DRC: UNT signs early class of eight that signals shift in recruiting approach

[Brett Vito]

 

[El Paso Eagle]

This change in strategy will be very interesting to see. There are a lot of good players still in the portal. Hopefully we can stay on top of this and bring in more players who can help fit our system.

I still think more important than anyone else we bring in is who Seth brings in to coach the quarterbacks. No more learning on the job or inexperienced hires. We see the positive impact by getting an experienced defensive coach. Hopefully he reaches out and brings in a high caliber QB coach.

[GMGfor3]

It is what you have to do under the current climate, especially at the G5 level. Hope you hit on the HS kids and develop, but you have to play the portal for instantaneous results. Glad we are investing this way, now it's time to go drop some bombs on the recruiting trail.

[Jonnyeagle]

Yes Brett - you have hit the mark here.

[El Paso Eagle]

23 minutes ago, GMGfor3 said:

It is what you have to do under the current climate, especially at the G5 level. Hope you hit on the HS kids and develop, but you have to play the portal for instantaneous results. Glad we are investing this way, now it's time to go drop some bombs on the recruiting trail.

I think it's going to be harder for high school players to be recruited because you have to consider how much time and effort you're going to put in to training and developing someone to move on. You will probably see more HS players going FCS and JUCO and then trying to move up. By getting a transfer with multiple years to play you reduce the risk this person will transfer out of your program. I believe in the G5 level it becomes more and more critical to be able to identify players who fit your schemes and not worry so much about the star ratings.

[UNTLifer]

I liked the idea behind the transfer portal but I hate how it has worked out in the long run, along with the NIL.  G5's that invest and develop these kids risk losing them to the P5's thus just becoming a farm system.

[97and03]

Really need to add a plug and play Safety ASAP.

[PlummMeanGreen]

AAC Commish’ Aresca previously said the portal will be to the G5’s advantage?  As of today I’d ask how?  
Of course, he said that before the amateur-sports killer NIL started rearing its ugly head (as it has in recent days).  
President Teddy Roosevelt had to help college football find its bearings over 100 years ago.  Will it take a non-Progressive President to step in again?   I certainly can’t see that coming from the Build Back Better crowd.

I think it’s easy to see that NIL has the potential to kill NCAA sports. Will more NFL head football coaches flock back to colleges?  Will colleges prove that money is the root of all evil?  Hope not. 

As a proud 6’th generation Texan, it bothers the hell out of me that UT-Austin, a school who as a PUF school has had every advantage a Texas school could ever have;  anyhow, it’s a shame that the school who named their stadium after Lone Star State icon Darrell K. Royal is now leading this NIL parade.  (Coach DKR has to be turning over in his final resting place). 
 

🦅

Edited December 16, 2021 by PlummMeanGreen

[El Paso Eagle]

One of the sad realities of being able to pay players is G5 schools are going to have to completely change the way they think of recruiting for the most part. Yes, some G5 schools will have Deep Pockets were they continued recruiting higher-level players due to their ability to pay. That is why I believe the transfer portal will become more important to G5 because you're going to have to let the kids get the let me get paid mentality out of their systems and then pick up kids who want playing time.

[meanJewGreen]

44 minutes ago, El Paso Eagle said:

One of the sad realities of being able to pay players is G5 schools are going to have to completely change the way they think of recruiting for the most part. Yes, some G5 schools will have Deep Pockets were they continued recruiting higher-level players due to their ability to pay. That is why I believe the transfer portal will become more important to G5 because you're going to have to let the kids get the let me get paid mentality out of their systems and then pick up kids who want playing time.

Colleges have always paid players. Now they just do it legally. 

[El Paso Eagle]

55 minutes ago, meanJewGreen said:

Colleges have always paid players. Now they just do it legally. 

Agree. I would challenge that the NIL "legality" has already been blown away. This is no longer about players having the ability to get paid, it's Pay-to-pay. The ncaa goes after BYU and Miami, but will they have the guts to go after  UT or Deion Sanders  (Look at the case yesterday with Sanders and JSU. Their 5 star is signing a mega deal with Barstool sports - who just happens to employee Sanders). 

[TheColonyEagle]

I like the shift in direction....it tells me Littrell is learning and adjusting. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself here but it feels like Littrell is turning a corner in his growth as an FBS head coach. I have been critical of him but some of the things he has done the back half of this year are really impressive and I have to give kudos to him.

He completely changed his offensive strategy to adjust for the personnel he had on the field. That is HUGE and it paid dividends. He kept the team together after the horrible start and they did not quit on him. That may be even MORE huge. And now he's seeing the landscape of college football and making the necessary adjustments. 

