Coach Hall and the Mean Green Machine

[JTV3]

[B]Offseason[/B] My athletic director informs me that this year our athletic budget will be $1,810,000, a change of $120,000 (up or down? I don't recall). I met with the board of directors to discuss our season and future at North Texas. We received a B based on the board's expectations of the season and an A for prestige (our prestige increased 1 point to 31). This was followed by the news that both my special teams coach and defensive coordinator had decided to leave. This isn't entirely surprising since I was kind of sprung on them at the last minute last season. I wish them both well in the future, but to be honest the defensive coordinator was probably going to be replaced anyway. Our offense was successful last year so I think I'll keep the offensive coordinator. In my search for a defensive coordinator and special teams coach, I will be looking for a coaches with good development skills.

[JTV3]

[B]New Coaches[/B] Our new special teams coach is Bob Kolodziej who is a bit of a local product, having graduated from Texas A&M. He's very good at motivation, good at development, and average at scouting. Certainly a valuable addition to the staff. Our new defensive coordinator was not our first choice, but by the time our first choice was gone he was what we could get. Jeff Haygood's preferred defense is the 3-4 and his best attributes are average gameplaning and below average scouting on the defensive line. He is likely a one year stop gap until a better coordinator can be hired.

[JTV3]

[B]Transfers[/B] I don't want to ruin my recruiting budget chasing after pipe dreams on the transfer list. The only thing I can offer most of these guys is a chance to start and play every down. After examining the list I decide to make a run at Carlos Metcalf a redshirt sophomore OT currently attending University of Texas. I remember him from my days there and hope he remembers me. He's a hard-working player who is an excellent passblocker and a very good run blocker. He would immediately come in and take over at left tackle and anchor our line for the next two years. Unfortunately, Metcalf got a better offer from Michigan State and chose to transfer there. I think it will always be difficult to get players to transfer to North Texas, but with the talent already there at other spots in our offense I felt it was worth the money to try and bring in a player who would immediately start.

[JTV3]

