McCarney to take long look at roster and signing day thoughts

Green P1 · November 16, 2012

I don't think be voted for Obama.

It seems he favors hope and change....

I'm just sayin.

UNT90 · November 16, 2012

It seems he favors hope and change....

I'm just sayin.

But is he moving forward??

Your so 2008...

H-towngreen · November 16, 2012

Good.

I saw plenty of Facebook pictures of the kid he almost killed in the hospital. I don't want any part of a college program that would allow someone like that to play. If this is true then i like Mac a whole lot more right now than I did this morning.

If you have 85 kids on your program, schnitzel is gonna happen sooner or later.

eulessismore · November 16, 2012

If you have 85 kids on your program, schnitzel is gonna happen sooner or later.

I really doubt if Mac, that son of an Iowa City police chief, is really keen on lawbreakers.

GL2Greatness · November 16, 2012

I really doubt if Mac, that son of an Iowa City police chief, is really keen on lawbreakers.

david brown jr. would argue with that line of thinking

foutsrouts · November 16, 2012

We signed an "able-bodied", Juco DB this last class with the move to C-USA looming... care to guess how much playing time he has? McCarney is starting a freshman converted RB over him and he is getting burned weekly. We need something more than that because C-USA receivers are better than SBC receivers, on the whole, wouldn't you say?

I think conference money shares and prestige has a lot to do with our move and other teams' jealousy. I wouldn't go so far as to say I'd rather stay in the SBC and be conference champs every year over moving up to C-USA.

There are no excuses. McCarney is paid WAY too much for excuses. The fact is, C-USA is a better football conference with better football teams than where we currently play. If the quality of players we bring in does not improve, we go from a middle-of-the-pack SBC team, to a bottom-of-the-barrel C-USA team. It's hard to get players you need to compete in your own conference if you're stuck at the bottom of that conference. Is this not true?

Things could change quickly, but I'm not so sure about that. Next year you have Tulsa in the west along with a bunch of pretty crappy teams, and then you have ECU in the east along with a bunch of pretty crappy teams. We shall see.

TIgreen01 · November 16, 2012

Football is won/lost at the line. It's no coincidence Dickey's bowl teams set the high water mark for success in the modern era. Look at the defensive linemen we had: Booger Kennedy, Mike Pruitt,Adrian Awasome, Darrell Daniels, Sky Pruitt, Evan Cardwell, etc. If we want to win we need linemen. One of the most exciting things about hiring Coach Mac was his record with defensive linemen. This program HAS to start recruit more studs on both sides of the line. The other "skill" positions are great, but they can only do their jobs when the guys who start the plays with their hands on the ground are doing what they are there to do.

Yep, I absolutely agree. However, I thought we were discussing a lack of DBs on the depth chart (ie, DMac saying we didn't have enough to play nickel or dime) as being our newest excuse in a long line of reasons why we can't win. I'm just calling BS on that.

We signed an "able-bodied", Juco DB this last class with the move to C-USA looming... care to guess how much playing time he has? McCarney is starting a freshman converted RB over him and he is getting burned weekly. We need something more than that because C-USA receivers are better than SBC receivers, on the whole, wouldn't you say? I think conference money shares and prestige has a lot to do with our move and other teams' jealousy. I wouldn't go so far as to say I'd rather stay in the SBC and be conference champs every year over moving up to C-USA. There are no excuses. McCarney is paid WAY too much for excuses. The fact is, C-USA is a better football conference with better football teams than where we currently play. If the quality of players we bring in does not improve, we go from a middle-of-the-pack SBC team, to a bottom-of-the-barrel C-USA team. It's hard to get players you need to compete in your own conference if you're stuck at the bottom of that conference. Is this not true?

Look, if you bring in a guy who can't contribute (Juco, HS or otherwise), that's obviously not going to help us. Maybe the experience that our starting 2 deep has gained this year will help give us some flexibility on the kinds of kids we can go after in the secondary. But if we still need immediate starters/contributors, that's what JUCOs are for. We should be able to use the perception boost of CUSA, along with regional conference games against higher profile programs to help give us a boost in recruiting---at least when going head-to-head with Sun Belt conference schools. If we can't beat out Sun Belt schools for players, then obviously we will struggle against CUSA teams.

MeanGreenTexan · November 16, 2012

Look, if you bring in a guy who can't contribute (Juco, HS or otherwise), that's obviously not going to help us. Maybe the experience that our starting 2 deep has gained this year will help give us some flexibility on the kinds of kids we can go after in the secondary. But if we still need immediate starters/contributors, that's what JUCOs are for. We should be able to use the perception boost of CUSA, along with regional conference games against higher profile programs to help give us a boost in recruiting---at least when going head-to-head with Sun Belt conference schools. If we can't beat out Sun Belt schools for players, then obviously we will struggle against CUSA teams.

For sure! But, if we're fighting with (even if we're winning) recruiting battles with SBC schools, then we're recruiting the wrong guys. Once we move into C-USA, we need to at least be competing with other C-USA schools, and with Big12 and SEC schools on some players, for talent.

