UNT Mean Green

What about Saban's first spring at Alabama? There were over 10,000 people outside who couldn't get in. Now that their expansion is up and over 100K, that might be enough room but who knows.

That's the best I've ever seen fouts look.

Pizza Hut park is a nice facility, designed by none other than HKS Architects firm out of Dallas. It seats 20K, has nice wide concourses, good concession set up, large restrooms, and there's not a bad seat in the place. I've seen many events there (concerts, games, etc) and always enjoy the experience. I do live about 1 mile from there and know how to navigate the area, but all in all it's a good venue. The parking is somewhat troublesome if your're not familar with the area and backroads, but just get there early and bring a case of beer. Good for the FCS to get out of Chatanooga and get in a larger media market. So the FCS Championship and Super Bowl in the same year (within a month). Not bad...

Didn't La-La have a home game against Southern that was absolutely packed that skewed that number somewhat? When NT traveled down there the attendance was, well let's just say you could hold a church service in there...

Great point Rick. I do believe they are basing that information off of the players who were actually playing on the field for Texas. Not necessarily all of those high profile recruits that fizzle out. The Colt McCoy's (2/3 star), Blake Gideon (2 star who has started every game of his career at Safety), and others. Those type of guys. Not the Dan Buckners of the world who are 4 star recruits and don't pan out; which as we know, Texas has plenty of those.

Here's the link, and the actual article. Recruiting: on the rise and decline On Monday, Football Outsiders analyzed the value of recruiting. Today, with recruits in-house, they look at trends over time. Now that the ink from the signatures of (most of) the Class of 2010 has dried, what can we derive from this year's class rankings? Who has seen the biggest upgrade (or downgrade) in their overall talent level? On The Up And Up These squads have seen their recruiting talent improve the most since 2005-06. Rank Team ESPN Rivals 1. Oregon 22 13 2. Utah NR 32 3. West Virginia NR 19 4. Baylor NR 39 5. Houston NR 45 6. BYU NR 40 7. Missouri NR 21 8. Stanford 18 27 9. Washington 20 28 10. Georgia Tech NR 43 To determine this, we must compare a team's incoming talent to its outgoing talent; 4-5 recruiting averages both correlate at similar levels to team success, and since a majority of players departing after the 2009 season came from the recruiting classes of 2005 and 2006, we will combine each team's 2010 haul to their averages from the 2005 and 2006 recruiting classes. (Once again, all data for this exercise comes from Rivals.com because all FBS teams are assigned grades/ratings.) Since most of the top-ranked recruiting classes went to teams who have always recruited well, the teams who have seen the biggest upgrades are not necessarily the ones at the top. In the top chart to the right, you can see the ten teams who have most improved their overall talent level as compared to the 2005 and 2006 recruiting classes. These teams have taken strong steps forward in terms of talent, though experience could still be an issue. As mentioned earlier this week, experience matters more at the non-AQ conference level, but it still does matter to some degree at the major conference level. Slipping and sliding These squads have seen their recruiting rankings decline the most since 2005-06. Rank Team ESPN Rivals 1. Florida State 6 10 2. Michigan 14 20 3. Ohio State 16 26 4. Miami (Fla.) 13 24 5. Nebraska NR 23 6. Virginia NR 67 7. Arizona NR 36 8. Wisconsin 18 86 9. Georgia 12 16 10. Oklahoma 5 7 Being that recruiting is a zero-sum game, if some teams have improved their talent levels as it pertains to recruiting, others have likely slipped. And since college football's power structure changes so little, a lot of the names on the list to the left still managed strong classes in 2010 -- just not as strong as those from a few years ago. Here are the top ten teams according to recruiting talent lost: Recruiting is an accurate predictor of success, but there is obviously no perfect predictor. Every year, teams both overachieve and underachieve compared to the "talent" level they supposedly possess, and some teams do one or the other rather consistently. With that in mind, let's look at those who have done the most and least with their talent at hand. The top ten overachievers for the last two seasons (2008-09) compared to recruiting rankings can be found in the next chart. (and as with Monday's column, on-field achievement is measured by the Football Outsiders measure, F/+, a combination of FO measures FEI and S&P+). Overachieving These squads do the most with the least. .Rank Team 1. TCU Horned Frogs 2. Boise State Broncos 3. Cincinnati Bearcats 4. Florida Gators 5. Navy Midshipmen 6. Air Force Falcons 7. Alabama Crimson Tide 8. Penn State Nittany Lions 9. Texas Longhorns 10. Connecticut Huskies Some of these names are predictable. It doesn't take strong data analysis to realize that Boise State and TCU have performed at a level much higher than their perceived talent. The same probably goes for service academies and teams like Connecticut, who has not had a class grade higher than a C in ESPN's recruiting ratings in the five years of class data available at ESPN.com, yet has seen three straight winning seasons and four in six years. Some of the names, however, are unexpected. Despite a long series of strong classes, Florida, Alabama, Penn State and Texas have still managed to overachieve as compared to expectations -- which says something about both the coaching staffs on hand (it is hard to come up with a list of coaches more respected than Urban Meyer, Nick Saban, Joe Paterno, and Mack Brown), and the level of performance these teams (especially the Gators, Tide and Longhorns) have achieved the past two seasons. Of course, there are also underachievers. Here are the teams who have struggled the most to achieve at the level their recruiting rankings suggested for them: Underachieving These squads have been unable to live up to their recruiting results. .Rank Team 1. Washington State Cougars 2. Washington Huskies 3. Texas A&M Aggies 4. San Diego State Aztecs 5. Michigan Wolverines 6. Kansas State Wildcats 7. UCLA Bruins 8. Colorado Buffaloes 9. New Mexico State Aggies 10. North Texas Mean Green Washington State has not recently graded high in the realm of recruiting, but they make the top of the underachiever list due to their historically poor level of recent play. Meanwhile, quite a few teams with reputations for disappointment show up on the list as well, particularly Texas A&M, Michigan and Colorado. As a whole, certain conferences have managed to exceed recruiting expectations with their performance on the field. The Mountain West has done quite well, with TCU, Air Force, Utah and BYU all vastly overachieving. Powered by steady performances from Cincinnati, Connecticut, Pittsburgh and South Florida, the Big East has also surpassed its perceived talent levels. Meanwhile, the Pac-10 has been the biggest recent underachiever in the last two seasons. Wazzu and Washington are powerful anchors, but UCLA, the Arizona State Sun Devils and the California Golden Bears have also struggled to keep up. Meanwhile, the Sun Belt conference has inexplicably also underachieved; despite failing to register any major recruiting hauls, six of the conference's nine teams have failed to live up to their average recruiting rankings. Only Troy has overachieved, while Middle Tennessee and Florida Atlantic have basically broken even.

