No Free Agents from UNT?

MeanGreenMailbox aka TFLF · May 2, 2016

http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2016/4/30/11545610/undrafted-free-agent-signings-tracker-2016-nfl-draft-udfas

Two or three from Liberty. One from University of Calgary. Even one from the new Incarnate Word program.

This is the reality: we have a deep, deep talent level issue. Very deep.

People talk about giving Littrell 2016 as a pass, no matter how much we lose. Do we really believe that will help with recruiting/talent upgrade?

Liberty, a school created by Jerry Falwell, a Canadian Football university, and a small, private start-up here are having players signed at least to free agent deals.

Does anyone else look back at 2015 and wonder whether we could have even been competitive at the DII level?

On March 6, 1836, Texians and pals were hopelessly trapped in the Alamo and crushed by what we now believe were Mexicans. Then there was the Battle of San Jacinto where the self-proclaimed Napolean of the West was defeated by Texians and pals.

What is Littrell? Is he the Alamo, and San Jacinto is our resurrection in FCS? Or, was McCarney the Alamo and Littrell our San Jacinto in remaining FBS?

Only time will tell. Time, the Avenger.

UNT90 · May 2, 2016

One of the worst teams in college football last year. Not at the FBS level, but in ALL of college football, FCS and D2 included.

Harry · May 2, 2016

5 minutes ago, MeanGreenMailbox said:

What is Littrell? Is he the Alamo, and San Jacinto is our resurrection in FCS? Or, was McCarney the Alamo and Littrell our San Jacinto in remaining FBS?

It's too early to tell what effect Littrell has on recruiting. He gets a pass on his 1st class as most newly hired coaches do. What we do know is that our recruiting under Mac suffered immensely. In fact, Mac did less with more than any coaching staff we had in our history.

Some think it all lies on the head coach. I believe it lies with the assistants. You have to have a system. You have to adapt to the times. Social media is huge. You also need a system that plays to your strengths. Hopefully we will see things trend upward but you cannot expect recruiting to change with just a change at head coach alone. It takes a systematic change. Winning games helps as well.

MeanGreenMailbox aka TFLF · May 2, 2016

UIW's position coach was former UNT player and grad assistant, Mike Barela. So, at least there's some UNT tie-in to UIW's first NFL signee...right?

untjim1995 · May 2, 2016

Littrell will help the talent here by recruiting players with the reality that playing time is abundant if you can make plays...He legitimately can say that the roster he took over suffered the worst loss in modern college football history and that he has run off several guys who either couldn't play or won't ever get their acts together.

The only problem that Littrell faces is whether recruits will consider coming here with multiple FBS offers out of high school or if we are going to continue seeing these kids only come here if we are the only FBS team recruiting them or if other plans fall by the wayside and they sign here because its their last resort.

jtm0097 · May 2, 2016

Smallest and slowest team in college football according to McCarney. Oh wait.... these were kids he recruited.

Ben Gooding · May 2, 2016

8 minutes ago, jtm0097 said:

Smallest and slowest team in college football according to McCarney. Oh wait.... these were kids he recruited.

Exactly. And we GAVE him 2mil to walk away. What a waste of money. He may be the worst and definitely the most out of touch coach I have ever witnessed. Absolute atrocity and the man who hired AND extended him still sits atop his nest.

Brett Vito · May 2, 2016

MGB: This would be the first season since 2010 without a UNT free agent signee

http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2016/05/this-could-be-the-first-year-since-2010-with-no-unt-free-agent-signees.html/

NTAlum09 · May 2, 2016

3 minutes ago, Ben Gooding said:

Exactly. And we GAVE him 2mil to walk away. What a waste of money. He may be the worst and definitely the most out of touch coach I have ever witnessed. Absolute atrocity and the man who hired AND extended him still sits atop his nest.

Agree, we had an outdated coach to go along with an outdated AD.

UNTLifer · May 2, 2016

I really thought Marcus Smith might be given a look, but that was about it from this past senior class.

All About UNT · May 2, 2016

1 hour ago, Harry said:

It's too early to tell what effect Littrell has on recruiting. He gets a pass on his 1st class as most newly hired coaches do. What we do know is that our recruiting under Mac suffered immensely. In fact, Mac did less with more than any coaching staff we had in our history.

