DRC: Littrell, UNT getting creative to fill out depleted roster

[EagleGreen]

I like the creativity for acquiring players and I think it should continue but hope less of it will be needed with new recruiting personnel. I also know that locker rooms, facilities, and uniforms are a big part of recruiting.  ...and winning.  

[Harry]

Here's a question I received from a fan -- does the depleted 68 scholarship number Littrell referenced count the freshman and transfers coming in the Fall?   

[TreeFiddy]

49 minutes ago, Cr1028 said:

A strong case could be made that the 2010 roster Dodge left for McCarney was much stronger than the 2015 roster McCarney left for Littrell. I guess we will see in September when we know how many starters are new to the program and how many came from Littrell's recruits and transfers. Every starter for McCarney's first game but 3 was either on the 2-deep for the first or last game of the 2010 season. The 3 being Cyril Lemon(true freshman), Andrew Power(juco), and Ryan Boutwell(redshirt freshman who saw time in 3 games as a true freshman but was never on the 2-deep). We already know the starting quarterback won't be from last year's 2-deep. How many other position will be the same?

Someone should find his AOL account and send him a tersely worded email so Margy can read it to him.

1 minute ago, Harry said:

Here's a question I received from a fan -- does the depleted 68 scholarship number Littrell referenced count the freshman and transfers coming in the Fall?   

Littrell made it sound like it counted his incoming signing class.  It was not clear if it also included the 6 jucos added after signing day.

This is amazing if true because it would mean that we only had 45-50 scholarship players left on the roster before the incoming class.

[MeanGreenTexan]

9 minutes ago, Harry said:

Here's a question I received from a fan -- does the depleted 68 scholarship number Littrell referenced count the freshman and transfers coming in the Fall?   

I think it's been clarified a few times that it does NOT include the incoming class.

[TreeFiddy]

4 minutes ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

I think it's been clarified a few times that it does NOT include the incoming class.

I am not so sure.  If it did not include the incoming class then when you add the 25+ that have been discussed, we would be over the 85 total limit.  I am pretty sure it includes the incoming, but could be wrong.  I think it is possible he was using just a bit of woe-is-me'ing because it is hard to believe we would be that low after an incoming class, but I guess I shouldn't be shocked based on what we saw last year.

[Cr1028]

35 minutes ago, TreeFiddy said:

Someone should find his AOL account and send him a tersely worded email so Margy can read it to him.

Littrell made it sound like it counted his incoming signing class.  It was not clear if it also included the 6 jucos added after signing day.

This is amazing if true because it would mean that we only had 45-50 scholarship players left on the roster before the incoming class.

 

27 minutes ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

I think it's been clarified a few times that it does NOT include the incoming class.

 

19 minutes ago, TreeFiddy said:

I am not so sure.  If it did not include the incoming class then when you add the 25+ that have been discussed, we would be over the 85 total limit.  I am pretty sure it includes the incoming, but could be wrong.  I think it is possible he was using just a bit of woe-is-me'ing because it is hard to believe we would be that low after an incoming class, but I guess I shouldn't be shocked based on what we saw last year.

Quote

“If we bring in our current class and the team that we have right now, we would have 68 scholarship players,” Littrell said Monday night. “That is about I-AA levels. The rest of the country has 85. We are going to have depth issues. You have to figure out ways to get guys in here who can provide depth and help win games now.”

I don't see any other way to read it except that we will have 68 players on scholarship September 1. Even if you add the 6, we are still only at 74 (11 below the standard).

[Aldo]

1 hour ago, Harry said:

Here's a question I received from a fan -- does the depleted 68 scholarship number Littrell referenced count the freshman and transfers coming in the Fall?   

@BillySee58 @TheReal_jayD

 

[untjim1995]

This upcoming season will be about nothing else other than finding scholarship players for the next few seasons from the TX HS ranks and Jucos.

Our talent level and size are woeful. McCarney left this thing in a bigger hole than Dickey and Dodge did combined. It's gonna take years to dig out from, even if we were playing a crap CUSA schedule. We aren't. We get the three best CUSA East teams, plus the two teams we can compete with in CUSA West (UTEP and UTSA) are both on the road, where we rarely win. Getting to two wins will be very challenging, no matter what some others think on this website. 

