DRC: Projecting UNT's post-spring two-deep

Brett Vito · April 19, 2017

DRC:

http://beta.dentonrc.com/sports/mean-green/2017/04/19/projecting-unts-two-deep-2017

North Texas Shep · April 22, 2017

Those 2nd string LBs looked pretty good out there. Looking forward to seeing them progress.

grossman · April 24, 2017

If our D-Line ends up being good enough to not have Krasniqi on the 2 Deep, then they're dang good.

MeanGreenMailbox aka TFLF · April 24, 2017

A former JUCO baseball player in the LB two-deep? This is good how?

Aldo · April 24, 2017

1 hour ago, MeanGreenMailbox said:

A former JUCO baseball player in the LB two-deep? This is good how?

We're still going to be poor at run D

Ben Gooding · April 24, 2017

28 minutes ago, Aldo said:

We're still going to be poor at run D

Playing a 3-4/3-3-5 kind of dictates that. It takes speed away from the point of attack a long the DL. And when LB's are not very good at play recognition it starts to snowball on top of itself. I like our base D, but we can't be complacent and arrogant with it. We have to know when to go into a game running a base 4-3, a la UTEP last year.

SilverEagle · April 24, 2017

QuarterbackMason FineQuinn Shanbour

Comment: UNT has a proven player in Fine returning,

Quote

but Shanhour has thrown exactly one pass in his college career. The Mean Green need to keep Fine healthy,

You know, I seem to recall that Morris had the same grand total of passes in his career before he stepped out in his first start vs SMU. And Fine had none before he stepped out on the field. And neither Pierson nor Isadore have thrown a pass in a D-1 football game. Yet people can't seem to wait for either of them to get out on the field.

I'm going to state the obvious. Being tall does not make you a great candidate to play QB. I seem to recall that Josh Greer (who was about 6-4) had about the same amount of JC experience as Isadore, and when he got into a D-1 game I think everyone remembers what happened. His final stat that year (2015) was 34 percent passing. They didn't have a catagory for "deer in the headlights look" otherwise he would have been about 90 percent on that one. To be fair, no QB got over 50 percent in their passing that year.

From what I saw this spring, Pierson will be the QB of the future, but he doesn't need to be thrown to the wolves like Fine was last year. Isadore has raw ability, but then, so did Dajon Williams. Isadore has a strong arm, but so does/did Connor Means. Isadore might be pretty fast after his knee heals, but again, Conner Means is also very fast........and look where Connor Means is on the roster........not at QB........all 6'3" of him.

I'm not going to bring up Chumley as an example because he had less QB skills than Josh Greer.

GrayEagle · April 24, 2017

2 hours ago, MeanGreenMailbox said:

A former JUCO baseball player in the LB two-deep? This is good how?

It isn't. The only football related info that I could find on him was that he once caught 7 passes in a high school playoff.

Mann was a great high school linebacker but he needs about another 20-30 pounds without losing speed for the college game. Maybe Kody Fulp develops quickly.

GMG24 · April 26, 2017

On 4/24/2017 at 1:35 PM, Ben Gooding said:

Playing a 3-4/3-3-5 kind of dictates that. It takes speed away from the point of attack a long the DL. And when LB's are not very good at play recognition it starts to snowball on top of itself. I like our base D, but we can't be complacent and arrogant with it. We have to know when to go into a game running a base 4-3, a la UTEP last year.

3-4 and 3-3 can both easily be converted into a 4 man front with pressures.

MeanGreenMailbox aka TFLF · April 26, 2017

On 4/24/2017 at 1:58 PM, GrayEagle said:

It isn't. The only football related info that I could find on him was that he once caught 7 passes in a high school playoff.

Mann was a great high school linebacker but he needs about another 20-30 pounds without losing speed for the college game. Maybe Kody Fulp develops quickly.

I know I haven't been particularly impressed yet with the recruiting on the offensive side of the ball. But...two classes and we couldn't even get maybe one JUCO LB to have a hack at it instead of a JUCO baseball playing walk-on?

