Caw Caw

Lamar - Home - Win Lamar won 3 games last year at the FCS Level. This should be our early tune-up game. What their three wins last year all had in common was that they scored more than 30 points. Last year they allowed an average of 230 rushing yards per game. Jeff Wilson should have a (hopefully limited) field day. Best case is we go up early and get a lot of guys into the mix and get to throw the ball a good bit. They gave up an average of 419 ypg. They played UoH last year who is probably skewing the stat line a bit. The cougars trounced them 42-0. SMU - Away(ish) - Toss Up It's our favorite neighbor, the Jones family with which we desire deeply to keep up with. If I go with my gut, we lose this one in Pony territory. The main reason is Courtland Sutton. The kid caught the ball for almost 1300 yards last season and 10 TDs. If he looks even remotely like Carlos Harris did last year we're in trouble. They have a returning 3,000 yard passer WHO MIGHT NOT EVEN BE THE STARTING QB. They have a couple of good problems. Their defense is anchored by DE Justin Lawler who sacked UNT 3.5 times last year. Their special teams aren't special and they aren't the best team against the run. Hopefully we can capitalize on that. Iowa - Away - Loss Star running back and loaded o-line are the strengths of Iowa. They are solid in the LB department, returning three starters. They will have a lot of new starters in the secondary and at QB. They had twin 1,000 yard rushers last year and one of them comes back for an encore season. When you look at last years schedule, their biggest weakness was wild inconsistency. The lost to #2 Michigan by 1 but also lost to NDSU (the school pretending it isn't a D1 school still). They only beat Rutgers by a score and got absolutely blown out by Florida in the Outback Bowl 30-3. This is probably the best paycheck game we've had in awhile as far as odds of winning. I'm looking forward to it. S. Miss - Away - Toss Up This has to be pretty high up on their target list for the year. This will be a motivation game and litmus test for the Golden Eagles. It's also a great chance for UNT to validate last years win. Southern Miss turned the ball over an unreal amount of times without Mullens last year. Then freshman QB Keon Howard was getting MVP chants from the North Texas Student section. Their o-line only returns 40 starts between two guys, so it's a big question mark that doesn't pair well with a new starting QB. They have a quality WR1 in Allenze Staggers. He hurt us big a couple times last year if my memory serves. Last year playing Southern Miss was a case of which Golden Eagle team shows up on Saturday, I don't think this will be any different. Only one of these two teams will probably walk away feeling optimistic about the season. UTSA - Home - Toss Up The I-35alry. For whatever reason, the destiny's of these two teams seem to be forever linked. There is a underlying hatred and rivalry that seems silly not to admit on either side at this point. This game usually comes down to whoever has more to lose, loses. They ruined the C-USA championship bid for UNT in 2013, and if the hypetrain coming from the Alamo City is in any way accurate, UNT could get a chance at repaying that kindness. FAU - Away - Win Their turnaround should honestly look similar to ours. They really struggled in the air recently and inherit two really good rushers. What makes them dangerous now is that they are willing to sell their soul to do it. FAU is now coached by Lane Kiffin, if that isn't enough, Baby Briles is the offensive coordinator. They may not be reputable, but boy will they be able to move the ball (eventually). This will be a good year to take them on. The thing that could make Kiffins season boom is former FSU QB and Joe Mixon Impersonator De'Andre Johnson. That was one of their first recruiting moves at FSU. They don't care what it cost them to win, that makes them pretty dangerous. I still think it takes them a year to really tune up the offense. Old Dominion - Home - Loss Last year's surprise, ODU took CUSA east by storm. They'll look to replace a QB who gave them 30 TDs and only 5 interceptions. The pain of losing such an efficient passer should be eased by the two returning RBs who combo for more than 2,000 yards last year. The Monarchs are 10-0 when rushing for more than 170 yards, that's the key to finding an upset. UNT struggled with the run last year, UTEP's Aaron Jones handed us an L pretty much by himself. There o-line started 4 underclassman last year and only gave up 19 sacks, so we'll have to take advantage of a new starting QBs mistakes to win this one. La Tech - Away - Loss Somehow La Tech will have lost a ton of talent, even a few worth draft picks and come back reloaded. They are the Gatekeepers of the West. They are currently who we should strive to be. The good news for the rest of the conference is they lost Higgins, Henderson and Taylor. We should have a better idea of their offensive identity by the time we play them. Oh did I mention their best defensive player had like... 14 sacks last year. Hopefully we see some real strides in the o-line by the time we get here so that whoever is at the helm makes it out unscathed. UTEP - Home - Win Aaron Jones is gone. I'm not sure what else UTEP has to offer to be honest. Our team should be motivated after last year and UTEP will likely be worse with coach who may be on the hot seat. As with all UNT history of recent, nothing is certain, but I like our chances. Army - Home - Win This could honestly be one of the most fun games of the season. I'm really looking forward to it. Our d-line will be better and we'll have the home crowd again. We need to put them in passing situations and limit the option (which is easier said than done). We'll have a good feeling for our new line backing core at this point as well. That could be the deciding factor for us. I'm hoping Rico wants to recreate that highlight from the bowl a few more times. Rice - Away - Win Last years team was the worst Rice team since we've been in conference. They fired their defensive coordinator and are implementing a new scheme. I know their fans where hoping for a head coaching change, I just don't see this thing turning around, but in a conference like C-USA it's possible. They return a lot of a starters including their entire o-line. Hopefully UNT arrives at this game in one piece looking to add a cherry on top of bowl eligibility, but it might be a very, very important game to win. Rice could be feeling the same way. - That's 6-3 with 3 bubble games, of which, I think we win one (7-5). We have a chance to do better, but this is only year two. I wouldn't be shocked to see some regression. We are really going to struggle at linebacker and need to see big strides from the o-line and Mr. Fine. All that is doable. Jeff Wilson's health is another big worry for me. This is a very winnable slate. If everything finally clicks on offense this team could be 9-3, it's unlikely. If something goes wrong, we could miss a bowl.

