Recruiting Question

H-towngreen · July 8, 2005

I have a few questions about UNT's recruiting efforts that hopefully some of you in the know(Harry,Oldtimer,Cerebus)will be able to help me out with or just let us know what you think.

1) Teams are receiving verbal commitments earlier and earlier, as Texas already has 21 verbal commitments. I realize that the bigger schools are going to get the pick of the litter but where does UNT fall in all of this. I've noticed that we know more now at this early stage than we have in past years later in the process. We already have one offer out to a QB from Mizzu but can we expect more to come? Do you

expect more soon or are we going to wait till later in the game to start handing out offers?

With teams already getting commitments when can we expect UNT to get its first, before the season, during, or after?

2) Also by looking at some of the prospects that have intrest in UNT or vice versa, it seems as though we already have caught some decent players eyes. What do yall expect of DD's class this year. Is this the year that we land a multiple 3* or get a 4* to come into Denton? Personally, I believe this will be DD's year to have a highly touted class, maybe top 50-75 in the nation.

3) I forget his name but whoever is in charge of recruiting OK. seems to be doing an incredible job as he has many connections there. But what type of talent can we expect this year coming from across the river?

Harry · July 8, 2005

1). You're right - the bigger schools are getting their commitments earlier. UNT could do more of this but here's the problem, if you sign a good player early you run the risk of identifying him as a talented player to the bigger schools in bigger conferences. The better players typically get "slow-played" by the bigger programs meaning that they are teased with potential scholarship offers until later on in the game. Do you sign a lesser player who is willing to commit early or wait to be there with a scholarship when the stud gets left at the dance by a bigger program?

What can often happen is a chain reaction - for example UT loses a recruit who decides to go to OU, now UT starts looking for a guy that has committed to say Missouri or O-State. Then O-State starts looking at who UNT is after or has committed. They respect our talent evaluation and it makes their job easier - they don't have to do any homework. OL Andrew Lewis is an example of this. We identified him early on as a player with huge upside. OSU sniffed around and found out that we were recruiting him and got involved and ultimately landed him when they lost some players late.

I suspect that UNT will continue it's policy of "under the radar" until signing day for now. I do believe that UNT will need to address their recruiting policy as the internet is becoming such a staple in the minds of kids. Early commitments can also provide a snowball effect if the kid will stay true - so there is an upside. It does appear that UNT is getting a lot more activity and mention with recruits than in years past which is a good sign.

2). Right now it's too early to tell how this class will shape up. The level of interest is at an all time high - that's a good sign. I think the facility improvements are helping immensely. Being in 4 straight nationally televised bowls has done a lot to improve our reputation. Kids want to go to North Texas. I also think that the "Jamario" factor is huge. To have a player of his caliber, and to have him for potentially 2-3 more years in the program is a huge lightning rod for the program. I do think that the date of the bowl game has been detrimental to our recruiting in the past although it could not outweight the positive effects of playing in a bowl game and the extra practices.

3). Coach Atterbury is doing a fantastic job in Oklahoma. He is well connected, but more than that he is a good person that is well respected by the high school coaches. OU, OSU and even Tulsa have turned their back on some very fine players in OKlahoma to sign players from DFW. I suspect that we will continue to get some good talent from there.

buff64 · July 8, 2005

There is a big difference between a commitment and signing. Ask UT about a certain QB last year. There are no early signings. Texas is still persuing 10-15 players for next year,they will not be able to take all of them plus the 21 or so already commited. It will result in an interesting signing period next winter. North Texas has done a good job of finding players not on the radar of some of the top rated schools. Since the other schools are now commiting to players early , players that suddenly develope during their senior year will be looking for some place to play other than the UT's and A&M's which will have already offered their ships. Plus those players bumped when a school over commits, such as UT.

Cerebus · July 8, 2005

1) Let me just parrot what Harry said: There is a food chain, we are not at the top when the inevitable domino game starts to fall, the coaches hard work in digging up hidden talent is exploited by other teams, if they know North Texas is recruiting a kid. It's not to say that North Texas doesn't recruit kids early and get commitments, they just aren't going to flash buy a front page in the DMN to tout it.

2) Facilities have helped more than anyone seems to think. Every fan clamors for a new stadium, but only FB gets uses it and then one 4-5 times a year. Every student athlete will spend hundreds if not thousands of hours in the weight room, meeting rooms, sports medicine room, etc.

3) The BCS schools in OK have passed a lot of talent at home in order to go into Texas or even national. It has created opportunity and the coaching staff has exploited. I think the same type of opportunity is in West Texas, as TT is trying to recruit nationally and UTEP has a lot of kids from its western side and really wants to go into California. I just went and looked at thier FB roster, and in alpahbetical order, of the first ten players listed (I am too lazy to read the full roster) 5 are from CA, 3 from AZ and 2 from TX.

MeanGreen61 · July 8, 2005

Internet rumor .... Was one of DD's "under the radar" recruits at the beach this past weekend?

user posted image

H-towngreen · July 8, 2005

Buff64 you bring up an intresting point that I didnt think about. That being a player who may have been hurt, moved to a new school, or just simply had an off year their junior year. If they come out their senior season and put up awesome numbers they may be out of luck when the school that they wanted to attend(UT) is out of ships to offer. If you look at it in that light, thats one way that could actually help UNT as we will be there to pick them up late in the season.

Edited July 8, 2005 by H-towngreen