Some think it all lies on the head coach. I believe it lies with the assistants. You have to have a system. You have to adapt to the times. Social media is huge. You also need a system that plays to your strengths. Hopefully we will see things trend upward but you cannot expect recruiting to change with just a change at head coach alone. It takes a systematic change. Winning games helps as well.

Yup. When I asked Mac about his Twitter account he had he looked at me clueless.... the guy legit did not remember that his son made him one. He laughed at the concept of a coach being on Twitter. Now you can see in his short time that Littrell really seems to connect well on Twitter and with youth in general.

Not to beat a dead horse here but I want to wager that all of the top coaching positions on our team last year were filled by 50+ year olds. Guys who either DID not actively use social media or merely posted a daily motivational quote. Think it doesn't matter to the kids? It does. That eat that crap up. You either adapt in this world or you don't and our previous coaching staff was almost entirely on the verge of retiring from coaching itself. THAT should tell you something.

MGNation92 · May 2, 2016

14 minutes ago, All About UNT said:

Yup. When I asked Mac about his Twitter account he had he looked at me clueless.... the guy legit did not remember that his son made him one. He laughed at the concept of a coach being on Twitter. Now you can see in his short time that Littrell really seems to connect well on Twitter and with youth in general.

Not to beat a dead horse here but I want to wager that all of the top coaching positions on our team last year were filled by 50+ year olds. Guys who either DID not actively use social media or merely posted a daily motivational quote. Think it doesn't matter to the kids? It does. That eat that crap up. You either adapt in this world or you don't and our previous coaching staff was almost entirely on the verge of retiring from coaching itself. THAT should tell you something.

Not to mention openly seeing Ekeler and other coaches on Twitter for visits. Perry was the only one on Mac's staff that was worth a damn in recruiting(on top of being a pretty good coach) and Littrell smartly retained him. The only places that can afford Geriatric coaches are the ones that have a massive name on the national scale. Otherwise recruiting is a bloodbath and you have to be competitive or lie down and die. Mac and his staff chose to do the latter

GMG24 · May 2, 2016

20 minutes ago, All About UNT said:

Yup. When I asked Mac about his Twitter account he had he looked at me clueless.... the guy legit did not remember that his son made him one. He laughed at the concept of a coach being on Twitter. Now you can see in his short time that Littrell really seems to connect well on Twitter and with youth in general.

Not to beat a dead horse here but I want to wager that all of the top coaching positions on our team last year were filled by 50+ year olds. Guys who either DID not actively use social media or merely posted a daily motivational quote. Think it doesn't matter to the kids? It does. That eat that crap up. You either adapt in this world or you don't and our previous coaching staff was almost entirely on the verge of retiring from coaching itself. THAT should tell you something.

Not to burst the bubble here but Littrell (or whoever is running his twitter) and the other coaches must be more active. If you look at our staff vs SMU, Houston, UTSA, TxState we are still struggling a bit. Granted we are active during certain times and thats much better than in the past but I am on twitter often and see more stuff from them being retweeted by coaches I follow. SMU actually tweets out where they are heading (regions of the state) as they can't say directly where they go. Anyway, I do appreciate the increased presence on twitter, but we must step our game up even more with graphics and tweets of the like. I promise prospects notice that stuff.

UNTEngr.#43 · May 2, 2016

Correct me if I'm wrong but even UTSA got two kids signed to free agent contracts with an NFL team

NTAlum09 · May 2, 2016

39 minutes ago, All About UNT said:

Yup. When I asked Mac about his Twitter account he had he looked at me clueless.... the guy legit did not remember that his son made him one. He laughed at the concept of a coach being on Twitter. Now you can see in his short time that Littrell really seems to connect well on Twitter and with youth in general.

Not to beat a dead horse here but I want to wager that all of the top coaching positions on our team last year were filled by 50+ year olds. Guys who either DID not actively use social media or merely posted a daily motivational quote. Think it doesn't matter to the kids? It does. That eat that crap up. You either adapt in this world or you don't and our previous coaching staff was almost entirely on the verge of retiring from coaching itself. THAT should tell you something.