Pretty syre Hunter Geiser picked baseball over football went to some small school to pursue that instead.

Dobbs went to a lower level FCS or Juco program. I remember the announcement on twitter. I know he visited here but I don't think our staff put forth any sort of offer, blue shirt or otherwise.

Not that it stops a ton of people, but he's a 2019 kid I'm pretty sure. I think there will be plenty more offers to come.

Edit: Sorry don't know how this ended up in recruiting. Probably my fault.

May he never consider an offer from UTSA or SMU.

Yeah i'm here to say i'm glad Bob Stoops is gone. One less coach willing to red shirt a kid to "penalize him" after witnessing that video. That's just the tip of the ice burg. Good riddance.

Welcome aboard! Glad we're getting early commitments. The staff is getting kids they offered early, that's a good sign in my book.

I think one of the areas not being discussed enough is the timing of these commitments. I agree, that at the end of the recruiting single-offer kids looks bad. I think that these offers are early and intentional. The coaches aren't filling a hole last minute, these are offers they put out well in advance. Obviously, these kids might get more offers, and the coaches don't care regardless. They are getting early commitments, and they are getting kids they wanted enough to offer them. Shouldn't be worried about single offer early commits, should be looking at single offer kids with late offers should be met with more skepticism. These kids still have a whole season of football to play.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19WLfYPVcbBuwV5SGyooFkFLgSXHBaYuo8lTVTWfRyfg/edit#gid=0 Maybe it's not the QB's size but other factors that lead to durability issues, you know like 40+ hits a season...

http://www.meangreensports.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/052617aaa.html Herschel Walker, Mean Joe just to name a couple who will be in attendance. Tickets are $125 and some cool memorabilia auctions. My dad is a life long steeler fan so I got him a ticket for fathers day, we each have a +1. Should I expect to see anyone else there?

I'm pumped to add another pacific islander to the group, and brothers tend to play well together, in my limited experience with it. My only question is if he had other interest or what his situation was out of high school. I tried to look around for a little while, but I couldn't find any offers from now or then other than ours. He played for a marquee high school program, although watching his film it looks like he played more guard and tackle than center in HS. I was just curious if anyone had any more insight on his recruiting situation, or, any of the coaches can give a better film evaluation than i can. The things i noticed are that he finished his blocks, drives well and plays to the whistle. On the other side, doesn't have a ton of speed or fire off the ball incredibly quick (yet).

I'm excited to see this defense commit to this system instead of going through the motions. I think we'll be aggressive and visit the opposing teams QB a good bit more this year. D-line looks to be one of the better ones in awhile, secondary will be a continued strength. The only ? will be our LB core.

