Spring Roster Update

TheReal_jayD · February 3

The Athletic Department has updated the North Texas roster for spring football.

Two notable subtraction from the defense are Marcus Moore and Phil Hill. Moore played in 11 games last season. He finished the year with 17 tackles. Hill had 43 tackles last season. Hill retired from football due to injuries.

Scholarship chart has been updated as well.

Also noteworthy North Texas has also added 33 names to the roster for Spring. That is the most added ever in one spring semester for North Texas.

Full list of new names below:
Brandon Young Jr.
Isheem Young
Jeremiah Wright
Jenson Walker
David Spruiells
Kiefer Sibley
Jake Shipley
DT Sheffield
Shane Porter
Landon Peterson
Reese Mooney
Tyler Mercer
Cash McCollum
Jasper Lott
Ma'Kyi Lee
Jaedon Langley
JJ Jean-Louis
Jayden Hill
Oscar Hammond
Justice Guillory
Seth Ford
Blake Ford
Layton Firestone
Mason Ferguson
Zach Evans
Johnny Dickson
Luke Carter
Dalton Carnes
Trystan Butler
X'Avion Brice
Tre Bradford
BJ Allen Jr
Jeremiah Aaron

https://meangreensports.com/sports/football/roster

97and03 · February 3

Marcus Moore who was our only backup DT once Jackson was gone?

TheReal_jayD · February 3

1 hour ago, 97and03 said:

Marcus Moore who was our only backup DT once Jackson was gone?

Yep Reaction GIF

UNT Family Man · February 3

I guess they plan to get some 2-3 DT in the spring window?

Glory to the Green · February 3

7 hours ago, 97and03 said:

Marcus Moore who was our only backup DT once Jackson was gone?

Man, I’d feel a lot better if we had Jackson and Moore back.

We’ve brought in two that are already on campus, right? Langley and Shipley. Expecting a true freshman to contribute is not crazy, but it’s a tough ask. Hoping we have plans to bring in at least one more for the 2 deep.

NT80 · February 3

15 hours ago, TheReal_jayD said:

Also noteworthy North Texas has also added 33 names to the roster for Spring. That is the most added ever in one spring semester for North Texas.

This is the problem the Portal and NIL has created. Constant roster makeover. Players leave if they are not starters instead of working their way up the depth chart. It's the want-it-now society.

MeanGreen13 · February 3

Boy that OL competition is going to be stiff this year. I really like the mix of younger players and seniors. The measurables on the outsides are also better than in recent years for pass protection but there sure are a lot of unproven guys outside. Interior OL should continue to be a strength with the 4 experienced guys vying for three spots.

97and03 · February 3

5 hours ago, UNT Family Man said:

I guess they plan to get some 2-3 DT in the spring window?

Jake Gyllenhaal No GIF

Ten more WR and DBs!!!!!

jtm0097 · February 3

Our DL and LB situation scares me to be honest. We don't have many new faces and this group struggled last year. I'm hopeful Shipley and JJ Jean Louis pan out. However, they are wild cards at this point. We better pray to the football gods that Rod Brown stays healthy. Right now we don't have another experienced guy to play Nose.

DE- Jake Shipley or Vic Alobwede

DT- Rod Brown (no clue who backs him up now)

DE- Fatafehi Vailea or Kortlin Rausaw

LB- JJ Jean Louis or Jaylon Smith

LB- Jordan Brown

LB- Ethan Wesloski

MeanGreen13 · February 4

2 hours ago, jtm0097 said:

Our DL and LB situation scares me to be honest. We don't have many new faces and this group struggled last year. I'm hopeful Shipley and JJ Jean Louis pan out. However, they are wild cards at this point. We better pray to the football gods that Rod Brown stays healthy. Right now we don't have another experienced guy to play Nose.

DE- Jake Shipley or Vic Alobwede

DT- Rod Brown (no clue who backs him up now)

DE- Fatafehi Vailea or Kortlin Rausaw

LB- JJ Jean Louis or Jaylon Smith

LB- Jordan Brown

LB- Ethan Wesloski

I think LB is a far better situation than DL and that is very scary...