I remember when I first saw Mac's twitter account and I couldn't believe how AWFUL it was. Who in the Athletic department is in charge of marketing? Either the department is behind the times or just plain lazy.

http://www.statista.com/statistics/199242/social-media-and-networking-sites-used-by-us-teenagers/

foutsrouts · May 2, 2016

2 hours ago, Ben Gooding said:

Exactly. And we GAVE him 2mil to walk away. What a waste of money. He may be the worst and definitely the most out of touch coach I have ever witnessed. Absolute atrocity and the man who hired AND extended him still sits atop his nest.

And to think that we could have used that 2 million to round up 20,000 bums, hand them each 20 bucks per game to attend, and we would have pretty much sold out Apogee every game last season. Another missed opportunity by our promotions department.

MeanGreenMailbox aka TFLF · May 2, 2016

2 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

I really thought Marcus Smith might be given a look, but that was about it from this past senior class.

He was given a look. Littrell looked at his Instagram account and saw that he was back in Kentucky planning a birthday drunkfest and decided that wasn't that type of off-season preparation that a quarterback who couldn't complete 50% of his passes needed to be doing.

Good riddance.

My guess is Smith ends up at the same college Dajon Williams' attends - University of Sitting at Home on the Couch, Pretending To Be College Quarterback Who Doesn't Need To Practice. The USHC Potatoes.

Edited May 2, 2016 by MeanGreenMailbox

MGNation92 · May 2, 2016

3 minutes ago, MeanGreenMailbox said:

He was given a look. Littrell looked at his Instagram account and saw that he was back in Kentucky planning a birthday drunkfest and decided that wasn't that type of off-season preparation that a quarterback who couldn't complete 50% of his passes needed to be doing.

Good riddance.

My guess is Smith ends up at the same college Dajon Williams' attends - University of Sitting at Home on the Couch, Pretending To Be College Quarterback Who Doesn't Need To Practice. The USHC Potatoes.

I think he means Marcus Smith, the tight end that wore number #18 last season.

Quoner · May 2, 2016

Uh oh...your TFFL is starting to show. Don't blow it now - you're working so hard.

THOR · May 3, 2016

3 hours ago, UNTEngr.#43 said:

Correct me if I'm wrong but even UTSA got two kids signed to free agent contracts with an NFL team

And I believe their tight end drafted...

MeanGreenTexan · May 3, 2016

5 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

I really thought Marcus Smith might be given a look, but that was about it from this past senior class.

Why? He can't catch.

Side Show Joe · May 3, 2016

6 hours ago, MeanGreenMailbox said:

http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2016/4/30/11545610/undrafted-free-agent-signings-tracker-2016-nfl-draft-udfas

Two or three from Liberty. One from University of Calgary. Even one from the new Incarnate Word program.

This is the reality: we have a deep, deep talent level issue. Very deep.

People talk about giving Littrell 2016 as a pass, no matter how much we lose. Do we really believe that will help with recruiting/talent upgrade?

Liberty, a school created by Jerry Falwell, a Canadian Football university, and a small, private start-up here are having players signed at least to free agent deals.

Does anyone else look back at 2015 and wonder whether we could have even been competitive at the DII level?

On March 6, 1836, Texians and pals were hopelessly trapped in the Alamo and crushed by what we now believe were Mexicans. Then there was the Battle of San Jacinto where the self-proclaimed Napolean of the West was defeated by Texians and pals.

What is Littrell? Is he the Alamo, and San Jacinto is our resurrection in FCS? Or, was McCarney the Alamo and Littrell our San Jacinto in remaining FBS?

Only time will tell. Time, the Avenger.

Whaaa????

You do not have a gift for analogies, or Texas history.

UNTexas · May 3, 2016

I watched that team last season. It was lacking leadership, heart, or a stand out player. No one from last year's team is elite enough to play on Sundays.

UNT90 · May 3, 2016

9 hours ago, Brett Vito said:

MGB: This would be the first season since 2010 without a UNT free agent signee

http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2016/05/this-could-be-the-first-year-since-2010-with-no-unt-free-agent-signees.html/

Rick Villarreal'd

Mike Jackson · May 3, 2016

This should not be surprising to anyone who closely watched games this year. The only player that was on NFL teams' radars last year wasn't eligible for the that draft, our starting running back. I think there was a lot of unfulfilled potential on last year's team but the raw talent level was still pretty low. When looking at players from a program that performed as bad as UNT scouts are looking at players that "jump off the game film" compared to the lackluster talent around them.