comment on signing class

Harry · February 4, 2016

Just now, UNT90 said:

Actually, I think the UTSA coach inherited a much worse situation than Littrell and did just as well.

Take off those green sun glasses. They are blinding you.

From a program perspective yes. As we have chronicled on here, UTSA had a master plan for 2014 to be their year. The entire program was built for that outcome and they had a returning starter QB and like 30 seniors. On the 2016 recruiting side, I believe UTSA had an advantage over us because Coker was dismissed much later than Mac and their assistants were able to maintain relationships with many of the recruits they had. Our staff was basically in limbo for half a season without a head coach.

North Texas Shep · February 4, 2016

14 minutes ago, untbowler said:

Don't get me wrong this was not a dig at Littrell. I was channeling my inner-UNT90

I actually thought I was quoting and responding to a UNT 90 post. You channeled him well.

Ben Gooding · February 4, 2016

1 hour ago, untbowler said:

Says something about leadership when this was the same comment used when Dodge was hired, then when DMac was hired (proven false by 2013 season), and then now with Littrell

Yeah, it does indeed say something about leadership. None of which is good. We suck. It's Littrell's job to fix it. It's RV job to give him the adequate support to fix it and it's the presidents job to cut ties with both if it doesn't pan out.

Mean_Green09 · February 4, 2016

1 hour ago, UNT90 said:

Actually, I think the UTSA coach inherited a much worse situation than Littrell and did just as well.

Take off those green sun glasses. They are blinding you.

Actually Wilson probably did better. Had less resources and less time.

untjim1995 · February 4, 2016

1 hour ago, UNT90 said:

Actually, I think the UTSA coach inherited a much worse situation than Littrell and did just as well.

Take off those green sun glasses. They are blinding you.

No way. UTSA's situation of talent is not worse than ours--not even close. When they can come up here, playing there 4th and 5th string QB, and only lose on a late TD, while not a god sign for them, it still shows how far behind we are to even them, talent-wise. If we had played them in San Antonio, we lose that game by two TDs, minimum.

I never thought I would type this in my life, but Ben Gooding is right. Seth Littrell took over the worst program in America, by a long shot. Hopefully, he knows what he has gotten into here. But to expect that he was going to walk into Texas HS coaches offices and sway people to UNT that had other offers for FBS schools was far-fetched, IMO. It appears that he got some decent players for the situation he inherited, but its going to take years to build up any kind of decent repoire with Texas HS coaches, partly because they don't know anything about him, partly because the recruits barely know who we are, and partly because the people who are aware of us only know us as colossal losers that are completely apathetic about football.

UTSA hired a guy who is basically Tony Benford as a football coach. Being LSU's lead recruiter, he has ties everywhere in Louisiana and SE Texas. Not to mention that they already had some recruits from Coker's staff. So they had a guy who could keep kids at UTSA and get some to come aboard. But its my belief, just as it has been with Benford, that recruiters usually make awful head coaches. UTSA will find this out, in time, which is why I feel better about our future than theirs. But that doesn't really raise the bar very high. Until Littrell can show that his schemes will work at this level and that he can be a successful head coach in the locker room and on the field, none of us can really be sure if he is the answer. I sure hope he is--I like the guy. He fits the part for what we need. But the reality that very, very few want to face is that, institutionally, there may just be too many hurdles to overcome here for him to turn it around. We have 4 winning season in 21 years of FBS play. We are near or at the bottom for recruiting HS talent in the state that produces a ton of college players. And our program is currently sitting at the absolute bottom of a deep pit. Hell, UAB didn't even play last year and they are way better off than we are right now, just to illustrate the current place we are sitting. All we can do is hope that Littrell has the ability to be what RV and Smatresk hope he can be as a head coach here, an din time, he will get us back to being a team with a chance at looking like 2013's team again. IF we use USM as a barometer, which I think is fair, 2018 is when we should expect to see that occur. But just as they saw, Monken's first year was a 1-win season. His next year, he got them up to 3 wins. By his third year, he got them up to winning CUSA West and being in the HoD Bowl. And that was such a great job of coaching, he got hired away--this time by an NFL team, not a P5 college. If everything works perfectly here for SL, this is probably what we will see happen. IF not, 2019 is probably it for him--unless he is Dodge-esque, in which case the UNT 17 will probably buy him out early, something we never had on our side until this year...

VideoEagle · February 4, 2016

We didn't get as many quality players as I hoped for, but we did far better than I feared we might.