Folks, I do look for silver linings. But, they really are few and far between. Either that, or age is just catching up to me and I'm fully accepting. Not that I didn't understand the reality of UNT football before. I just think that when you are younger and haven't seen pretty much the same type of stuff over and over since...1990, for me...it's just hard to keep hope.

The thing that keeps me half-hopeful is that the schedule is full of weak schools as well; or, at least not too many who are in a different boat than we are. It gives us a fighting chance.

TreeFiddy · April 26, 2017

40 minutes ago, MeanGreenMailbox said:

I know I haven't been particularly impressed yet with the recruiting on the offensive side of the ball. But...two classes and we couldn't even get maybe one JUCO LB to have a hack at it instead of a JUCO baseball playing walk-on?

Folks, I do look for silver linings. But, they really are few and far between. Either that, or age is just catching up to me and I'm fully accepting. Not that I didn't understand the reality of UNT football before. I just think that when you are younger and haven't seen pretty much the same type of stuff over and over since...1990, for me...it's just hard to keep hope.

The thing that keeps me half-hopeful is that the schedule is full of weak schools as well; or, at least not too many who are in a different boat than we are. It gives us a fighting chance.

Maybe you are not familiar with Joshua Wheeler and EJ Ejiya? Both are JUCO LBs recruited under SL. Both appear to be slated to start at LB next year (2 of our 3 starters). Mylam Peters, another JUCO LB recruited under SL, but has yet to contribute much. Also don't forget William Johnson that never made it to campus. He seems like he has made the effort. Batting about 50% with the JUCOs so in last couple of years.

GMG24 · April 27, 2017

4 hours ago, TreeFiddy said:

Maybe you are not familiar with Joshua Wheeler and EJ Ejiya? Both are JUCO LBs recruited under SL. Both appear to be slated to start at LB next year (2 of our 3 starters). Mylam Peters, another JUCO LB recruited under SL, but has yet to contribute much. Also don't forget William Johnson that never made it to campus. He seems like he has made the effort. Batting about 50% with the JUCOs so in last couple of years.

Some fans will find a reason to *itch about the amount of points we win by.

MeanGreenMailbox aka TFLF · April 27, 2017

13 hours ago, GMG24 said:

Some fans will find a reason to *itch about the amount of points we win by.

Well...not very often.

17 hours ago, TreeFiddy said:

Maybe you are not familiar with Joshua Wheeler and EJ Ejiya? Both are JUCO LBs recruited under SL. Both appear to be slated to start at LB next year (2 of our 3 starters). Mylam Peters, another JUCO LB recruited under SL, but has yet to contribute much. Also don't forget William Johnson that never made it to campus. He seems like he has made the effort. Batting about 50% with the JUCOs so in last couple of years.

Good points. Still, hard to believe there's so much drop off that we're having a baseball player crack the two-deep.

Maybe Vito is just smoking the Spring Practice crack that many often do. There's always a walk-on or two, or a guy who's been stuck deep down the depth chart forever, that the coaches give more reps in Spring that still never amount to anything once the season rolls in. And, some people - even Vito - get caught up in it.

Quoner · April 27, 2017

13 hours ago, GMG24 said:

Some fans will find a reason to *itch about the amount of points we win by.

Most of this board tries to use the momentum to power a rocket ship to the moon whenever we stay within 24 points of a major program.

Ben Gooding · April 27, 2017

On 4/26/2017 at 10:42 AM, GMG24 said:

3-4 and 3-3 can both easily be converted into a 4 man front with pressures.