[B]Recruiting[/B] [B]Week 1[/B] I decide to spend about half of my $27k budget on straight scouting and only spend initial recruiting money at key positions or high profile players. I get an email from a JuCo CB Craig Willis who grew up in Texas and has always been a big North Texas fan. He's a 2-star CB who would most likely immediately challenge for playing time so I throw some recruiting dollars his way. There are a few highly rated local players with interest levels of 5. I decide to throw some dollars their way with pitches based around location or playing time. Hopefully I can get a little lucky with those guys and sign one. Other disappointing news is that there are no centers in the entire GP region rated above 1-star so I'm forced to focus on other linemen and hopefully find someone I can move to center. Nationally there is only one center rated above 1-star who has an interest level above 2. Frank Sapp is from CA and is rated 57th in the country at Center. It's expensive to recruit out there so he better appreciate it. [B]Week 2[/B] Again I choose to spend about half my budget on scouting and tweak a few recruiting dollars. I picked pitches that matched a very important preference from a couple of highly rated recruits so we'll see how that goes. [B]Week 3[/B] None of our target recruits committed anywhere. There will be a few more players to scout but at this point the bulk of my budget will now be focused on recruiting players. I'd like to get a few commitments early so I can focus my dollars where they are really needed later. [B]Week 4[/B] One highly rated player committed elsewhere, no surprise. No other interesting info either. [B]Week 5[/B] No surprises, but no good news either. I need to get a few commitments under my belt soon or I'll be in real trouble. [B]Week 6[/B] Only big change in recruit interest comes from Craig Willis who had emailed me at the start of recruiting and is now barely interested. This really annoys me as the money I've spent recruiting him out in California could have recruited 2-3 players in Texas. He won't be getting any more recruiting love from me. With no increased interest from the highly rated recruits I'm forced to cut back this week to recruiting only a couple of them so the dollars can focus on players I have a good shot at landing. [B]Week 7[/B] At this point a no would be almost as good as a yes from anyone! Except for a couple highly rated guys I'm still holding out for, Lone Star recruiting service tells me I have a great chance at landing all the guys that have outstanding offers from me. All my recruiting money is going towards guys with offers or backup guys at key positions. I'm starting to get real worried about my recruiting class and definitely need some commitments this week! [B]Week 8[/B] I got my first two commitments at North Texas this week! [B]RB Iheanyi Pinder[/B] Pinder is the #1033 recruit nationally and the #19 rated RB in my region. He is a third down back with good speed and pass catching skills. [B]C Frank Sapp[/B] Sapp is also a 2 star prospect and will hopefully be able to fill some portion of Matthew's large shoes at center. He's #1712 nationally and the 8th rated center in the West. He's an aggressive run blocker with good agility. The only disappointing loss was a moderately rated WR from Alabama who was very interested chose to instead go to Louisiana Tech. Not surprising since he stayed in region, but he had some good skills and would have been a nice addition to the receiving corp. One of the highly rated players I was focusing on got a couple offers this week from schools higher on his list so I'll drop him from my recruiting list. The two remaining highly rated players I'm still targeting are: ILB Johnny Coia rated #256 nationally. He's a balanced, but very talented, 4 star LB who should have good blitzing skills. Would be great lined up next to Israel Davis for the next 3 years. OT Olanda Winfield rated #306 nationally. He's an extremely strong offensive lineman who would immediately become the best blocker on our line. He will eventually become an excellent pass blocker. Both players are local who find playing time to be extremely important. Their interest is still only rated at a 5 but they have no other offers at the moment. [B]Week 9[/B] Another commitment this week from [B]ILB Wally Scarpitto[/B]. He's a 2-star ILB rated #1736 nationally and #29 ILB in the GP. He's a balanced linebacker who has decent agility and blitzing skills, but will need to work on his strength. Lost one player we had been targeting since week 1. A local OG chose to instead go to University of Houston. Texas A&M swooped in on my guys this week! They both received offers from A&M and have them highly rated so my hopes are significantly lower. I target one other highly rated prospect who doesn't have any other offers and stay the course with other players. Again I'm sweating my first class at UNT. [B]Week 10[/B] No news is bad news? No more commitments and only the highly rated guys committing elsewhere. I up the recruiting dollars on a few guys and cross my fingers.... [B]Final Targeted Recruit Signings[/B] [B]OT Vann Paige[/B] He's a powerful blocker who will be a better run blocker than pass blocker. He's rated #1602 nationally. [B]SS Rod McDonnell[/B] A 2-star recruit rated #1744 nationally. He's a cover safety who will develop adequate blitzing skills. His strength and endurance are definitely question marks. [B]ILB Rabih Easy[/B] A 1-star recruit rated #2014 nationally. He's a blitzing linebacker with good potential who will probably be redshirted as a freshman to give him some more time to develop. [B]Other Incoming Freshman[/B] [B]FB Danny Clark[/B] - #1681 nationally won't ever be a great inside runner but will be a decent run blocker. [B]WR Grant Brooks[/B] - #1190 nationally. He's a good route runner but needs to work on his hands and needs to work on speed. [B]WR Tex Clancy[/B] - #964 nationally. Good hands and speed but needs to run better routes. Also going to need to work hard in the classroom [B]TE Don Brookins[/B] - #1983 nationally. He's a pure blocking TE who will need some time to develop his blocking skills [B]C Dan Adams[/B] - #2508 nationally. Power blocker who must work on his blocking skills and endurance to have a chance to play (Not on scholarship) [B]OLB Frank Alexander[/B] - #617 nationally. This is a local guy who is currently rated 38/62. He's a cover LB who will develop good speed and aggressiveness. Maybe a redshirt in his future? [B]FS Junior Stephens[/B] - #640 nationally. He's from PA so who knows how he found his way to UNT. He's a cover safety who should be able to develop good blitzing skills. Currently rated 40/67 and looks to be a solid player. (not on scholarship) [B]Incoming JuCo Transfers[/B] [B]CB Anthony Hodge[/B] - #882 nationally. Good speed and tackler, needs work on his cover skills [B]OG Johnny Landeta[/B] - #2205 nationally. Power blocker who is a better run blocker than pass blocker. Not very talented.

