Could SMU with Morris become a problem for UNT?

Harry · May 12, 2015

A couple of days ago, UNT and SMU went head-to-head in a recruiting battle for East Texas running back/safety Kevin Johnson.

Johnson committed to SMU, which in the large scheme of things wasn’t a huge issue for the Mean Green. UNT has plenty of good running backs coming back next season from veteran Antoinne Jimmerson to sophomores Jeffrey Wilson and Willy Ivery.

What could get interesting is the bigger picture.

Just to be clear, UNT is doing a good job recruiting and building relationships with Texas high school coaches. There were a ton of high school staffs that came through during UNT during spring practice. Texas high school coaches like Dan McCarney and his coaches.

Let’s face it, everyone likes McCarney. He’s kind of like Johnny Jones in that way. Jones was the unofficial mayor of Denton for half a decade or so before he left for LSU.

Read more: http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2015/05/could-smu-with-morris-become-a-problem-for-unt.html/

MeanGreen13 · May 12, 2015

That website lets kids pretty much recruit themselves... impressive!

MeanGreen13 · May 12, 2015

also noticed that their staff isn't really all that experienced. A few guys are getting their first shot at being a college coach. I wonder if that will pa off for them or be a hindrance.

GMG24 · May 13, 2015

Hey when did we hire Morris??? Lol I wish

GMG24 · May 13, 2015

The answer is yes, SMU will surpass us. I was on smu campus last Friday touring it with my AVID students, bet you can't guess who was eating lunch in the student cafeteria located near the football field. Half of SMU's staff. These guys get IT.

Quoner · May 13, 2015

Whoa. Sammies piled high with fixins? Probably time to drop back to FCS.

Ben Gooding · May 13, 2015

The thing about it is that Smu is one good QB away from having a decent team, much like us. My bet is that Smu will beat us to the punch by landing a feasible, above average level D1 QB. I really think Dan McCarney doesn't really value the QB position and mark my words, it will one day eventually cost him his job. Whereas Morris likes offensive innovation and doing the things necessary to ensure success on the offensive side of the football. McCarney is almost neglectful of the offense and it's apparent in his philosophy and his OC's playcalling. Morris plays offense to win whereas McCarney plays not to lose. Hopefully this new "system" steers the ship right, but with AM under center don't hold your breath.

GrayEagle · May 13, 2015

We don't know. SMU has always outrecruited us but lately the results on the field are pretty even. Can Morris coach? Probably...but he hasn't proven it yet. The only reason that he should be better than Dodge is that he hasn't brought high school coaches with him.

Last year was a 37 point win with our third best quarterback (some say he is our worst). I understand that we don't play well on the road and the score was somewhat of a fluke but I believe that our defense will be as good as last year. Offense is a genuine worry but SMU's defense has to do a lot of improving.

If we don't recruit well in '16 I see us having to go for a lot of JUCOs in our future.

jdennis82 · May 13, 2015

One thing is certain...Morris will challenge NT to raise the bar on and off the field to avoid being left in the dust among the local programs. This is a good thing for the Mean Green.

MeanGreenTexan · May 13, 2015

Lots of fear & worry about a team that really, really sucks. SMU is a long way away from being competitive again.

MeanGreen13 · May 13, 2015

The thing about it is that Smu is one good QB away from having a decent team, much like us. My bet is that Smu will beat us to the punch by landing a feasible, above average level D1 QB. I really think Dan McCarney doesn't really value the QB position and mark my words, it will one day eventually cost him his job. Whereas Morris likes offensive innovation and doing the things necessary to ensure success on the offensive side of the football. McCarney is almost neglectful of the offense and it's apparent in his philosophy and his OC's playcalling. Morris plays offense to win whereas McCarney plays not to lose. Hopefully this new "system" steers the ship right, but with AM under center don't hold your breath.

They already did. Ben Hicks decommitted from Baylor to go to SMU...Baylor responded by signing the top QB-DT so it was a win win (Texas Tech lost though). we have 2 years to figure it out before the beatings commence.

BillySee58 · May 13, 2015

They already did. Ben Hicks decommitted from Baylor to go to SMU...Baylor responded by signing the top QB-DT so it was a win win (Texas Tech lost though). we have 2 years to figure it out before the beatings commence.

Hicks decommitted from Houston, not Baylor.

Ben Gooding · May 13, 2015

I just don't get how these similar programs ("G5") within the state continuously blow us out of the water in recruiting. Obviously Houston is a bigger "brand" than we are right now, but what does UNT need to do (other than the obvious, win) to get us closer to the top of the pecking order of G5 programs within the state and region? I do not understand what Houston or SMU have that we do not that keep attracting recruits to their programs and essentially away from ours.

Mean Green 93-98 · May 13, 2015

I do not understand what Houston or SMU have that we do not that keep attracting recruits to their programs and essentially away from ours.

They both have AAC affiliation.

Houston has a recent history of winning and explosive offenses. They fire head coaches who produce relative mediocrity. They just hired an OC straight off winning the NC as their new HC.

SMU has Chad Morris. It might only be perception, but perception is that he is the hottest young coach in the country right now. He has also emphasized Texas HS recruiting ties, something that Coach Mac has repeatedly pooh-poohed.

Mean Green 93-98 · May 13, 2015

This entire thread is nothing but anecdotes and conjecture.

Post #15 certainly contributes more than its share.

drex · May 13, 2015

The SMU game will be a home game for us, as there will be a lot more North Texas people fans there than SMU...we will be undefeated going into the game. We play well at home and SMU will just be a home game.

