UNT's Recruiting Playbook

Harry · April 29, 2015

After noticing the Anderson twins committing to A&M, it got me thinking about UNT's recruiting strategy and gameplan.

This McCarney staff has proven to me that they can identify the top junior talent in Texas. The Anderson twins were one of many examples where our coaches got in their early and offered good players who ultimately are going to have high level p5 offers. I have no problem with this strategy because it makes sense to go after the best. With programs only having 25 spots to give, there is always the chance that a player may come up empty handed and that first impression may open up the door to UNT.

The next area is high school seniors who were under the radar for whatever reasons in the sophomore and junior years. This is an area where UNT has some real opportunities to shine. Often times a player may hit a growth spurt over the summer or finally get significant playing time being behind a top level player. There are many players who begin to really mature later in their careers. The bigger programs have already filled up their allotment and are focusing more on the underclassmen for future classes.

UNT needs to really focus their time and resources on players who are extremely productive but just below the p5 measurables but play at a high level of production. This is the place where we found guys like Craig Robertson. Craig was an outstanding athlete but just a little undersized and wasn't off the 40-yard dash chart. Scott Hall comes to mind -- Texas A&M showed interest in Hall but would not offer him a scholarshipUNT got on him early and stayed on him until the end. While offering the top level talent is fine and good, building

An area where I think UNT needs to improve on is players who have a unique circumstance. This could be a player who has a family issue requiring them to be close to home. It could be a player that signed with another school but is not getting any playing time. It could be a player who did not academically qualify until late in the game. I honestly think UNT should put a lot of time and resources here. The reason is our location is home to SO many high level D-I signees. p5 teams stockpile the top players and there is no way all of them will get to matriculate through and get to play. Look at the Marcus Trice situation. Kid was a star, signed with OU and realized that he could not reach his goals as a player there. Sits out a season at UNT and ends up making a HUGE impact in 2013. This is an area where you can land difference makers in C-USA. You don't need a lot of these types of players but just a couple at key positions can make a huge impact.

I realize that coaches cannot recruit players when they are with another program so this means you have to adjust. Assign someone to keep an ear to the ground on transfer announcements and the grapevine. Plant the seed with junior and their families that if things don't work out at xyz university we would like to leave the door open to come back. Embrace what you are. We are not at this time a 1st stop destination for the top tier guys but we can be

UNT can also benefit from offering players to come in and play their position of preference. I think about Scott Hall who Texas A&M wanted to play in the secondary or Caleb Chumley who many of the bigger schools wanted to look at defensive end etc.. Give them the option of playing their position here and if it does not work out you have added a high level prospect to your mix.

BillySee58 · April 29, 2015

Good post. One thing I disagree on is that offering kids who end up getting P5 offers doesn't prove anything to me. If a kid is talented enough to get P5 offers then it doesn't take a genius evaluator to realize that that kid is worthy of a CUSA offer.

I agree that transfers can help, but I think you have to be selective about the transfers you offer. It really helps when you can get transfers like Aderius Epps to walkon. If we had needed to give him a scholarship that would've been one less scholarship last class, for a guy we don't know if he'll ever play meaningful snaps. Getting guys like Trice, who are legitimately in the two-deep at a P5 school have a high chance of being good pickups.

I definitely agree on the unique circumstances. We shouldn't be overly picky with top talent, as far as their exact situation. Kevin Dillman is a good example there.

Ultimately, like I always talk about, it comes down to winning recruiting battles. There are plenty of good players who don't have P5 offers, but most of them have 4,5, or more G5 and FCS offers. Guys like Zach Orr, Mason Y'Barbo, Derek Akunne, Aaron Bellazin, Chris Miles, Jeffery Wilson all had zero P5 offers, yet all had 4 or more offers. If you fill your class with kids with solid offer lists then you set yourself up well. Then you can take a chance on the occasional P5 transfer or unique circumstance and not rely on them working out.

Ben Gooding · April 29, 2015

I am not a recruiter or a coach, but if I were I would scale through the Texas recruits every year and I would go after recruits in the state of Texas that had offer lists similar to...

Texas St.

UTSA

ULL

ULM

LaTech

SMwho

AState

Wake

Purude

Indiana

Colorado St

etc.

These are the guys that I would hone in on. I would focus all of my resources on guys that are in state and have offers lists like this.

I would never offer a kid that doesn't already have a couple G5 offers unless I see something in him that is just too good to pass up such as speed regardless of size, massive size regardless of speed, unmatched strength regardless of explosion, etc. Even then I would be hesitant to offer that unless I could see them contributing at some level shortly after being redshirted. Bringing in guys that have offers lists such as...

ACU

Missouri St

Idaho

Grambling

Shouldn't happen unless again, there is something that a couple coaches see that make them think they are stealing a D1 player away from one of these schools.

Offering a guy that holds offers from around the country like a JT Barrett doesn't seem praise worthy to me. It was an offer that was thrown out in the small chance that he came. The coaching staff knew he wasn't going to come but just threw it out there anyway. It would be interesting to see what kind of offer lists our current 2-deep had coming out of high school/JUCO. That will tell the tale of how this staff recruits, good or bad.

GOMG2013 · April 29, 2015

one thing this old school staff has to do is get some athletic freaks in here. most of these freakish guys are not the most humble and mannerable kids. not saying we should have a lockeroom full of attitudes and swagger, but there needs to be more emphasis on the athletic part and not so much as off the field. im not saying get knuckleheads, but dont just concentrate on a certain type either. "is he a skladany guy" "is he a coach mac kind of player?" get that outta here. first question should be can he play football.

another thing we should do is look at all the texas, louisiana, and Oklahoma high school players that have D1 offers. there are always some that go far or out of state because no one in state or closer to home has offered them.

GrandGreen · April 29, 2015

There is no panacea for recruiting at NT's level, other than intelligence and hard work. Recruit heavy in area, search for players in border states, rely heavily on jucos and other transfers. A consecration on any of these areas or any combination can work, but it takes some degree of charisma in the staff and if not success, a high potential for success.

Fry was the only football coach at NT that could actually recruit against the bigs, but that was a difference time. The only other two that could beat most second tier or G5 schools was the early years of Dickey and Dodge. McCarney has been a huge disappointment in recruiting although it has progressed slowly in his tenure.

Blaming NT's history for recruiting failures is not only a poor excuse but becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Look at what NT and Denton offer any athlete or student. I can't think of any West division team that NT should not have a recruiting advantage over. Rice has money, tradition and academic excellence to sell, but offsetting that is a lack of diversity, fan support, and higher academic standards.

NT has to find coaches that can use NT advantages and stop making lame excuses for failures. Hopefully, the current staff can grow into a group that can sell NT. Recruiting is obviously the key to continued success.

Ben Gooding · April 30, 2015

We need better recruiters.

Not necessarily a knock so I don't want this taken out of context, but it rubbed me the wrong way. When a coach of ours is out somewhere on a recruiting trip and he's tweeting other university propaganda for the world to see it's a turn off. It makes us look small time and last I checked North Texas is cutting our assistants checks, not X university. It's borderline disrespectful. Just my opinion, for what it's worth.

GreenFlag · May 5, 2015

We need better recruiters.
Not necessarily a knock so I don't want this taken out of context, but it rubbed me the wrong way. When a coach of ours is out somewhere on a recruiting trip and he's tweeting other university propaganda for the world to see it's a turn off. It makes us look small time and last I checked North Texas is cutting our assistants checks, not X university. It's borderline disrespectful. Just my opinion, for what it's worth.

What did I miss?