Vito Says Troy Will Win Sbc Recruiting Crown

SUMG · January 26, 2008

(thoughts by Brett Vito---Denton Record Chronicle):

UNT has been cleaning up on the recruiting front the last few months and has one last spot to give after the addition of Northwest Mississippi C.C. defensive end Alonzo Horton.

By the way, look for that last spot to go to a junior college offensive lineman.

Any way, like a lot of experts out there I am ready to call the race for the Sun Belt Conference recruiting title. And your winner is ... I can feel the anticipation building. … Troy.

That's not really a big surprise. Troy has cleaned up through the years, which is one reason the Trojans always seem to be sitting at the top of the Sun Belt standings while featuring a first-day NFL Draft prospect or two.

The Trojans have been at it again this year and are sitting at No. 72 nationally in Rivals.com's national rankings with UNT just behind at 76. The difference? Troy's ranking is based on the first 16 players who committed to play for the Trojans, while UNT's ranking is based on the 24 players it has committed.

With just one spot left to give, UNT won't make up a deficit that will continue to grow as Troy finishes out its class. The Trojans picked up three more recruits on Friday, including three-star wide receiver Charles Reeves, who also had offers from Auburn, Ole Miss, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia Tech. He will give Troy a big boost when he is counted in its total tomorrow.

UNT has its best recruiting class since at least the 2000 season when the Mean Green landed Brandon Kennedy, Scott Hall and Jonas Buckles, among others. There are seven three-star recruits in UNT's class, including offensive lineman Troy Franklin of Celina, who some sharp-eyed Mean Green fans noticed was upgraded by one star recently. Troy had four three-star players counted in its ranking as of Friday and will have five with the addition of Reeves.

Figuring out recruiting rankings is a little like pondering calculus, and I was never very good at math, but the simple explanation for Troy ranking higher than UNT with fewer three-star players is the Trojans picked up some bonus points in the Rivals.com system based on the state rankings and national position rankings of its recruits. That's not really all that important.

What is interesting is that UNT gave Troy, a consistent winner under Larry Blakeney, a run despite finishing 2-10 last season. You have to give UNT head coach Todd Dodge credit for making the recruiting race competitive in a year when the Mean Green was never a factor in the chase for the Sun Belt title.

I don't see anyone passing Troy or UNT at this point, so I guess the Mean Green takes over if the Trojans are unable to fulfill their duties as recruiting champions.

I know there are some Mean Green fans out there who fancy themselves recruiting experts, which I do not. So be sure to post your thoughts. Are you happy to see UNT finish No. 2 in the unofficial Sun Belt recruiting wars this season?

RETSO · January 26, 2008

What a great start to Dodge's first true recruiting effort......and a heck of a lot better than the stealth recruiting of our past leader.

BIG DAWG · January 26, 2008

This team wins at least 7 games next year...new DC...JC recruits mixed in with some contributing true fresh...redshirts from last year...several returning starters that will contribute heavily

PlummMeanGreen · January 26, 2008

What a great start to Dodge's first true recruiting effort......and a heck of a lot better than the stealth recruiting of our past leader.

As I remember former Waco Herald-Tribune Sports Editor Dave Campbell first coining what is now an oft' repeated phrase back in the 1970's on an old KRLD Sports Central recruiting round-up show and that phrase being: "Recruiting is at best an uncertain science." I think most of us have most always seen it to be just that, yet who would ever be so foolish to try to be the one that attempts to stop these annual recruiting braggadocios, especially here in the Lone Star State?

Many of us make no bones of our being a bit proud of our being Texans & very proud Texans in every way but loose, but wouldn't many of us like to think our Texas HS recruits probably just get better coaching across the board than (perhaps) those in some back-water states whose coaching (and HS facilities) could be considered, uh, a bit inferior?

Just One Perspective On Texas Intercollegiate D1-A Recruiting: How many times back before the term "body bag games" became part of our vocabulary in Denton did we go down to Austin & play our state's premier school off their heels back in the 1970's when everyone & their dogs knew there was no way a North Texas could ever out-recruit the Longhorns in any year?

Yes (in deed) it is a new era now where the athletic facility arms race is all but out of control at many of the super schools who are most times annual fixtures in the Top 25, but I think we can still use Boise State (once again) as a true model as to what can eventually be done at a school like North Texas. Some will still say: Yet UNT is inudated & surrounded geographically by Big 12 and CUSA schools, but Boise State (in a much smaller state) is also surrounded by PAC 12 & MWC schools, too, right?

Congrats to Troy U if they have (in deed) won the mythical SBC Recruiting Title of 2008, but (to quote the great Fats Domino) ain't that a shame they seemed to have in their covy not one Texas High School football product? So FWIW...........Wouldn't many of us take our "7" 3 *'s over their "5" 3*'s any day of the week, especially with most of ours receiving their tutelage from Texas HS football coaches?

PS: I feel we will all really like future recruiting contest with Troy U, all other SBC schools (and all CUSA schools) when we ante up & start putting down all our aces on the table with the Grand Opening of our new NCAA D1-A football palace located between those 2 Texas Interstates in west Denton & inside the Mean Green Village; in fact, I like our chances with many, many other schools than just those in the 2 aforementioned conferences.

GMG!

Edited January 26, 2008 by PlummMeanGreen

UNTLifer · January 26, 2008

Love our recruits, but I don't put a lot of stock in these rankings. Seems to me that the MUTS always were the predicted winner of the SBC a couple of years ago, yet our "unheralded" recruits always whipped them.