Mean Green 93-98 · May 13, 2015

Really?
Because, let's see, the AAC has weak attendance, is still a G5, actually made less money last year (minus TV deal), and performed worse than CUSA. The best G5 was coincidentally in CUSA. CUSA's attendance is worse than the AAC sure, but in the grand scheme of things, pretty much every G5 other than ECU has trash attendance.

Attendance? Well, that's a fact, that's not really conjecture.

Score last year? Another fact. Giving tickets away? Another fact.

Houston brought 10,000 to Apogee, SMU brought 500.

But okay. This place's absolute obsession with SMU is flat out pathetic to the point where even Vito takes pot shots at this place over it. Who cares?

1. Really? We want to take shots at the American's attendance? The worst team in the AAC (Tulsa) averaged 19,647 per game. East Carolina had 44,786. Meanwhile, C-USA had teams averaging 11,966 and 13,249.

2. The AAC is higher on the totem pole than C-USA, that's a simple fact. Any C-USA team would bolt for the AAC in a heartbeat if the invitation were to come. And most recruits are going to choose an AAC school over a C-USA school, that's a fact.

3. Chad Morris was the assistant coach on everyone's radar the past few years. If Chad Morris is not the hottest young coach in the country right now perception-wise, who, pray tell, is?

4. Houston hired the OC from the NC winning team as their new HC. Would you classify that as anecdote or conjecture?

I posted in response to a question, and I think my answer was fair. If you think you can do better, why don't you give it a shot?

BillySee58 · May 13, 2015

AAC affiliation is irrelevant. What Houston and SMU have over us is that they have much more of a pedigree and history than we have.

This thread is idiotic. No, Chad Morris is not the hottest young coach in the country, either.

SMU will always be fighting an uphill battle in that they are unable to realize their place in the college football world; they think that throwing money to a program that is legendary for cheating will turn them around magically. Until SMU can attract the casual college fan to their games again, they will never have the football program they think they deserve. And the reality is that they won't get the casual fan to their games because filling a 10K arena with Dallas' elite and SMU alum/fans is a lot different than filling 30,000 seats.

UNT's goal needs to be first to get head and shoulders with Houston because other than a few rich SMU donors who keep a dead program afloat, UNT is already head and shoulders above SMU. In a down season for us, we curbstomped them, handily. They brought maybe 500 fans to Apogee last year, and we'll probably have more at the SMU/UNT game than they will. That says enough. SMU was giving away free tickets two years ago. They're in a horrible spot, and money & conference affiliation can't fix that. Until SMU stops deluding themselves into thinking they're college football royalty, they will never be anything.

This entire thread is nothing but anecdotes and conjecture.

Maybe, but we're looking at us vs. them from a recruiting standpoint. Which is where it appears we are having/will have a tough time competing with SMU as long as they have Morris.

One thing I think a lot of people overestimate with recruits is tradition. Think about it like this; the class currently being recruited is the class of 2016. Unless kids have parents who are really into college football or are alumni/fans of a certain school, they don't really start watching college football until around 7th grade, maybe. Which, for 2016 kids, was the 2010 season. And even then they weren't watching UNT, SMU, or Houston. They were most likely watching Oregon, Auburn, Alabama, Texas, etc. I would be very surprised if a kid we have offered for 2016 could tell you who our coach was before Mccarney, unless he looked it up after we offered.

Point is, these kids are very new to college football, relatively speaking. If the current coaches can sell them on the program and school present day, then that's where they'll go. Morris is doing a great job selling those kids on his program over others. Just look at his commits and signees offer lists. Look at our 2015 high school signees offer lists and we just aren't out recruiting a whole lot of schools. Money, history, or how fans perceive their program isn't the reason for that.

KRAM1 · May 13, 2015

Lots of paranoid folks......good for SMU. Who cares? Not me. Let them take care of their business and UNT will take care of its business. Paranoia run deep in the Mean Green family it seems these days.

Or, is it just the same defeatist attitude showing up that "everything is always better every where else" than at UNT?

Remind me...who kicked the living crap out of SMU last year?

untjim1995 · May 13, 2015

SMU will always have a recruiting advantage because of its history and traditon, it's location that gives them great media coverage for a G5 program, and it's a small private school that is super expend to attend, meaning a scholarship there has tremendous value in the minds of parents and coaches. But that said, everything being said about Chad Morris is exactly what was said when Phil Bennett went there--and they sucked something fierce the whole time they were there. Bennett had the same pedigree as Morris, just on the defensive side, plus he was Texan and was gonna have great ties to high school coaches that would lead to great recruits. They still sucked. Don't be surprised to see the same thing happen again to them. Plus, McCarney knows this game matters, where SMU fans don't see it the same. It will be very ISU and Iowa like for this series, IMO.

MeanGreenMarine · May 13, 2015

I'm still waiting to see our "hurry-up" offense that we have been promised for the last few years

Green P1 · May 13, 2015

I'll bet ya'll a ham sandwich that we lose to SMU in front of a largely disappointing crowd at Ford this fall.

malonish · May 13, 2015

Remind me...who kicked the living crap out of SMU last year?

All but one team. Lol.

malonish · May 13, 2015

Giving tickets away? Another fact.

SMU only ever gave away tickets when the snow shut down Dallas. Admission was free to our Ice Bowl vs UCF. I'm a cheap A-hole so I know when tickets are free

malonish · May 13, 2015

Triple postage- As for the claims I believe that Morris would not have agreed to step foot on our turf if real change had not been made in the admin. Juneses slightly improved before lowering us back down again. He blamed his ineptitude on the admin but he only ever recruited from his own couch. Most of our players had no other D-1 offers. In one month Morris got a more talented class than June ever did, reached out to the community, and blasted social media which the kids like to use these days. I expect a competitive game but would not be completely surprised to see UNT win.