Rivals Latest Rankings of All 123 NCAA FBS Schools

[laxtonto]

Well after one of the Rivals writers had to admit that they downgrade players in Texas to "protect the integratity of thier rankings" I pretty much don't care the difference between a 3 adn a 2* player. On the high end there will be differentation, but in a state like Texas, and in a region like DFW, if there is a ceiling of 3* players, we all know who is going to get downgraded. I think rivals does an excellent job in identifying the top and middle level talent but becuase how thier system works they will limit the number of 3*'s and above in both DFW and Texas overall to try and balance thier ranksing state to state and region to region.

I doubt we have 0 3* talent, just becuase 24/7 shows us with 3 (and TSU with 5) and the aggregate rankings show us with 4.

[foutsrouts]

Well, for those of you that are worried, does it make you feel any better that Darius Terrell was originally a 4 star (5.8 rating) coming out of high school and Berglund was a 3 star (5.7 rating). Seems that would have raised our ranking since they weren't included in our list, along with Davis being dropped a star.

We've got a couple of other transfer guys coming in who were also 3 stars coming out of HS. The thing about this class that gives me hope beyond the star system, is that a bunch of these guys are proven track guys who are clearly excellent athletes, and with good coaching excellent athletes can add a star or two to their resumes real quick.

Sure the overall national rating service numbers for this class are less than impressive, but this class just has a better look and feel to it than some of our other not so highly rated classes. It is what it is, and we shall see.

[untjim1995]

I wonder how much of the advantage Texas State seems to have built up quickly in recruiting also involves their location. San Marcos is really beautiful with it being in the Hill Country and I know that the San Marcos river has been known to attract a few pretty coeds in the spring and summer. Match that up with a good pedigree in Coach Fran and I wonder how much that helps, if that is even measurable.

I also wonder how much Coach McCarney's stroke has hampered recruits, too.

As I have done the last few months, I'm just trying to find some decent excuse as to why we cannot get Texas HS kids to want to play here. This isn't the old North Texas, playing at Fouts, in the SBC, after a 1-11 year, under a high school coach. It just doesn't make sense to me.

AS for UNT BOR or Lane Rawlins getting involved to do anything regarding personnel changes in the AD, I wouldn't exactly hold my breath on that. Now, if the Director of the Green Brigade is not performing to their standards or if the College of Arts isn't getting enough students into art classes, I think you'd see that BOR move a whole lot faster. That's what we care about at North Texas the most. Nothing wrong with it, I suppose, but the others schools in this state that play FBS football don't quite see things in the same vein.

[GrandGreen]

24/7 shows NT with 4 3 stars which by the way is not good, giving the top 250 in the state are given 3 or more stars. Overall team ranking 110

The interesting thing is that rank about all the Texas players

Their list of NT signees by state ranking

3 stars

153 Chad Davis

226 Fred Scott

242 Cody Nelson

the 4th 3 star is Tucker from last years class

others 2 stars

340 John Schilieci

344 Sed Ellis

354 Dominic Walker

373 Dajon Williams

377 Calvin Minor

383 Harrison Sorge

391 Turner Smiley

393 Darvin Kidsy

404 Wylie Reinhardt

Not rated Syd Moore

I think you can dispute any of these on an individual basis, but over all considering there were probably not 400 ships given to Texas high school kids; they are not high on this class.

http://247sports.com/Season/2013-Football/RecruitRankings?InstitutionGroup=HighSchool&State=TX

Edited February 7, 2013 by GrandGreen

[letsgiveacheer]

"The problem runs much deeper but maybe more so with a day in and day out athletic administrative modus operendi and philosophy that has yet to turn North Texas into an annual juggernaut of a Top 25 ranked winner."

Juggernaut???

I'd be somewhat pleased if we could just improve to mediocrity!

[ragpicker]

I am no as distressed at our Rivals ranking as I am perplexed. Can anyone explain to me why so many higher rated athletes are finding such schools as UTSA, Texas State, Louisiana whatever and many others more appealing than UNT?

