Final days

H-towngreen · January 30, 2014

The recruiting home stretch is upon us and we are in an interesting spot. Of course no one other than the staff knows for sure but we have roughly 1 spot remaining. Yet we are still after numerous recruits. DE Xavier Washington, Ath. Caleb Chumley, LB Inoke Ngalo, RB Jeffery Wilson, and DT Cedric Johnson. That's 5 prospects and 1 spot to fill. How will this all play out?

Ben Gooding · January 30, 2014

I would love to know as would about everyone on here.

North Texas Shep · January 30, 2014

The recruiting home stretch is upon us and we are in an interesting spot. Of course no one other than the staff knows for sure but we have roughly 1 spot remaining. Yet we are still after numerous recruits. DE Xavier Washington, Ath. Caleb Chumley, LB Inoke Ngalo, RB Jeffery Wilson, and DT Cedric Johnson. That's 5 prospects and 1 spot to fill. How will this all play out?

X! I hope it is X. We have all been pushing for him. He is what this team needs at this point.

BillySee58 · January 30, 2014

1. If we have two spots left: Take the Chumley commit and tell Jeffery Wilson he will have a spot if X goes elsewhere and if X decides to come to UNT then Wilson will be given a grayshirt opportunity. If X doesn't commit to us and Wilson doesn't either then save that extra scholarship for next class, where we could then sign 26 kids instead of 25 (as long as at least one member of next year's class is a mid-term enrollee).

2. If we have just one spot left: If X doesn't commit then Chumley gets the spot. If X commits to us then make room for Chumley by either blueshirting Trevor Moore or grayshirting Johnavahn Graham. It would suck to grayshirt Graham since he was our first commit, but we are his only offer mainly because he missed almost the whole year with a broken leg. We wouldn't need to worry about losing him. He would likely redshirt next year anyways and I'm sure he's grateful of us sticking with him through the broken leg and giving him the opportunity to have a D1 scholarship. Then give Jeffery Wilson a grayshirt offer as well.

As for Ngalo and Johnson, I think we are fine at linebacker and d-tackle respectively. Both good players but you can't make room for everyone. Personally prefer Tauaalo over Johnson anyways, but Johnson has a little more natural size so he has been very coveted. Tauaalo is a little more versatile as well, as where I think Johnson would be a pure nose/1-tech.

Grayshirting Graham would be tough to ask of him since I'm sure he wants to come back and make a difference right away, but it could be a good thing. Not only would he have ample time to get his leg back to 100%, but he could potentially have more time to grow into a d-tackle.

Not saying force feed the kid and make him a d-tackle (I don't like when coaches do that, although often necessary) but if he grayshirts and maybe redshirts after that then he would have two years out of high school before he plays his first snap in college. That'd be a lot of time off but plenty of time to see if he has the ability to grow into a d-tackle. Or he could stay at end. Either way, he'd have time to let the coaches push him in the weight room and see what they can get from him and his body.

Censored by Laurie · January 30, 2014

The recruiting home stretch is upon us and we are in an interesting spot. Of course no one other than the staff knows for sure but we have roughly 1 spot remaining. Yet we are still after numerous recruits. DE Xavier Washington, Ath. Caleb Chumley, LB Inoke Ngalo, RB Jeffery Wilson, and DT Cedric Johnson. That's 5 prospects and 1 spot to fill. How will this all play out?

Just like how there is always money in the banana stand, there are always scholarships available.

H-towngreen · January 30, 2014

Just like how there is always money in the banana stand, there are always scholarships available.

I certainly hope so!

MEANGREENCOACH2 · January 30, 2014

basically this upcoming Wednesday no work will be getting done at my computer!!!

BillySee58 · January 30, 2014

Just like how there is always money in the banana stand, there are always scholarships available.

The 25 cap per class is what's c blocking us on this. It's a lot easier to make room on your roster and expect guys will transfer/quit than it is to try to make room in your class.

