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eulessismore

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Posts posted by eulessismore

  1. One of my coworkers has been involved in Arlington Lamar athletics for about 3 years due to one of his sons, now a junior, playing football there. When I informed him of Tevinn Cantly being recruited by UNT, his reactions (generally) were as follows:

    1. Cantly is AWESOME.

    2. He is the Lamar player most respected by this coworkers son, and the most physically intimidating.

    3. He is the best prospect out of Lamar in the last 2 or 3 years.

    4. It's difficult to understand why Cantly has not gotten honors and recruiting offers.

    5. His natural position has always been as a defensive lineman (end?), and he has always wanted to play on the defensive line, but has been used extensively as an offensive lineman, and was listed in Dave Campbell's Texas Football as an offensive lineman to start this year, so may not have gotten sufficicient attention for his defensive line play, which was mostly this season.

    6. He sounds like he is from a situation that would require the kind of financial assistance that would come from an athletic scholarship in order to attend college.

    Just as an aside to those on this thread who have said "why should UNT make an offer to a kid when others haven't"; we should be aware that we don't get all the information about financial aid offers to athletes, especially those who have a "list" of schools, rather than an early commitment. Also, some of the schools, especially Fordham and Northern Iowa, have extensive alumni support networks which specifically provide financial aid to student athletes beyond what the schools themselves offer. Those interested in that topic could click on the link for Northern Iowa below, and click on the "Panther Scholarship Club"; however, nothing is mentioned as to how the aid gets to the student athlete. I suspect that some walkons can get academic scholarships and other similar assistance depending on merit, need,etc.

    I strongly urge anyone who thinks the football programs of the other schools mentioned as "expressing interest" are not up to the level of UNT to click on the following links to check that out; we might actually be able to learn a few things from them, especially Fordham and Northern Iowa; also, Missouri State beat UNT for one recruit last year, according to their website. Northern Iowa and Missouri State have recently played against Western Kentucky about as well as UNT did when it played WKU.

    Fordham football; playing well, recruiting in Texas

    University of Northern Iowa football, undefeated in regular season

    Missouri State football

  2. I believe there was a young man recruited by Darrell Dickey whose scholarship was not honored last year. That bothered me a great deal.

    That's what I was referring to by "This sounds eerily like last year, only not so close to signing day". Yes, I was also bothered by that at the time, but didn't get involved in posting about it, since I figured (as some on the Ponyfans are saying about June Jones) that Dodge had a lot going on then (new job, father-in-law having had a stroke, etc.). Still, I'm trying not to make this a diatribe against JJ or Dodge, just seeing it now as something that happens when coaches change jobs, but can't really see what makes it "right". I'm wondering if a different time for National signing day might be better; like closer to the end of the school year, unless a student athlete graduates early.

  3. This sounds eerily like last year, only not so close to signing day; still I'm finding myself thinking that this late withdrawal of scholarship offers made by recently departed head coaches isn't right, whether it's by Jones, Dodge, or just due to the way the system is set up. I wanted to post this on 5atexasfootball for discussion, but couldn't get logged in on my account. Maybe tomorrow. Just wondered what others in the Mean Green Nation thought. Bottom line,in my opinion, is that high school athletes need to make plans, and this doesn't help. I posted this from the Ponyfans site, rather than the Tyler Newspaper, due to what "SMU Football Blog" wrote about Bennett stating at numerous times that he "regretted honoring Cavan's commitments". If true, what a shameless thing to say about those athetes.

    Jones pulls scholarship offer.

  4. Who cares what SMU says. Ignore them. Some fringe lunatic says something derogatory about us and we take that as the way all of them feel. Then we don't reply directly to their remark but make some statement that's just as idiotic and the feud is just exacerbated. Save it for the gridiron or other competition. We made need them sometimes and who wants to help anyone that has done nothing but spew venom toward them. Hatred is just downright evil.

    GaryEagleOne, that's the best I've heard on the hate subject since Bob Dylan's line from "It's All Right Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)", "Don't hate nothing at all except hatred".

  5. We can play well against LSU with:

    1. Our starting quarterback from last year.

    2. Better strength training during this offseason.

    3. Contribution from last year's redshirts.

    4. Good recruiting class this year, with some contributing right away, esp the JUCO transfers, and hopefully the new kicker.

    5. Better defensive coaching from hopefully....

    6. Better special teams play; hopefully we've learned something from our own mistakes of last year.

    7. I like our coach better than Ohio State's.

  6. I believe the fund raiser position is to replace TJ Leon.

    I wonder if Ramone Archie might actually be a better fit in the fund raiser position. He does seem to have the fire in his belly for coaching, and North Texas football, but seems to deeply impress those who have met him personally (sounds almost like the head football coach from Euless Trinity, Steve Lineweaver, in that respect). Secondary players, and possibly by extension their coaches, may be at their best when noone is really noticing their best work. Also, he seems to present himself well to the media, as evidenced by appearing on the "Family Feud", I believe it was. It sounds like he may be a natural salesman, a man who loves North Texas from his time as student and coach, and someone who believes in the UNT athletic program. Even if he doesn't have specific fund raising experience, I think UNT could do worse than to let a young, attractive, articulate, energetic, enthusiastic, upbeat guy like him who loves UNT athletics take on that challenge.