TheReal_jayD · February 4

2 hours ago, jtm0097 said:

Our DL and LB situation scares me to be honest. We don't have many new faces and this group struggled last year. I'm hopeful Shipley and JJ Jean Louis pan out. However, they are wild cards at this point. We better pray to the football gods that Rod Brown stays healthy. Right now we don't have another experienced guy to play Nose.

DE- Jake Shipley or Vic Alobwede

DT- Rod Brown (no clue who backs him up now)

DE- Fatafehi Vailea or Kortlin Rausaw

LB- JJ Jean Louis or Jaylon Smith

LB- Jordan Brown

LB- Ethan Wesloski

I agree with @MeanGreen13 on this one. We have several young LBers on the team. I am optimistic they will get the best 3 on the field and be improved from last year.

The defensive line scares the 💩out of me at the moment. I thought the needed to go out and add 2-3 285-310 Lb juco dl prior to Moore leaving. Now they are extremely low on numbers and size. We aimed for the stars right out of the gates. Going after 2 juco guys that went P5… then didn’t go after anymore. I felt like there was a handful of guys we could have got that would have been better than nothing. That is my biggest complaint at the moment. @Sanoe Valente and I are podcasting tonight and I will go into more details.

UNTLifer · February 4

Yet we keep offering offensive talent. I am going to be pissed if this defense isn't addressed along the line. I don't get it. It's not like they didn't know Moore wasn't coming back, yet we sign the WR from Allen. We need the help now for Spring ball. Might they move Vailea to back up Brown?

TheReal_jayD · February 4

2 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

Yet we keep offering offensive talent. I am going to be pissed if this defense isn't addressed along the line. I don't get it. It's not like they didn't know Moore wasn't coming back, yet we sign the WR from Allen. We need the help now for Spring ball. Might they move Vailea to back up Brown?

The kid from Allen is a PWO and they are moving him to safety. But I agree with your concern about DL

UNTLifer · February 4

47 minutes ago, TheReal_jayD said:

The kid from Allen is a PWO and they are moving him to safety. But I agree with your concern about DL

Thanks. Well, we have a plethora of safeties as well. Of course a PWO is pretty risk free.

I noticed TX St. picked up a transfer DL out of MI St. that I don't think we ever offered. We really needed that transfer out of Rice. Hopefully, someone, or a few someones, will show up soon.

El Paso Eagle · February 4

The disparity and the efforts made to recruit offensive linemen compared to defensive linemen is borderline scary. I know I keep beating the proverbial dead horse, but this shows where Morris's priorities lay, and they're not even close. I will push for Morris and hope he does well, but if, in the end, he does not survive as our head coach, there are not going to be a lot of questions about why this happened. One of Leach's bad traits that I wish Morris had not picked up was his lack of emphasis on defense or the belief that his offense would consistently score enough. Also, as I've said before, it's getting harder for me to dump on Caponi when it looks like he is not given the support he needs to recruit players.

Edited February 5 by El Paso Eagle

NT80 · February 4

29 minutes ago, El Paso Eagle said:

The disparity and the efforts made to recruit offensive linemen compared to defensive linemen is borderline scary. I know I keep beating the proverbial dead horse, but this shows where Morris's priorities lay, and they're not even close. I will push for Morse and hope he does well, but if, in the end, he does not survive as our head coach, there are not going to be a lot of questions about why this happened. One of Leach's bad traits that I wish Morris had not picked up was his lack of emphasis on defense or the belief that his offense would consistently score enough. Also, as I've said before, it's getting harder for me to dump on Caponi when it looks like he is not given the support he needs to recruit players.

When a defense ranks near the bottom of the entire FBS, major changes needed to be made, both in players and coaches. It was a disaster from game one to the end of season. Not making a DC change or adding 3x the amount of defensive players just says history will repeat itself again...

jtm0097 · February 4

After thinking about the LB room more, there are a few things to be optimistic about. Jordan Brown is a solid LB. Ethan Wesloski played a lot last year. He showed improvement throughout the year and was the third leading tackler. JJ Jean Louis has the frame to play right away. He had a lot of decent offers out of HS. I hope he steps up and plays right away.

