MGB: Keenan Johnson makes the call

untjim1995 · January 27, 2016

6 minutes ago, Ben Gooding said:

This too is why I wanted a name that jumped off the page at people rather than a gem hidden in the shadows. A name such as Littrell's doesn't strike a tune with the current recruits.

Meacham at TCU would have made more sense, just from his name within Texas HS circles and the success his offense has had at TCU. That said, I really wanted Sonny Cumbie, because of his playing days at Tech under Leach, plus his success as co-OC at TCU, meaning his name would have translated well with Texas HS coaches and parents of recruits.

But I like Seth Littrell--he is what I would want as a coach here: young, good pedigree, solid results as a playcaller, and a good line of coaches to have worked under/learned from in his career. He will need more time to build up a reputation here in Texas, but if he does, it will gain a lot of attention. But its very possible that he cannot make any significant in-roads here, either, with recruiting, at least not enough improvement to see us vault up the overall rankings in recruiting. It certainly wasn't going to happen this recruiting season--if you are expecting anything major, I'm not sure what to say...we earned our way to the bottom of the FBS foodchain. To get up from here will take a lot of time, particularly with a coach who has never been a head coach before, and especially with the dearth of talent here. He basically inherited a roster of very low talent, no QBs, and full of guys who have shown that they will quit. If we are really, really lucky, we might be back at 4 wins by 2017. That would put as on par with the recovery plan Southern Miss had to endure after an 0-12 season, followed by a 1-11 season, followed by a 3-9 season, and just ending a CUSA West championship season in 2015. That's the example to follow, if at all possible.

UNT90 · January 27, 2016

2 minutes ago, untjim1995 said:

Meacham at TCU would have made more sense, just from his name within Texas HS circles and the success his offense has had at TCU. That said, I really wanted Sonny Cumbie, because of his playing days at Tech under Leach, plus his success as co-OC at TCU, meaning his name would have translated well with Texas HS coaches and parents of recruits.

But I like Seth Littrell--he is what I would want as a coach here: young, good pedigree, solid results as a playcaller, and a good line of coaches to have worked under/learned from in his career. He will need more time to build up a reputation here in Texas, but if he does, it will gain a lot of attention. But its very possible that he cannot make any significant in-roads here, either, with recruiting, at least not enough improvement to see us vault up the overall rankings in recruiting. It certainly wasn't going to happen this recruiting season--if you are expecting anything major, I'm not sure what to say...we earned our way to the bottom of the FBS foodchain. To get up from here will take a lot of time, particularly with a coach who has never been a head coach before, and especially with the dearth of talent here. He basically inherited a roster of very low talent, no QBs, and full of guys who have shown that they will quit. If we are really, really lucky, we might be back at 4 wins by 2017. That would put as on par with the recovery plan Southern Miss had to endure after an 0-12 season, followed by a 1-11 season, followed by a 3-9 season, and just ending a CUSA West championship season in 2015. That's the example to follow, if at all possible.

Rick Villarreal...

untjim1995 · January 27, 2016

Just now, UNT90 said:

Rick Villarreal...

Yeah, he alone makes me give pause to having any excitement about Littrell. But I'm willing to give the guy a chance to see if he can do something positive here. But there is absolutely no doubt that the odds are not in the favor of turning this around anytime soon.

Littrell is either gone to another school above us on the FBS totem pole or is not a head coach within 4 years here. Its that kind of hire--swing for the fences with a young guy and if he hits a HR, then he's gone from here. If he strikes out, he's gone, just like Todd Dodge. This isn't like McCarney or Dickey, where both of those guys were going to be here for years because there was no demand for them to lead a program higher up the foodchain.

buff64 · January 27, 2016

It would be hard for the new staff to make a major impact in recruiting with only a month to recruit. The failure of the former staff to lay a good recruiting base is the biggest factor in the slow start of the process. Not the new coach. Even the Golden Goose failed to lay a golden egg on the first try.

HarringtonFishSmeller · January 27, 2016

15 hours ago, adman said:

right

Really. adman...almost 100 years ago? And, was this on TU's campus? No.

Get real.

3 hours ago, untjim1995 said:

Meacham at TCU would have made more sense, just from his name within Texas HS circles and the success his offense has had at TCU. That said, I really wanted Sonny Cumbie, because of his playing days at Tech under Leach, plus his success as co-OC at TCU, meaning his name would have translated well with Texas HS coaches and parents of recruits.

But I like Seth Littrell--he is what I would want as a coach here: young, good pedigree, solid results as a playcaller, and a good line of coaches to have worked under/learned from in his career. He will need more time to build up a reputation here in Texas, but if he does, it will gain a lot of attention. But its very possible that he cannot make any significant in-roads here, either, with recruiting, at least not enough improvement to see us vault up the overall rankings in recruiting. It certainly wasn't going to happen this recruiting season--if you are expecting anything major, I'm not sure what to say...we earned our way to the bottom of the FBS foodchain. To get up from here will take a lot of time, particularly with a coach who has never been a head coach before, and especially with the dearth of talent here. He basically inherited a roster of very low talent, no QBs, and full of guys who have shown that they will quit. If we are really, really lucky, we might be back at 4 wins by 2017. That would put as on par with the recovery plan Southern Miss had to endure after an 0-12 season, followed by a 1-11 season, followed by a 3-9 season, and just ending a CUSA West championship season in 2015. That's the example to follow, if at all possible.

I agree with this for one reason and one reason only: Meacham was already here, recruiting here. Littrell was in a totally different area of the country. As were the majority of the staff he's hired.

Now, that being said, to me they appear to be about equal in terms of getting offenses off the ground. Difference is, at least in the beginning. Meacham was a few years thicker into the Texas recruiting circles than Littrell, whose prior jobs were in North Carolina, Indiana, and Arizona.

Edited January 27, 2016 by HarringtonFishSmeller

MeanGreenDan · January 27, 2016

2 hours ago, buff64 said:

It would be hard for the new staff to make a major impact in recruiting with only a month to recruit. The failure of the former staff to lay a good recruiting base is the biggest factor in the slow start of the process. Not the new coach. Even the Golden Goose failed to lay a golden egg on the first try.

SMU last year disagrees with you. New coach, poor prior year performance, yet a really solid recruiting class...

UNT90 · January 27, 2016

6 minutes ago, MeanGreenDan said:

SMU last year disagrees with you. New coach, poor prior year performance, yet a really solid recruiting class...

The biggest albatross hanging around Littrell's neck is the perception of the UNT football program. That perception is brought to you by Rick Villarreal.

That perception won't change until a change is made at AD.

It really is that simple.

untjim1995 · January 27, 2016

8 minutes ago, MeanGreenDan said:

SMU last year disagrees with you. New coach, poor prior year performance, yet a really solid recruiting class...

SMU's reputation in recruiting circles and within DFW media makes them very different from us. Whether we agree or not, SMU, because of its private status, is looked at very highly on the academic front overall.