Help Me Understand UNT Recruiting

DeepGreen · February 16, 2022

Admittedly, I don't understand today's football recruiting at UNT. Gone are the days of the State of Texas "Top 100" recruits. Gone are the days of the Houston "Top 100" list of recruits.

UNTLifer listed several recruits out of SOC (and a couple of other schools) showing a UNT offer. Along with 10+ other universities that have already offered!! Are we that late to the game? Do we really think we can just come in at the last minute and sign a kid that has offers from Georgia Tech, Tx Tech, OU, Houston, Arkansas, etc., and slew of other "name" universities?

I just don't get our recruiting strategy.

BTW, thanks UNTLifer for your work.

97and03 · February 16, 2022

11 minutes ago, DeepGreen said:

Admittedly, I don't understand today's football recruiting at UNT. Gone are the days of the State of Texas "Top 100" recruits. Gone are the days of the Houston "Top 100" list of recruits.

UNTLifer listed several recruits out of SOC (and a couple of other schools) showing a UNT offer. Along with 10+ other universities that have already offered!! Are we that late to the game? Do we really think we can just come in at the last minute and sign a kid that has offers from Georgia Tech, Tx Tech, OU, Houston, Arkansas, etc., and slew of other "name" universities?

I just don't get our recruiting strategy.

BTW, thanks UNTLifer for your work.

Exactly what I have said elsewhere. Where we have won recruiting battles or been in a kid’s final top list has been when we were among the first interested. I don’t know why recruits in our backyard aren’t getting NT offers earlier than FCS schools or UConn!

Glory to the Green · February 16, 2022

40 minutes ago, 97and03 said:

Exactly what I have said elsewhere. Where we have won recruiting battles or been in a kid’s final top list has been when we were among the first interested. I don’t know why recruits in our backyard aren’t getting NT offers earlier than FCS schools or UConn!

The late run on SOC players was kind of surprising to me. Seems like a lot of eggs have been/are put into the transfer portal basket (I still hope this strategy works out, but 8 impact players enrolling in the Fall seems like a stretch).

Wag Tag · February 16, 2022

Always a fluid situation. Schools that have offered may have filled that position and pulled the offer as we have seen in the past. If you go to the transfer portal there are a ton of players left. Also if HS recruiting is down there should a bunch available before the signing deadline.

UNTLifer · February 16, 2022

1 hour ago, Glory to the Green said:

The late run on SOC players was kind of surprising to me. Seems like a lot of eggs have been/are put into the transfer portal basket (I still hope this strategy works out, but 8 impact players enrolling in the Fall seems like a stretch).

I think we are still recruiting the transfer portal for the '22 class. All of these offers are for the '23 class which can't sign until December.

97and03 · February 16, 2022

34 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

I think we are still recruiting the transfer portal for the '22 class. All of these offers are for the '23 class which can't sign until December.

Exactly. Completely unrelated and we should be able to walk and chew gun at the same time. We probably need to hire a portal recruiter for the support staff but to do that we need to donate more to the MGSF so they don’t need to use AD funds for scholarships!

Dannymacfan · February 16, 2022

I would also like to commend @UNTLifer for his efforts on keeping up with UNT recruiting.

From my vantage, it seems like we have been asleep at the wheel for awhile. Littrell stubbornly held onto the old methodology of focusing primarily on DFW/Houston and Texas based high school players for far too long. Some will say that hey it worked with the twins and others and there is truth to that but at a G5 the covid and portal rules have changed all that. When you have a young player blowup in the post covid era they become a portal target at G5 and yes even many P5's!

I actually think Phil Bennett and some of the newer assistants have pointed Littrell in the right direction now thank goodness. UNT, much like SMU is in a great place to benefit from portal P5 bounce back players. There are so many great players that leave the area with the lure of P5 only to sit the bench. SMU spends a lot of time with 3-4 star DFW guys they know they probably won't land right out of high school but lays the groundwork for when they decide they need more playing time and need to get closer to home. They set the stage for that early on. The primary reason that Sonny Dykes landed the TCU job is not his looks, or his recruiting abilities, it is because he understands the portal game.

Dykes is also successful because he understands you have to delegate recruiting to guys who can recruit. Guys like Reginald Samples who can go into south Dallas and people know him and respect him. Why Littrell has not done this is just a head scratcher.

The bad news is it has taken Littrell way to long to figure all this stuff out because he really is learning on the job and fairly set in his ways. That has hurt this program immensely. The good news is guys like Phil Bennett, Jim Gush, Mike Bloesch, Jared Holley, Passwaters etc are good recruiters and understand the game.

The even better news is they convinced Littrell to hold out giving away ships to inferior players and wait for the portal to light up after spring practices are over and many talented players realize they need to find a new home if they want to play.

p_phelps · February 17, 2022

On 2/16/2022 at 9:00 AM, DeepGreen said:

Admittedly, I don't understand today's football recruiting at UNT. Gone are the days of the State of Texas "Top 100" recruits. Gone are the days of the Houston "Top 100" list of recruits.

UNTLifer listed several recruits out of SOC (and a couple of other schools) showing a UNT offer. Along with 10+ other universities that have already offered!! Are we that late to the game? Do we really think we can just come in at the last minute and sign a kid that has offers from Georgia Tech, Tx Tech, OU, Houston, Arkansas, etc., and slew of other "name" universities?

I just don't get our recruiting strategy.

BTW, thanks UNTLifer for your work.

Yes, this staff is bad at recruiting. A wr from Denton signed with utsa and we didn't even offer.

UNTLifer · February 17, 2022

29 minutes ago, p_phelps said:

Yes, this staff is bad at recruiting. A wr from Denton signed with utsa and we didn't even offer.

Many make this assumption but we have no idea what kind a fit he would have been, etc. This staff that is “bad at recruiting” has compiled top classes in the conference the past two years.

DeepGreen · February 17, 2022

1 hour ago, p_phelps said:

Yes, this staff is bad at recruiting. A wr from Denton signed with utsa and we didn't even offer.

Wow! That is just sacrilegious!

p_phelps · February 17, 2022

1 hour ago, UNTLifer said:

Many make this assumption but we have no idea what kind a fit he would have been, etc. This staff that is “bad at recruiting” has compiled top classes in the conference the past two years.

And bottom this year.

jtm0097 · February 17, 2022

This is how they target players

mike tyson darts GIF

El Paso Eagle · February 19, 2022

On 2/17/2022 at 10:51 AM, p_phelps said:

Yes, this staff is bad at recruiting. A wr from Denton signed with utsa and we didn't even offer.

How do you know that up front this kid did not tell the staff that he was not going to stay in Denton?

p_phelps · February 19, 2022

55 minutes ago, El Paso Eagle said:

How do you know that up front this kid did not tell the staff that he was not going to stay in Denton?

Looks like most good players this class must have said that

ntmeangreen11 · February 19, 2022

Right now we're wasting time offering a bunch of class of 23 players who will never sign here. History says we might sign 2 or 3 of the high school players we are offering right now, only if their offer list stays with only a few FBS options. The class of 23 will be filled by our next coach during the months of December and January.

We recently signed 5 high school players who we beat the likes of SFA and Lamar for.

We're waiting to fill out half of our signing class with portal players, yet almost every other school still has 5+ scholarships left to give so this won't help either as there are 120 other FBS schools who will beat us for said portal players if offered so there's no advantage to this.

Seth Littrell doubled down on high school players when other FBS coaches utilized the portal, when he finally started using the portal he brought in players that didn't help. He is late to the party and behind the times when it comes to recruiting and we should just go ahead and bite the bullet and fire him.