High school focused NT recruiting strategy?

[Jonnyeagle]

Maybe instead of trying to emulate what SMU does with all the transfers, let's go to the high school coaches and say we believe in the high school players and coaches and will focus much of our resources and scholarships in that direction.  Do the opposite of what SMU is doing right now and maybe we could land some more high school stars that get overlooked, especially with what covid did to the scholarships.  There are so many great high school players in our backyard that we could have a better chance of landing.

[NorthTexasSportsNetwork]

Another freaking SMU thread, here we go.

SMU was successful in this category, and it’s clear that if you have the right coaches it works. I feel like this batch of staff is good enough to reel some good transfer portal guys in and dominate cusa.

Going high school can be just as hit or Miss as the portal, so why not go after more guys with experience than kids that probably won’t play for a while. 
Seth is reaching his last legs, he can’t wait around another year to be mediocre. Winning is a must for his contract, in my opinion, so it makes the most sense.

[outoftown]

The problem is the following: If you take someone from the portal, they have done their one free transfer, and now they are not nearly as much of a potential free agent anymore. You are safe to develop them and can profit from the work and money you put into them. This also allows you to plan to some degree.

If they come from high school you develop them, but you are always under the threat of them leaving as soon as they turn out to become good. NIL has increased this threat a lot. If you do awesome all the P5s will be coming in talking about how much more on NIL a player will make. It will soon become clear that nobody wants to be the school developing the high schoolers anymore, and it will create a real problem for CFB and high school football. I seriously don't know where your low end 3 star high school recruit will go in the future. Maybe FCS or Juco? The incentives to develop high school recruits have been completely eviscerated by this years changes. At some point there will not be enough players anymore to just keep going to the portal, that is when it will get both interesting and really cut throat.

Edited July 28, 2021 by outoftown

[Wag Tag]

If transfers have 2 or more years of eligibility, that is the way to go.

[outoftown]

2 minutes ago, Wag Tag said:

If transfers have 2 or more years of eligibility, that is the way to go.

Agree. The ideal new player is now a freshman (or maybe sophomore) transfer. Its the only kind player you both have time to develop and cause to trust that you will get something for the work you put in.

[keith]

I think the high school recruiting route now means going after players that you feel can play and contribute as true freshman and assume they may be a one and done for you.   Redshirts may be a thing of the past as it means two years of investment for only one year of return (again assuming players chase the bigger stage and potential NIL award that goes with it).  Regardless, it seems like everything around the college game as we've known it for the last few decades will be a lot different now.

[Mo Green]

On 7/27/2021 at 9:38 PM, Jonnyeagle said:

Maybe instead of trying to emulate what SMU does with all the transfers, let's go to the high school coaches and say we believe in the high school players and coaches and will focus much of our resources and scholarships in that direction.  Do the opposite of what SMU is doing right now and maybe we could land some more high school stars that get overlooked, especially with what covid did to the scholarships.  There are so many great high school players in our backyard that we could have a better chance of landing.

Let's play this game... We recruit high school stud's. They play extensively for two year's then (i.e. like we saw in softball) get recruited to a P5 school as they are doing today. We are then a farm system to the P5's. How do you combat this from happening (since the NCAA is useless to the G5's)?

 

 

Edited July 29, 2021 by Mo Green

[GrandGreen]

This new rule instead of helping HS players in recruiting, is going to have the opposite effect.  Who wants to sign and develop HS players only to see them transfer if they are good enough.  

The NCAA is going to completely ruin the game because of their fear of adverse court decisions. 

I think the end game is going to be, any player can transfer at any time and be eligible at their new school the next year. 

This obviously is going to funnel the better players to the best teams and destroy what little hope the lower tier teams have in elevating their program.

[Salsa_Verde]

On 7/28/2021 at 12:15 AM, NorthTexasSportsNetwork said:

Another freaking SMU thread, here we go.

SMU was successful in this category, and it’s clear that if you have the right coaches it works. I feel like this batch of staff is good enough to reel some good transfer portal guys in and dominate cusa.

Going high school can be just as hit or Miss as the portal, so why not go after more guys with experience than kids that probably won’t play for a while. 
Seth is reaching his last legs, he can’t wait around another year to be mediocre. Winning is a must for his contract, in my opinion, so it makes the most sense.

Yes 

[BillySee58]

42 minutes ago, GrandGreen said:

This new rule instead of helping HS players in recruiting, is going to have the opposite effect.  Who wants to sign and develop HS players only to see them transfer if they are good enough.  

The NCAA is going to completely ruin the game because of their fear of adverse court decisions. 

I think the end game is going to be, any player can transfer at any time and be eligible at their new school the next year. 

This obviously is going to funnel the better players to the best teams and destroy what little hope the lower tier teams have in elevating their program.