For heaven's sake, we are a century and a quarter old university that has been playing football for almost one hundred years with almost half of those years as a 1-A program. Can this problem be explained logically, empirically?

If not, perhaps we need to delve into this phenomenon metaphysically. Are we jinxed? Cursed? Something is wrong,werdly wrong and we can't argue with the law of averages. Weak recruiting classes statistically result in poor results. If we do not approach at least a middle of the pack recruiting rating in the next year or two, we really should take a very serious look at continuing this program.

[PlummMeanGreen]

I am no as distressed at our Rivals ranking as I am perplexed. Can anyone explain to me why so many higher rated athletes are finding such schools as UTSA, Texas State, Louisiana whatever and many others more appealing than UNT?

For heaven's sake, we are a century and a quarter old university that has been playing football for almost one hundred years with almost half of those years as a 1-A program. Can this problem be explained logically, empirically?

If not, perhaps we need to delve into this phenomenon metaphysically. Are we jinxed? Cursed? Something is wrong,werdly wrong and we can't argue with the law of averages. Weak recruiting classes statistically result in poor results. If we do not approach at least a middle of the pack recruiting rating in the next year or two, we really should take a very serious look at continuing this program.

As distressed and perplexed as most of us have been, I think there is someone out there who will eventually make it all happen in Mean Green Country once again. Maybe they are employed at UNT now. We do have a history and legacy to build onto which began long ago while others are just now beginning to start theirs.

AND..........too much invested to turn back now or to turn off our football program. No school the size of North Texas gets rid of football. Schools like SMU do.

My Junior year I and others on this board saw the Mean Green beat the University of Houston 28 to 0 the year before the Coog's enterered the Southwest Conference and in that same Fall many of us heard ABC TV's Keith Jackson in a national college football telecast extoll the North Texas Mean Green for going up to Knoxville, Tennessee, and beating a Tennessee Vols football team 21 to 14; by the way, a Vols team that was hardly chopped liver as they finished that season 7 & 4 as I recall.

In spite of all this happening now which I presume is building us all a helluva lot of character, I really believe North Texas will see the glories of years (decades) gone by. After all, it was only just last decade that North Texas went to 5 bowl games, so with that in mind, we are not that far removed from success. We are just hungrier for it now because of those 5 bowl games among many other reasons. Winning (after all) does cure cancer, now doesn't it?

GMG!

Edited February 8, 2013 by PlummMeanGreen

[CurveItAround]

If this team wins and goes to bowl games over the next couple of years, the players will come. We lost two of our top recruiters, one before the recruiting season and the other at the end of the recruiting season (and did not sign one recruit from his area). I doubt the HS players we signe this year have a big impact this upcoming season. I think most of our success will be based on our existing players plus the JUCO/Xfers. When you look at it from that standpoint, we have 4 xfers with tremedous potential, plus a couple of JUCO all americans and another couple of players that look to compete right away. I am cautiously optimistic about them and hold some hope that a couple of the HS signees may be able to contribute right away as well.

[wardly]

Boys, the end of the known world is near when New Mexico State is ranked ahead of us.Plus Texas State ranked 82 if memory serves vs our TIE for 116th out of 123 programs.Its hard to sugar coat s_ _ t, but we seen to keep trying. I just can't believe coach Mac blows off our recruiting standing,when it certainly appears the higher your class is rated the better team you seem to field.So far its been all smoke and no fire.

[Got5onIt]

Well, Mac was quoted as saying we'd do it like Bill Snyder at KState, and they just got some award for the most laughable class. Maybe he's taking the whole thing too literally.

LMAO!!! I needed that laugh.

I'm a little concerned about the recruiting as well. Seeing Fran do his thing at TSU is really twisting the knife here.

I love DMac, but he may be hit with RV's head coaching curse. Sucks for us....

Winning will cure all ills. Mac needs to take that next step this season. Put up or shut up time is here.