This season, wins in the homes, fieldhouses, and locker rooms of recruits will be the victories we need to dig out of this mess by 2018. This year is the throw away, while next year should be about competing against fellow G5 programs. Then, 2018 should be when we should hope to be competing for a CUSA West Championship and a bow berth, especially when we get to play three teams in the CUSA East that are ODU, Charlotte, and the F_Us...

[TheWestie]

On 6/28/2016 at 11:15 PM, DeepGreen said:

How bad could the football locker rooms be? The stadium is almost brand new.

They're not bad, when compared to what we had at Fouts. 

Player lockers: 

Player lounge area:

Weight room:

Sports Medicine center:

They were great and on the same level as Big Time power conference schools in 2004 when the Athletic Center was built. But, and it's a big but, that was 2004. Starting just a couple years later big power schools started to pour insane money into locker rooms, creating places that rivaled a lot of NFL facilities. 

Example: Here's Oklahoma's locker room a few years ago.

And here's what the Sooners have now.

There's been a huge player facilities arms race the past few years, and we built locker rooms right before it started. We were looking at what bigger school had at the time, while those bigger schools were looking at Oregon, who kicked it all off with their Nike $$$.

Here are our peers:

Ponies

Houston

Boise State

Here's what Southern Mississippi is building

 

LA Tech

Charlotte

ODU

Tulsa (ok not too different from what we currently have)

FAU

UTSA:

Here's what they have on campus at their football facility

And here's what they got installed in the Alamodome since they're now the primary tenant.

Western Kentucky

And then there's how the other half live.

Texas A&M

Baylor

Ohio State

Oklahoma State 

Florida State went from this

To this

So yeah what we have now was nice but not amazing when it was built and it looks impressive if you played high school football at Pilot Point, but is a turnoff for a lot of kids from bigger schools who will make recruiting decisions based on how much they feel a school will cater to their needs and make them feel special.

[North Texas Shep]

Way to have a little bit of success and then just give up, right when you knew UNT would still have to pay your sorry butt. Way to coach, recruit, give the effort you were expected, and develop young men Macarney (Sarcasm... Laid on thick).

2 hours ago, TheWestie said:

They're not bad, when compared to what we had at Fouts. 

Player lockers: 

Player lounge area:

Weight room:

Sports Medicine center:

They were great and on the same level as Big Time power conference schools in 2004 when the Athletic Center was built. But, and it's a big but, that was 2004. Starting just a couple years later big power schools started to pour insane money into locker rooms, creating places that rivaled a lot of NFL facilities. 

Example: Here's Oklahoma's locker room a few years ago.

And here's what the Sooners have now.

There's been a huge player facilities arms race the past few years, and we built locker rooms right before it started. We were looking at what bigger school had at the time, while those bigger schools were looking at Oregon, who kicked it all off with their Nike $$$.

Here are our peers:

Ponies

Houston

Boise State

Here's what Southern Mississippi is building

 

LA Tech

Charlotte

ODU

Tulsa (ok not too different from what we currently have)

FAU

UTSA:

Here's what they have on campus at their football facility

And here's what they got installed in the Alamodome since they're now the primary tenant.

Western Kentucky

And then there's how the other half live.

Texas A&M

Baylor

Ohio State

Oklahoma State 

Florida State went from this

To this

So yeah what we have now was nice but not amazing when it was built and it looks impressive if you played high school football at Pilot Point, but is a turnoff for a lot of kids from bigger schools who will make recruiting decisions based on how much they feel a school will cater to their needs and make them feel special.

Yeah the locker area we have is a joke compared. Got to have fancy shit nowadays to recruit. 

[TreeFiddy]

This thread just cost me $12 in data charges to view.

[VideoEagle]

1 minute ago, TreeFiddy said:

This thread just cost me $12 in data charges to view.

I think the pix are great, thank @TheWestie for posting them. There's really not a need for reposting them with every reply! 

Just scrolling takes forever! 

[Aldo]

Me after reading Westie's post

Really hope these new facilities are up to par

[MeanGreenMailbox aka TFLF]

Alabama's don't look radically different than ours, and they're winning championships pretty regularly. 

Are we putting kids on scholarship to sit around the lockerroom and wank, or to play football?

 

Edited July 1, 2016 by MeanGreenMailbox

[Harry]

Very informative @TheWestie

Sort of depressing though.  I had thought we were in pretty good shape on the locker room and facilities.  It is very apparent from your pictures we are not.

