UNT18Grad

Has any coach in recent memory had no input or control over who is on their staff? The 2 year contract is one thing but I think this part of their offer is much more confusing.

I saw that article but none of it is specific to football or even the NCAA. It's hard to compare NAIA, D3, swimming, etc. It is however a fact that the Power 5 conferences all guaranteed scholarships for 4 years in 2015, maybe the Group of 5 schools operate differently, but I wouldn't imagine they would put themselves at a further disadvantage by offering less than that same guarantee. Additionally, in 2015, NCAA D1 colleges from the Power Five conferences (colleges in the Football Bowl Subdivision, plus Notre Dame) agreed to implement a rule that prevented multi-year D1 scholarships from being canceled or not renewed for any athletic reason.

If you can provide some sources I would love to see this information. https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/11775571/pac-12-passes-athlete-reforms-including-guaranteed-4-year-scholarships Here is an article from 2014 and a quote from inside that article. I know that we aren't in the Pac 12 but I would assume similar arrangements exist in most other conferences. According to the Pac-12's new rules, all athletic scholarships will be guaranteed for four years and "can neither be reduced nor canceled provided the student-athlete remains in good standing and meets his/her terms of the agreement." In addition, financial aid agreements offered to incoming athletes will be "for no less than four academic years" beginning in the 2015-16 academic year. Whether it's technically "allowed" or not, having a conversation with an athlete and telling them you don't see a future where they touch the field here is one thing, removing them from scholarship for no reason other than performance whether they like it or not is a totally different situation and one that I doubt is allowed.

Without a doubt. When someone is recruited to play football at UNT the offer isn't conditional on their performance and quite frankly I'm not even sure if something like that is allowed. Not saying this will happen with this specific player but many athletes are late bloomers that take 3 or 4 years to see the field, should they have been kicked off in year 2 because they were 3rd or 4th string? You start removing kids who have done nothing wrong on or off the field other than not work their way up the depth chart and you're going to burn lots of bridges. If anything a miss like that is on the coaches, not the kid. They chose to offer someone who has no business at this level.

So all players who aren't good enough to play should just be removed from the team? I'm sure that will be a great recruiting pitch to players interested in coming here.

I'm pretty sure that decision was made with the assumption that Aune was gone. I can't imagine that having 7 scholarship QB's is all part of the plan regardless of how good or bad most of them are.

Aune has started what? 20+ games for us now?...I seriously doubt he would come back if Littrell told him the job was an open competition next year. Whether it's the right decision or not I can't imagine the job not being his to lose.

Have to assume this was pretty unexpected seeing as we signed 2 QB's last month. Either that or we are expecting some of the backups from last year to move on, and if that's the case I can't say I blame them.

People seemed skeptical a month ago when I questioned how badly this poor recruiting class could hurt us down the road and now we are 3 weeks from signing day without much promise on the horizon. We can rightfully put a lot of blame on Seth, but what is Walerius doing? He has set a standard of solid recruiting classes and completely dropped the ball this year, this is his job after all.

GH is still the OC at USC and it's not that crazy to assume he might stay if he doesn't land at another P5 OC position. Check out this tidbit from an article on the Riley hire. The first quarterback Riley ever coached was none other than USC offensive coordinator Graham Harrell. Harrell told The Times, “Really Lincoln was the first person that taught me Mike Leach’s offense. He was only a year or two older than me, but he knew the offense. We were so close in age, it became a friendship, but he was a friend I respected. In the beginning, it was because he was the only guy that was around to watch film with me.” As of September 2019, Harrell and Riley kept in touch often via text message. They clearly remained friends throughout the years. “He bought us steak knives with Harrell engraved in them,” Harrell said. “Every time we get steaks and have friends over, they ask, ‘Where did you get these knives?’ Always my wife will say, ‘The Rileys bought them for us as a wedding gift.’ He tells me to come and visit him. I’m sure he’s got a pretty nice home now, making what he’s making.”

I agree that we will sign more, but in today's recruiting world most of the top players are locked up by early signing day so I don't feel super confident about adding many highly valued players in the next 2 months. Even with 10 or so more added it's hard to imagine this class being anywhere close to the quality we've seen the last 3 classes. Let's just hope for some diamonds in the rough who can outplay their ratings to go along with the higher rated guys.

How bad is this class going to hurt us down the road? Looking at our team the last couple of years having such a small senior/junior class making an impact has been one of our biggest issues. I understand we were limited by the extra covid year plus having such a small senior class made it so we barely had any spots to fill, but gotta think 3+ years down the road that this class will cause similar issues again.