They had some good young players in spots last year, and with Coach Taggart, things will be a lot different.

J.D Brookhart?

All good points TFLF. I'm like you, very excited, almost giddy about the recent shakeups and the direction things are moving in terms of infrastructure and coaching staff.

The Blake Dunham reference was not implying any ill thoughts toward Kokjohn. You have to admire a kid like Kokjohn who busts his rear in so many ways to contribute in a small (albeit imporant) manner on Saturdays. But, that being said I wouldn't count out any of the newcomers either.

...or Blake Dunham?

If the Clemson game was Saturday, this would be my prediction on the depth chart (not that all of these would travel): QB Riley Dodge Derek Thompson RB Lance Dunbar James Hamilton FB Micah Mosley Jeremi Mathis WR Tyler Stratford Darius Carey Jamaal Jackson Chris Bynes Michael Outlaw B.J. Lewis TE Jamize Olawale Draylen Ross OL Victor Gill Kelvin Drake J.J. Johnson Esteban Santiago Coleman Feeley Matt Tomlinson Jeremy Bean K Zachary Olen Trent Deans DE Michael Miller KC Obi John Weber Brandon Akpunku Aaron Bellazin DT Kelvin Jackson Shavod Atkinson Tevinn Cantly Kyle White LaChris Anyiam OLB Craig Robertson Julian Herron Forlando Johnson Jeremy Phillips Daniel Prior MLB Brad Graham Zach Orr A.J. Penson CB Royce Hill DeAndre Wood DeLeon McCord Ira Smith Hilbert Jackson S DeWaylon Cook Jamison Hughes Stephen Ford Ryan Downing P Will Atterberry Zach Olen KR Darius Carey Tyler Stratford Royce Hill PR Darius Carey Royce Hill

