MGB: Recruiting status report (expert says UNT in tough spot)

[Brett Vito]

Part 1: Where UNT is ranked, the best players committed and the biggest needs unfulfilled

http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2016/01/north-texas-signing-day-preview-part-1.html/

Part 2: Recruiting expert Brian Perroni says late start, poor results on field put UNT in a spot similar to FCS schools

http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2016/01/247-sports-recruiting-expert-unt-has-a-tough-road-to-travel-to-signing-day.html/

 

[SilverEagle]

Quote

 

“To be honest, filling out a class would be a success,” Perroni said. “Littrell shouldn’t be judged by this class. He has to get some excitement going.

“Fans shouldn’t expect a lot.”

 

 

He can't get excitement going all by himself, he has to have help from the athletic department.

 

Fans shouldn't expect a lot? They do know that this is North Texas don't they?

 

[GMG24]

So he is an expert because he retweets when kids get offered? I am confused. 

[untjim1995]

I think the guy is dead-on about the situation here that Littrell has inherited. Just getting a class together right now is tough.

[EagleMBA]

Grandchild's reaction after I read Perroni's article to her..

Perroni is right, you know. Seth Littrell will do one helluva good job with what is available to him. I support him and the new staff 100% but this year will be akin to taking a knife to a gunfight. If we are patient and support them, we will have a bowl eligible season in two years. JMO.

[Withers940]

Screw you Pepperoni Boy, Look at me, I wear a helmet so I know how 18 yr olds think.

[Ben Gooding]

Fans shouldn't expect a lot. Psh. OK. 

We have a QB coming in from the University of Alabama. That alone should add an infusion of talent we desperately need at a position we have been bad at for a quite awhile. We will have very good skilled position players around said QB. I think this will cause us to get in a lot of shootouts, but that will be far better than the result of the last few seasons. If we can get a couple guys in the back end to create turnoevers on D to give us some extra opportunities I am very comfortable already going into the 2016 season as is. I think we will have a 3,000 yard passer and a 1,000 yard rusher in 2016. That will afford us at least 6 opportunities to bring home the W. This guy is just a social media ghoul browsing the apps retweeting and liking posts. He apparently knows nothing of what we currently have stocked up and the effectiveness of a graduate transfer at QB can bring to a team. In other words, he has no idea what he is talking about on our expectations because he doesn't know the full picture. If we can get decent productivity out of Alec Morris, this will be a big time swing season for us. 

[wardly]

We have nothing stocked up. Who are the very good skilled position players you allude to?Not a single player made All Conference,and mid term signings are players with not a lot of options with the possible exception of the 3rd string QB from Bama. Looks to me like he knows the full picture  a lot better than you do.

[Brett Vito]

The topic is UNT's 2016 recruiting class, not the 2016 season. 

[Eagle-96]

3 minutes ago, Ben Gooding said:

Fans shouldn't expect a lot. Psh. OK. 

We have a QB coming in from the University of Alabama. That alone should add an infusion of talent we desperately need at a position we have been bad at for a quite awhile. We will have very good skilled position players around said QB. I think this will cause us to get in a lot of shootouts, but that will be far better than the result of the last few seasons. If we can get a couple guys in the back end to create turnoevers on D to give us some extra opportunities I am very comfortable already going into the 2016 season as is. I think we will have a 3,000 yard passer and a 1,000 yard rusher in 2016. That will afford us at least 6 opportunities to bring home the W. This guy is just a social media ghoul browsing the apps retweeting and liking posts. He apparently knows nothing of what we currently have stocked up and the effectiveness of a graduate transfer at QB can bring to a team. In other words, he has no idea what he is talking about on our expectations because he doesn't know the full picture. If we can get decent productivity out of Alec Morris, this will be a big time swing season for us. 