The system has to change. Cincy had to go undefeated for 2 straight seasons just to barely sneak into the playoffs. If they happen to beat any team other than ND to start the year the committee puts ND in front of them every single time. Could even make the argument that with a convincing win over Baylor Ok St probably would have jumped over them too.

Aune has "won" the job at least 3 times now. I definitely don't think he's the best player for the job, I just don't personally see Littrell benching him. We've gone into 2 straight seasons with a somewhat open competition and if Littrell and Aune are both back I don't think that will be the case again.

What makes you believe he would bench the guy who has 2 years of starting under his belt? Unless Aune retires he is the QB next year.

This is much much bigger than that.

Biggest win in Denton since what?

Whatever happens with Littrell or not, keeping Cobbs has to be a priority. We have 4+ guys that I'm comfortable carrying the ball

His film doesn't look bad and looks like he has some nice speed, but are we really offering FCS players who lost their job?? Looks like he had a good RS freshman season, then struggled in his sophomore year (938 yards and 1 passing TD in 5 starts) before losing his job this year. I guess the potential is there but looking at the big picture this offer doesn't excite me.

Can I hear your reasoning behind the recruiting opinion? His first 3 classes were terrible and everyone can pretty much agree on that but look at the depth chart for this week, there are 48 players (not counting special teams) that are listed as starter or backup and 33 of those 48 are from the last 3 classes. We have 6 classes of players currently on our team and about 70% of the players who see the most time on the field are from the 3 most recent classes. Most teams are led by seniors and juniors and we have basically none of that except for a small handful of players. I'll rag on Littrell any day about his first 3 classes because that's what has put us in this hole the last couple of seasons, but to say these recent classes are over rated seems a bit inaccurate and I'd love to hear your perspective on why you feel that way.

Littrell also faced teams like Clemson and Miami in conference play and recruited at that same level. I guess I'm really missing the hype on Fuente because nothing I see makes me want him as our next coach.

I honestly don't think Ruder recovered from his injury to the same level he once was. Howell will be a 1st or 2nd round pick in April regardless of this list and Ruder just about beat him out 2 years ago and now he can't win the job on a CUSA team? Makes you wonder what changed.

Does anyone have evidence to back up claims of him being a good recruiter? Obviously he has connections with other Texas HS coaches, but has that actually turned into any better recruiting for Baylor? It looks like Baylor typically finishes between 3rd and 5th in the Big 12 when it comes to recruiting rankings and that's been true even before McGuire arrived. I would say that since RG3 Baylor has been much more competitive with in state recruiting, and on paper you would think adding a well regarded HS coach like McGuire would be beneficial, but are there actual examples of athletes they have landed that they might not have if he wasn't there? I'm just wondering where that narrative is coming from other than by saying he has connections with other coaches. Maybe a player would take a visit because their coach is suggesting it, but more often than not decisions are made with more influence from family than their HS coach.

In a world with no other factors Littrell is gone without a doubt. Every college program has hope down the road, everyone always feels the next season has potential even if it doesn't so we would not bring him back just for that reason. And ultimately the reason we are in a bad spot now is because of his own recruiting at the beginning of his time here so the blame falls on him even if it's something he did years ago. His large contract buyout is the only reason he would be able to stick around. My opinion is that he will definitely be around at the very least through this season, and then some serious discussion will have to occur about his future. Unless some random booster comes along with a willingness to help offset his contract buyout I just don't see how we could pay both his buyout and still pay for a decent new HC and staff. We would essentially be paying 2 coaches next year and we already have one of the biggest contracts in all of the G5 schools to pay for, it just doesn't seem realistic. Plus, I would rather not have to take a discount shopping approach to our new coach.

And we are.. Oscar Adaway, Murphy twins, Deshawn Gaddie, Damon Ward, Kevin Wood, and Quinn Whitlock from the 2019 class all play big roles and coincidentally most of them were among the higher rated recruits in that class. That's about 1/3 of starters we have on the field, and they all came from a class that was ranked 4th in conference. 2020 and 2021 classes obviously have had much less of an impact, but they are in the first and second year of playing CFB. We can be mad at Littrell all we want, but it a fact it takes most players 2-3 years to be ready to make an impact. We have a team that is led by 3 terrible classes, 2016, 2017, 2018 are all still playing for us and they were 8th, 11th, and 8th in conference. Add injuries to a team that already is young with no depth and this is what you get. All of our junior and senior players are either starters or don't even sniff the field for the most part, just look at our depth chart we have a freshman or sophomore back up at 18 positions. To be clear, this is not me defending Littrell. He has his own issues, and as a coach everything falls on your shoulders and you're expected to overcome whatever circumstances you find yourself in. But the lack of depth due to awful recruiting for 3 straight years isn't something we can just overlook.