All I'm saying is if we're losing badly in C-USA, it's going to be hard to get good C-USA caliber players... but we should still be able to get better recruits than SBC schools. Take Royce LaFrance for example. Tulane is a bottom dwelling C-USA school and he chose them over us and LA La. Is Royce going to be a top-notch LB for Tulane in the future? Who knows, but when other C-USA schools are bringing in 4*LB's, Royce doesn't look so good.

Cerebus · November 16, 2012

Yep, I absolutely agree. However, I thought we were discussing a lack of DBs on the depth chart (ie, DMac saying we didn't have enough to play nickel or dime) as being our newest excuse in a long line of reasons why we can't win. I'm just calling BS on that.

What I am saying is it doesn't matter if we recruit 4* DBs and don't get the down linemen. No one can cover four eight seconds. But you can get away with having 2* DBs if you have a solid line.

We need the linemen to win. We don't get them, we don't win, IMHO.

MeanGreenTexan · November 16, 2012

What I am saying is it doesn't matter if we recruit 4* DBs and don't get the down linemen. No one can cover four eight seconds. But you can get away with having 2* DBs if you have a solid line.

We need the linemen to win. We don't get them, we don't win, IMHO.

Surely you have been watching Mean Green football for the past few years?

I agree with you that D-Line is hugely important, but we could have a line full of JaDaveon Clowneys and we would still have a problem with WR's getting behind our secondary on some horribly-busted coverage. Need to recruit the best at all positions.

Cerebus · November 16, 2012

Surely you have been watching Mean Green football for the past few years?

I agree with you that D-Line is hugely important, but we could have a line full of JaDaveon Clowneys and we would still have a problem with WR's getting behind our secondary on some horribly-busted coverage. Need to recruit the best at all positions.

It doesn't matter if the QB is already on his back or running for his life before he can finish his 3 step drop. Did you watch Mean Green football in the early to mid 2000s? You would have seen a lot of that.

Of course we need to recruit the best everywhere, but if you can land a stud DB every year, or a stud DT, take the DT every year.

Edited November 16, 2012 by Cerebus

MeanGreenTexan · November 16, 2012

It doesn't matter if the QB is already on his back or running for his life before he can finish his 3 step drop. Did you watch Mean Green football in the early to mid 2000s? You would have seen a lot of that.

Of course we need to recruit the best everywhere, but if you can land a stud DB every year, or a stud DT, take the DT every year.

Everyone wants stud DTs. They're the most in-demand position out there. Of course that early 2000's D-Line was awesome. I was a student at the time, so I saw them first hand. But, we also had some all-conference DB's: Buckles, Jones, Knowlton, McGee, Priestly, Covington that gave the D-Line a little longer to get to the QB because they were good in coverage.

Green Dozer · November 16, 2012

If you have 85 kids on your program, schnitzel is gonna happen sooner or later.

And it does take a little schnitzel to be successful. Stok took it to am extreme that is inexcusable. But you can't win with choir boys either.

greenminer · November 16, 2012

Everyone wants stud DTs. They're the most in-demand position out there. Of course that early 2000's D-Line was awesome. I was a student at the time, so I saw them first hand. But, we also had some all-conference DB's: Buckles, Jones, Knowlton, McGee, Priestly, Covington that gave the D-Line a little longer to get to the QB because they were good in coverage.

You're turning this into a chicken-egg argument, and it's not gonna work.

Find me a coach that takes the stud DB over stud DT, and I'll buy you a Twinkie.

MeanGreenTexan · November 16, 2012

You're turning this into a chicken-egg argument, and it's not gonna work.

Find me a coach that takes the stud DB over stud DT, and I'll buy you a Twinkie.

I'm sorry, don't mis-understand me. I'm not saying I would take a 4* DB over a 4* DT.

What I'm saying... and obviously not very clearly, forgive me, I'm sleep-deprived :sleeping: ... is that an upgrade at DT does not automagically cure pass defense woes. It helps, but when you have sub-par DB's you still get passed on. And, on a grander scale, a solid SBC-level DT recruit is probably not going to get us over the top when we jump up to C-USA. Neither will a solid SBC-level DB recruit. When we actually jump to C-USA, we will need to target better players to play against the better players on opposing teams in a stronger conference.

Coaching has a whole-heckuva-lot to do with the development of any of these guys too.

I'm sorry if I'm coming off as if I'm thinking a 5* DB will cure our pass defense problems, or if I think we're going to get a bunch of 1* and un-rated players because we will probably struggle in C-USA. I don't mean either of those things. :sleeping: :wacko: :wacko: :sleeping:

UNTLifer · November 16, 2012

I just think we need to go after a couple of JUCO D-linemen this year. We saw success with this in the past, Pruitt and Daniels, and we could use an immediate updgrade. I look for McDorman, Watson, Dilonga and Horton to eventually contribute, but have concerns about Haboul and Wallace. Haboul because of his size and Wallace because of the shape he arrived in to campus.