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Defensive Line Depth


BillySee58

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The crazy thing about looking at this list is that we also signed 5 more defensive lineman in our '21 class, along with Jimmy Walker and Kenneth Dotson who are both redshirt freshman that have been on the team for 2 years.  We have 19 guys to play 4 spots and only 3 are seniors, the rest are freshmen or sophomores.  If we don't have excellent rotation and depth for the next 2-3 years then we've badly missed on our DL recruiting.

Edited by UNT18Grad
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30 minutes ago, UNT18Grad said:

The crazy thing about looking at this list is that we also signed 5 more defensive lineman in our '21 class, along with Jimmy Walker and Kenneth Dotson who are both redshirt freshman that have been on the team for 2 years.  We have 19 guys to play 4 spots and only 3 are seniors, the rest are freshmen or sophomores.  If we don't have excellent rotation and depth for the next 2-3 years then we've badly missed on our DL recruiting.

Disagree on the last part. I think it would be because of coaching. Getting a group with this many players who P5s and many G5s evaluated as scholarship worthy would mean that dozens of coaches missed, not just our coaches.

Our DL coach has never been higher than a Quality Control assistant on the offensive line so there is some big concern there. He has the talent to work with, so the pressure is on for him to get that group to produce.

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57 minutes ago, BillySee58 said:

The group of recruits that we have brought in to play d-line is like nothing we’ve seen in the recruiting website era. Can we get them to translate is the question. Here is what the group is looking like:

DT - SR Dion Novil (1st team all-CUSA)

DE/DT - SO Davontae Mccrae (JUCO offers from Missouri, Arizona, Miss State, Houston, Colorado, etc.)

DEs - RS FR Murphy Twins (led team in sacks after switching to DE halfway through season)

DE - SR Kameron Hill (all-Southland DE from ACU)

DT - RS FR Enoch Jackson (HS offers from Arkansas, LSU, Georgia, Clemson, Florida, etc.)

DE/DT - FR Kortlin Rausaw (HS offers from Colorado, Iowa State, Boise State, etc.)

DE/DT - FR Jonathan Pickett (HS offers from Arizona State, Vanderbilt, West Virginia, BYU, etc.)

DT - FR Tashoyn Johnson (was starting as a true freshmen by conference play)

DT - SR Caleb Colvin (entering third year as rotation player)

DT - RS SO Dayton Leblanc (entering third year as rotation player)

DT - SO Kelvin Hutchings (JUCO flipped from La Lafayette)

We have no shortage of rotation players and no shortage of players who were recruited by P5 schools. No reason this can’t be an above average CUSA unit.

This all sounds great until you get to their position coach, the guy they’ll be spending most of their time with (outside of Coach Womack)...   then you have the random 2* guy with an offer from NMSt & no one else.   Sorry to throw a bucket of cold water on this optimistic post... just a little concerning.

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Just now, BillySee58 said:

Disagree on the last part. I think it would be because of coaching. Getting a group with this many players who P5s and many G5s evaluated as scholarship worthy would mean that dozens of coaches missed, not just our coaches.

Our DL coach has never been higher than a Quality Control assistant on the offensive line so there is some big concern there. He has the talent to work with, so the pressure is on for him to get that group to produce.

Lol.   Great minds...

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2 hours ago, BillySee58 said:

Disagree on the last part. I think it would be because of coaching. Getting a group with this many players who P5s and many G5s evaluated as scholarship worthy would mean that dozens of coaches missed, not just our coaches.

Our DL coach has never been higher than a Quality Control assistant on the offensive line so there is some big concern there. He has the talent to work with, so the pressure is on for him to get that group to produce.

He’s also pretty young, but I have trust that Bennett knows what he’s doing. No buddy hires from SL.

Passwaters and Holley have extremely high upsides, and it would be very difficult to screw up on the Dline this year. Way too much talent in Murphy’s, Novil, Johnson, and now Jackson.

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14 minutes ago, NorthTexasSportsNetwork said:

He’s also pretty young, but I have trust that Bennett knows what he’s doing. No buddy hires from SL.

Passwaters and Holley have extremely high upsides, and it would be very difficult to screw up on the Dline this year. Way too much talent in Murphy’s, Novil, Johnson, and now Jackson.

He is Bennett’s son in law (or about to be). It’s definitely a buddy hire lol. Doesn’t mean he can’t be good, but it definitely is a buddy hire. Maybe even a step above that.

What is Passwaters’ high upside based on? Besides him being a first-time coach? Not sure how that alone makes him “extremely high upside.”

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5 minutes ago, NorthTexasSportsNetwork said:

He’s also pretty young, but I have trust that Bennett knows what he’s doing. No buddy hires from SL.

