HarringtonFishSmeller

Wow. UAB, which didn't play a down of football last year, has 18 three-star recruits committed? <sigh>

Agree.

Not everyone who is fast and big can play tight end. My ex-brother in law was 6-5 and could run like a horse. He joined the Army out of high school, then followed my sister to Abilene Christian when he finished. At the time, ACU was coached by former CFL head coach, John Payne. Payne saw him walking on campus one day and asked him to maybe walk-on to the football team. My brother-in-law had played a little football at Berkner in Richardson, but had quit the team. Payne timed him and asked him to come to practice...where he discovered that despite being 6-5 and very fast, my soon-to-be (then, years later, ex-) brother in law was clumsy and couldn't catch worth a damn. It takes more than size and speed. Interesting note, one of the players on those Payne-coached ACU squads was John Layfield...who later became a pro wrestler, going by "Bradshaw" and now styles himself as a financial guru.

Being an Oklahoma guy - who played against Littrell in early 00's OU-KU tilts - surely Littrell has him on his radar. Glad to hear your son had a good experience with him. Not surprised. Also, former UNT DC Clint Bowen was an assistant coach at KU while Lacy was there. Means nothing now, I know. Just interesting. Another name in the profession that would likely give a good word about him. Lacy was quiet. There were a lot of mouthy, loud kids in the weight room, of course. Brandon would come in and just start lifting. He'd ask me to spot him on his bench presses. We talked football. Again, back then at 19/20 years old, you got the sense he was more squared away than other kids. Edmond, OK, though, is a pretty squared away suburb of OKC. To me, it was like 80s Plano or Richardson. On another note, the year we lived over there, we were up there street from OKC Heritage Hall. That was Wes Welker's senior year. He was a local hero in the OKC media, and Bob Stoops was in his first year at OU. People kind of assumed Stoops would offer the kid a scholie, but he never did. At the time, Stoops had another small school kid in his roster, Reggie Skinner who had set the national record for TDs in 8-man football as a prep. He was a holdover from the previous staff. Folks around there figured Stoops had worked with him, so he could work with another small school kid in Welker. Probably best for Welker that he was passed over; likely wouldn't have played as a freshman at OU in 2000 like he was able to at Tech.

I'd have to actually see it to hate it. But, I haven't, so I'll take your word for it. You are correct, in theory, of course. But, as history has shown us, while other schools and conferences were scrambling for bigger and better, we were wallowing in I-AA. I'm too old to keep re-living it. I'd be pleased as punch if we accepted our niche and learned to dominate it. Two things we can't do: (1) Turn back the clock, and (2) Pretend the dollar doesn't call the tune. The one thing we can do is settle into our level and dominate it. So...here's to Coach Littrell and staff beginning an era of dominating! Once we begin to dominate the conference we are in, we can then thump our chests in a Boise State-like manner and say, "We'll play anyone, anywhere...return games be damned, we'll kick your ass in your own backyard, and do so with pleasure!" As far as Villareal, the president, Board...any other conference shifts need to focus on what will help us in our niche. in my mind, that simply means getting more regional.

My short list: Carl Pelini - long on DL coaching experience, currently at Youngstown State, who had a stellar defense coordinated by him and Bob Stoops' older brother, Ron. Jordan Gigli - DL coach at North Dakota. Beat FBS Wyoming at Wyoming, holding them to 13 points...Beat Portland State at Portland State, holding a team that scored 60+ on us the very next weekend to 17 points. North Dakota was one of the top defenses against the rush in FCS. Mark Ivey - DL coach at Appalachian State. They were Top 20 in FBS in sacks, tackles for loss, and total defense with Ivey. Impressive, to me, to have that level defense in the short time that they've made the jump from FCS to FBS. Kwahn Drake - former DL coach at Tulane, staff was fired after the season, but Drake helped the Green Wave to a Top 12 FBS finish in tackles for loss. Was coaching former UNT commit Royce LaFrance, who was on the pre-season Lombardi Award list. My personal favorite: Brandon Lacy - DL/Recruiting Coordinator at Southeastern Louisiana. SE Louisiana was Top 10 on tackles for loss in FCS. I personally like Lacy because they year I lived in OKC, we were up by Edmond, where he is from. He was in the process of transferring from UT-Martin to Kansas and we lifted weights at the same gym that summer. He was a good kid, and I've followed his playing and coaching career since then. He was impressive then even as a college kid. Was Big 12 All-Academic selection for two years at Kansas, where he majored in Economics, not some P.E./Coaching degree. Would love to see this kid here. http://www.lionsports.net/coaches.aspx?rc=577&path=football One of his charges won the Piesman Award for best run by a defensive lineman. Yes, it's really an award now: http://m.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/collegefootball/mr-piesman-jenks-alumnus-ashton-henderson-becomes-first-recipient-of/article_dddbd795-30cc-54f2-9758-23291b3f3bea.html?mode=jqm Obviously, my list is based on coaches that are either at our competition level or just lower at FCS. I'm assuming that we won't be able to steal a DL coach from Oklahoma, Alabama, and so forth. I realize Pelini comes with a little bit of baggage. His thing is experience, both as a DL coach, defensive coordinator, and head coach. Gigli, Ivey, and Drake are good young coaches. Lacy is a little longer in the tooth than everyone except Pelini. I like that he also has experience as recruiting coordinator - in a state where we have had some recruiting success, Louisiana. Plus, having lifted weights with him for a summer and talking to him, I'm biased. I'm also biased toward football players who get degrees in something other than the normal P.E./Sociology/Communication/African-American Studies route. And, from Kansas, which isn't too shabby an academic outpost.