And yet the only starters we lost to the transfer portal were Cam Johnson, who played here 4 years and went elsewhere for his 5th season, and Anterrious Gray who left due to a family situation iirc. Dion Novil, Jacob Brammer, Oscar Adaway, Deonte Simpson, the Murphy Twins, Upton Stout, etc. all are high school recruits we have signed, developed, and have had success on the field and none of them were poached away. 

Everyone seems more concerned with these doomsday hypotheticals surrounding new rules that are going to sink schools like UNT instead of evaluating how things are actually playing out. 

[GrandGreen]

53 minutes ago, BillySee58 said:

And yet the only starters we lost to the transfer portal were Cam Johnson, who played here 4 years and went elsewhere for his 5th season, and Anterrious Gray who left due to a family situation iirc. Dion Novil, Jacob Brammer, Oscar Adaway, Deonte Simpson, the Murphy Twins, Upton Stout, etc. all are high school recruits we have signed, developed, and have had success on the field and none of them were poached away. 

Everyone seems more concerned with these doomsday hypotheticals surrounding new rules that are going to sink schools like UNT instead of evaluating how things are actually playing out. 

Not sure we have a lot of evidence on how this will play out.   Just because a very new rule has not yet hurt NT, doesn't mean it won't. 

The saving factor is that most P5's don't want any of the players you cited, primarily because they think they can recruit better.   Plus most NT players hopefully are not looking for other teams. 

I can think of no way this one free transfer rule is going to help lower tier teams.   

 

[outoftown]

11 hours ago, BillySee58 said:

And yet the only starters we lost to the transfer portal were Cam Johnson, who played here 4 years and went elsewhere for his 5th season, and Anterrious Gray who left due to a family situation iirc. Dion Novil, Jacob Brammer, Oscar Adaway, Deonte Simpson, the Murphy Twins, Upton Stout, etc. all are high school recruits we have signed, developed, and have had success on the field and none of them were poached away. 

Everyone seems more concerned with these doomsday hypotheticals surrounding new rules that are going to sink schools like UNT instead of evaluating how things are actually playing out. 

Its actually not the starters i am so worried about (unless they are so good that it is obvious to everyone they would also be starters at a power program), but the guys who would be starters 2-3 years from now. Many of those boys don't understand that sometimes that comes through working through being third on the depth chart at your position and only seeing some snaps in games here and there but staying with it anyway. If too many of those guys leave, you eventually out of guys who should become starters when the older guys eligibility clock finally runs out.

 

[BillySee58]

11 hours ago, GrandGreen said:

Not sure we have a lot of evidence on how this will play out.   Just because a very new rule has not yet hurt NT, doesn't mean it won't. 

Sure, I agree the sample size is small. But your statements “This new rule instead of helping HS players in recruiting, is going to have the opposite effect. ” and “The NCAA is going to completely ruin the game because of their fear of adverse court decisions. ”

read like this is just a sure thing that’s going to happen and doom non P5s. My point is that so far the evidence is failing to show mass pilfering of G5 starters by P5 schools.

11 hours ago, GrandGreen said:

The saving factor is that most P5's don't want any of the players you cited, primarily because they think they can recruit better.   Plus most NT players hopefully are not looking for other teams. 

I can think of no way this one free transfer rule is going to help lower tier teams.   

I think how it could benefit schools like UNT is what we saw this offseason. We kept our starters then essentially swapped out our backups for P5 backups and non-P5 D1 starters. 

Take defensive line for example. We lose backups Asher Frow and Jimmy Walker and gain Arkansas transfer Enoch Jackson and Abilene Christian standout Kameron Hill, all while keeping our starters in Novil, Mccrae, and the Murphy twins. Honestly I think we played the transfer portal game pretty well this offseason. 

[BillySee58]

44 minutes ago, outoftown said:

Its actually not the starters i am so worried about (unless they are so good that it is obvious to everyone they would also be starters at a power program), but the guys who would be starters 2-3 years from now. Many of those boys don't understand that sometimes that comes through working through being third on the depth chart at your position and only seeing some snaps in games here and there but staying with it anyway. If too many of those guys leave, you eventually out of guys who should become starters when the older guys eligibility clock finally runs out.

Right now on our roster, by my count we have 82 scholarship players. Of those 82, 65 of them have 3 or more years of eligibility left due to COVID allowing players an extra season of eligibility if they were in college last year. 47 have 4+ years of eligibility left. So we have plenty of 2-3 year down the line starters to choose from.

And even if you concern is more of a long-term concern, again, I point to this past season on how it can benefit us. We lost backups but replaced them with P5 backups like Tommy Bush, Jace Ruder, and Enoch Jackson, all while keeping our starters. Our backups might be leaving but so are P5 backups to make room for HS and transfer newcomers. Just have to keep landing them too. Play the game. I think we did a good job of it this offseason.

Edited July 30, 2021 by BillySee58