I've said this before, but keeping Littrell through this learning curve he's been on may be a better outcome for UNT and I will admit, he's changing my mind about him. Still need to go out next year and prove that these changes will lead to a big year but I feel better about it.

Well done coach.

[emmitt01]

13 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

I liked the idea behind the transfer portal but I hate how it has worked out in the long run, along with the NIL.  G5's that invest and develop these kids risk losing them to the P5's thus just becoming a farm system.

I think the transfer portal is working EXACTLY how they intended it to

[NorthTexasWeLove]

14 minutes ago, emmitt01 said:

I think the transfer portal is working EXACTLY how they intended it to

I don't know. If they intended it for interdivision, let alone conference, rivals to poach players then it's working fantastically well. Max Johnson leaves LSU to land at ATM. Rumor mill is that Alabama is all but openly trying to recruit Boutte away from LSU to Bama. I mean, if that's what they had in mind, then they are really hitting it in stride. To me, it's all a joke. 

[TheReal_jayD]

17 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

I liked the idea behind the transfer portal but I hate how it has worked out in the long run, along with the NIL.  G5's that invest and develop these kids risk losing them to the P5's thus just becoming a farm system.

One way to avoid that. Use the portal more that HS kids.

[p_phelps]

1 hour ago, TheReal_jayD said:

One way to avoid that. Use the portal more that HS kids.

Our staff doesn't get it. 

Edited December 16, 2021 by p_phelps

[Jonnyeagle]

7 hours ago, TheColonyEagle said:

I like the shift in direction....it tells me Littrell is learning and adjusting. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself here but it feels like Littrell is turning a corner in his growth as an FBS head coach. I have been critical of him but some of the things he has done the back half of this year are really impressive and I have to give kudos to him.

He completely changed his offensive strategy to adjust for the personnel he had on the field. That is HUGE and it paid dividends. He kept the team together after the horrible start and they did not quit on him. That may be even MORE huge. And now he's seeing the landscape of college football and making the necessary adjustments. 

I've said this before, but keeping Littrell through this learning curve he's been on may be a better outcome for UNT and I will admit, he's changing my mind about him. Still need to go out next year and prove that these changes will lead to a big year but I feel better about it.

Well done coach.

Great post.  Very well stated and backed up by facts.

[El Paso Eagle]

13 minutes ago, p_phelps said:

Our staff doesn't get it. 

Expect to see more transfers come in. Personally, I think the decision to hold back could pay off. After the bowl games I think we will see another wave of players enter the portal. 

[BillySee58]

19 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

I liked the idea behind the transfer portal but I hate how it has worked out in the long run, along with the NIL.  G5's that invest and develop these kids risk losing them to the P5's thus just becoming a farm system.

It just doesn’t seem like it’s really playing out that way though. At least not at a widespread level. Seems like most G5 to P5 transfers have been guys leaving after a coaching change. 

Even for us, the only guys who have really left have been guys who were buried on the depth chart (encouraged to leave?) or guys who already had given us 4 seasons (Bussey and Cam Johnson). The guys we really invest in certainly seem to be staying.

Look at our offensive line. All 5 are guys we signed out of high school, 4 of them have been here for at least 4 seasons. Our running back is a JUCO guy who played here 4 seasons, our tight end has been here 6 seasons, both of our defensive tackles have been here 4+ seasons, KD Davis and Tyreke Davis have been here 4 and 5 seasons respectively, Sanders has been here 5 seasons. 

The transfer portal has been here these guys whole careers essentially. Had Littrell left after 2018, I’m sure a good chunk of those guys would not still be here, but again that’s what we seem to be seeing. More of those transfers based on coaching changes, not P5s pilfering our players that we worked so hard to develop.

[BillySee58]

1 hour ago, El Paso Eagle said:

Expect to see more transfers come in. Personally, I think the decision to hold back could pay off. After the bowl games I think we will see another wave of players enter the portal. 

Listening to Littrell’s presser, it sounds like he’s looking to use the opportunity to snatch more high school players who are available due to the numbers crunch and wouldn’t be available in normal years. I think we see a mix but I’m expecting the high school 2022 recruiting to ramp up, not just the transfer recruiting.

[Wag Tag]

1 hour ago, BillySee58 said:

It just doesn’t seem like it’s really playing out that way though. At least not at a widespread level. Seems like most G5 to P5 transfers have been guys leaving after a coaching change. 

Even for us, the only guys who have really left have been guys who were buried on the depth chart (encouraged to leave?) or guys who already had given us 4 seasons (Bussey and Cam Johnson). The guys we really invest in certainly seem to be staying.

