBS offer (Smiley, Scott, Shilleci, Reinhardt, Nelson) - 3 had a decent amount of other teams that offered (Moore, Kidsy, Davis)

Most of our 2013 signees weren't offered by anyone else.

And we're stuck here making excuses

My freshman year at UNT was his freshman season. I feel very fortunate to say I watched him play. He made the games fun to watch. Such a shame, this was the most disappointing season I've ever experienced in any sport, as a player or fan.

Those 2012 fun stats are pretty telling. We only got sacked six times, which is a great stat for our offensive line heading into this year, but the third-down conversion percentage and first-quarter scoring killed us. IMO we need to start Jimmerson. I know you guys like to consider Byrd our bruiser at running back, but Jimmerson weighs more and is much more elusive. I think how hard Jimmerson is to tackle wears down the defense more than Byrd. If anything, I think Byrd's advantage over Jimmerson is top-end speed, as well as pass protection. Bottom line is we score more with Jimmerson, particularly in the red zone. Jimmerson had 4 rushing and 1 receiving touchdown in the red-zone last year and Byrd had zero total. I'm not saying throw Byrd on the sideline all game, but Jimmerson is dynamic and gives our offense a dimension we need. Plus he gives us the results that matter, and we need those sooner rather than later.

You're okay! We were worrying about ya

Tyler Washington's brother?

A chance?

Assuming we are done. As "disappointing" as Tony Mitchell's 2012-2013 season was, he did average 8.5 rebounds per game. It'll be interesting to see who picks up the slack. My pick: Colin Voss with somewhere between 5.5-6 per game.

One. We will have 12 players on scholarship this year, assuming we don't sign anyone else, and teams are allowed 13.

This