William Cole, despite a great talent, was a risk when he came here academically. He obviously didn't take care of his business in the classroom. No one is to blame but him. Hate to see Darrien Williams leave, but he had to do what's best. You always hate to see young people's plans change, but that's that nature of the beast in the world of intercollegiate athletics. Wish him the best for sure. Now, is that a case where we as fans can look at it and say, 'we've definitely upgraded the talent' as #23 was playing regularly as a freshman in 2008, and now won't sniff the field? As far as Coach George going, I thought he was always cordial in public and did a nice job recruiting South Dallas using his ties he developed in high school. However, I am extremely excited to see this. I feel the WR's have really underachieved in this offense. Coach Canales has an emphasis and background in WR's and QB's and he saw the writing on the wall as well. The talent's certainly there, but the performance isn't.

Lance Dunbar Esteban Santiago Jamaal Jackson Darius Carey Craig Robertson Riley Dodge Kelvin Drake

If I had my druthers here's some of the shuffling I'd do: Make every league a 10+ team league by combining and re-shuffling existing alignments. Every league have 2 divisions (be it North/South or East/West). Every league have a championship game. Take the Top 60-70 schools and put them into 4-5 geographically desirable conferences. Take the next 50 or so schools and put them in 4-5 geographically desirable conferences as well. Make 2 divisions in each league and have a championship game. This creates rivalries and makes scheduling a lot easier. No more independent teams (so ND, Army, Air Force go into leagues). The BCS CENTRAL CONFERENCE The BIG XII as it sits, but add Arkansas to the North & TCU to the South, while Colorado departs to the PAC 10. ATLANTIC CONFERENCE A combination of the Big East and ACC (BC, Cin, UConn, Pitt, Rut, Syrcse, Duke, Maryland, UNC, NC State, Virginia, Va Tech, West Va) MIDWEST CONFERENCE A revamped Big 10 including current schools plus Notre Dame and Kentucky. SOUTHEAST CONFERENCE The SEC on steroids. Get rid of the bottom rungs and add the best of the ACC teams that fall geographically into SEC territory. So you get (Ala, Aub, Fla State, Fla, Miami, Clemson, Ga Tech, Ga, LSU, Tenn, S. Carolina, Ole Miss, Miss State) WEST CONFERENCE The PAC 10, minus Washington State, with the additions of Boise, BYU, Colorado, and Utah. 'COASTAL CONFERENCE' A hybrid of C-USA, Big East, Sun Belt, and SEC. (E Car, L'ville, Navy, Vandy, Wake For, Centrl Fla, S Fla, Memphis, MTSU, Troy, So Miss). The Non-BCS TEXAS CONFERENCE A mixture of all of the Texas (and OK and LA) schools that travel past one anothers campuses to play in a conference mainly located in the Eastern part of the country. (Hou, UNT, Rice, SMU, UTSA, UTEP, Ark State, Tulsa, La Tech, La Monroe, La Lafayette, Tulane). ROCKY MOUNTAIN CONFERENCE The remaining WAC and Mountain West teams with the addition of Washington State and Montana. (AF, Co State, Idaho, Montna, SJ St, SD St, Utah St, Wash St, Wyoming, Fresno St, Hawaii, Nev, NM, NM State, UNLV). NORTHEASTERN CONFERENCE This is where it starts to get dicey. Basically the MAC schools from Ohio and east, add Army, add Villanova and Richmond. So (Army, Buffalo, Marshall, Richmond, Temple, Nova, Akron, Kent St, Miami, Ohio, Toledo). GREAT LAKES CONFERENCE The Western part of the MAC plus 2 Kentucky schools, add Southern Illinois. (Ball St, Bwling Grn, CMU, EMU, WMU, No Ill, So Ill, WKU). DEEP SOUTH A mixture of Sun Belt, C-USA, and new schools to D1. This is the ugliest of all. (UAB, FAU, FIU, South Ala, Appalachian State, Ga Southern). I'd probably tweak this one.

Yes, but he laid the foundation for personnel from Tuberville's old ground game offense, which led to a good fit in hiring Gus Malzhan down there.