Look at our offensive line. All 5 are guys we signed out of high school, 4 of them have been here for at least 4 seasons. Our running back is a JUCO guy who played here 4 seasons, our tight end has been here 6 seasons, both of our defensive tackles have been here 4+ seasons, KD Davis and Tyreke Davis have been here 4 and 5 seasons respectively, Sanders has been here 5 seasons. 

The transfer portal has been here these guys whole careers essentially. Had Littrell left after 2018, I’m sure a good chunk of those guys would not still be here, but again that’s what we seem to be seeing. More of those transfers based on coaching changes, not P5s pilfering our players that we worked so hard to develop.

I think a lot of the above results is because the portal was in an infancy stage. Dykes brought it to maturity and has shown all coaches how to use it. Dykes last class had 13 transfers. The NIL is now in play, which is concerning. How much time and effort do you put in developing a HS player? I would like to see a class dominated by Transfers with some Jucos hopefully with 3 years eligibility. We need to hire the next Luke for just the transfer portal.

[greengal]

I think everyone needs to get behind Seth and show him our support.  It does us no good to criticize him all the time.  He kept the team together through a very difficult season.  He deserves to continue coaching this program in my opinion.  He has earned it.

[BillySee58]

1 hour ago, Wag Tag said:

I think a lot of the above results is because the portal was in an infancy stage. Dykes brought it to maturity and has shown all coaches how to use it. Dykes last class had 13 transfers. The NIL is now in play, which is concerning. How much time and effort do you put in developing a HS player? I would like to see a class dominated by Transfers with some Jucos hopefully with 3 years eligibility. We need to hire the next Luke for just the transfer portal.

I disagree. The portal was not in its infancy stage last offseason and those guys I mentioned all still stayed. It was in its infancy stage when they were freshman, not recently. And our young stars like the Murphy twins, Gaddie, Adaway, etc all came back last year. None of them were poached away by P5s. We’ll see if that remains the same but I expect that to be the case again. Maybe 1 or 2 at most but you build a solid foundation of underclassmen starters, you’re still going to have that solid foundation when they are upperclassmen. Unless you go through a coaching change. That’s what the evidence has been thus far.

And SMU, for all their hype on their portal usage only started 5 or 6 players from the portal out of their 22 starters. They built their roster through good high school recruiting and supplemented it through the portal. Not the other way around.

[greenminer]

4 hours ago, Wag Tag said:

I think a lot of the above results is because the portal was in an infancy stage. Dykes brought it to maturity and has shown all coaches how to use it. Dykes last class had 13 transfers. The NIL is now in play, which is concerning. How much time and effort do you put in developing a HS player? I would like to see a class dominated by Transfers with some Jucos hopefully with 3 years eligibility. We need to hire the next Luke for just the transfer portal.

Follow uppers:

- I would take a hard look up and down of SMU's roster.  I think someone posted a couple months ago about how the SMU-to-portal recruiting is there, but it's overblown.  They still recruit HS kids.

- I still think there is value in HS players.  You develop them, then they are yours.  Xfers/Jucos have risk.  If you miss, there is no fixing, and you've just wasted 2 years.  Obviously, risk in HS too.

- I'm still wrapping my mind around the NIL.  the UT-lineman deal, does it really change things for us? Deals like that secure players for them that they would have already had.  BUt then I see Deion and his steal from FSU.  Initial thoughts are: maybe it [NIL] will amplify the gap, but maybe it will also put us in a position to get some athletes that we would otherwise not get.

[Wag Tag]

9 hours ago, BillySee58 said:

I disagree. The portal was not in its infancy stage last offseason and those guys I mentioned all still stayed. It was in its infancy stage when they were freshman, not recently. And our young stars like the Murphy twins, Gaddie, Adaway, etc all came back last year. None of them were poached away by P5s. We’ll see if that remains the same but I expect that to be the case again. Maybe 1 or 2 at most but you build a solid foundation of underclassmen starters, you’re still going to have that solid foundation when they are upperclassmen. Unless you go through a coaching change. That’s what the evidence has been thus far.

And SMU, for all their hype on their portal usage only started 5 or 6 players from the portal out of their 22 starters. They built their roster through good high school recruiting and supplemented it through the portal. Not the other way around.

Dykes 2020 class had 6 transfers the 2021 class had 13 this was the trend. When Dykes was discussed the first advantage is "he knows how to work the portal".  Head, out of HS would of been one the top rated H QB's in C-USA and maybe #1 this class. I believe he is a lot better  value now having played a year under Skip, and having 4 yrs of eligibility. Bush was a no brainer. This is the model I would follow.

Edited December 17, 2021 by Wag Tag