[JTV3]

[B]Player Training[/B] I didn't do anything fancy here, just used suggest all and didn't change much. [B]Training Camp[/B] My AD's expectations are simply to not completely embarass us, but we are projected for a first place finish in our conference so I expect to win more than a few games. Set up with a similar budget to last year, little recruiting in the Midwest and Atlantic East, the best scouting service in the Great Plains, and more budget money in the medical/strength/academic areas. I choose to remain in the 3-4 base defense and Run'n'Gun offense as they both served me pretty well last year.

[JTV3]

[B]Schedule[/B] As promised, I decided to play a more difficult schedule this year. Along that vein I agreed to play preseason #1 Texas and preseason #16 Tennessee at their place. I also managed to convince Syracuse, who is unranked but projected to finish first in the Big East, to come to Fouts Field in week 15. Here's this year's schedule: Week-Opponent 1-OPEN 2-OPEN 3-@#1 Texas 4-Florida Atlantic 5-OPEN 6-@Troy 7-Florida Int 8-Colorado St 9-@Louisiana-Laf 10-@Louisiana-Monroe 11-Arkansas St 12-Middle Tenn St 13-OPEN 14-@#16 Tennessee 15-Syracuse

[jksander]

That's going to be a brutal schedule ;) Sounds like you're patterning after Ball State ... we play so many ranked teams in the non-conference season, it's no wonder we're never able to reach .500 even with a good MAC run ;)

[JTV3]

[QUOTE=jksander]That's going to be a brutal schedule ;) Sounds like you're patterning after Ball State ... we play so many ranked teams in the non-conference season, it's no wonder we're never able to reach .500 even with a good MAC run ;)[/QUOTE] Yeah - I didn't think both of them were going to accept the first week. Then I couldn't get a cream puff to come to my field early. Didn't want my first game to be against #1...they'll be on their 3rd game and will have played #18 Wisconsin already...I'll still be feeling out my rotations...not good news...

[JTV3]

[B]Starting Lineups[/B] (plus a few) [B]Offense[/B] [B]QB[/B] R. Upshaw - (Sr) - 61/63 - Returning 3rd Team All American [B]RB[/B] B. Landry - Sr - 61/61 - Having improved his hands and running ability this offseason the starting job is still his...but if the fumbling returns.... J. Gary - (Sr) - 57/57 N. Walton - Jr - 52/60 [B]FB[/B] L. Whitley - So - 41/60 - Don't use a FB much with a lot of spread sets [B]TE[/B] L. Marshall - Jr - 46/56 - I was excited by his receiving ability last year before he got hurt. Still needs to improve his blocking. [B]WR[/B] R. Chandler - Jr - 44/61 S. Kenn - Jr - 48/60 T. Clancy - Fr - 43/53 Receiving corp should be pretty solid. Will probably end up running a lot of guys through these spots. Production will keep them in the lineup. [B]Line[/B] OT R. Wesley - Sr - 47/57 OG S. Currie - (Jr) - 57/69 C F. Sapp - Fr - 41/56 OG K. Smith - (So) - 39/53 OT V. Paige - Fr - 46/53 OG's are signficantly better pass blockers than run blockers and others the other way around. Very little depth on the o-line (as expected) so we can't afford many/any injuries. [B]Defense[/B] [B]Line[/B] DE B. Suhey - Jr - 48/69 DT S. Hall - So - 44/62 DE S. Moore - Jr - 52/66 Key backup: DE J. Smith - (Sr) - 47/50 - Last year's sack leader for the team will definitely see plenty of minutes [B]LB's[/B] OLB S. Thomas - (So) - 50/69 ILB I. Davis - So - 52/64 ILB A. Birden - (Sr) - 44/48 OLB F. Alexander - Fr - 47/69 Some depth here but no one special. More depth at ILB than OLB [B]DB's[/B] CB R. Olivo - (Jr) - 55/59 CB A. Hodge - Jr - 50/56 FS K. Rypien - Sr - 54/59 SS R. Gordon - Sr - 46/51 Most veteran group on our defense. Hodge is gonna need to work in the classroom to stay on the field. [B]Redshirted Players[/B] Fr RB I. Pinder (39/53) - Wasn't likely to see the field much Fr WR G. Brooks (43/54) - Low GPA, didn't want to waste academic hours... Fr TE D. Brookins (38/53) - Let him develop some more Fr ILB R. Easy (39/45) - Hopefully he develops some Fr FS J. Stephens (50/67) - Save his eligibility since he has two quality upperclassmen ahead of him