Wag Tag · February 4, 2016

41 minutes ago, untjim1995 said:

No way. UTSA's situation of talent is not worse than ours--not even close. When they can come up here, playing there 4th and 5th string QB, and only lose on a late TD, while not a god sign for them, it still shows how far behind we are to even them, talent-wise. If we had played them in San Antonio, we lose that game by two TDs, minimum.

I never thought I would type this in my life, but Ben Gooding is right. Seth Littrell took over the worst program in America, by a long shot. Hopefully, he knows what he has gotten into here. But to expect that he was going to walk into Texas HS coaches offices and sway people to UNT that had other offers for FBS schools was far-fetched, IMO. It appears that he got some decent players for the situation he inherited, but its going to take years to build up any kind of decent repoire with Texas HS coaches, partly because they don't know anything about him, partly because the recruits barely know who we are, and partly because the people who are aware of us only know us as colossal losers that are completely apathetic about football.

UTSA hired a guy who is basically Tony Benford as a football coach. Being LSU's lead recruiter, he has ties everywhere in Louisiana and SE Texas. Not to mention that they already had some recruits from Coker's staff. So they had a guy who could keep kids at UTSA and get some to come aboard. But its my belief, just as it has been with Benford, that recruiters usually make awful head coaches. UTSA will find this out, in time, which is why I feel better about our future than theirs. But that doesn't really raise the bar very high. Until Littrell can show that his schemes will work at this level and that he can be a successful head coach in the locker room and on the field, none of us can really be sure if he is the answer. I sure hope he is--I like the guy. He fits the part for what we need. But the reality that very, very few want to face is that, institutionally, there may just be too many hurdles to overcome here for him to turn it around. We have 4 winning season in 21 years of FBS play. We are near or at the bottom for recruiting HS talent in the state that produces a ton of college players. And our program is currently sitting at the absolute bottom of a deep pit. Hell, UAB didn't even play last year and they are way better off than we are right now, just to illustrate the current place we are sitting. All we can do is hope that Littrell has the ability to be what RV and Smatresk hope he can be as a head coach here, an din time, he will get us back to being a team with a chance at looking like 2013's team again. IF we use USM as a barometer, which I think is fair, 2018 is when we should expect to see that occur. But just as they saw, Monken's first year was a 1-win season. His next year, he got them up to 3 wins. By his third year, he got them up to winning CUSA West and being in the HoD Bowl. And that was such a great job of coaching, he got hired away--this time by an NFL team, not a P5 college. If everything works perfectly here for SL, this is probably what we will see happen. IF not, 2019 is probably it for him--unless he is Dodge-esque, in which case the UNT 17 will probably buy him out early, something we never had on our side until this year...

In looking at 247, number signees has a big impact on ranking, Look at UAB and Army! I am shocked we can only sign 20 this class which is roughly 20% less! It makes sense now on guys we had to passed on (Aledo). Lets look at where talent has been improved I am talking talent only! Qb, o-line, linebacker, secondary, receivers, If Bain or English come in we can say d-line. This is from a head coach that has been here for 2 1/2 months and given only 80% of a recruiting class. Now if can win some games (3-4) put up some stats and have a year to recruit that will be huge! I am hopeful and excited! GMG

HarringtonFishSmeller · February 4, 2016

17 hours ago, Harry said:

Mac did us no favors, I am hearing there were spots given up under Mac that didn't count until this signing class. So the fault of the low number is not Littrell's. Now we can focus on getting more production out of the guys we have. And quite frankly, we need to review this entire roster and make sure everyone is contributing and working hard. Too many guys dress out but don't produce on this roster right now. That has to change.

You have to take into account that many players on the roster are not FBS-quality players. Mac signed plenty of them; and, unfortunately, so did Littrell.

Again, I see no difference in this class and the ones signed prior to it. We're rolling the dice a lot...I realize it's because we "have to." But, other than the one-year stop gap at QB, we didn't get much different than before.

Travis · February 4, 2016

15 minutes ago, HarringtonFishSmeller said:

You have to take into account that many players on the roster are not FBS-quality players. Mac signed plenty of them; and, unfortunately, so did Littrell.

Again, I see no difference in this class and the ones signed prior to it. We're rolling the dice a lot...I realize it's because we "have to." But, other than the one-year stop gap at QB, we didn't get much different than before.

My hope is that Littrell can get more out of these guys than the previous boss. Though, Mac said over and over that this team doesn't quit, I think we all know they did. Even if Littrell has slight success, I hope we can use that to continue to take steps forward. My only goal is to see continual, upward momentum. I don't fault him (yet) for this recruiting class. We have quite a hole to dig out of. Hopefully with a modern style and new leadership, we can see us progress. I think the Spring will show us an idea of the direction we are heading.