Said it before, keep saying it: There were no FBS-level quarterbacks on our roster in 2015...and, I'll even say 2014.

I posted it when he was hired, but am too lazy to go back and look for it now. It wasn't great. But, look...he wasn't coaching the defenses of the teams for which he was offensive coordinator. There are three parts to a successful football team - offense, defense, and special teams. Not Littrell's fault that the Indiana and North Carolina defenses weren't great. He was holding up his end of the bargain on the offensive side of the ledger.

Whatever the scenario, for Oklahoma - or any P5 - to whine about what they have to do.... Ridiculous.

The current conference is boring. I mean, how much would really be lost in losing Old Dominion versus gaining Texas State or the other Louisiana schools back? And, Arkansas State. I mean, none of it is "great" in the big picture. So, if it's going to be not great/boring, it may as well at least be closer. Odds are, around here, most of us probably know more friends and family that went to a school in Texas, Louisiana, or Arkansas than we do from West Virginia, Georgia, Florida, etc. Same for the schools there are well. I can't think of any of my nephews or friends' kids trying to decide between FAU or Texas State. The acceptance of this reality just seems to make the most sense, with the way things are headed. Yes. And, really, it's not a bad thing to be more regional. Frisco just hosted the FCS Championship Game again and for the fifth season in a row North Dakota State won it. Their fans sold out the soccer stadium, and everyone was really happy. It looks like we'll be caught in the waiting area between football heaven (P5) and hell (lower than FBS). Places like NDSU live and thrive in the hell. Surely, we can accept and enjoy some winning in whatever they eventually call the division between the impending P4 and FCS. The Permanent Purgatory Division?

Found it. Stoops: “We had to win our championship then go win the national championship or BCS game when we just won a huge game, it's like we had to do it twice,” Stoops said. “Now we don't have to do it and I think it is an advantage.” http://newsok.com/article/3560086

Stoops/OU: perpetually whiny? http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2013/5/13/4326798/bob-stoops-bcs-oklahoma-northern-illinois

AAC/MWC don't need any tinkering really, do they? They aren't a meld of old Sun Belt/FCS/Start ups the way C-USA and Sun Belt are. Between C-USA/Sun Belt, it's become so tangled with unnecessary/non-sense alliances that, to me, it just makes sense to finally untangle the knots and tie the shoes back neatly and cleanly. It's two conferences that are, really, no more than jumble of schools that either (1) no other conference wanted, and/or (2) other conferences ran from. These schools need to admit what they are, accept the direction of where college football is heading, and begin to sort out in a common sense way. Although football is the driver, there are many other sports whose costs would be greatly reduced by compacting the geographic - and, might I say, idiotic - "footprints" the misguided commissioners of these conferences haphazardly patched together in the past. In short, it's time the Don Quixote commissioners of the C-USA and Sun Belt - and, school presidents and athletic directors - to quit tilting at the windmills of being "the next Boise State/Cincinnati" etc., accept that they screw up/wasted tens of millions of dollars in the process and move along.