[JTV3]

[B]Week 1 OPEN[/B] Preparation for Texas has already begun in practice as I see an extra bounce in the player's step knowing they'll be going up against one of the best teams in the country. Everyone is anxious for a good showing against a lot of players they played with and against in high school. Around the Sun Belt there was no big news. The only Sun Belt team with a week 1 win was Middle Tenn St. over Western Michigain. FIU and FAU lost to #10 Auburn and #17 Washington St. by a combined 106-27. Hopefully we perform better than that against big-time opponents. Keeping an eye on our upcoming non-conference opponents: #1 Texas defeats Bowling Green 34-17 and remains #1. Next week they'll face Wisconsin who was ranked 18th but lost to #5 Miami and dropped just out of the top 25. Colorado St had an open week #16 Tennessee had an open week as they prepare for #20 Texas Tech next week Syracuse defeated Louisiana Tech 33-10 The Top 25 game of the week was #12 Notre Dame @ #6 USC. USC won 39-34 and moved up 3 spots in the polls while Notre Dame dropped to #22.

[JTV3]

[B]Week 2 OPEN[/B] Another good week of practice to get us ready for #1 Texas, but we get some bad news headed into week 3. Staring CB Anthony Hodge and primary backups RB John Gary and DE Joey Smith are all declared academically ineligible. I think maybe I need to hire some new tutors because I had devoted significant study hours to each of these players because I considered all 3 integral parts of the team this year. Hodge will be replaced in the starting lineup by Sam Gant who did play signficant minutes last year. Another week with only one win for the Sun Belt in non-conference play. FAU defeated Wyoming 21-19 at FAU. Syracuse apparently decided to tear their way through the Sun Belt this year as they defeated Troy 55-16. Upcoming non-conference opponents: #1 Texas defeated Wisconsin 31-21 and remained #1. Wisconsin has started the year with a brutal schedule playing at Miami and at Texas. Colorado St had another open week #16 Tennessee went to #20 Texas Tech and won 31-22 moving them up to #12 in the polls Syracuse defeated Troy 55-16. Top 25 game of the week was #3 USC @ #2 Oklahoma. USC came out on top 24-20 and moved into the clear #2 spot with Oklahoma dropping to #10.

[JTV3]