Green Mean · February 4, 2016

What did people honest expect SL's recruiting for this class given the whole situation? Look the reality is that SL and the rest of the coaching staff actually need to coach up the team and all the players and truly develop them for at least the first couple of years before we can expect much higher recruiting rankings IMO. To me that will test and show how good of a job coaching this staff is able to do.

Cerebus · February 4, 2016

3 hours ago, untbowler said:

I was channeling my inner-UNT90

Never go FULL UNT90.

Mean_Green09 · February 4, 2016

31 minutes ago, HarringtonFishSmeller said:

You have to take into account that many players on the roster are not FBS-quality players. Mac signed plenty of them; and, unfortunately, so did Littrell.

Ive been critical of this class, but I wont go that far. I think its kind of an unfair statement until we see the guys on the field.

Facts are that at least 1/3 of this class isnt going to work out.

IMO I'd say 4 or 5 become good players and about 9 of them will be solid or decent back-ups.

Eagle-96 · February 4, 2016

5 minutes ago, Green Mean said:

What did people honest expect SL's recruiting for this class given the whole situation? Look the reality is that SL and the rest of the coaching staff actually need to coach up the team and all the players and truly develop them for at least the first couple of years before we can expect much higher recruiting rankings IMO. To me that will test and show how good of a job coaching this staff is able to do.

Agreed. Littrell and staff need to change the culture on the team. Players need to be either all-in or they're out. That was a big deal under Fedora and it seems like Seth is instilling that here too. Go back and look at the interview with Wheeler yesterday. She asks him about goals and he responds with his sack goals and then you can see him catch himself and then say "Well the team is more important than my individual goals". Seth expects players to give up themselves for the good of the team and if you don't your teammates will know about it. I am excited to see how spring practice goes and how it changes from TD and Mac.

HarringtonFishSmeller · February 4, 2016

I'm not really sure how unfair my comments were. You have to be realistic and note that an FCS school came to our stadium and hung 60 points on us.

Some of that was player-quit. But, let's be honest, much of it was lack of talent. Mainly: rosterful of QB who could complete more than 48% of their passes, and a defense that could rarely stop anyone - pass or run.

You have to look at the absolute mess on defense and at quarterback the past two seasons and admit that it really was very ugly. It could not be 100% coaching because the same coaching staff led the school to a bowl game. And, prior to 2015, this staff had us winning four or more games per season for the first time since Dickey's early oughts run.

So, it isn't as though the prior regime had no success at all. They had record setting performers on the offensive side of the ball, and had some player make NFL squads.

The point, for me, is that when you go out and hire someone new and claim that this is better all the way around...well, isn't that how you judge things: comparing what you have now to what you had then?

That is how you compare things. And, as far as recruiting goes, the results, frankly are not different than what we've been getting. And, this despite all of the talk of Littrell being a hot, young OC at a P5, and the hiring of two former Texas Tech players with very limited coaching resumes, but who were supposed to have "Texas ties" in recruiting up to their necks...we got the same type of player as we did when the old guy we complain about was here.

Anyway, not to take anything away from what each player might bring to the table. But, starting at the same place the prior regime did as far as recruiting, there are many high hills to be climbed by this group of players and coaches.

Like the rest of you, I hope Littrell can coach them at least as well as McCarney did and have us in a bowl game within three seasons. Because it took McCarney that long, that's about how long we should give Littrell, in my estimation.

UNT90 · February 4, 2016

4 hours ago, Cerebus said:

Never go FULL UNT90.

That's because you aren't capable.

It's a one man Wolfpack talent, bitches!!!!

untjim1995 · February 4, 2016

38 minutes ago, HarringtonFishSmeller said:

I'm not really sure how unfair my comments were. You have to be realistic and note that an FCS school came to our stadium and hung 60 points on us.

Some of that was player-quit. But, let's be honest, much of it was lack of talent. Mainly: rosterful of QB who could complete more than 48% of their passes, and a defense that could rarely stop anyone - pass or run.

You have to look at the absolute mess on defense and at quarterback the past two seasons and admit that it really was very ugly. It could not be 100% coaching because the same coaching staff led the school to a bowl game. And, prior to 2015, this staff had us winning four or more games per season for the first time since Dickey's early oughts run.

