Can Mac bring in a 4* HS kid?

[greenminer]

Can this staff bring in a non-JUCO stud to contribute?

Seems like a big piece of the puzzle we've been missing.

A winning season sure wouldn't hurt!

[NT03]

Wouldn't mind a JUCO stud ,espically if it's a DT

[Dr. Seuss]

Wouldn't mind a JUCO stud ,espically if it's a DT

Fact

[Eastwood Eagle]

Can this staff bring in a non-JUCO stud to contribute?

Seems like a big piece of the puzzle we've been missing.

A winning season sure wouldn't hurt!

Right now? Probably not.

Consistent winning in CUSA possibly.

I know UH pulled their first 5-start recruit in school history last year. If they can pull a 5-star I don't see why we can't pull a 4-star.

[H-towngreen]

When is the last time we pulled in a 4*. He'll when is the first time we pulled in a 4 *?

[GTWT]

I don't really care about the number of stars behind a kid's name. There are a lot of good football players in Texas. Recruit kids who can play the game, fit NT's scheme, are good citizens, & can take advantage of the academic opportunities they are offered & I'll be happy.

[H-towngreen]

TCU and Boise didn't get to where they are by landing 4* recruits

[GreenMachine]

Was Jamario Thomas 4 or 3 star? I thought at one time he was a 4 but then when he verballed to NT, it dropped to 3. If he had verballed to UT, it would have jumped to a 5.

[The Fake Lonnie Finch]

What we need is DTs: two-star, three-star, four-star. And, they are hard to get. Former football coach Barry Switzer on the importance of DTs this week in the Tulsa World:

While the Sooners were adding two defensive tackles in two years, Alabama signed seven.

"You've got a quota, and if you can only sign 18, 19, 20 players and you've got to get every position covered, that limits you to how many you can get," Switzer said. "When you don't sign any, when you're shut out, you really are in trouble. Because it really makes you fall off. If you can't play defense, people will beat your ass."

Edited September 26, 2012 by The Fake Lonnie Finch

[SHOSS]

What would get me excited more than anything would be some 3* DLine kids... DT's especially.

As the kids Mac has brought in have more years under their belts of conditioning and coaching(technique and maturation), I feel like the team will improve by leaps and bounds.

Pass rush and stopping the run, to me, wins games.

Although Troy's bread and butter was the shotgun snap, pivot to the right or left and throw it out to the wr at the line of scrimmage(so pass rush wasn't a factor), I still feel like DT's.... in numbers, is where we need to focus and get excited if we get 4 or more...

[SilverEagle]

In light of his experience and reputation as a d-line coach, if Coach McCarney can't get some quality DT's to our program, then I don't know who can.

[SilverEagle]

And on another note. How many stars did Kolton Browning have coming out of Mabank HS?

[greenminer]

TCU and Boise didn't get to where they are by landing 4* recruits

And with their success, they are just going to turn their new 4* classes away, right?

And Alabama isn't where they're at with a bunch of 2 stars.

I hope this doesn't derail into a thread about the value of the star system. We all know it ain't perfect. But it is what it is: often the best or only measure of how a program is doing, or will do.

[The Fake Lonnie Finch]

Yes, but not playing in the SEC yet, we don't need 4* and 5* DTs the way Bama does.

We're in the Belt and going into the C-USA. We need 3* and 2* for sure...and we need six or seven over the next two signing classes.

Like SilverEagle, I thought McCarney being a D-Line guy that this wouldn't be a problem. If we bring in two or fewer with the next recruiting class, it'll be disappointing.

[foutsrouts]

We need to routinely RS 2 and 3 star linemen, and turn them into 3, 4, and 5 star guys. I like what I've seen thus far along those "lines."

[Eagle1855]

Can he? Will he?

[H-towngreen]

And with their success, they are just going to turn their new 4* classes away, right?

No, of course not. But their program was built off of 2 star recruits then moving to 3 star recruits. Even now they aren't signing tons of 4 stars kids. Starting with the 06 class they have signed 12 4 star recruits in 8 classes.

Boise has had 1 4 star recruit including the 06 class.

[CurveItAround]

No, of course not. But their program was built off of 2 star recruits then moving to 3 star recruits. Even now they aren't signing tons of 4 stars kids. Starting with the 06 class they have signed 12 4 star recruits in 8 classes.

Boise has had 1 4 star recruit including the 06 class.

STOP QUOTING FACTS!!!

It ruins the story of how we should automatically start getting 3/4/5 star recruits, because we think they should come here.