I have quite the love/hate relationship with the 25 cap. Love it because schools like UT can't sign 30 kids and many trickle down to schools like us as a result, hate it because we will be at least 5 scholarships short of 85 on our roster next year, then you factor in the likely, almost inevitable, transfers and guys who quit football for whatever reason. We can't sign extra guys to accommodate for that.

Harry · January 30, 2014

Would love to see us land X, that would be a homerun but flipping the big dt from Rowlett would be a real nice consolation prize. Obviously I like the fact Chumley is listed by Rivals as committing to us and wearing our jersey on his twitter so fingers crossed that will work out. I am mainly hoping that we can hang on to what we have -- as others have said this is a nice class, one of the best we have landed in some time. I still get very excited at next season in terms of recruiting, if we can continue our winning ways and keep the staff intact. Nelson was a very good coach of the game, but I think that Patrick is as well but brings a recruiting prowess we haven't had and will help us build a stout defensive line. I really hope and pray we can keep all of our assistants and it will take the UNT administration needing to dig in the budget and include a respectable bump in the Mac contract redo. My dream is that Mac announces he has a deal that will allow him to finish his career here and also there is a significant assistant pool increase that makes it harder for schools to lure away our best assistants.

I am not kidding with you, this season feels a lot better than 2002 when we beat Cincy in the bowl... I say that because I feel better about the foundation of the program and Mac's ability to maintain and build the program. 2002 was sort of the high water mark for the early aughts and that was without near the facilities or salaries we have in place now. What is exciting for a fan is we have a chance to become a Boise or UCF type of story if we can continue to win and develop support from the administration and the students/fans.

MEANGREENCOACH2 · January 30, 2014

^^^ :goodjob: ^^^ amen to that Harry

MeanGreenTexan · January 30, 2014

Billy I disagree with you on Johnson. I think we have proven that you cant have enough quality DTs, especially since we have had 2-3 quit and most of our current DTs were undersized DTs or DEs in high school. We need a 6'2" 290 guy.

I kindof lean this way, but maybe for him over Chumley. We did pick up Tauaalo at DT recently. I don't think we can bring Johnson on at the risk of filling Washington's spot, but if there's a way to get him in here AND get X, then do it!

GOMG2013 · January 30, 2014

I kindof lean this way, but maybe for him over Chumley. We did pick up Tauaalo at DT recently. I don't think we can bring Johnson on at the risk of filling Washington's spot, but if there's a way to get him in here AND get X, then do it!

Seems like chumley is in. UNT is still going after guys so maybe some spots opened up. Offers are also dependent on grades. Maybe an early commit is headed to juco or something. I know that is something they wont put out there though. We probably wont find out till signing day. For some reason UNT is still out there chasing multiple recruits and are still bringing in recruits to try and flip.

GrayEagle · January 30, 2014

I look at this from a slightly different perspective. Who of the five could make the two-deep next year? In my opinion Washington could. Johnson could. Ngalo could. I don't believe that Chumley or Wilson could do that. So, even though I believe that both are terrific athletes and I would dearly love to have them, I would have to put them at the end of my list.

Now, is there another scholarship player who has left the program? There might be one or two. Who could be sure? If there is, then I'd use whatever scholarships are available. That, no doubt, won't cover them so next I'd grayshirt the lowest rated commits. I'd definitely hate to do that but it's necessary in order to get the best recruiting class possible.

Chumley is the highest-rated athlete of this class and has a ton of potential. Wilson has great stats and may be the faster than any of our running backs. The problem is that he's not highly-rated and also not in a position of great need. But, 5,000+ yard high school rushers don't grow on trees. He would seem to be a grayshirt candidate.

By hook or crook I'd bust a gut to get them all in this year; but especially Washington, Johnson, Ngalo and Crumley.

UNTLifer · January 30, 2014

Curious as to why we are using a scholarship on a kicker when we have Paul for the next few years. Is he poor on kickoffs, so we need Moore for that, or do they not trust Paul? Anyone have an answer for this?

NorthTexan95 · January 30, 2014

Curious as to why we are using a scholarship on a kicker when we have Paul for the next few years. Is he poor on kickoffs, so we need Moore for that, or do they not trust Paul? Anyone have an answer for this?

