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February 2018 North Texas Signees Tim Faison LB 6'2" 225 Tallahassee, Florida (Independence CC) Alex Morris S 6'1" 188 Humble, Texas (Atascocita HS) Thomas Preston III OL 6'4" 290 Mesa, Arizona (Scottsdale CC) Derrick Shaw DT 6'0" 260 Broken Arrow, Oklahoma (Broken Arrow HS) Jyaire Shorter WR 6'2" 215 Killeen, Texas (Ellison HS) December 2017 North Texas Signees Jason Bean QB 6'3" 180 Mansfield, Texas (Lake Ridge HS) Cole Brown OL 6'4" 250 Conroe, Texas (Conroe HS) Keelan Crosby S 6'1" 175 Anna, Texas (Anna HS) Kevyon "KD" Davis LB 5'11" 200 Ennis, Texas (Ennis HS) Jaxon Gibbs S 5'11" 196 The Colony, Texas (The Colony HS) Jordan Hunt LB 6'2" 215 Wylie, Texas (Wylie HS) Dayton LeBlanc DL 6'1" 265 Lexington, Kentucky (Frederick Douglass HS) Kason Martin QB 6'3" 200 Manvel, Texas (Manvel HS) Darrian McMillan DL 6'2" 251 Mobile, Alabama (Butler CC) Larry Nixon III LB 6'0" 210 North Richland Hills, Texas (Richland HS) Austin Ogunmakin WR 6'3" 179 Alief, Texas (Hastings HS) Tuulau Saafi LB 6'3" 272 Euless, Texas (Mt. San Antonio College) DeAndre Torrey RB 5'7" 189 Gautier, Mississippi (Gulf Coast JC) Reggie Williams S 5'10" 180 Grand Prairie, Texas (Grand Prairie HS)

6. Seth Littrell, North Texas - After an encouraging 5-8 debut season in 2016, North Texas burst on to the scene last year with a surprising 9-5 record and captured their first C-USA West division title. Littrell’s Air Raid offense has been a perfect fit for UNT and the Mean Green should be in store for another dynamite season as star players Mason Fine, Jalen Guyton and Michael Lawrence all return. Littrell has turned around North Texas without the recruiting success you’d expect from a coach who’s located in the talent-rich DFW metroplex, nor the coaching stability as his staff was raided by P5 schools before last year’s breakthrough season. The former tells me that Littrell is a great developer of talent who knows how to get the most out of his players, while the latter shows that Littrell has a good eye for coaching talent. read more: https://www.underdogdynasty.com/2018/5/7/17174894/g5-head-coaching-candidates-on-the-rise-neal-brown-bryan-harsin-mike-norvell-group-of-five-p5-fcs

HEAD COACH CANDIDATE?: Though he's only 32, expect the name of Graham Harrell, UNT's offensive coordinator, to come up soon in head-coaching searches, such as the one UTEP will go on soon. "Graham's an unbelievable coach, there's no doubt in my mind he's going to be an unbelievable head coach," Littrell said. "He was born and bred, his entire family, to be a great head coach." read more: http://www.elpasotimes.com/story/sports/college/utep/2017/11/09/north-texas-uteps-shoes-two-years-ago-now-first-place/848399001/

DENTON -- Seth Littrell came to North Texas a year ago with a national reputation as an offensive guru and vowed to "tee it high and let it fly." The path UNT's head coach took to reach that goal seemed a little unconventional, to say the least. Littrell had been on the job just a few days when he handed his offense over to Graham Harrell, a Texas high school and college football legend with a short coaching résumé. Littrell's decision to hire an old friend as his offensive coordinator and play-caller resulted in a few bumpy moments, but it paid dividends overall. UNT will head into the second year of the Littrell era off a turnaround season that came largely out of the chemistry the pair have developed together -- and with their players. "Those two guys have a great relationship," UNT quarterback Mason Fine said. "Coach Littrell respects what Coach Harrell is trying to do. And Coach Harrell will bounce ideas off Littrell. Their attitudes complement each other. Coach Littrell is more laid-back, while Coach Harrell is always yelling. I am very comfortable with both those guys." read more: https://sportsday.dallasnews.com/college-sports/collegesports/2017/08/22/tandem-seth-littrell-graham-harrell-getting-unt-football-back-track

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- Kason Martin, a 2018 quarterback from Texas powerhouse Manvel, breaks down his commitment to North Texas. Manvel High School produces as much FBS talent as almost any program in the state of Texas, and the 2018 class is no different. Kason Martin will be the trigger man for Manvel's offense this fall and has already made his college commitment. North Texas landed the 6-foot-3, 182-pounder in mid-June. "North Texas was my first offer. The whole coaching staff really felt like a family," said Martin, whose father Kirk is the head coach at Manvel. "(Special teams coordinator) coach (Marty) Biagi was the guy who was really selling me to the coaches. When (offensive coordinator) coach (Graham) Harrell sat down and watched my film, he was like, 'Why haven't we offered this guy yet?' "He told me that I reminded him of him when he was young and that just really meant a lot. I grew up watching Graham Harrell at Texas Tech and he's been my childhood idol for a really long time. I really felt like it was a really great fit." Read more: http://www.scout.com/college/football/recruiting/story/1789197-2018-qb-talks-pledge-to-unt