January 26, 2008

Recruiting is an inexact science but Rivals is as close to a standard as we have. I trust their panel a little more than Scouts and a lot more than ESPN.

In my opinion, North Texas has a stronger recruiting class than Troy. Right now, we have a microscopic thin advantage when averaging the rating of the recruits. As of today, our average per recruit is 5.329; Troy's is 5.327. We only have one scholarship left to give so our average can't vary much from what it is now. Troy, on the other hand, has only 15 recruits that have been given a rating (4 have not) and must average better than 5.3 on their remaining prospects to improve. Most of the higher-rated prospects are commited so the odds of them signing highly-rated choices are dim.

Troy has two recruits that were assigned two stars that have not been rated and two more that received neither stars or ratings. I don't understand why they would list them without a score. Usually, they give them a 4.9 (as they did Cantly) if they don't know much about them subject to revision when they have finished their research but they didn't in these cases. My first thought was that these might be expected non-qualifiers but I can't say for sure.

Rivals final score is inflated by bonus points for getting the higher-rated recruits. That's bull because recruiting can't be that exact. Recruits can fairly well be categorized by talent, speed, size, etc. but not ranked numerically, especially between states. I believe that all this bonus nonsense is just that. So Troy may actually come out on top with that scenario but I don't believe that they will have the best Belt recruiting class.

MeanGreen61 · January 26, 2008

Recruiting is an inexact science but Rivals is as close to a standard as we have. I trust their panel a little more than Scouts and a lot more than ESPN.
In my opinion, North Texas has a stronger recruiting class than Troy. Right now, we have a microscopic thin advantage when averaging the rating of the recruits. As of today, our average per recruit is 5.329; Troy's is 5.327. We only have one scholarship left to give so our average can't vary much from what it is now. Troy, on the other hand, has only 15 recruits that have been given a rating (4 have not) and must average better than 5.3 on their remaining prospects to improve. Most of the higher-rated prospects are commited so the odds of them signing highly-rated choices are dim.
Troy has two recruits that were assigned two stars that have not been rated and two more that received neither stars or ratings. I don't understand why they would list them without a score. Usually, they give them a 4.9 (as they did Cantly) if they don't know much about them subject to revision when they have finished their research but they didn't in these cases. My first thought was that these might be expected non-qualifiers but I can't say for sure.
Rivals final score is inflated by bonus points for getting the higher-rated recruits. That's bull because recruiting can't be that exact. Recruits can fairly well be categorized by talent, speed, size, etc. but not ranked numerically, especially between states. I believe that all this bonus nonsense is just that. So Troy may actually come out on top with that scenario but I don't believe that they will have the best Belt recruiting class.

IMHO the Average Star column is a better guage than the point/bonus system. Totals the value of recruits without the benefit of total number & bonus points.

2.29 UNT

2.08 Muts

2.05 Troy

2.00 ULM

2.00 FIU

1.85 Arkansas State

1.40 ULL

1.23 FAU

Edited January 26, 2008 by MeanGreen61

MeanGreen61 · January 26, 2008

(thoughts by Brett Vito---Denton Record Chronicle):
By the way, look for that last spot to go to a junior college offensive lineman.

Found this on another board. Rivals Top 100 JUCO's still not committed.

Simi Kuli 5 Star DE CA

4 Stars

Tevita Finau DE AZ

Daniel Calvin DT CA

J'Marcus Webb OL TX (Navarro)

Aki Vakalahi LB AZ

Devin Johnson DE CA

Brandon Mays DB CA

3 Stars

Jason Teague DB TX (Tyler)

Kevin Craft QB CA

Blake Gumm DT TX (Trinity Valley)

Lawrence Hood DB CA

Tyler Roby DB CA

January 26, 2008

Found this on another board. Rivals Top 100 JUCO's still not committed.
Simi Kuli 5 Star DE CA
4 Stars
Tevita Finau DE AZ
Daniel Calvin DT CA
J'Marcus Webb OL TX (Navarro)
Aki Vakalahi LB AZ
Devin Johnson DE CA
Brandon Mays DB CA
3 Stars
Jason Teague DB TX (Tyler)
Kevin Craft QB CA
Blake Gumm DT TX (Trinity Valley)
Lawrence Hood DB CA
Tyler Roby DB CA

Webb has never listed us as one of his interests nor have we indicated interest in him but if he is somehow the one then it would be an outstanding plum for our recruiting staff.

His counterpart on the other side, Roy Watts, is a 3-star OT who has only listed Houston according to the Rivals board. That was his preference before Briles left but I'm not sure that it is now because I think that the current staff at UH would've jumped all over a 3-star prospect. I don't know if Briles still has interest in him for Baylor or not. He'd be another great pickup if we could get him. He is 6-6, 300; only slightly shorter than Webb.

Somehow, I just have a feeling that the JC lineman will be from either Mississippi or Kansas.

H-towngreen · January 26, 2008

I would love to be able to land either one of those 2 UT exes. With one spot left I either want a high school LB, or a stud JUCO OL.

January 26, 2008

I would love to be able to land either one of those 2 UT exes. With one spot left I either want a high school LB, or a stud JUCO OL.

Hey, that's right. I remembered that J'Marcus Webb was a UT signee but I had forgotten that Watts also signed with them.

We definitely need another OL. I'm less concerned about LB because I'm hoping that Bron Hager and Jeremy Phillips will be moved there. If they are anything close to being clones of their dad and brother respectively, we could really be strong there.