Newsflash, all programs want the kids with the top stats, it is the herd mentality. No reason to stop trying to get those kids, but we should also put plans in place to find and develop players with less recognition that can contribute while at the same time making your program more desirable to come to. From where I sit, I see progress in both areas. I think some folks would save themselves a lot of heartache going out and buying themselves a shiny new orange shirt at Wal-Mart and call it a day.

Edited September 26, 2012 by CurveItAround

[untjim1995]

I don't think anyone believes we should be getting 4* DL or even OL right now. Realistically, it will take winning big in CUSA to even get a look from those types. At our level, the best thing we have going for us is that McCarney (much like Patterson at TCU) has a reputation for "coaching up" kids, especially on the lines. People, we have seen a night and day difference, between McCarney in 1+ season and what Dodge focused on with his gimmicky-offensive schemes and poor recruiting of defensive talent that couldn't win at this level. Its just going to take a lot of time to build this up--just like it did at Iowa State. The hole that Dickey and Doge put this place in was so big that we let a 5-win season fool us a bit. It took Coach Mac 5 years to build a winner in Ames, while competing aginst Nebraska, Kansas State, Iowa in OOC every year, Oklahoma, Texas, Tech, A&M, OSU, Mizzou, and even a few good Kansas teams during that timeframe. In terms of relativity, from as far back as we are right now, just to be able to not be the worst FBS team in Texas that is not a start-up is saying something. Because just last year--and the previous 6 to be honest--we were the worst team in Texas, and the other SBC schools and WAC schools were able to get kids that wouldn't go to Denton because we sucked and our future was nothing but bleak. Now, its not that way.

To illustrate just how "bad" things are right now under Coach Mac, we are grumbling over a poor performance and one TD loss against a team that has traditionally been the best the SBC has offered since our "glory" days ended in 2004. Troy is usually a solid program and has built itself to a point where they can hang with ranked teams if they have the right talent down there. Under the previous regimes, how many games like this one against Troy would have been absolute ass-kickings, something to the tune of Troy 49, UNT 7 ? Think about games against Tulsa since 2005 or absolute blowouts against FIU, Troy, or, gulp, Rice, where we could have easily lost that game 100-21 if they hadn't stepped off the gas in the 4th quarter that year. That is where we were...for a looonnnnggg time, until the university finally decided to step up and do something about it. We all wish we were going in the direction of WKU or ULM right now, in part because we have been playing football much longer than those two teams, but the best chance we have to build something is for the talent on this team to continue to get "coached up" and get to a point where we can actually do something so special that people around the state and country won't continue to call us North Texas State. When that happens, then 4* kids will at least listen to a coach from UNT seriously. Until then, it will continue to be a steady diet of 1* and 2* HS kids, with a 3* mixed in here or there.

[letsgiveacheer]

I suspect when you land one three or four starred recruit, it makes it easier to sign others.

[Stix]

I suspect when you land one three or four starred recruit, it makes it easier to sign others.

Call it "The Tony Mitchell Effect".

[MeanGreenWithEnvy]

Can he? Sure. I don't have any doubt about Coach Mac's recruiting chops.

Will it happen? Not likely.

4-star kids rarely end up at schools outside of the big name conferences. Last year was flukey for 4-stars in that one ended up at Texas State and another ended up at WKU. That usually doesn't happen, but every now and then it will.

I'd wager the better question to ask is can we consistently get 2-stars and build them into 3-stars and then occasionally get some 3-stars straight out of high school and either maintain them at 3-stars or develop them into 4-stars. In the 2013 recruiting class, here's what our future C-USA opponents have committed right now:

Houston: 11 3-star, 0 4-star

East Carolina: 9 3-star, 0 4-star

UCF: 8 3-star, 1 4-star

SMU: 7 3-star, 0 4-star

Tulsa: 7 3-star, 0 4-star

Rice: 6 3-star, 0 4-star

Marshall: 3 3-star, 0 4-star

Southern Miss: 3 3-star, 0 4-star

Tulane: 3 s-star, 1 4-star

Memphis: 3 3-star, 0 4-star

UNT: 1 3-star, 0 4-star

UAB: 0 3-star, 0 4-star

UTEP: 0 3-star, 0 4-star

[UNTLifer]

Houston and SMU won't be CUSA opponents next year.

[Marty]

We have a 4 star recruit already:

http://rivals.yahoo.com/arkansas/football/recruiting/player-Cam-Feldt-84716

[All About UNT]

We have a 4 star recruit already:

http://rivals.yahoo....Cam-Feldt-84716

http://rivals.yahoo....s-Terrell-70575

and

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/recruiting/player-Marcus-Trice-81769