Why does next year have. To be a rebuilding Year?

[SilverEagle]

16 hours ago, emmitt01 said:

With even competent QB play (60% completions OR absence of back-breaking INT’s) this roster wins 2-3 more games last season. 

Combine that with a moderately better performance from our defense, and I totally agree with your assessment.

[97and03]

17 hours ago, emmitt01 said:

With even competent QB play (60% completions OR absence of back-breaking INT’s) this roster wins 2-3 more games last season. 

Memphis for sure and probably first UTSA game. One could also for a couple other, such as UAB since we were leading at the half. 

[MrAlien]

18 hours ago, GrandGreen said:

I don't entirely get this logic.   2 to 3 years to get the program back because NT changed coaches.  NT terminated Littrell and hired Morris because they obviously were not satisfied with .500 seasons.

Coaches do more then coaching in college football, half the job is about recruiting.  When coaches are fired or leave, all that recruiting momentum is lost.  It will take at least a year or two to get recruiting on track.  looking at next seasons conference schedule, last years team would probably go 0-8 if they had to play it.    

[El Paso Eagle]

2 hours ago, SilverEagle said:

Combine that with a moderately better performance from our defense, and I totally agree with your assessment.

I am hoping that we hear some news on adding some pieces on the defensive side of the ball from the Portal. Would be nice if they were here for the spring, with a switch to the 3-3-5 we need all of the practice we can get.

[GrandGreen]

30 minutes ago, MrAlien said:

Coaches do more then coaching in college football, half the job is about recruiting.  When coaches are fired or leave, all that recruiting momentum is lost.  It will take at least a year or two to get recruiting on track.  looking at next seasons conference schedule, last years team would probably go 0-8 if they had to play it.    

Who do you think recruited better Morris in his first year or Littrell in his last recruiting year?  The late recruiting start obvious hurt this year, but I don't agree that it will take two or even one year to recover.   

What last year's team would do playing next year's schedule is impossible to know, but NT is not joining the SEC.  

NT still is recruiting and I suspect will add more spots to fill as Morris and company review the current team.  

Recruiting should get better next year, but that is largely dependent on what happens next season.  If NT shows improvement on the field it will get better, a bad year could destroy the momentum of a new staff. 

[wardly]

On 1/13/2023 at 11:14 AM, cousin oliver said:

I have not seen anyone say this was a rebuilding year.  We should be very competitive in this league.

With the exception of Memphis, East Carolina, UTSA, and SMU, the AAC is basically CUSA 102. We have a chance to beat the rest but will struggle with teams with winning records. This is definitely a rebuilding year for one of the worst defenses in D1 football.

[cousin oliver]

18 minutes ago, wardly said:

With the exception of Memphis, East Carolina, UTSA, and SMU, the AAC is basically CUSA 102. We have a chance to beat the rest but will struggle with teams with winning records. This is definitely a rebuilding year for one of the worst defenses in D1 football.

Are you crazy man?  You left off UAB, Tulane (ranked 9th in the country) and Navy who is always competitive.  This is a much tougher league than CUSA.

[UNTLifer]

24 minutes ago, cousin oliver said:

Are you crazy man?  You left off UAB, Tulane (ranked 9th in the country) and Navy who is always competitive.  This is a much tougher league than CUSA.

Out of those three, I will give you Tulane.

[MrAlien]

22 hours ago, GrandGreen said:

Who do you think recruited better Morris in his first year or Littrell in his last recruiting year?  The late recruiting start obvious hurt this year, but I don't agree that it will take two or even one year to recover.  

Littrell was not a great recruiter, however up until early December he was in charge of it.  Morris was not here, so he has only been able to recruit for a few days, and most potential recruits already have their schools picked out by the spring semester.  The transfer window has not been a success at this point, how is re-recruiting going?  Will there be enough success in 23 to encourage recruiting, probably not, UNT are looking like a 3 win team next year. 

[jtm0097]

5 hours ago, MrAlien said:

Littrell was not a great recruiter, however up until early December he was in charge of it.  Morris was not here, so he has only been able to recruit for a few days, and most potential recruits already have their schools picked out by the spring semester.  The transfer window has not been a success at this point, how is re-recruiting going?  Will there be enough success in 23 to encourage recruiting, probably not, UNT are looking like a 3 win team next year. 

 

Have you seen our out of conference schedule? We should win at least 3 out of conference games. If we don't win 6 games next year, I will be very disappointed. We are losing 3 starters on offense Manase Mose, Jake Roberts, and Austin Aune; 3 starters on defense KD Davis, Quinn Whitlock, and Sean Thomas-Faulkner. Edit to include Gaddie.