We will need the 2 Juco transfers Chavez Brown and CJ Garnett to be solid contributors this year. They primarily played special teams last year. We also need young guys like Matthew Moore and Dietrich Moore to be in the fold as well. They both had impressive high school film. Matthew was a stud at his HS. Hopefully his redshirt year helped him get stronger. Dietrich was getting a lot of attention his JR year before he was hurt.

I'm still worried about the DL room. They better hope a FCS or FBS bounceback commits this spring.

Edited February 4 by jtm0097

Hunter Green · February 5

7 hours ago, jtm0097 said:

After thinking about the LB room more, there are a few things to be optimistic about. Jordan Brown is a solid LB. Ethan Wesloski played a lot last year. He showed improvement throughout the year and was the third leading tackler. JJ Jean Louis has the frame to play right away. He had a lot of decent offers out of HS. I hope he steps up and plays right away.

We will need the 2 Juco transfers Chavez Brown and CJ Garnett to be solid contributors this year. They primarily played special teams last year. We also need young guys like Matthew Moore and Dietrich Moore to be in the fold as well. They both had impressive high school film. Matthew was a stud at his HS. Hopefully his redshirt year helped him get stronger. Dietrich was getting a lot of attention his JR year before he was hurt.

I'm still worried about the DL room. They better hope a FCS or FBS bounceback commits this spring.

I have no evidence to support this claim, but I expect Blake Fann will make an impact and get some playing time.

jtm0097 · February 5

It seems the DL coach is happy with the upcoming DL prospects that we signed.

El Paso Eagle · February 5

1 hour ago, jtm0097 said:

It seems the DL coach is happy with the upcoming DL prospects that we signed.

Two comments:
1 - What else would you expect him to say?
2 - When you have the worst D in FBS, you need transfers, not HS players that you will most likely spend 2 years developing before they make an impact or transfer. We need help now!

jtm0097 · February 5

1 hour ago, El Paso Eagle said:

Two comments:
1 - What else would you expect him to say?
2 - When you have the worst D in FBS, you need transfers, not HS players that you will most likely spend 2 years developing before they make an impact or transfer. We need help now!

1. We want additional DL, I wouldn't hate to see him say he's still looking for dogs or something like that.

2. 100% we need more help

3. While we are talking about it, here's our production returning rankings for the year.

Total production 91 (54%)

Total offense production 115 (42%)

Total defense production 39 (66%)

Edited February 5 by jtm0097

Glory to the Green · February 5

5 hours ago, jtm0097 said:

It seems the DL coach is happy with the upcoming DL prospects that we signed.

Generating excitement for his current players and anticipating the arrival of more in the fall. All good stuff. I’m assuming they’re going to try and add some JUCO/TP guys soon. This will remind our HS guys that we still want them to develop and play for the Mean Green.

Graddean · February 5

According to a source I found for rating positions in professional football, the easiest position is running back. The second easiest is defensive line. MAYBE, the incoming group will be an upgrade.

NT80 · February 6

3 hours ago, Glory to the Green said:

Generating excitement for his current players and anticipating the arrival of more in the fall. All good stuff. I’m assuming they’re going to try and add some JUCO/TP guys soon. This will remind our HS guys that we still want them to develop and play for the Mean Green.

We should be focused on recruiting the portal over HS. Players can't portal out again until they graduate. As soon as a HS recruit in our program player shows potential he's offered $ by larger programs. The way for us to retain players is kill the portal opt-out by recruiting more mature, college-experienced transfers from the beginning.

TheReal_jayD · February 6

10 minutes ago, NT80 said:

We should be focused on recruiting the portal over HS. Players can't portal out again until they graduate. As soon as a HS recruit in our program player shows potential he's offered $ by larger programs. The way for us to retain players is kill the portal opt-out by recruiting more mature, college-experienced transfers from the beginning.

Not the rules any more. Looks like guys can transfer as much as they want now.