1. Alec Morris has not thrown a meaningful pass in 4 years. I think he will be a big talent upgrade at QB but to chalk up 3000 yards is jumping the gun a bit. Let's see how spring practice goes before we get too excited. Since 2001 UNT has had exactly zero 3000 yard passers. DT was the closest in 2013 at 2896 yards. This includes Dodge's spread offense years. It's gonna take a lot more than decent productivity out of Morris.

2. Wilson is indeed a talent but he will be looked upon to provide more receiving yards at the expense of some on the ground. 1000 all-purpose yards may be closer to reality. He also needs to get his fumbles in check if he wants to stay on the field.

3. What very good skill position players are you talking about to put around Morris? Wilson has All-conference potential. The receivers all have potential but little else. Smiley is the leading returning receiver with 25 catches and then Goree with 15. Rutherford had 3 catches. We don't have much proven talent at WR. At TE we have Dillman who is a RS-Freshman who has yet to catch a pass.

[Ben Gooding]

2 minutes ago, wardly said:

We have nothing stocked up. Who are the very good skilled position players you allude to?Not a single player made All Conference,and mid term signings are players with not a lot of options with the possible exception of the 3rd string QB from Bama. Looks to me like he knows the full picture  a lot better than you do.

We have 2 good RB's in Ivery and Wilson. A couple good TE's in Kelvin Smith and Dillman. WR corps that is respectable in Goree, Khan, Rutherford, Smiley, Thompson, Bendy, etc. An OL that will now have a lot of experience to while trying to protect Morris.  

 

1 minute ago, Brett Vito said:

The topic is UNT's 2016 recruiting class, not the 2016 season. 

Sure it's not, but it was inferred. 

[Ben Gooding]

1 minute ago, Eagle-96 said:

1. Alec Morris has not thrown a meaningful pass in 4 years. I think he will be a big talent upgrade at QB but to chalk up 3000 yards is jumping the gun a bit. Let's see how spring practice goes before we get too excited. Since 2001 UNT has had exactly zero 3000 yard passers. DT was the closest in 2013 at 2896 yards. This includes Dodge's spread offense years. It's gonna take a lot more than decent productivity out of Morris.

2. Wilson is indeed a talent but he will be looked upon to provide more receiving yards at the expense of some on the ground. 1000 all-purpose yards may be closer to reality. He also needs to get his fumbles in check if he wants to stay on the field.

3. What very good skill position players are you talking about to put around Morris? Wilson has All-conference potential. The receivers all have potential but little else. Smiley is the leading returning receiver with 25 catches and then Goree with 15. Rutherford had 3 catches. We don't have much proven talent at WR. At TE we have Dillman who is a RS-Freshman who has yet to catch a pass.

The new offensive philosophy will force feed our QB's 3,000 yards. Everything else you're saying is accurate. Nothing actually proven, but there is potential there and when the ball is being forced at you instead of conservatively rushed into an 8/9 man front for 2-3 yards there will be a lot of room for growth and of course yards and touchdowns. 

[Mean Green 93-98]

I agree that it is a less than perfect situation.  That said, look at our recruiting classes the past 2 times we have brought in new coaches:

The 2007 class (Dodge's first): We only had 3 commits before January 20th (today's date).  It ended up being a pretty good class--the main problem was that too few of them remained in the program for more than a couple of years.

The 2011 class (Mac's first): We only had 4 commits before January 20th.  That class ended up being significantly better than the 2012 class and probably better than the 2013 class (it certainly was on paper).

The 2016 class (Littrell's first): On January 20th, we have 4 (maybe 5) high school commits, 3 juco commits, and 2 P5 transfers who look to be better at their positions than anything we've had at those positions in a while.  I would love to see more, but we look to be better situated at this point in the game than in the past when we've had a coaching change.

[GreenTexan13]

3 minutes ago, Ryan Munthe said:

Even with last year's debacle, not sure in what world you can say our situation is the worst in CUSA "by a long shot" when we share a conference with UTSA, FIU or FAU.

Although it proves my point that what people think of us is that we're FCS. Thus the problem. 

Also, Brian Perroni...he's a twitter guy, but wouldn't necessarily call him an expert.