If Riley were to move either Gundy or Bedenbaugh to offensive coordinator, he may also add a quarterbacks coach. A name to keep an eye on would be Graham Harrell, who Riley coached at Texas Tech, and is currently the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks' coach at North Texas. read more: http://www.oudaily.com/sports/oklahoma-football-lincoln-riley-looking-to-potentially-add-help/article_05b7af9e-4d14-11e7-b6bd-ff2659c2bea4.html

DENTON – Ennis High School is a mere 81 miles south from Apogee Stadium, the new home of offensive coordinator Graham Harrell. Ennis is where Harrell set countless Texas high school records and earned a Class 4A state title in 2001 as a sophomore with the Lions, under the tutelage of his father, then-Ennis head coach Sam Harrell. Following playing career stops in Lubbock (Texas Tech), New Jersey (New York Jets), Green Bay, Wisconsin, (Packers) and Pullman, Washington (Washington State), Harrell has returned to the Lone Star State to take over the Mean Green offense under new head coach Seth Littrell.Returning to a place close to home was one of many reasons that the 31 year-old jumped at the opportunity to join Littrell’s staff.“As far as Denton is concerned, it’s where I’m from,” Harrell said of his arrival with the Mean Green. “Well, not exactly where I grew up, but it’s coming home for me and it’s kind of close for my wife as well. More importantly, it’s sitting in an unbelievable recruiting base. There are great players right here and it’s an area that I grew up in that I’m proud of and I believe we can win here. All of that attracted me; coach Littrell, the area and that whole group of people we have who believe we can win here. We know it’s a challenge, but we are excited about that challenge.”The son of a coach always seemed destined to become one himself. His former head coach at Texas Tech, and now the current coach of the Washington State Cougars, Mike Leach, saw it right away. Harrell’s father, now an offensive coordinator himself at Fort Worth Christian, was the head coach at Ennis from 1994-2009. He led the way with a spread attack for the Lions, leading them to 13-straight playoff appearances and three class 4A championships. His son attributes a lot of credit to his father, and he shared the dream of being a coach from a young age.“I think my dad influenced me more than anyone,” Harrell opined. “He’s obviously had a ton of success with high school ball. That’s what I grew up wanting to be; I wanted to be a high school football coach because that’s what my dad was. What my dad did that was better than anyone around is the way he treated his kids, handled them and handled the staff. The way he did that is something that I hope I can do.”Leach speaks of how advanced Harrell was at evaluating film when he arrived in Lubbock as a freshman; which he credited to his father’s discipline as a coach. Analyzing film, knowing where a certain player should be to exploit a defense is something that Leach says his former quarterback and assistant excelled at right away.That understanding of the nuances of the offense he was tasked to run with the Red Raiders paved the way for some major successes at Tech. Harrell finished his collegiate career with an NCAA-record 134 touchdown passes, the second-most career passing yards (15,793) and posted the third-highest career passing yardage average with 350.96 yards-per-game. He was also named AT&T’s All-America Player of the Year and a First-Team All-American as a senior in 2008, leading the nation with 5,111 passing yards to go along with 45 touchdown passes to only nine interceptions. That Red Raiders team finished ranked 12th in the country with an 11-2 record and a Cotton Bowl appearance.“Quite frankly, I think, Graham’s NFL career, he probably cut it short a little bit because he was excited about getting in to coaching,” Leach said of Harrell’s post-Texas Tech career. “That’s because it was one of those deals where he could have kept training, gotten into camps and stuck somewhere, but he was real excited about getting into coaching; I know that. He’s just a good, sharp, reliable guy. The other thing in his case, as young as he is, one, it’s good that he has always been a guy that has constantly studied film, but the other important thing for him is that he learns and sorts things out quickly.” Read more: http://m.meangreensports.com/m/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/070116aab.html