So, it isn't as though the prior regime had no success at all. They had record setting performers on the offensive side of the ball, and had some player make NFL squads.

The point, for me, is that when you go out and hire someone new and claim that this is better all the way around...well, isn't that how you judge things: comparing what you have now to what you had then?

That is how you compare things. And, as far as recruiting goes, the results, frankly are not different than what we've been getting. And, this despite all of the talk of Littrell being a hot, young OC at a P5, and the hiring of two former Texas Tech players with very limited coaching resumes, but who were supposed to have "Texas ties" in recruiting up to their necks...we got the same type of player as we did when the old guy we complain about was here.

Anyway, not to take anything away from what each player might bring to the table. But, starting at the same place the prior regime did as far as recruiting, there are many high hills to be climbed by this group of players and coaches.

Like the rest of you, I hope Littrell can coach them at least as well as McCarney did and have us in a bowl game within three seasons. Because it took McCarney that long, that's about how long we should give Littrell, in my estimation.

Spot on...

Littrell is a breath of fresh air, for sure. If his attitude can change this team, it will be a great year ahead, even if we go 1-11 again. We won't be bored to tears as we watch two running plays into the line, followed by a bubble screen pass that may or may not get completed, and then a punt. If Morris can stay healthy, this thing should score points against every opponent not named Florida. That will help in recruiting circles, just showing that we play an offense built for 2016, instead of 1916.

Littrell's way to success here is really pretty simple. Change the attitude of the locker room, open up the playbook and see if there are players here who can fit into his schemes on both sides of the ball, then recruit kids to come here that will have the right attitude and fit the needs of their position. In the first few years, its going to require a lot of coaching up of the roster. If he can do that, I'd be willing to bet that in his third year, we are bowling and competing for the CUSA West title, at a bare minimum. But we have to give him lots of time to find a QB that will be here more than a year and can actually play FBS level ball. I still believe that Dillman will get every chance from this staff to be just that guy--and it won't surprise me at all to see him as the starter in 2017, under Littrell's and Harrell's leadership.

HarringtonFishSmeller · February 4, 2016

2 minutes ago, untjim1995 said:

Spot on...

Littrell is a breath of fresh air, for sure. If his attitude can change this team, it will be a great year ahead, even if we go 1-11 again. We won't be bored to tears as we watch two running plays into the line, followed by a bubble screen pass that may or may not get completed, and then a punt. If Morris can stay healthy, this thing should score points against every opponent not named Florida. That will help in recruiting circles, just showing that we play an offense built for 2016, instead of 1916.

Littrell's way to success here is really pretty simple. Change the attitude of the locker room, open up the playbook and see if there are players here who can fit into his schemes on both sides of the ball, then recruit kids to come here that will have the right attitude and fit the needs of their position. In the first few years, its going to require a lot of coaching up of the roster. If he can do that, I'd be willing to bet that in his third year, we are bowling and competing for the CUSA West title, at a bare minimum. But we have to give him lots of time to find a QB that will be here more than a year and can actually play FBS level ball. I still believe that Dillman will get every chance from this staff to be just that guy--and it won't surprise me at all to see him as the starter in 2017, under Littrell's and Harrell's leadership.

Agree with all of it. Good on ya.

My only caveat is, I don't care what type of offense they run, as long as we can score 30-40 a game. Passing. Running. Whatever. Just do it well enough to stop being a burden on the defense.

Army of Dad · February 5, 2016

2 hours ago, UNT90 said:

That's because you aren't capable.

It's a one man Wolfpack talent, bitches!!!!

Jut as long as you aren't putting ruffies in the drinks at your tailgate...

UNT90 · February 5, 2016

55 minutes ago, Army of Dad said:

Jut as long as you aren't putting ruffies in the drinks at your tailgate...

Afraid of being on the roof of the suite level for the entire 11:00AM start time SMU game?

Graddean · February 5, 2016

As my old counseling professor, Dr. George Beamer, frequently reminded us "the proof of the pudding is in the eating." Until next season, we can only judge on the looks, ratings. 247 Sports has us 8th out of 14. We are ahead of all of the other CUSA Texas teams. This doesn't include our two transfers which would have elevated our ratings. By the way, our average player rating was higher than Tulane's: 78.83 to78.29.

greenit · February 5, 2016

Has anyone taken the time to research why we only seem to have 20 spots available this class? Is it the 85 total kids on scholarship limit that is causing this or did Mac put kids on scholarship last Fall after practice started that are counting against this class? I guess another option could be that he has signed/promised some transfers that we don't know about.

eulessismore · February 5, 2016

On ‎2‎/‎3‎/‎2016 at 5:29 PM, Harry said:

Mac did us no favors, I am hearing there were spots given up under Mac that didn't count until this signing class. So the fault of the low number is not Littrell's. Now we can focus on getting more production out of the guys we have. And quite frankly, we need to review this entire roster and make sure everyone is contributing and working hard. Too many guys dress out but don't produce on this roster right now. That has to change.