Edited February 8, 2013 by Got5onIt

[All About UNT]

look at Texas St.'s 3* Juco players and where their offers came from. We get 1 All American and another HM All American with both being highly recruited.... but nah..... they are two-star athletes. Not buying that. We had 4+ guys who were 3 star recruits before they verballed to North Texas and that is all I needed to know.

[MDH]

look at Texas St.'s 3* Juco players and where their offers came from. We get 1 All American and another HB All American with both being highly recruited.... but nah..... they are two-star athletes. Not buying that. We had 4+ guys who were 3 star recruits before they verballed to North Texas and that is all I needed to know.

Noticed that too, but Texas St out-recruited us on HS players as well.

Edited February 8, 2013 by MDH

[meangreener]

look at Texas St.'s 3* Juco players and where their offers came from. We get 1 All American and another HB All American with both being highly recruited.... but nah..... they are two-star athletes. Not buying that. We had 4+ guys who were 3 star recruits before they verballed to North Texas and that is all I needed to know.

I agree, completely.

[UNT90]

Well, Mac was quoted as saying we'd do it like Bill Snyder at KState, and they just got some award for the most laughable class. Maybe he's taking the whole thing too literally.

Except K-State had the #64 ranked recruiting class, not one in the bottom 5.

Huge difference.

[cwb]

look at Texas St.'s 3* Juco players and where their offers came from. We get 1 All American and another HM All American with both being highly recruited.... but nah..... they are two-star athletes. Not buying that. We had 4+ guys who were 3 star recruits before they verballed to North Texas and that is all I needed to know.

Texas St has an active Rivals site.

Implied question. Some info.

Edited February 8, 2013 by cwb

[Wag Tag]

look at Texas St.'s 3* Juco players and where their offers came from. We get 1 All American and another HM All American with both being highly recruited.... but nah..... they are two-star athletes. Not buying that. We had 4+ guys who were 3 star recruits before they verballed to North Texas and that is all I needed to know.

Great point. Can somebody explain to me how a Juco All American is 2** and a kid out of a 2A and 3A schools are 3***?

[forevereagle]

Great point. Can somebody explain to me how a Juco All American is 2** and a kid out of a 2A and 3A schools are 3***?

Subjectivity?

[Cougar King]

Top 50 recruiting class, #1 out of non-AQ schools. (since we're not officially a Big East School until july) I love it, especially since all of this was done with a 5-7 record including a loss to Texas State. I can't wait to see what Levine can do recruiting-wise if we have another year like 2011.

Edited February 9, 2013 by Cougar King

[greenminer]

Top 50 recruiting class, #1 out of non-AQ schools. (since we're not officially a Big East School until july) I love it, especially since all of this was done with a 5-7 record including a loss to Texas State. I can't wait to see what Levine can do recruiting-wise if we have another year like 2011.

What is your expectation of the Cougar football program, both short and long term?

[Cougar King]

What is your expectation of the Cougar football program, both short and long term?

Short term: Find out who the leader of this team is. We have a 7-way qb battle between Piland, Dausin, Kohlhausen, O'Korn, Cosh, Hines and Ward. Since the nBE will have an AQ bid this season, the goal is to win the conference and get to a BCS bid and/or go undefeated and have an outside shot at a MNC. A solid season will allow us to grow our fanbase even more so we can have 41-45k for opening day in 2014.

Long term: Get into a P5 conference. Out of all of the non AQs suitable for P5 inclusion, according to ESPN insider, we are second only to BYU. Khator's leadership in combonation with a success product on the field along with a Top 5 market and whatnot. We will hopefully be included sometime in the future.

Edited February 10, 2013 by Cougar King

[ragpicker]

Thats my point. We are both Texas schools, we were once in the same conference and yet North Texas was founded long before they were. Why are they at the high end of the recruiting spectrum (Non AQ) while we are at the bottom end? What is WRONG with us? Do we suffer from a tragic form of atavism? Do we subconsciously fear success? WHAT IS THE DEAL?