Replacements:

Chandler Rogers or Earle Stone QB

Paula Talimoni Vaipulu C

Gumms at TE

Jordan Brown at LB

Not sure who will replace Faulkner or Whitlock. Granted we will be running a 3-3-5, so the positions will change up a little bit. We did just sign Damon Youngblood at S and have Nick Nakwassah who started at Central Arkansas prior to getting hurt on the roster as well. 

 

Out of Conference:

Cal 4-8 (New OC and QB)

Abilene Christian (FCS)

La Tech (we beat 47-27)

FIU (we beat 52-14)

Conference Home: (Ok I fully expect us to go 2-2 or 1-3 here)

UTSA (They beat us twice)

Memphis (Lost by 10)

UAB (Lost by 3 TDs)

Temple (3-9 last year)

Conference Away: (I could see us beating Tulsa and Navy 2-2)

Tulsa (5-7 and lost starting QB to the portal)

SMU (trust fund kids beat us every year)

Tulane (they just beat USC in the Cotton Bowl)

Navy (4-8 triple option team that has a new HC)

Edited January 16, 2023 by jtm0097

[MrAlien]

I dont see them winning a road conference game next year.  At home UTSA, UAB and Memphis are just better teams.  Temple might look easy on paper but I am not betting much on this one either. 

[wardly]

3 hours ago, cousin oliver said:

Are you crazy man?  You left off UAB, Tulane (ranked 9th in the country) and Navy who is always competitive.  This is a much tougher league than CUSA.

Opps! Not entirely crazy, but had a bad Senior moment overlooking the Green Wave. Just not used to Tulane ranked so high. They had a great year and their Cotton bowl win was one of the best bowl games of the year. On the other hand Navy is in the tank, Temple is not much, UAB is beatable, and Charlotte ,Rice, and FAU probably are in the bottom half along with us. The  AAC is tougher than CUSA, and  we only won a single conference game last against a team with a winning record. The  6 teams from CUSA that joined AAC , with the exception of UTSA ,didn't bring much to the table, so for us to be as good as last year won't get the job done. I think we can compete but the first few years may look familiar until the defense improves. We will beat the bottom feeders but struggle against the better teams.

[Matt from A700]

I don't think we're competing for a conference championship, but we should at least go to a bowl game. I'd be disappointed if we went any worse than 3-1 in nonconference.

[97and03]

56 minutes ago, Matt from A700 said:

I don't think we're competing for a conference championship, but we should at least go to a bowl game. I'd be disappointed if we went any worse than 3-1 in nonconference.

Should be 3-1 in OOC games and three very winnable games in conference. Wouldn’t be at all surprised to see us make a bowl but not sure that means anything has really changed. 

[MrAlien]

I'll give them 2-2 in OOC, wins against ACU and FIU.

and 1-7 in conference, Temple at home could be a win, but I am not to confident in that.

[97and03]

4 hours ago, MrAlien said:

I'll give them 2-2 in OOC, wins against ACU and FIU.

and 1-7 in conference, Temple at home could be a win, but I am not to confident in that.

Oh come on, you are being a little ridiculous. 

[Mean Green 93-98]

5 hours ago, MrAlien said:

I'll give them 2-2 in OOC, wins against ACU and FIU.

and 1-7 in conference, Temple at home could be a win, but I am not to confident in that.

If that's what we get next year, we sure didn't get much of a coaching upgrade.  Sounds like a downgrade to me.

[greenminer]

2 minutes ago, Mean Green 93-98 said:

If that's what we get next year, we sure didn't get much of a coaching upgrade.  Sounds like a downgrade to me.

Just want to reiterate (this is not directed at you, MG9398) that even a worst-case scenario with Morris does not mean we should regret getting rid of SL.  It was time to make the call with him.  It was Time for new blood.

[MrAlien]

12 hours ago, Mean Green 93-98 said:

If that's what we get next year, we sure didn't get much of a coaching upgrade.  Sounds like a downgrade to me.

It was not a coaching upgrade, it was a program reset, new AD, new coaching system, new recruiting direction.  The current players were recruited to play in Littrell's system, they are going to have to adjust, if they can.  Morris will need to recruit players that can play well under his system, and that is going to take time. 

[Mean Green 93-98]

1 hour ago, MrAlien said:

It was not a coaching upgrade, it was a program reset, new AD, new coaching system, new recruiting direction.  The current players were recruited to play in Littrell's system, they are going to have to adjust, if they can.  Morris will need to recruit players that can play well under his system, and that is going to take time. 