Harry, I'm just trying to reconcile this with what I read from Vito; if you scroll all the way to the bottom, under "briefly", Vito quotes Littrell as mentioning the possibility of signing additional players before fall with "leftover scholarships":

http://www.dentonrc.com/sports/colleges/20160204-littrell-introduces-two-quarterbacks.ece

Hey, just wondering. That was written early this morning, so probably came from the NSD event.

Harry · February 5, 2016

5 minutes ago, eulessismore said:

Harry, I'm just trying to reconcile this with what I read from Vito; if you scroll all the way to the bottom, under "briefly", Vito quotes Littrell as mentioning the possibility of signing additional players before fall with "leftover scholarships":

http://www.dentonrc.com/sports/colleges/20160204-littrell-introduces-two-quarterbacks.ece

Hey, just wondering. That was written early this morning, so probably came from the NSD event.

They always seem to keep one or two in their back pocket. The particulars on how this is occurring here are unknown at this time.

eulessismore · February 5, 2016

2 minutes ago, Harry said:

They always seem to keep one or two in their back pocket. The particulars on how this is occurring here are unknown at this time.

Thanks, Harry. I was just trying to figure out how it was that one member posted that there was "only one left", and Vito quoted Littrell as mentioning "scholarships" still available (to be used before school starts next fall). The whole NCAA rules thing has a ton of moving parts.

Ben Gooding · February 5, 2016

12 hours ago, untjim1995 said:

No way. UTSA's situation of talent is not worse than ours--not even close. When they can come up here, playing there 4th and 5th string QB, and only lose on a late TD, while not a god sign for them, it still shows how far behind we are to even them, talent-wise. If we had played them in San Antonio, we lose that game by two TDs, minimum.

I never thought I would type this in my life, but Ben Gooding is right. Seth Littrell took over the worst program in America, by a long shot. Hopefully, he knows what he has gotten into here. But to expect that he was going to walk into Texas HS coaches offices and sway people to UNT that had other offers for FBS schools was far-fetched, IMO. It appears that he got some decent players for the situation he inherited, but its going to take years to build up any kind of decent repoire with Texas HS coaches, partly because they don't know anything about him, partly because the recruits barely know who we are, and partly because the people who are aware of us only know us as colossal losers that are completely apathetic about football.

UTSA hired a guy who is basically Tony Benford as a football coach. Being LSU's lead recruiter, he has ties everywhere in Louisiana and SE Texas. Not to mention that they already had some recruits from Coker's staff. So they had a guy who could keep kids at UTSA and get some to come aboard. But its my belief, just as it has been with Benford, that recruiters usually make awful head coaches. UTSA will find this out, in time, which is why I feel better about our future than theirs. But that doesn't really raise the bar very high. Until Littrell can show that his schemes will work at this level and that he can be a successful head coach in the locker room and on the field, none of us can really be sure if he is the answer. I sure hope he is--I like the guy. He fits the part for what we need. But the reality that very, very few want to face is that, institutionally, there may just be too many hurdles to overcome here for him to turn it around. We have 4 winning season in 21 years of FBS play. We are near or at the bottom for recruiting HS talent in the state that produces a ton of college players. And our program is currently sitting at the absolute bottom of a deep pit. Hell, UAB didn't even play last year and they are way better off than we are right now, just to illustrate the current place we are sitting. All we can do is hope that Littrell has the ability to be what RV and Smatresk hope he can be as a head coach here, an din time, he will get us back to being a team with a chance at looking like 2013's team again. IF we use USM as a barometer, which I think is fair, 2018 is when we should expect to see that occur. But just as they saw, Monken's first year was a 1-win season. His next year, he got them up to 3 wins. By his third year, he got them up to winning CUSA West and being in the HoD Bowl. And that was such a great job of coaching, he got hired away--this time by an NFL team, not a P5 college. If everything works perfectly here for SL, this is probably what we will see happen. IF not, 2019 is probably it for him--unless he is Dodge-esque, in which case the UNT 17 will probably buy him out early, something we never had on our side until this year...

You can say that again!