BillySee58

Yeah that too

Morris graduated from Bama in fall 2015 and joined North Texas after Bama won the CFP that January 2016. We also signed Bryce English that winter but the first two signees were DE Joshua Wheeler and OL TJ Henson, iirc. That was back when only JUCOs signed on December signing day.

Littrell brought Morris in.

Yeah for sure, I get being disappointed by that should it happen. But at the end of the day the QBs we signed from 2017-2020 (Pearson, Bean, Martin, Kuehne, Gilmore) are all either gone or have not really proven themselves in the coaches eyes. You need more than one playable QB. If we hadn’t signed Morris in 2016 then we probably don’t make it to a Bowl Game that year. He was huge in winning that 5th game against Southern Miss and actually finished with more TD passes than Fine that season.

I feel like I see this type of outlook a lot and I don’t think it would be all that strange to bring in a P5 QB and not start him. Best case scenario Ruder is better than Aune, worst case he’s most likely still our 2nd best QB. We had a lot of QBs but seemingly none our coaches trust on the field outside of Aune and maybe Martin. Martin has been here 4 years and firmly behind Aune and Bean the entire time, Gilmore and Kuehne are/were non-factors in the QB race and Drummond is a true freshman. We had the scholarship and if all Ruder does is bolster our backup QB spot, that’s a pretty good use of the scholarship IMO.

He has always thrown a good ball and shown impressive arm strength and deep ball touch. Problem last year was consistency/accuracy. Way too many incompletions. Statistically he was really impressive. 13/4 TD:INT, led the conference in QB rating, QB rating was better than all of Fine’s season except his Junior year, and according to PFF he was also 2nd in the nation in dropped TD passes with 5. He also was asked to make a lot of tough throws. If he’s the guy I think it will be very imperative for him to start using the RBs and Tight Ends on check downs instead of throwing so many of these low % prayer passes. 8.9 yards/attempt last year is great. Again, it’s better than anything Fine ever had, but we need more of those 3-5 yards passes instead of 0-yard passes that keep our offense behind the sticks.

I’m kind of confused why we’re saying he graduated from UNT in 2.5 years. He enrolled in fall of 2019 so really it’s more like 2 years. Only was here for 4 conventional semesters. Must have had a lot of AP credits and summer classes. Pretty impressive.

Probably

Well that is the effective year of admittance into the SEC for Texas and OU

I’ll go with Khatib Lyles. Been holding onto his stock for a while, and with his size and athleticism I feel like all he needs is a chance. According to the roster he has moved back to receiver. Good news is that’s his natural position, but we are extremely deep at receiver right now so the rotation may be hard to crack. With his time spent at tight end maybe that practice allows him to be a solid slot receiver and help fill some of Darden’s role there.

Not sure why it is not being renewed, but this was essentially the original agreement. It was setup as a 4-game series from 2014-2017 with an 8-game option for 2018-2025. The option got picked up but any games beyond that would need to come in the form of a new series agreement and that never happened, it seems. That agreement took place in 2008 and both Universities have changed Athletic Directors since then.

Good news. We’re still in CUSA.

I hear ya. But keep in mind last year we averaged 7 points more than the 2nd-highest scoring offense in CUSA and 96 more offensive yards/game than the 2nd highest yards/game team in CUSA. Our offense produced plenty. We were equally distanced from the 2nd worse defenses in CUSA in those categories last year. Right now I think that’s where the primary concern is.

Yeah that seems pretty assured. Aune technically has 3 years of eligibility left, 3 for Martin, 4 for Ruder, and 4 for Gilmore. Unless Drummond is your starter, it makes sense to redshirt him and give him some separation from the other guys, eligibility wise. Also, whoever wins the starting job, it’s not hard to envision the other guys deciding to look for opportunities elsewhere where they can play. Especially since a lot of our QBs are already graduated and engaged/married. Would not be shocking to see Drummond and the starting QB as the lone returners in the QB room come next season. Take this year to study and learn the offense.

Hard to imagine anyone other than Aune starting the 1st game. Feels like we probably see Aune and Ruder games 1 and 2 until one of the two separates themselves. Feel good either way honestly.

You can enter the portal any of the 365 days of the year. In order to be eligible to take advantage of the NCAA’s sit-out free transfer rule, an athlete would have needed to be in the portal by July 1st, unless they are grad transferring like Kuehne. Starting this upcoming school year, fall/winter athletes will need to be in the transfer portal by May 1st in order to be eligible to transfer without sitting out a year the next season. https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/ncaa-board-of-directors-ratifies-one-time-transfer-legislation-allowing-athletes-immediate-eligibility/

I wish all of the threads of players transferring were this positive. Attitude towards the student athlete and the transfer portal usually looks a lot different, and much less favorable. Just like a lot of those cases, it looks like a really sensible move and Kuehne represented us very well while here. Looked like we might get Chase Griffin in 2019 then he chose UCLA, we moved on to Kuehne and he committed and held firm. Wishing him the best.

Sounds like they have bulked up and looked great in the spring. They and the team have planned for them to be the DEs for a whole offseason, whereas last season they were sort of last-ditch efforts 5 games in to get some pass rush. Conditions are much more in their favor now but if they aren’t looking as good I hope Bennett is not above looking at how they were used last year. At the end of the day it just seems like they have the tools you can’t teach.

They played the last 6 games at DE and they had 3 and 4.5 sacks respectively. So doesn’t seem realistic to expect double those numbers for a full season. Then you throw in having their first full offseason at the position plus spring ball and fall camp, have to imagine it’s realistic for that type of production and being more complete 3-down players. I know it’s easy for the homerism and optimism to come in heavy this time of year, but I really feel like this is the best we have been in the trenches collectively between O-Line and D-Line since Littrell has been here. 1st team all conference DT and 2nd team all conference OT, bring back all D-Line starters and only lost one O-Line starter, plus adding an SEC D-Lineman and Abilene Christian’s 2018 and 2019 sack leader. I really feel like there is objective justification behind saying this is the best we’ve been in the trenches under Littrell.

I also think it’s funny how a lot of fans qualify his positive stats by saying that it was all because of Darden. No one ever qualifies Mason Fine’s success because he was throwing to Darden, or Guyton, or Steelers training camp standout Rico Bussey, or had Jeff Wilson in the backfield. PFF and at least one other independent evaluator gave him a really strong evaluation, and PFF had him 2nd in the nation in dropped TD passes with 5. Accuracy and ability to take check downs when these down field passes aren’t there are both big areas he can improve, but the consensus among stats and evaluations seems to indicate a pretty solid CUSA QB. If Ruder can beat that out, great. If not I would expect Aune to compete for all-CUSA honors.

For those who weren’t aware, camp is starting today.

Okay, I figured you were saying something along those lines but facing threw me off. I usually think of that word meaning in opposition, but that’s besides the point. Anyways, yes I always get these type of comments but as a hobby it has always been easier for me to analyze UNT in a vacuum rather than do all 13 other conference members or even the 6 other division members. Maybe I can do it for other teams once the two deeps start coming out but I can’t imagine 215 would be left of the national median. That’s basically two seasons of starting experience (~20 starts) at each of the 11 positions. But can’t say for sure.

Well Cole Brown was slated to get shifted to Left Guard so they could make way for Farrell at Left Tackle. Maybe they just stick with that shuffle for Brown and have Turpin play Left Tackle.

What do you mean by “what are other teams facing?”