  7. If this has already been addressed elsewhere, I'll delete the thread. It seems like we should have 2 positions listed; one for DC and one for a cornerbacks coach. However, I only see one listing for an assistant coach under the Athletic department. There's another listing for someone to serve as what sounds like a fund raiser. Is the one assistant coach listing really for 2 positions? What's the deal?

  8. C'mon...I love UNt but if he picks a job with UNT as a SPT coach instead of an NFL job...I am not sure I would want him due to stupidity....

    Denton is a great place to live, but SF might have an edge over us....as would the pay , lifestyle, first class jets, hotels etc...etc...etc.....

    If you think it shows stupidity to move from NFL (even San Francisco) coaching to UNT, the guy described in the following link (I found it on the Pony board) might disagree. I suppose some who move from coaching teams with better (at least perceived) levels of competition, pay, status, or locations do so for career advancement purposes, such as to become a coordinator instead of just a position coach, or head coach instead of a coordinator. I'm not familiar with what an "assistant special teams coach" might do compared to a "special teams coordinator", but being a linebackers coach would seem to be a logical step towards becoming a defensive coordinator.

    SMU and (probably) Hawaii would love to hire the guy described in the following link. Almost anyone would have to wonder why he made some of the moves he did, but it seems to be working for him.

    McMackin bio from U of Hawaii

    Now, I do wonder why Joe Cauthen, former DC at Texas A&M Commerce made a lateral move (from one DII school to another) to be the DC/linebackers coach at Valdosta State , but at least now he can say he was DC for a national championship team. Maybe we could get him here as a linebackers coach, since, if people can move down to lower levels of competition to take on more resposibility, they should be able to move up a level or two for a less responsible position at a higher level of competition. It really seems like the guys who work their work up from coaching a "position" may take circuitous routes to get the highest positions at the highest levels.

  9. No, not necessarily.

    Jeff is not the Special Teams Coach, he's the Assistant Special Teams Coach. The money may be similar, and his friends and family are back here in Texas where there is no state income tax.

    He could be an excellent Linebackers Coach / Recruiting Coordinator in Texas. His unique assets (recruiting contacts) aren't of any value in his current position.

    Well, he sounds like he could be a lot of help, since we also need special teams improvement. Does anyone know if he is interested in coaching at UNT?

  10. I suspect that if we can sign all those six foot tall athletes (who are all very fast), that kind of athleticism would greatly improve our special teams coverage.

    Still need to improve the kicking game.

    And special teams would really rock if we could force more punts.

    I thought we lacked pressure against the punting teams in the MTSU and Navy games that allowed them time to "place" their punts where it really hurt us (on the 1 or 2 yard line). The safeties following those punts really hurt us in those games.

  11. Maybe it was really for the best that Jennings decided against coming to UNT. Don't we need someone to coach linebackers since RM coached them? It seems like Deloach has basically coached secondary, as far as positions, both safeties and corners. It doesn't seem that anyone presently on staff has LB experience, playing or coaching. If Deloach was DC and corners coach, the next logical hire would seem to be an LB coach.

  12. It is a little hard to know what to believe at this point.

    We know (or at least it was reported) that DeLoach is coming back to Texas. Baylor and Houston have filled their defensive coordinator slots. Houston only has two offensive position coach slots left and I'm not sure that Baylor has any. The defensive coordinator for North Texas and SMU are open. Jones has mentioned bringing both his OC and DC from Hawaii. We have confirmed that DeLoach has interviewed for the DC job at North Texas. There has been no mention of his talking to anyone at SMU but that's not to say that it hasn't happened. It certainly appears that he has been hired somewhere since he is no longer at UCLA.

    The biggest question mark is due to the hiring of Clay Jennings as a defensive backs coach. I would feel more comfortable had he been hired as the linebackers coach. Our coordinators are also position coaches (so that we can justify the extra pay most likely) so that would seem awkward if Gary DeLoach were hired he be the DC and the linebackers coach . Or, they could decide to switch Jennings to linebackers and make DeLoach the cornerback coach, where we know that he excels.

    I'm in the camp of 'believe nothing until you see it in writing'. There definitely is a lot of smoke but we haven't actually seen any fire yet (except for Mendoza). I know, bad pun.

    I don't really doubt that Deloach could be linebackers coach as well as DC. He's produced training videos for linemen and lbs in the 4-3 system. I've also heard he's sold pinecones for export to North Carolina and during summers while at Howard Payne, went out to the Monahans area to sell sand from East Texas.