[greenminer]

Thats my point. We are both Texas schools, we were once in the same conference and yet North Texas was founded long before they were. Why are they at the high end of the recruiting spectrum (Non AQ) while we are at the bottom end? What is WRONG with us? Do we suffer from a tragic form of atavism? Do we subconsciously fear success? WHAT IS THE DEAL?

I think for about 60+ years, our administration and culture actually did, and it wasn't subconscious.

[untjim1995]

I think for about 60+ years, our administration and culture actually did, and it wasn't subconscious.

I think those decades were full of the thought that we are first and foremost a fine arts and music school, with a huge focus, as well, on educating teachers. Nothing wrong with any of those, either, but for whatever the reasons, that led to the most of the UNT and Denton community loathing athletics, especially spending anything on them. I'm still convinced that this university's leadership, faculty, alumni, and students care waaaayyyyyy more about the Green Brigade than they do about the Mean Green. The One O'Clock Lab Band matters way more to the university's reputation within those groups previously listed, in my opinion, than the performance of our athletic teams. And I think we love the history of being an affordable college that has been a great place for teachers to attend, instead of cultivating our connection with DFW businesses to an even better level than we have done over the years. Like it or not, business majors, engineering majors, and science majors have the best ability to be your bigger donors down the road, if they have been given a reason to want to give back. I love going to watch a concert at the Murchison Center or to hear about the many Grammys that a musician or band from UNT have earned, but those events and the headlines they produce are limited to thousands less than what a football game or basketball game brings into the university and the city. College Station, Waco, Austin, Lubbock, El Paso, Ft. Worth, Dallas, and Houston have all benefitted from winning college teams at various times over those same 60 years. It may very welll happen in cities like San Antonio and San Marcos, too. But if you look back at our history, we didn't attend games at Fouts when Fry had ranked teams in the 70s. We didn't attend games when Dickey's teams won in the early 00's. We haven't attended games so far at Apogee to see any marked difference from the years at Fouts, even though the new stadium was 20+ years late in being built. The Super Pit has been routinely empty except for about 1/4 to 1/3 of its seats for most of the last 30 years. Denton is a totally different animal to coach in and play in for college athletics than any of those other towns. Not making excuses with that, just seems to be a fact that cannot seemed to be proven untrue, no matter how much we try to convince us that things may change here for this sleeping giant anytime soon.

Edited February 12, 2013 by untjim1995

[ragpicker]

That is all true, but from what I have read, we did have a lot of student enthusiasm in the 30's and 40's. Why wasn't that spirit maintained? Of course if the City and County of Denton showed just a fraction of the support Tech gets in Lubbock, Baylor gets in Waco or TCU enjoys in Ft. Worth, we would be in great shape. Perhaps that will come with winning. Winning football teams on national television from Denton,Texas should be a Chamber of Commerce dream.

[UNT90]

That is all true, but from what I have read, we did have a lot of student enthusiasm in the 30's and 40's. Why wasn't that spirit maintained? Of course if the City and County of Denton showed just a fraction of the support Tech gets in Lubbock, Baylor gets in Waco or TCU enjoys in Ft. Worth, we would be in great shape. Perhaps that will come with winning. Winning football teams on national television from Denton,Texas should be a Chamber of Commerce dream.

TCU's respect in Fort Worth is a relatively new thing, and only occurred after their administraton made a commitment to athletics and they started winning. Our administration has given lip service to athletics and has allowed the athletic department to fundraise in order to get new facilities, but I think they still only want athletic success if they can get it within a certain budget parameter.

Just look at Apogee. It wouldn't be here without the student athletic fee vote. More than 20 years overdue for a new stadium, and the administration makes the AD go hat in hand to the students begging for funds for the new stadium. Thank God for people like UNTFlyer and others who got that done. I would imagine more than one member of the BOR was shocked that the students voted for the fee.

I am beginning to wonder if Oldguy's approach isn't the best. Just go tailgate, go into the game, but don't expect a damn thing.

Edited February 15, 2013 by UNT90