BillySee58

Looks like the list of these guys that we could get is shrinking. Jerard Carter is committed to Houston, Marcus Smith is Texas Tech bound, and Martial signed with Idaho. Not to mention both Williams boys are out of reach, and Hafoka Olie seems to be as well. We have tough competition for both Montgomery and Jenkins but these are the recruiting battles we need to start winning. At defensive end, landing Xavier Washington would be huge. He'll have a chance to play immediately, but schools like Nevada are after him hard. Another potential guy was Snow Junior College defensive end Tre James, but he signed with Toledo today. And East Mississippi JUCO defensive end Jimmie Gipson, who reportedly had an offer out from us, signed with South Alabama today. Seems like it might have to be Xavier Washington or bust here. JUCO might be out of the question after today's mid-term enrollee signing day. Maybe we find one, but he wouldn't be here until fall camp. Still along way until February 5th, but we need to put the full court press on guys like Xavier Washington and Aaron Jenkins.

Signing day was today for guys who wish to be eligible in the spring.

Arkansas Tech. D2

Hard to say. You would think we'll take 2 more d-linemen with the 2 remaining schollies, but who knows.

Committed to Houston the other day fwiw.

Not looking good on this one. Especially if that Missouri offer is committable, which it sounds like it is.

Both will be eligible to enroll next semester and compete in spring ball.

Exactly. I still like going to these games to see guys like J Williams and TJ Taylor put on shows. We have some high-end talent on this team.

And 3 years later we're going to a bowl game. What if I told you that if we suck enough this year to get Benford fired we would have a tournament team just a season or two after getting our new head coach? Would you root against our team? Would you rather see us go 9-22 or 15-16? The first one is a worse record, but the second one lets us keep Benford around for at least another year of mediocrity and having none of his high school recruits actually make it on the court for games. Such is the dilemma of cheering for a team stuck in basketball purgatory. Cheer for short term losses in exchange for a shot at long term success, or cheer for meaningless wins against NAIA schools which prolong the mediocrity.

Details details! How was that? Haha

Tony Mitchell's intramural team circa spring 2011

That UC Riverside game is very winnable as well. I think we win that game and the wayland baptist game. 8 wins coming out of nonconference would swing the bet in Kram's favor. I think we can win 2 conference games. Having to win 3 might be difficult.

Oklahoma is 10-1 and beat then #1 Michigan State for MSU's only loss of the year. A&M is 8-2 also. Both those teams would beat SFA more times than not. Let's not kid ourselves. SFA is good, but they lost to East Tennessee State and haven't really been blowing teams out. Just us. We're talking Southland vs. Big 12 and SEC. As for Portland, that's not a good team. They aren't a joke and they're easily the best team we've beaten, but still a game we should've won based on talent and they didn't play great that game either.

McDorman is not on the team. He had to quit football due to injury last spring. As for Roberts, he is currently our 4th best returning defensive end behind Mason, Polk, and Brown. He has a very good chance to get in the rotation next year.

Yup. Good catch. And so was Jarrian Roberts, who was brought in as a linebacker but is now a defensive end. 7 defensive lineman in one class.

True. Forget about his late season absence. Stayed healthy most of the year and saw some time in the rotation.

Tomorrow is signing day for JUCOs who wish to enroll for the spring semester. Looks like we will see AJ Smith and Josh Greer sign and enroll with us. Vito says we aren't looking at getting another offensive lineman, and we seem to be done at qb, rb, wr, lb, db, kicker, and doesn't look like we'll take a tight end. With most likely only 2 spots left, according to Vito, they will probably be spent on d-line. Do we get a JUCO guy tomorrow? I think Max Martial is supposed to enroll next semester somewhere so he might be signing. Nothing on him from Vito so it would be quite the surprise. If we don't sign anyone tomorrow we'll either be looking at signing a JUCO who won't come in until next fall or maybe a couple more high school kids like Tyler Washington and/or JT Williams. Martial recruiting profiles, former FIU signee: http://rivals.yahoo.com/footballrecruiting/football/recruiting/player-Max-Martial-155845 http://247sports.com/Player/Max-Martial-9501 Do we know who all of the visitors were this last weekend? Do we see anyone else sign with us tomorrow?

Yeah, Orr was in on 2 plays in the stand. Just watched it on beyond the green. He's been healthy all year. I don't know about Syd. Seeing him in person on campus he doesn't look like a D1 d-tackle. But from his film you can tell he's a penetrator. He has a great explosion off the ball and hopefully can translate that in college and shoot through the gaps before the bigger lineman get a chance to put their paws on him. Big spring for Watson, Haboul, and Dilonga. And Sir Calvin for that matter. We brought in 5 d-lineman in the clasa of 2012 (also Horton who is no longer with the team) and none have seen the field yet. Next year will be their third years in the program. Dilonga looks too skinny to play inside but he has the length. Polk has looked surprisingly good in the run game, but I agree. Asking a 6'0" 225 lb guy to play 60 snaps a game at defensive end over the course of a 12 game season is a lot.

No, he qualified and early enrolled at UAB. He shows an offer on rivals from us out of high school. That sounds like that may have not been a committable offer from the way Vito makes it sound in the articles, like he would have committed to us if it was. He didn't have a great senior year, only completed 54% of his passes. Looks a lot better now.

Yeah, it's Fortenberry. He's a grayshirt so he's coming in on scholarship. Not a preferred walkon.

In the words of Chris Farley in Billy Madison, "thayt is co-rect."

A lot of talk and concern about our d-line and depth for next year. Kind of like this year. A little early to talk about it, I know, but we are anyway so why not? Here's a little projection at what the depth chart will likely look like if we don't get anyone else for the signing class (I think we get 1, maybe 2 more): DE - Daryl Mason Sr (spot starting experience and a 4-year contributor, much like Bellazin headed into his senior year) - Jarrian Roberts rs Soph (2 sacks against Idaho and had scoop and score against Tulsa) - Malik Dilonga rs Soph (not really any game experience DT- Alex Lincoln Sr (starting experience and 4-year contributor) - Dutton Watson rs soph (limited game experience) - Mustafa Haboul (limited game experience) NT - Austin Orr rs Jr (has not started but has gotten in rotation this year) - Sir Calvin Wallace rs Soph (biggest d-lineman) - Syd Moore rs Fr (good high school film) - Shaq Jackson true freshman (back to back 1st team all district seasons in tough district) DE - Chad Polk rs Jr (undersized but effective pass rusher this year) - Quenton Brown rs Sr (same as Polk in, came in last quarter of this year) - Andy Fleusche Soph (preferred walk on true freshman contributed on special teams, good size) - Johnavahm Graham true freshman (broke leg early in year for DeSoto) Starters look pretty good, but working on the depth and getting a decent rotation will be the challenge.

Unfortunately that's what it took most of our backup linebackers to get to their current weight in the first place.

Exactly. These wins are what I meant by saying we're in basketball purgatory. They still count as a win so, as Censored by Laurie said, the BOR and RV can say "look, we have a winning record," so they don't have to fire him. But we obviously aren't a winning team and we get embarrassed every time we play a real D1 team.

Thank you DISD