Paul doesn't have the biggest leg but I don't think we ever saw what he could do on kickoffs. He committed to us early before we knew how good Paul would do.

Two years in a row McCarney's Iowa State teams were killed by missed field goals. Maybe that experience makes him want to be sure to have a quality kicker.

Edited January 30, 2014 by NorthTexan95

BillySee58 · January 30, 2014

Billy I disagree with you on Johnson. I think we have proven that you cant have enough quality DTs, especially since we have had 2-3 quit and most of our current DTs were undersized DTs or DEs in high school. We need a 6'2" 290 guy.

I think Johnson would be a good addition, especially if we can't get X. If we do get X, then we're talking about bringing in 5 d-linemen. At least 2, maybe 3 of which end up being d-tackles. We will only have 1 senior d-tackle this upcoming year, so we will be able to bring in some more d-tackles next class and have time to develop them. We also need to see the young guys like Sir Calvin, Syd Moore, Dutton Watson, Haboul, and maybe a true freshman this year (Tauaalo or Shaq Jackson) step up to have that time to develop young guys.

My thing is I'd take Chumley over Johnson. Not an easy decision, but I'd be fine with just signing what we have at d-tackle, especially if we're getting Chumley and maybe X too (fingers crossed).

GrandGreen · January 30, 2014

I just hope NT is in a "pick em" position instead of having to dip into their Plan B recruits.

forevereagle · January 30, 2014

Curious as to why we are using a scholarship on a kicker when we have Paul for the next few years. Is he poor on kickoffs, so we need Moore for that, or do they not trust Paul? Anyone have an answer for this?

You can never have too many kickers.

Harry · January 30, 2014

I think Johnson would be a good addition, especially if we can't get X. If we do get X, then we're talking about bringing in 5 d-linemen. At least 2, maybe 3 of which end up being d-tackles. We will only have 1 senior d-tackle this upcoming year, so we will be able to bring in some more d-tackles next class and have time to develop them. We also need to see the young guys like Sir Calvin, Syd Moore, Dutton Watson, Haboul, and maybe a true freshman this year (Tauaalo or Shaq Jackson) step up to have that time to develop young guys.
My thing is I'd take Chumley over Johnson. Not an easy decision, but I'd be fine with just signing what we have at d-tackle, especially if we're getting Chumley and maybe X too (fingers crossed).

The thing I like most about Chumley is he clearly wants to be here. I know it sounds greedy but I would like to have them both and X but I don't know if we have spots unless we lose some commits or do some greyshirting. I think the lesson learned here is early commits are great, if you get value but there are real gems late in the game and it doesn't hurt to leave some spots for those.

GrayEagle · January 30, 2014

What really galls me about the 25 rule is that it includes walkons who have earned scholarships and transfers. Those have already been exposed to recruiting once so why would they have to be counted again?

The 85-limit total would stifle stockpiling. If you have any leave the program due to injuries, family situation, academics, or whatever it could take years to regain your limit if it were a continuing problem. There's also the occasional player given a scholarship that just does enough to retain his ride but does not/will not/can not produce enough to get much (if any) playing time.

Mean Green 93-98 · January 30, 2014

Range.

I imagine this is right. Although I will say Zach Paul has been a very nice surprise for a walk-on kicker.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/player/_/id/537384/zach-paul

BillySee58 · January 30, 2014

If it didn't include walkons, couldn't the bigger programs use it to oversign? Like offer guys that we are signing secretly by making them a "walkon" and then giving them a scholarship?

That's why the rule is that if the guy only plays one year, or no years in the case of a blueshirt, as a walkon before being put on scholarship then he counts towards the upcoming class. If he is a true walkon who comes in and scratches and claws his way to a scholarship after a few years (like Tanner Smith) then he just counts towards the 85 limit. Although guys like Kaydon Kirby are worth the scholarship towards the signing class.

But yes, the rule is more for blueshirt type situations. Bringing a guy in and letting him know that they will be putting him on scholarship right away or after just one year.