[B]Week 3 North Texas (0-0) @ #1 Texas (2-0)[/B] TEAM---------1Q---2Q---3Q---4Q----FINAL North Texas---0-----0----3-----7-----10 Texas---------6-----7----8-----3-----24 We had a respectable showing in a game where Texas was favored by 28 points. The performance by the offense in the first half was disappointing as they were able to gain only 35 yards. Two defensive starters (OLB Sam Thomas and DE Ben Suhey) left the game in the first quarter with injuries but the defense still had a very good game. Despite a few big penalties (including a PI on SS Gordon on a play where we intercepted the ball), they were able to come up with multiple goal line stands to force field goals. Texas missed a chip-shot field goal on one of these stands and we also blocked a FG at the end of the first half. CB Reno Olivo also got an interception in the end zone on 3rd and goal from the 1. The second half went much better for the offense as we moved away from the shotgun and experimented with a few different offensive sets. We found the I-fromation to be an effective running formation for us against their defense. Landry had TWO TD runs of LT called back after stepping out of bounds but was still able to produce a solid stat line of 93 yards on 19 runs. QB Upshaw was only 10/31 for 120 yards after a terrible first half. He did have a key run for a first down on 3rd and 18 to get our field goal and also ran for our only touchdown on another draw out of the shotgun from the 8 yard line. The receivers were clearly overmatched by the Texas secondary, but I was disappointed with the play of freshman WR Tex Clancy who was targeted 10 times but only made 1 catch. He had two drops and two bad routes. He will have to perform better in the future for our WR heavy offensive sets to be effective. On defense there were many big players and big plays. We recorded 5 sacks, including two by Sherman Moore, and had 1 interception by Reno Olivo. The leading tackler was ILB Israel Davis with 8 tackles and 4 assists and a sack. He also made 6 mental errors though so that will need to be better in the future. Overall it was a solid performance against much more talented opposition. Despite getting down in the first half the team continued to play hard and bring some positive plays out of the second half. I didn't expect to win this game but it definitely prepared us well for the season since we probably won't play a more talented opponent. Despite losing two players early in the game, the only player who will be held out next week due to injury is OT Vann Paige, who went down late in the Texas game with a nerve injury in his elbow. He should only be out a week.

[JTV3]

[B]Week 4 FAU (1-2) @ North Texas (0-1)[/B] TEAM------------1Q---2Q---3Q---4Q----FINAL Florida Atlantic---10----0----3-----0------13 North Texas------0----14---14-----7------35 An interception in the end zone and two missed field goals by FAU made this fairly evenly matched game seem quite lopsided. The defense did not perform well against this team picked to finish 6th in the Sun Belt. Perhaps there was a bit of a let down after playing such a big game at Texas last week. On the positive side we were able to rack up 417 total yards and had two key fourth down conversions on scoring drives. The player of the game was QB Ron Upshaw in a position he has grown accustomed to. He threw for 289 yards on 17/24 passing and 2 TD's. The running game had its ups and downs tonight. Our offense as a whole seemed more effective again out of the I-formation than other offensive sets and that is obviously a better set to run out of than any of our spread sets so it will become a bigger part of our gameplan as the weeks progress. Landry, after going for only 14 yards on 6 carries went down with an injury. His primary backup, Neal Walton, was also ineffective going for only 15 yards on 16 carries but was effective in goal line situations scoring 2 TD's. Redshirt freshman Shane Gurley came in and ran for 39 yards on 7 carries. Upshaw was our leading rusher with 80 yards on mostly broken plays. Our leading receivers were Reggie Chandler with 118 yards on 4 receptions and Tex Clancy with 89 yards on 4 receptions. This week Clancy only had 1 drop and no bad routes so he improved in those categories as well. On defense, FS Ken Rypien led the way with 6 tackles, 4 assists, and 2 passes defensed. We recorded two sacks including another sack for DE Sherman Moore. The gave up a lot of yards (404), but managed to get key stops at key points exemplified by SS Gordon's interception in the end zone in the second quarter when we were trailing 10-7. Winning the turnover battle is a key to winning any football game. Key Top 25 games this week included: #1 Texas @ #7 Nebraska - Nebraska knocked off Texas 28-17 scoring 14 fourth quarter points. Nebraska moved up to #3 and Texas dropped all the way back to #17. #8 Auburn @ #10 Tennessee - Tennessee defeated Auburn in a close game 23-16. Tennessee lost one place in the rankings dropping to 11th and Auburn fell back to #18. Tennessee will have another tough game next week against #2 LSU. #5 Michigan @ #22 MSU - In a shootout Michigan defeated MSU 43-31. This knocked MSU from the top 25 and dropped Michigan back to 7th, as the voters clearly didn't appreciate their lack of defense. The first GDCS polls were realeased this week and the SEC dominates the top with Florida, LSU, and Georgia 1-2-3. Cries of 'East Coast Media Bias' were somewhat assuaged with Washington St. at 6, USC at 8, and Arizona at 12. Three North Texas opponents appear in the first GDCS Top 25: #9 Tennessee, #18 Syracuse, and #21 Texas.