Yes. But your DE's are typically going to be bigger and therefore slower to the point of attack, particularly in the run. There will be a true NG in this D as well.A much bigger (and slower) DT will be the anchor to this line. Hence why that big tree trunk transfer at DT was brought in here during last off season. Either way, all of that is fine and dandy if you have competent and consistent LB play. But when we have our LB's playing slap dick and getting caught in the mush, this D can suffer and suffer mightily against the run. Look no further than any decent RB we played, at all. In 2016. It's a riskier defense that predicates its strengths to team speed on the back end and throughout the LB corps. Well, when you favor speed, you're giving up strength and size. All I was saying, is that we need to dictate our D to teams that put more emphasis on running the football. I don't want the El Paso Fiasco of 2016 to happen again. To me, as a "bowl team", that was more embarrassing than the Portland State loss. Back then on that Homecoming day, we knew we were a hot garbage mess. In El Paso last year, that was throat punch after throat punch of God awful football.

untjim1995 · April 27, 2017

43 minutes ago, Ben Gooding said:

Yes. But your DE's are typically going to be bigger and therefore slower to the point of attack, particularly in the run. There will be a true NG in this D as well.A much bigger (and slower) DT will be the anchor to this line. Hence why that big tree trunk transfer at DT was brought in here during last off season. Either way, all of that is fine and dandy if you have competent and consistent LB play. But when we have our LB's playing slap dick and getting caught in the mush, this D can suffer and suffer mightily against the run. Look no further than any decent RB we played, at all. In 2016. It's a riskier defense that predicates its strengths to team speed on the back end and throughout the LB corps. Well, when you favor speed, you're giving up strength and size. All I was saying, is that we need to dictate our D to teams that put more emphasis on running the football. I don't want the El Paso Fiasco of 2016 to happen again. To me, as a "bowl team", that was more embarrassing than the Portland State loss. Back then on that Homecoming day, we knew we were a hot garbage mess. In El Paso last year, that was throat punch after throat punch of God awful football.

I didn't think I'd ever hear anyone say that they've witnessed a worse loss in their opinion than the Portland State bend over. IMO, that's the worst loss in modern college football history. 59 point loss...at home...on Homecoming...to a spare FCS team that lost their first round playoff game.

Ben Gooding · April 27, 2017

24 minutes ago, untjim1995 said:

I didn't think I'd ever hear anyone say that they've witnessed a worse loss in their opinion than the Portland State bend over. IMO, that's the worst loss in modern college football history. 59 point loss...at home...on Homecoming...to a spare FCS team that lost their first round playoff game.

Well, I would say The PSU loss was a worse loss. There really isn't any doubting that, especially from a perception stand point (It did dull the pain/regional pressure due to SMUg losing to a FCS same year). However, were any of us surprised that what took place, took place? Really, deep down, surprised? I wasn't. I wasn't at all. I bet many weren't. I bet less were that was close to the that team. We were a horrible football team with a horrible coach being administered by a horrible AD. It finally (Thank God) completely snowballed on top of itself.

The El Paso game was a game where we had kind of a sort of a decent team. More importantly, we were going into El Paso to lock up bowl eligibility against a 3-8 (or 2-9) team. And we got plastered. Horribly. I was genuinely surprised that by that. Not so much that we lost. More so how we lost and kept losing.

Point is, 3-3-5/3-4 is dictated on speed and an above average LB corps. The LB group is unproven. That is why I said last week on one of these threads around here that Calvin Minor having a breakout year would be huge. He has the most experience on this team in that position group and it would be very nice to see that transpire, for everyone.

Edited April 27, 2017 by Ben Gooding

Mean Green 93-98 · April 28, 2017

3 hours ago, Ben Gooding said:

However, were any of us surprised that what took place, took place? Really, deep down, surprised? I wasn't. I wasn't at all. I bet many weren't.

You might want to go back and review that game thread here before you place that bet.

Cerebus · April 28, 2017

14 hours ago, Mean Green 93-98 said:

You might want to go back and review that game thread here before you place that bet.

Portland State Predictions

Ben Gooding · April 28, 2017

50 minutes ago, Cerebus said:

Portland State Predictions

A lot of nervous picks in there with most of them being close. So a lot of heavy drinkers of the green kool aid were using a given bias to pick slim score predictions vs a FCS team at home, on homecoming. Most knew the fate of the season, but that game had even the closest followers nervous. When it's all said and done, that day will turn out to be a blessing.