I agree! We have been bad, and we may have another losing year because of the adjustments. But to say that we are the worst in CUSA by a long shot is really stretching it. I think our pals at UTSA have themselves a little situation like ours this year as well....

 

[Brett Vito]

Again, worst recruiting class:

http://247sports.com/Season/2016-Football/CompositeTeamRankings?Conference=C-USA

Edited January 20, 2016 by Brett Vito

[Aldo]

38 minutes ago, Eagle-96 said:

2. Wilson is indeed a talent but he will be looked upon to provide more receiving yards at the expense of some on the ground. 1000 all-purpose yards may be closer to reality. He also needs to get his fumbles in check if he wants to stay on the field.

He already hit the 1,000 yard all purpose mark in 2015 in a shortened season. At 118 AP yards per game, he'd be projected for 1400 yds had he not missed two games.

In terms of rush yards, he was projected to hit a shade under 1,000 rush yards if he had played a full season.

Just. Need. Touchdowns.

[Withers940]

5 minutes ago, Brett Vito said:

Again, worst recruiting class:

http://247sports.com/Season/2016-Football/CompositeTeamRankings?Conference=C-USA

[Aldo]

As far as recruits go, I will say that I am super excited about Middleton.

[UNT90]

3 hours ago, Brett Vito said:

Part 1: Where UNT is ranked, the best players committed and the biggest needs unfulfilled

http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2016/01/north-texas-signing-day-preview-part-1.html/

Part 2: Recruiting expert Brian Perroni says late start, poor results on field put UNT in a spot similar to FCS schools

http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2016/01/247-sports-recruiting-expert-unt-has-a-tough-road-to-travel-to-signing-day.html/

 

Kinda like I've been saying for the last 3 weeks. 

Just quote me next time, Vito. 

[Withers940]

I would also like to add that none of the teams in the bottom half of  CUSA have added a commit since mid December.

[UNT90]

"Fans shouldn't expect a lot."

he obviously has never been to this forum or else he would know that expectations really aren't a part of being a UNT fan...

[Ben Gooding]

5 minutes ago, UNT90 said:

"Fans shouldn't expect a lot."

he obviously has never been to this forum or else he would know that expectations really aren't a part of being a UNT fan...

Speak for yourself. 

[greenit]

25 minutes ago, Brett Vito said:

Again, worst recruiting class:

http://247sports.com/Season/2016-Football/CompositeTeamRankings?Conference=C-USA

Patience.  It isn't as bad as what it is being made out to be.  Good lord, you would think you know who is writing these articles. 

Several players with multiple offers.  One player is a couple of hundreths of a point from being rated as 3 stars, a large offensive lineman with multiple offers, a big pickup at DT with a highly recruited player, seemingly several QBs where we are in the running.  It can certainly end up badly, but let's see how LT & Co finishes before we jump.    

 

Breathe.

[Mean Green 93-98]

37 minutes ago, Brett Vito said:

Again, worst recruiting class:

http://247sports.com/Season/2016-Football/CompositeTeamRankings?Conference=C-USA

Was that intended as a response to my post?  I don't think that's news to any of us, it's certainly not to me.  My post pointed out that we are in a better place than we've been after previous coaching changes, so it's not hopeless to think we could end up having a class comparable to or better than most of the classes Dodge or McCarney put together while they were here.  That's not a prediction, but it is a real possibility.

EDIT: It looks like you were responding to a couple of other posts.  Anyway, the class is presently at the bottom of C-USA, but that's being compared to staffs who have been recruiting all year and are winding things down.  Our staff has just gotten started.  Will they flip some recruits from other C-USA schools?  UNT's average recruit is better than UTEP's average recruit--will that continue as the classes fill out?  How will UTSA's new staff finish their class?  We'll know a lot more 2 weeks from today.

Edited January 20, 2016 by Mean Green 93-98

[Withers940]

One simple recruit would change our pole position. One big time recruit such as Nyc Burns would sling shot us in my opinion