That's pretty much exactly the opposite of what Morris said.  I'll let you take that up with him.

[greenminer]

1 hour ago, MrAlien said:

It was not a coaching upgrade, it was a program reset, new AD, new coaching system, new recruiting direction.  The current players were recruited to play in Littrell's system, they are going to have to adjust, if they can.  Morris will need to recruit players that can play well under his system, and that is going to take time. 

Look at any of our coaching hires the last generation.  We went from seasoned running coach, to hiring a HS coach in Texas that was a passing game legend.  Then we hired a P5 retread from Iowa that wanted to ground and pound.  Then we went to a P5 OC from Okie-through-Indiana that was T-High-Let-Fly.

Every single hire we have seen, prior to Morris, was a reactionary, go-in-the-opposite-direction, decision.

We have a new coach that is in the same tree as SL.  We have a new AD that was practically best friends with WB.  They were confiding with each other on decisions before they ever got to Denton.  Mosley was an obvious, groomed-to-be, next-in-line hire from within.

If you still think this is a program reset, feel free to explain this and tell me why I'm wrong.  I personally think a reset is what we were doing before, and this is nothing close to that.  This is an adjustment and, if anything, we need to embrace that.   Calling this some kind of complete reset is setting yourself up to make excuses down the road.

*Screams to the heavens* no more excuses!

Edited January 17, 2023 by greenminer

[MrAlien]

How is it not a reset?  This is not Littrell 2.0!!!  They did not fire Littrell just to hire someone with the exact same program and philosophy, every coach has their own system, and thats exactly why they hired Morris, to bring in a new system.   Just because they were both former assistant coaches, does not mean that they are the same.  Dont get me wrong, I am excited about where this program is heading, but I understand it will take a couple recruiting cycles before this program is competitive in the AAC.

 

 

[Dannymacfan]

2 hours ago, MrAlien said:

It was not a coaching upgrade, it was a program reset, new AD, new coaching system, new recruiting direction.  The current players were recruited to play in Littrell's system, they are going to have to adjust, if they can.  Morris will need to recruit players that can play well under his system, and that is going to take time. 

Man that is a good way to explain it.  I may steal that if you don't mind @MrAlien.  I get from a lot of my alum friends that we hired Seth again but you are right it is so much different.

[Mean Green 93-98]

1 hour ago, greenminer said:

Look at any of our coaching hires the last generation.  We went from seasoned running coach, to hiring a HS coach in Texas that was a passing game legend.  Then we hired a P5 retread from Iowa that wanted to ground and pound.  Then we went to a P5 OC from Okie-through-Indiana that was T-High-Let-Fly.

Every single hire we have seen, prior to Morris, was a reactionary, go-in-the-opposite-direction, decision.

We have a new coach that is in the same tree as SL.  We have a new AD that was practically best friends with WB.  They were confiding with each other on decisions before they ever got to Denton.  Mosley was an obvious, groomed-to-be, next-in-line hire from within.

If you still think this is a program reset, feel free to explain this and tell me why I'm wrong.  I personally think a reset is what we were doing before, and this is nothing close to that.  This is an adjustment and, if anything, we need to embrace that.   Calling this some kind of complete reset is setting yourself up to make excuses down the road.

*Screams to the heavens* no more excuses!

This x 1,000,000.

[Dannymacfan]

1 hour ago, greenminer said:

Look at any of our coaching hires the last generation.  We went from seasoned running coach, to hiring a HS coach in Texas that was a passing game legend.  Then we hired a P5 retread from Iowa that wanted to ground and pound.  Then we went to a P5 OC from Okie-through-Indiana that was T-High-Let-Fly.

Every single hire we have seen, prior to Morris, was a reactionary, go-in-the-opposite-direction, decision.

We have a new coach that is in the same tree as SL.  We have a new AD that was practically best friends with WB.  They were confiding with each other on decisions before they ever got to Denton.  Mosley was an obvious, groomed-to-be, next-in-line hire from within.

If you still think this is a program reset, feel free to explain this and tell me why I'm wrong.  I personally think a reset is what we were doing before, and this is nothing close to that.  This is an adjustment and, if anything, we need to embrace that.   Calling this some kind of complete reset is setting yourself up to make excuses down the road.

*Screams to the heavens* no more excuses!

Do you not see all of the analysts and assistants they are hiring?  Do you not see the ties to south dallas and the power programs like SOC?  They may both be air raid but Seth was an introvert that made no attempt to build relationships in Denton, DFW or with donors and fans.  How can you be so blind?