Some guesses on the fastest 40: Jamaal Jackson, WR Tyler Stratford, WR Darius Carey, WR Julian Herron, LB Riley Dodge, QB Royce Hill, DB Ira Smith, DB Bennie Jones, WR

Yes, the new owner is a personal friend and is from the Denton area. Go check out a game during the 'down time' between football being over and baseball beginning. They're pretty fun.

RV mentioned the Club Level in the Stadium, which I believe will accomodate like 750 people.

I have several, so here goes: Brelan Chancellor, WR, Copperas Cove Chancellor is an explosive player and extremely dangerous with the ball in his hands. He was a 'slot/wing' in the Copperas Cove HS offense, and was their home run threat. He will be very dangerous in the slot catching bubble screens, and possibly carrying the ball some on end-arounds and what not. I look forward to seeing him get a crease, because he'll outrun just about anyone on the field. Zachary Olen, K, Richardson Berkner Olen should have the most immediate impact of any of the high school signees. He is a physically large kicker with a big left leg. His kickoffs go high and deep (60 something percent out of the endzone), and he is extremely accurate inside 40 yards on field goals. I look for him to provide stability in the kicking game, and not make going for it on 4th down so appeasing. Zach Orr, MLB, DeSoto Orr is a bona fide MLB in the 4-3 scheme. He's over 6 foot, and close to 240lbs, and can really move. He stays in position well and makes plays at the point of attack. I think Zach could push for the 4th or 5th LB spot as a Freshman. Mason Y'Barbo, OL, Sulphur Springs Y'Barbo is one of those kids who's 2 inches too short for the upper echelon schools to recruit, but will make a very good Division 1 lineman, despite being only 6'2". He is 290 at this point, and will check in around 305 or so. The size is average, but what seperates him is his feet. Y'Barbo has incredible feet, and is very effective at blocking in space and pulling. Brad Graham, OLB, Navarro CC Graham is a playmaker at OLB. He is undersized, but makes up for it by reading quickly, and being in good position to make plays. He plays the game very smart and plays fast. Look for him to make an immediate impact at OLB. Forlando Johnson, OLB, Butler CC Johnson is very explosive on the defensive side of the ball. He's a good athlete and plays with an edge, often disrupting things very quickly. He has good closing speed and makes plays in space. I would look for Johnson to compete for an every down job at OLB, and also to play in Nickel and Dime packages out in space. Jamize Olawale, TE, El Camino CC Olawale is an athlete. Anytime you run a 4.51 at close to 240lbs you become a mismatch. Especially at TE. He averaged 25+ yards per catch in California last season, and look for him to be a very dangerous weapon in the new Mean Green offense. I could see him being very similar to a Dallas Clark or Jason Witten type of TE, who's that effective as a receiver. Olawale is solid as a blocker, and will really help in the zone read running game as an extra body. I firmly believe Olawale will be a huge part of an offensive improvement for North Texas this fall. De'Andre Wood, CB, New Mexico Military Institute Wood was very highly recruited out of high school by Butch Davis, and is a lockdown corner. He's very fast (10.5 100M in high school) and has good cover skills. On video, this one looks like the best of the secondary recruits (though I'm excited about the influx of speed in these new Juco defenders). And then, of course there'll be the sleepers!

What new signees is everyone looking forward to seeing? Why?

...but there is still one more recruit to come. Another mystery recruit

Brelan Chancellor and Byrd look to be great additions to a nice signing class. Chancellor was more of a wing/slot back in Copperas Cove's offense, but man was he electric and extremely explosive. All he needs is a crease and he's gone. Byrd is eerily similar looking to Lance Dunbar coming out of high school. This was a good pickup for sure.

Wright is a sleeper in this class. He is similar to DeWaylon Cook who has become an impact player for the Mean Green, except Wright is a little thicker at this point. He will be a 6'2" 215-225lb Safety with a nose for the ball. Not saying he'll get on the field early as there are ridiculous amounts of depth in the secondary with this recent signing class, but when he does get out there he'll be solid at the very least.

C'mon on now. Oklahoma, Texas, Texas Tech, Missouri, Stanford. That's a different echelon completely.