My full disclosure is that it's hard for me to pick a side in the two party system. I was raised in a conservative house hold (although my dad is a REGISTERED democrat), my dad is a 20-year air force veteran. I believed in conservative spending, but only after a large shift in budgetary spending towards primarily education, health care and infrastructure. It not that I think we should spend any more than we already do, I just think dumping 4 times as much as the next 8 countries in defense spending is outlandish, we're already in first. Aside from that I would be considered a social liberal, I believe that people should be able to marry whoever they want, etc. Without government interference. I think a wall is a dumb waste of money (in fact financially i think it's anti-conservative), etc. I told my friends and family at the beginning of the election if I could believe a word out of Trumps mouth I would be in line to vote for him, but I only voted at all this year to not be on what I thought, and still think to some degree, people may view in the future as the wrong side of history. Trump is absolutely getting lambasted, but it would die out if he would get off twitter, keep his mouth shut and smile at his critics. He's one of the most insecure men i've ever witnessed in my life. He has picked a lot of these fights, in my opinion. I too did some reading on the special investigator and I hope you're right that either way there is finality. I'm tired of the sensationalism on either side. The other thing I should mention is I was a journalism major. And although I'm in another field now, I take the first amendment and the (written) news and its protections very seriously. Broadcast news is now just for entertainment ratings and I mostly abhor it, written media still does mostly does its job. I read an interesting theory about what possibly could have possibly gone on that was illegal, it is of course conjecture, but It actually had some logical legs. I linked it below, again, not gospel, just an interesting thought/perspective on the possibility. https://np.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/6alzm0/fbi_confirms_activity_in_annapolis/dhfnm85/?sh=8bd62816&st=J2KZA1Y9 Edit: www.washingtonpost.com/video/c/embed/83ee6838-3b41-11e7-a59b-26e0451a96fd this is the newest contribution, there is a larger article to it, but it doesn't speak well to the scope of things, in my opinion.

I agree it is in character... but shouldn't we hold the president to the standards of other presidents before him? I disagree on the evidence part too, I think things like this don't tumble with one piece of evidence. This is the type of thing that would take some serious data to back up if you're going to go after the POTUS. More released today that will give this train enough steam to at least run its course. It bothers me the most that we're so busing cheering on our team (Read party) that people don't hold people on their side of the aisle to the same standard. If any of this would have happened in Obamas term he would have been crucified, in my opinion. That being said, I don't think Donald Trump is malicious. But, ignorance of the law isn't an excuse to break it. I think he's playing a game he doesn't know the rules of. Honestly, Flynn is the key to all of this. His information is pretty much out in the open, he offered to roll over on the others for immunity. The investigative group(s) must have something more concrete than a former generals testimony if they didn't sign him to a deal to fry bigger fish. It could all be nothing, but the white house isn't acting like a group that has nothing to be scared of, in my opinion. Also, i appreciate the thoughtful and polite discourse, cheers.

This will probably get moved to the recruiting sub. Kid runs down hill and elevates to get the ball. Physical against the corner. He would probably be a slot or an H back type of kid in our current system. 5'11"

It's interesting to see this process through another lens Cooley. Coaches only have themselves to blame. We all really do hope he succeeds. If he sticks with it, we'll all be rooting for him in non-UNT games and possibly on Sundays. I wish him and your whole family health and wisdom through the process.

Calvin has picked a top 12, we ain't in it. Wish him all the best wherever he continues his career!

First time dipping my toes into these waters on here, but I like to look at these events as if there was no names or faces associated with these people and if it were by title only. If a nameless president fired someone investigating them is this a conflict of interest and how would you feel about it. This obviously forces you to disregard your voting history and allows you to look at it through that lens. If you want to take it a step further, if It were Hillary firing comey before the e-mail investigation was finished, would you not feel she was hiding something (obviously hypothetical to if she would have won)? And just for the record, here is a time stamp of a sworn testimony from the judiciary comittee clearly statingthat the FBI is investigating. You can keep watching for more proof of the same. And while the man "questioning" comey has his own take on the matter, it's not exactly some huge stretch to say that this issue isn't under serious surveillance and investigation. Edit: In that matter of full disclosure. At best, the situation makes me feel uneasy about the respect for checks and balances in our current system. At worst, it's a gross misconduct in an aggressive move to cover something up.

A little backstory here, his big brother Zander plays for IU and played for Seth. Indiana also offered Luca on the day of Zander's graduation. Zander was pretty pumped that Seth offered his brother, but also excited his alma mater did too. That's why this seems random, but isn't. http://www.espn.com/college-football/player/_/id/3128254/zander-diamont

@MeanGreenTexan The process should absolutely be enjoyed, I guess I was just raised in a household that your word was as good as a binding contract, or you didn't say you would do something. We don't know the situation, maybe the pressure isn't his, maybe he's fighting a different battle we don't know about. I hope, in the end, he gets to go where he wants and not where some parent, coach or mentor thinks he should go. I want him to succeed, even if it isn't here. But every recruit should remember that for every kid with 30 offers there are 30 kids hoping for one.

This is a rollercoaster. I'll be glad if someone of his talent ends up here, but this seems to be about enjoying recruitment not football at this point.

While I agree with this sentiment, you can bet while the rules allowing them to be drafted were in place the coaches sold kids with it. That means there are kids who went there thinking they had more than one option and now they don't. Everyone going forward will understand, but a couple of years of kids got a raw deal.

Congrats.

Link?