“There’s a lot of good tape that will help us become a better football team next fall and heading into the summer,” Littrell said. “Overall, we have a lot to work on, and we still have a lot of room for improvement. There is no doubt about it.” As the team heads into the summer and continues to prepare for the upcoming season, the offense, defense and special teams each showed flashes of what is to come. Offense The offense had two big questions entering the spring – who would win the quarterback battle between Alec Morris and Quinn Shanbour, and how would the team be able to run a pass-heavy offense with such little experience at receiver. Despite returning a combined career total of just 649 yards and three touchdowns, the Mean Green receiving corps emphatically shut the door on any concerns at the position. Sophomore Tee Goree proved he’s ready for a standout sophomore season, while Sophomore O’Keeron Rutherford had a great spring game and has the size at 6’5 to be an impact player in the red zone. Goree, Rutherford, and Freshman Kelvin Smith combined for 274 yards and three touchdowns in the spring game and looked much more athletic and versatile than the offensive weapons of the past. “We’ve had talent on the outside. We just haven’t been able to showcase it,” Goree said. “Now, with this offense, we’re able to showcase our talent.” As far as the quarterback position goes, Morris seemed to enter the spring game with the confidence of the team.. However, Shanbour played well enough in the spring for Littrell to refrain from naming a starting quarterback heading into the summer. Morris remains the favorite, but Shanbour is putting up a fight. “There are always things that you can improve on, but I think that as a whole we came a long way this spring,” Morris said. “I didn’t really have a set expectation in mind, but I’m pretty happy with how this spring went. There’s a lot of potential for this offense to get better.” While the quarterbacks battled it out, the spring was rough on the offensive line. The Mean Green have just one returning starter from last year in senior Sam Rice, but he is moving over to center to account for the loss of Kaydon Kirby. The line struggled in the spring game, but still has time to improve before September. The growth of senior transfer Trey Keenan and junior transfer T.J. Henson will be important, as the two are listed on the depth chart as starters going into the summer. “We’re nowhere near where we need to be,” Littrell said. “There’s been a lot of stress put on them. The kids are responding well, and it’s not that they aren’t working hard, it’s just a transition. We just have to get better, and we will.” Read more: http://ntdaily.com/new-look-football-closes-out-spring-looks-forward-to-fall/

Coach Harrell is certainly a divergence from Chico. I hope his style resonates with the players better.

Since I'm tired of reading everyone here bickering like an old married couple about the current state of UNT athletics, I had an interesting thought about the Harrell Passing School. With Harrell's current status as an OC and the NCAA ruling of no satellite camps, does this mean he will no longer be able to participate/evaluate those players? I see this as a potential leg up for recruiting but I am curious as to whether or not it violates any sanctions as far as recruiting those players and the satellite camp rules now in place.

read more: http://coachingsearch.com/article?a=Graphic-Seth-Littrell-completes-North-Texas-staff-for-2016

On a side note -- anyone know where this room is? Sort of looks like the Victory dorm cafeteria space but not sure. Looks nice!

North Texas fans find themselves only one day away until the NCAA recruiting dead period ends. With just three weeks until National Signing Day (February 3rd) and a newly hired coaching staff it looks to be a fun ride for Mean Green fans. There was a lot of fanfare when North Texas announced North Carolina offensive coordinator Seth Littrell as their 19th head coach after the dismissal of Dan McCarney. Littrell soon announced Texas High School Hall of Famer Graham Harrell (Washington State) as his new offensive coordinator, along with Joel Filani (Washington State) who will coach wide receivers. He made in my opinion a good move retaining Tommy Perry as running backs/special teams coordinator. Defensive coordinator Mike Ekeler (Georgia) also joined the fold along with assistant head coach and safeties coach Troy Reffett (ULM). Tommy Mainord (Kentucky) was named associate head coach and inside receivers and Zach Womack (North Carolina) will take on the strength and conditioning program. Brad Davis (ECU) will coach the offensive line. The staff was looking strong until we lost a beloved staff member in Defensive Line Coach Kevin Patrick to Texas Tech earlier this week. I wish KP the best of luck out in Lubbock. It is always tough losing good coaches but I have complete confidence that Littrell will get a solid defensive line coach in to replace KP. Coach Littrell and company have been making the most of the dead period. They have been setting up recruiting plans for when dead period ends so they can hit the ground running, and solidifying a very impressive staff. Social media activity has picked up immensely and there seems to be a lot of interest in his efforts to rebuild the program. There are signs his plan is working as he landed two key transfers who could impact future of UNT football. Freshman defensive tackle Bryce English from Kansas State University was a key pickup and was considered one of the best defensive tackle prospects in the country coming out of DeSoto high school. The hope is he will help solidify the defensive line for years to come which is an area UNT struggled with under McCarney. The next key transfer was Alabama back-up quarterback Alec Morris who as a graduate will be able to participate in spring training. Coming off his second national championship ring, he brings a strong arm and experience to the quarterback competition alongside returning senior Damarcus Smith. It has been a busy first month on the job for Seth Littrell but it only gets more critical as the eve of dead period rapidly approaches. Mean Green fans are in for an exciting roller coaster ride the next three weeks. I’m excited for what the future holds for Mean Green Football. Update: It looks like UNT may be retaining Scotty Conley as director of football operations. He is showing up on their official website which includes Perry who has been retained and Harrell, Filani etc. http://www.meangreensports.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/ntex-m-footbl-coaches.html

read more: http://coachingsearch.com/article?a=A-look-at-Seth-Littrell-North-Texas-staff-so-far

MGB: Former Alabama QB headed to Denton, according to source http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2015/12/breaking-news-source-alabama-qb-alec-morris-is-transferring-to-unt.html/

Who will be the recruiting coordinator? To me that is an EXTREMELY critical position on this staff. Needs Texas ties, needs to be organized and also a good salesman. My hope is that this position will be elevated in the new regime and not treated as window dressing. We need an aggressive guy who has some strong connections in this area and state.