[MeanGreenMailbox aka TFLF]

Look like about the only difference is that the players individual cubes have cabinet doors on them, whereas ours don't.

So, have the AD give a junior associate the Company Visa, send HimHer down to Home Depot Lowe's and pick up enough board feet of lumber, hardware, and stain and be done with it. 

 

Here's another thing I've SaidComplained about for years about outwardly visible things like what does a thing look like to outsiders:

"Sh*t...this is a so-called 'Arts' school.  So, get some of the artsy kid from the north side of the campus to come down to the south side and do some artsy sh*t in the locker room, to the helmets, signs, and whatnot."

 

Give me one hour and five artsy students we'll have to lockerroom looking ship shape by the end of July.

[baberuthbomber8]

On 6/28/2016 at 11:37 PM, BillySee58 said:

I count 54 scholarship players currently on the official roster, and 19 more 2016 players who have signed or committed. So that means there are about 5 players leaving or not going to make it in.

I'm assuming that your already taken into account that someone like Sir Wallace already left? and possibly Ivery as well?

Also, Has anyone heard about William Johnson or Cody Hayes, and if they will be here in the fall?(I haven't heard or seen anything, nor could I find them on social media.)

[UNT90]

56 minutes ago, Harry said:

Very informative @TheWestie

Sort of depressing though.  I had thought we were in pretty good shape on the locker room and facilities.  It is very apparent from your pictures we are not.

I was shocked to hear both Trip Keune and Sicuro both express shock in how far behind UNT was with the exception of Apogee. 

Funny how you view yourself as compared to how outsiders view you. 

[BillySee58]

24 minutes ago, baberuthbomber8 said:

I'm assuming that your already taken into account that someone like Sir Wallace already left? and possibly Ivery as well?

Also, Has anyone heard about William Johnson or Cody Hayes, and if they will be here in the fall?(I haven't heard or seen anything, nor could I find them on social media.)

I counted who is still on the official roster. Wallace is not, Ivery still is

[Aldo]

3 hours ago, MeanGreenMailbox said:

Alabama's don't look radically different than ours, and they're winning championships pretty regularly. 

Are we putting kids on scholarship to sit around the lockerroom and wank, or to play football?

They're not all dramatically different because they're rectangular lockers. But the design, quality, lighting, size, and presentation are much different.

[Harry]

5 hours ago, Aldo said:

They're not all dramatically different because they're rectangular lockers. But the design, quality, lighting, size, and presentation are much different.

The overall appearance difference is dramatic though.  Notice how the best ones have incorporated the logo prominently in the ceiling with neon etc.. There is a theme in the nicer ones our doesn't currently have.  

[GrandGreen]

Another senseless expenditure in the athletic arms fiasco.   A fancy locker room never made a player better, but the glam obviously impresses recruits.  

[TreeFiddy]

9 hours ago, MeanGreenMailbox said:

Alabama's don't look radically different than ours, and they're winning championships pretty regularly. 

Are we putting kids on scholarship to sit around the lockerroom and wank, or to play football?

 

Except for the $100 bills on the inside of the lockers. 

[TheWestie]

11 hours ago, MeanGreenMailbox said:

Alabama's don't look radically different than ours, and they're winning championships pretty regularly. 

Are we putting kids on scholarship to sit around the lockerroom and wank, or to play football?

 

Those are just the actual "lockers" brochaco.

THIS is the whole place.

Lounge area 

Spa area

Another player lounge

Full Team meeting room

Sports Med hot tubs

Sports Med area with branding everywhere

Wide Receivers meeting room

So I mean that's Bama, and I don't expect us to be anywhere near matching them because that's insane. I didn't look up any numbers for what all this insanity cost them but I know A&M spent like over $200 Million on their new football center, I'm sure all of it from donors. We had to spend months a while back trying to rub enough pennies together to get $3 million to renovate the Super Pit.

But a lot of places that we have/should/ought to be recruiting against DO make attempts to move towards that and that puts us at a recruiting disadvantage. These are 17/18 year old dudes after all. I knew football players in high school who decided on a college because of their school colors  matched our high school's and they wouldn't have to buy new clothes. 

[Mean Green 93-98]

11 hours ago, TheWestie said:

Those are just the actual "lockers" brochaco.

+1 for "brochaco."  That made me laugh.