The Portal Chronicles: Burst of Activity

North Texas has something like 30-plus portal entries. Some of these were just a means to an end — Morris taking his key guys to Oklahoma State — and some were reactionary — the depth chart seeing what is out there. We’ve already seen Jayden Becks reverse his decision to enter the portal. I imagine there is a range of circumstances and a range of enthusiasm for leaving.

The comparison to “regular” 9-to-5 jobs is often made, and people like to push back on that because “this isn’t regular life.” I think the smart comparisons focus on the similarities in human behavior. No, the mid-level big corporate employee has little in the way of similarity to the backup running back at a 12-win G5 program.

The little in similarity is what we care about however. We’ve all had some managers change, or some companies change their strategy and make what was once a comfortable situation very much the opposite. The entire offense and defensive staffs left the North Texas program. The new hires were not in place, and it makes perfect sense to get one’s name in the portal and to see if there was a safe landing spot for any of these guys. Also missing from our understanding is any conversations had by Neal Brown and his staff (including analysts) about who should stay or go.

We’ve been tracking the offers and visits (Vito has good info on who is visiting this weekend) and the smell tests says that Neal Brown is looking for FCS/HBCU/DII talent to bring up. North Texas is notoriously under-covered when it comes to recruiting, so we have bread crumbs of information. GMG tries to do a part, and so does the eagle, but it is all drips.

Not on the MGN list is Jaheim White, formerly of WVU. The speculation was that Neal Brown would be leaning on his old home as he attempted to fill out the roster. We’ve seen a lot of news and reports about North Texas exits (which sucks) because of their high profile. Consider, however, that not much was made of signing Mestemaker, Hawkins, and Wyatt Young when they committed to North Texas. They set records, and are now on the move to much fanfare.

Skill spots are important. You could see how vital Caleb Hawkins was to the offensive efficiency when he was absent in the American Championship game. You saw how he walked over the San Diego State team for 200 yards and how easy it made it for the Mean Green. That’s important. At the same time, North Texas had to replace 1,000 yard rushers for almost a half-decade straight. If you have a good scheme, some good coaching, and some hard workers in the running back room you can get production. That is the baseline. The special players are diamonds, but the goal of the team is to raise the floor. I don’t know that a Jaheim White is on par with Hawkins. If he can be a Ayo Adeyi, that would be fine. If he can be a Ikaika Ragsdale (healthy version), that would be great. He isn’t the answer alone. You want some depth.

The same goes for WRs. NT replaced J’Mori Maclin, DT Sheffield, and now will have to replace Wyatt Young as leading receivers. The big difference in barely scraping .500 and getting to 12 wins was offensive and defensive line play. Morris’ offense struggled when the line was not able to create holes. He was a losing head coach when his defense couldn’t stop anyone.

As we watch the portal the front five (offense), and the front four (defense) are where I will be most interested. Size and experience are key. Not just bigness, but guys who have been in a college weight room for three or four seasons. The real advantage of these Cignetti Indiana guys are that they are very experienced. Tay Yanta II came in from Mary-Hardin Baylor and helped the line be the best since 2013. More like that, please.

That’s what we’ll be looking for. Stay tuned. GMG