Which team in CUSA has the most horses coming back?

[Coach Bill Lewis]

https://www.sbnation.com/college-footbal...experience
 

[MeanGreen_MBA]

UAB might be a little concerning.....

[El Paso Eagle]

In the case of UTEP, is returning 71% of your starters from a 0-12 team a good thing? 

[peanuts104]

29 minutes ago, El Paso Eagle said:

In the case of UTEP, is returning 71% of your starters from a 0-12 team a good thing? 

They'll be having flashbacks on the field from the beatings they took last year.

[MeanGreenTexan]

Dang!   SoMiss basically starting over next season.    As is UTSA's offense.

FAU only gets 6 of their offensive starting 11 back... unfortunately, one of those is Motor.   Big changes there for them, and we'll see how little Weis compares to little Briles.

And yes, UAB is going to be a big problem...   Especially since we have to go to Birmingham.

[BTG_Fan1]

UAB is worrisome, but UTSA/USM list their best players on Offense and UTSA lost possibly the best defensive player in the conference. 

LT/ODU a lot hinges on if their QBs can make the jump.. LT got the extra bowl game reps and played vs a team that in SMu that was in transition, so I’m not solid on their QB. ODU the kid was a better runner than passer, and I believe they are bringing in a new OC(?). 

FAU is changing out personal and hopefully they are still working out the kinks late in the year, but LK will be calling the plays and making it work.

LT should be the wildcard game for us this year.

[greenminer]

3 hours ago, El Paso Eagle said:

In the case of UTEP, is returning 71% of your starters from a 0-12 team a good thing? 

I've always thought returning experience on the OL is one of the biggest indicators of success.

[El Paso Eagle]

1 hour ago, greenminer said:

I've always thought returning experience on the OL is one of the biggest indicators of success.

Agree. And in UTEP's case, the loss on the O-line is major with Hernandez leaving.

FYI - He ended up being recruited by UTEP due to a coach that was not recruiting him noticing him working out in the weight room (we need to find a "diamond-in-the-rough" like this.

[meangreenJW]

6 hours ago, MeanGreen_MBA said:

UAB might be a little concerning.....

Agreed. More than a little. I predict they'll be really solid. La Tech will be back too.

[BTG_Fan1]

1 hour ago, El Paso Eagle said:

Agree. And in UTEP's case, the loss on the O-line is major with Hernandez leaving.

FYI - He ended up being recruited by UTEP due to a coach that was not recruiting him noticing him working out in the weight room (we need to find a "diamond-in-the-rough" like this.

He also had issues with grades.. UTEP held out hope he could qualify and he made it.. we need to do that with 1 or 2 OL and if they don’t make it move up some blue shirts to fill those spots

[GMG_Dallas]

1 hour ago, BTG_Fan1 said:

He also had issues with grades.. UTEP held out hope he could qualify and he made it.. we need to do that with 1 or 2 OL and if they don’t make it move up some blue shirts to fill those spots

I don't want to start any arguments but this is a legitimate question. You've brought up in other threads that we have too many scholarship OL but are now asking we take a chance on 1-2 O linemen. Are wanting to take chances on those 1-2 players as PWO? If they don't want yo be here unless there's a scholarship, are you wanting them to be put on scholarship if the staff truly believes the player is a diamond in the rough? 

We can't take less scholarship O Linemen and then take some huge chances on 1-2. Just can't have it both ways. As I see it, most OL prospects at the G5 level are hopefully diamond in the rough prospects because there just aren't that many big, strong, smart kids wanting to take on the contact needed to play college football and those that do are being swooped up by p5 schools.

[BTG_Fan1]

1 hour ago, GMG_Dallas said:

I don't want to start any arguments but this is a legitimate question. You've brought up in other threads that we have too many scholarship OL but are now asking we take a chance on 1-2 O linemen. Are wanting to take chances on those 1-2 players as PWO? If they don't want yo be here unless there's a scholarship, are you wanting them to be put on scholarship if the staff truly believes the player is a diamond in the rough? 

We can't take less scholarship O Linemen and then take some huge chances on 1-2. Just can't have it both ways. As I see it, most OL prospects at the G5 level are hopefully diamond in the rough prospects because there just aren't that many big, strong, smart kids wanting to take on the contact needed to play college football and those that do are being swooped up by p5 schools.

When I say take chances on 1-2 OL it is talking about high upside and passed over recruits that (likely) have a flaw (grades, work ethic, legal problems, etc). An example of this would be the OL Micheal Fletcher from this current 2018 Recruiting cycle. He is a .83+ recruit that had an offer from us and Tulane. It had been said that grades are the problem and it’s likely why his offers have dried up. Again, this a .83+ 3* 6’6 290 lb Tackle that was at least offered by another college in Tulane. I would take a risk offer him a scholarship, and if he makes the grades to get in great if not we have kids like Carroll, Brown, Redfearn in this class with 0 other from any type of college from what I recall that could be then moved from a blue shirt/PWO to a scholarship. I’m sorry but Carroll, Brown, Redfearn are all kids that should have been PWO/Blueshirt players if higher ranked kids didn’t make it to campus. 

UTEP waited and held out hope on Hernandez that he could qualify and it paid off big time. Similar to what we did we did in the first recruiting cycle with Johnson and Haynes, but they didn’t make it. We are at the point we are nearing that scholarship cap compared to the 60-65 that we were at when SL first got here. 

To sum it up, I would be fine us taking 1-2 kids with high upside on the OL that may have problems qualifying (like Fletcher) and then add in 1-2 more PWO kids similar to Carroll, Brown, Redfearn who if anything could then be moved up to a scholarship if someone didn’t qualify. 

It worked out for UTEP with Hernandez, and yes we have been burnt by it and likely will more often than not but image how nice it would have been to have a 1st or 2nd round OL on this team this year?

[GMG_Dallas]

6 hours ago, BTG_Fan1 said:

When I say take chances on 1-2 OL it is talking about high upside and passed over recruits that (likely) have a flaw (grades, work ethic, legal problems, etc).

I'm assuming the staff would rather just get sure targets. If you trust your evaluation skills, they do, you don't really care about other people's opinions. The staff has proven more often than not that they can evaluate talent. Offensive linemen just take longer to develop. Give it some time. They've done a good job with other positions. No reason it won't be the same with offensive linemen...

[outoftown]

Statistics say that returning percentage is more predictive on defense than on offense...

As a consequence I see even less of a way UNT beats FAU, and that game @ODU seems fairly tough also.

Within the division I expect La Tech to make a jump forward but at least that one is a home game. Playing @UAB could be tough too. Other than that the division should be fairly feasible, USM and UTSA really lose a ton Rice and UTEP are coming back from really far behind.

Edited February 5, 2018 by outoftown