  13. You know, SMU has a lot to feel good about concerning their HC hire. Actually, there were several reasons why I, for one, wanted them to go ahead and get someone hired, such as the occasional mention of Todd Dodge as a candidate, the need for a choice of more than 2 schools in the DFW area for students from this area who want to play in this area, and the possibility of an overall failure of their football program creating a bad precedent (such as to those who are reluctant to make the commitment to football, who could use that as an example of why further investment in major athletics is a bad idea).

    Of course, at some point, June Jones will present a challenge to Todd Dodge in recruiting of area athletes. It may be too late this year for many such head to head competitions. Such competition is usually unsettling at first, but is usually healthy in the long run; perhaps it will focus Dodge and his assistants even more on finding and recruiting the best athletes for UNT.

    Also, at some point, there will be competition for assistant coaches. Ironically, both coaches are looking, apparently, and hopefully, in different places. Also ironically, there may be days, and perhaps more than a week before either can announce a hire; possibly due to identical requirements for posting of available positions for ten days at Hawaii (where the DC Jones wants for SMU is now being considered as HC) and UNT. I think Dodge has proven to us how important coordinators and position coach hires can be, and I would guess potential recruits are also interested in such matters.

    Most of all, let's keep things in perspective. I certainly feel one of the greatest losses to UNT in recent years was the death in an auto accident of one of the best quarterbacks we had had in years. As well as the personal and family tragedy involved, it was, in my opinion, not coincidentally preceding some of our poorest seasons. Hawaii also lost a member of their football team in the last few days, who simply collapsed and died, I believe during a pickup basketball game over the semester break. Not so much that that is SMU's loss, but I'm sure it is another distraction for their recently hired coach, who is probably at this point dealing with other matters, such as figuring out which of his assistants he may be able to hire, and without much time before national signing day.

    Finally, let me point out what a poster from Ponyfans (yes, from SMU), who posted the following link after the June Jones hire, addressing the great uncertainty as to student support and resulting home game attendance for the Mustangs, and pointing to UNT (yes UNT) as an example of a school which supports its football and basketball programs with about the same records, but with much better attendance by UNT. Also, he recomments an attitude check by SMU fans, which frankly I wonder if we in the Mean Green Nation might also need at times.

    Ponyfan poster with some real insight.

  14. Just got to wondering what had happened to Matt Simon, fomer HC at North Texas. He is now running backs coach for the Chargers, who will be in the playoffs for the first time in 19(?) years. He didn't work out so well at North Texas at that time, but good to see he landed on his feet and is enjoying some success.

    Where Matt Simon is now

    And now I'm off to celebrate the Euless Trinity state championship win at the Trinity gym!

  15. Since neither SMU nor North Texas appear to be relocating to the West Coast anytime soon, I would expect to see Polynesian recruits at either campus rarely.

    I'm not sure you're getting the concept. Euless, Texas has one of the largest number of Tongan expatriates of any place in the United States. About a fourth of the football players at Euless Trinity High School are of Tongan ancestry. Proximity to employment with Airlines at DFW Airport has been a big factor in their migrating here; many were transferred here when American Airlines moved their headquarters from New York to Fort Worth. According to some writer, the Polynesian impact on American style football is in its second generation on the U.S. Mainland, with many of those now playing in the high school through professional ranks of being sons of immigrants (of course Hawaiians and those from American Samoa are U.S. citizens). Anyway, there are outstanding football players of many backgrounds at Trinity, and the head coach there, Steve Lineweaver, spoke after Todd Dodge was hired at UNT of Dodge opening up opportunities for local players, including from Trinity. Just trying to advocate a recruiting pipeline that makes sense to me!

  16. I could care less what SMU does. I welcome JJ to Dallas, but we can control what we do and what we do only. I'm excited about our future and don't think any wind was removed from our sails.

    A good point! One thing I like about next season is that ,barring any huge surprises, we know who our quarterback will be, and his name is Giovanni Vizza. Now if we improve our defensive and special teams in 2008 as much as we improved our offensive play after Vizza became the starting QB, we can win a lot more games, and soon!

  17. I guess the thought is that some of Trinity's great players are Tongans or otherwise Polynesian, and Jones having coached at Hawaii, will recognize that great pool of talent, wherever it is located.

    SMU fans on Euless Trinity

    By the way, Euless Trinity will be having it's community celebration for their state champion football team this coming Thursday night, anyone living in or around Euless would be welcome; maybe some of us could wear UNT gear and show we care. See the link below.

    Euless celebrates state 5A Division I 2007 football championship.

    I guess I am surprised there doesn't seem to be any recruiting of Euless Trinity football players by UNT this year. No need for smashmouth linemen, a great running back, outstanding defensive players?

    Dwayne Taylor

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