Passwaters and Holley have extremely high upsides, and it would be very difficult to screw up on the Dline this year. Way too much talent in Murphy’s, Novil, Johnson, and now Jackson.

Did you think it would be very difficult to screw up the offense when Reeder was hired?  I mean, we had Fine, Darden, Torrey, Bussey... just way too much talent, right?

A positional coach plays a HUGE role in how well a unit performs.  Look at the incredible jump the OL made when Bloesch replaced Langston!

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1 hour ago, BillySee58 said:

He is Bennett’s son in law (or about to be). It’s definitely a buddy hire lol. Doesn’t mean he can’t be good, but it definitely is a buddy hire. Maybe even a step above that.

What is Passwaters’ high upside based on? Besides him being a first-time coach? Not sure how that alone makes him “extremely high upside.”

I believe the step above that is nep...nep...nepo...say it with me...nepotism. 

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Let’s hope Coach Nepotism can coach them properly. If this isn’t the best unit on the field (or second best to the OL) we are going to have a long and poor season. Everything starts up front.

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5 hours ago, BillySee58 said:

He is Bennett’s son in law (or about to be). It’s definitely a buddy hire lol. Doesn’t mean he can’t be good, but it definitely is a buddy hire. Maybe even a step above that.

What is Passwaters’ high upside based on? Besides him being a first-time coach? Not sure how that alone makes him “extremely high upside.”

This is the kind of thing people will easily forget about if you are successful.

It is also the first thing people will point at if you are not.

It is not destiny that Passwaters can't be a good coach. But if there is accountability at the NT AD, then this reduces both SL and Bennetts margin for error. If you hire someone you are supposed to know that well over candidates that are better qualified on paper, then you better be right about them (and succesful with them), or else...

Edited by outoftown
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If they win no one will give a sh_t. But as long time fans we have to prepare our selves for what seems as a yearly bust and to place blame.

I have to keep my hope up that this team/coaches have made the turn and will surprise many.......

Making the Kool-aid.

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10 hours ago, 97and03 said:

Let’s hope Coach Nepotism can coach them properly. If this isn’t the best unit on the field (or second best to the OL) we are going to have a long and poor season. Everything starts up front.

.....which is why (for many recruiting years) I was forced to ask the Clara Peller question....."where's the beef?".  And unfortunately (as they frequently ran for their lives) our starting QB's were asking the same question.

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6 minutes ago, SilverEagle said:

.....which is why (for many recruiting years) I was forced to ask the Clara Peller question....."where's the beef?".  And unfortunately (as they frequently ran for their lives) our starting QB's were asking the same question.

Watching Vizza run for his life, for his entire DENTON career, will always stick with me.  I thought he was an amazing QB.

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13 hours ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

Did you think it would be very difficult to screw up the offense when Reeder was hired?  I mean, we had Fine, Darden, Torrey, Bussey... just way too much talent, right?

A positional coach plays a HUGE role in how well a unit performs.  Look at the incredible jump the OL made when Bloesch replaced Langston!

Reeder was also a coach that came from the FCS and didn’t have the amount of experience Bennett has.

But we shall see on how Passwaters does.

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13 hours ago, BillySee58 said:

He is Bennett’s son in law (or about to be). It’s definitely a buddy hire lol. Doesn’t mean he can’t be good, but it definitely is a buddy hire. Maybe even a step above that.

What is Passwaters’ high upside based on? Besides him being a first-time coach? Not sure how that alone makes him “extremely high upside.”

Oh wow I didn’t know he was gonna be his son in law. But at least it wasn’t a buddy hire from Seth because that hasn’t done as good so far.

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15 hours ago, outoftown said:

This is the kind of thing people will easily forget about if you are successful.

It is also the first thing people will point at if you are not.

It is not destiny that Passwaters can't be a good coach. But if there is accountability at the NT AD, then this reduces both SL and Bennetts margin for error. If you hire someone you are supposed to know that well over candidates that are better qualified on paper, then you better be right about them (and succesful with them), or else...

Yup, completely agree on everything you said.

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On 5/12/2021 at 2:27 AM, outoftown said:

This is the kind of thing people will easily forget about if you are successful.

It is also the first thing people will point at if you are not.

It is not destiny that Passwaters can't be a good coach. But if there is accountability at the NT AD, then this reduces both SL and Bennetts margin for error. If you hire someone you are supposed to know that well over candidates that are better qualified on paper, then you better be right about them (and succesful with them), or else...

I think the more worrisome thought for me is that Littrell is basically coaching for his job at this point, and he decides to hire a guy with zero experience on the DL.

Bennett is obviously a fantastic DC, but hitching your wagon to a guy like that is a huge dice roll that seems like its more than likely destined to hit snake eyes.

I hope to God I'm wrong and Passwaters is the next coming of Bill Belichick, but I'm a pessimist so I'm expecting the worst.

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