Look...eventually the P5s are going to make their own level and depart from the rest. It doesn't matter how much more handwringing or legal maneuvering occurs. So, those of us not P5 need to sack up, wipe away our tears, and begin running these conferences in a way that makes geographic sense. No school listed "owns" any media market...and, it is stupid for this set of schools to argue they are getting this or that television market because of their inclusion. Even though I know this would never float because of alumni and athletic director egos, here's what I would do with those of us "Left Behind": South/Southwest Leftovers Arkansas State Louisiana Lousiana-Monroe Louisiana Tech North Texas Rice Texas State UTEP UTSA South Leftovers Division Gulf Alabama-Birmingham FAU FIU Georgia Southern Georgia State South Alabama Southern Miss Troy South Leftovers Division Mid/Atlantic Appalachian State Coastal Carolina (yes, the Chanticleers are going Sun Belt soon!) North Carolina-Charlotte Middle Tennessee Marshall Old Dominion Western Kentucky

Sporting goods cashier? God almighty. I need to give every graduating UNT student athlete my card and see which ones can sell. Cashier? Come on, man. It may cost me $200 to get a kid licensed to sell - test materials and testing fee. Most companies give 20% on new business on homeowners policies, 10-15% on renewal. So, if the kid just sold one homeowners policy a year, that money would be made back. I mean, selling part-time, he'd likely make as much as cashiering. Where's that big ass linebacker Byron Gross? He's been in the insurance game damn near as long as I have. Lordy.

Wait...are ya'll sayin' Kevin Patrick should be the head coach now?

Correct me if I'm misremembering, but wasn't it OU/Stoops who used to complain the the Big 12 had a tougher time getting to the BCS championship because they had to play a conference title game and other conferences didn't? These big schools and conferences whining...it's like ungrateful kids opening their Christmas gifts and telling you they don't like them. I'll add this...I'm no fan of Texas. But, when they showed DeLoss Dodds the door, they lost a lot of clout - both the school and the conference. No other athletic director in the Big 12 has been able to step up and, really, fill his shoes.

Thanks, Banowsky...oh, wait...he skipped town before the sh*t hit the fan. Anyone still think it was genius on his part to integrate most of the Sun Belt into C-USA, then invite some start-up programs in? I've called it C-USun Belt; but, maybe it's just Sun Belt Lite. Can it and sell it next to Nehi - it's just about as popular with the college football-thirsty public. How long until the bowl contracts evaporate/get renegotiated to the AAC and MWC?

Sadly, I think this guy is much younger than us...young enough to, perhaps, not be as jaded about it as we have grown to be.

I can't for the life of me figure out why UTSA wouldn't hire a Hispanic coach. Is their White Lady athletic director too tied into the Good Ol' White Boy Coach network? You tell me. You all talk about the future of America demographically, I go to bed and wake up with it. I eat, drink, and breath it. I should take you all on a field trip to one of the parties our Mexican friends throw...especially during the World Cup...so you can feast on trompo tacos, drink tequila, and karaoke into the wee hours of the morn in old neighborhoods you wouldn't dare set foot in by yourself. It's fun!

Do you not understand the demographic reality of America in 2016? Right now, they are planning the making of Fast and Furious 8! Who do you think is driving that: http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/06/media/fast-and-furious-diverse-box-office/ It is an academic institution, UTSA. It is chock full of demographic politics like any other school. Schools and Universities thrive on that stuff. Supreme Court cases for the past forty years have dwelt upon academics, demographics, and admissions. Missouri. Yale. And, you think I'm just picking it out of the thin air?

What are you talking about? My family is half Mexican and one of my full Mexican nephews almost went to UTSA. I took him down there for a visit. The knothead ended up at SFA before flunking out. And, I had a cousin whose husband graduated from UTSA's medical school. Are you saying that the demographic reality of my comments about UTSA are incorrect? The enrollment has to be at least 70% Mexican-American in heritage. Every single time we hit a convenience store or grocer my kids are careening off each other and innocent bystanders to get to the rack of Sabritones. Or, Pingüinos. And, they are washing it down with a bottle of Barrilitos or Jarritos. That's my reality, hombre. My daughter throws a fit in Fiesta if we don't let her have Bubu Lubu...which the store bastards have strategically placed at the cash registers so that kids can beat the snot out of their parents wailing for it while they wait their turn to check out.

You win.

Guys, UTSA has a lot of Mexican-American heritage at their school. Don't hate. If they are willing to pay another White Person coach to walk among them, that is their choice/decision/prerogative. Unless you can think of a Mexican-American heritage coach they can hire, just sit back, relax with a bag of Sabritones, a bottle of Barrilitos, and watch it all unfold.

It's a given that Texas Monthly sucks...but, the guy's not wrong. It was a pathetic season where an FCS school beat us as if they were a traditional powerhouse. Our quarterbacking was horrible. And, fans didn't show up. So, again, where is he wrong?