Wt Signing day

[Great White Buffalo]

No need to apologize. Welcome to the board and the difference of opinions are what makes the discussions fun and great. Thank you for the kind words.

I also agree with most of your comments.

That being said I think there is a huge elephant in the room that everyone is overlooking to this conversation.

Hunter Hughes is on thin ice this year to make the playoffs or find employment elsewhere.

This statement may ruffle some feathers. If my arse is in a sling and I need to win now to keep my job then filling up my roster with panhandle kids isnt going to save my job. He is going to go after proven talent downstate that has played against the best competition week in and week out as well as the transfer portal.

If he craps the bed and misses the playoffs then I will be interested to see how the next coach handles that philosophy of building a team.

Unfortunately I think the transfer portal has changed that game up a bit to strictly go by the model of 4 year high school kids.

I think you're correct. I really don't know about the LSC with the new schools. At first glance, it appears Wt should be a contender. Of course, that's what I was thinking last year.

[Techster88]

Buffalo/Islander Alum, I apologize for taking your numbers out of context. Undeniably, the large metro areas have more talent and more depth. I just don't believe the disparity in talent is as large a gap as people think or that they say. Depth is a whole other issue. Metro areas have more kids, more schools. Just a fact of life that more kids and more schools will equal more quantitative talent and depth. Regional Quarters, Regional Semis, and Regional Finals are typically the rounds where West Texas teams fail. No argument there. Buffalo Chip brings up a good point too, iron sharpens iron. Those metro area kids face better quality opponents on a weekly basis and that surely helps develop those athletes' skill sets.

My complaint was specifically with WT, not with statewide recruiting. I do have beef there as well, but that is for another forum I am quite sure. But to speak to what was said...I cannot believe that 24/7 Sports' top 150 rankings are the barometer of talent state-wide. You as a former Coach around the state know that those rankings are heavily skewed to metro area kids, teams, and districts, not completely but definitely weighted that direction. I agree that there are highly talented players around West Texas sporadically, but those are D1 FBS players. The 3, 4, and 5-star athletes like Everhart, Gray, Robertson, McKensie, Jordan are all D1 bound for a reason. But there is another group of kids that are very talented, hard-working, skilled kids that can play college football beyond that group, but maybe at a different classification. I was thinking of D2 players and specifically the D2 players that WT was recruiting.

I am relatively new to D2 football and am not sure what the ENMU "talent" level is, or what the difference is between LSC talent at ENMU vs. Angelo vs. UTPB vs. WT, or versus any other LSC school. What I do know is that certain coaches at HS in West Texas could not get WT to look at, visit, or offer their kids. That just sucks for those kids who could stay close to home, play in front of their family, get an education, and hopefully return back to the local community and inspire other talented student-athletes to stay close to home. My person wanted to get as far away from here as possible, so maybe that proves your point more than anything else, but I meant my prior post to say that there are really talented kids locally who were not given the time of day by WT. That seems harmful to WT in the bigger picture, especially if you are trying to fill up a new beautiful stadium.

Please know that I am not a WT fan. I played football at Arlington Lamar in the metroplex, graduated from UTPB decades before they ever had a football team, raised my kid to root for Texas Tech, and have never been anywhere near the WT campus other than passing by on I-27. I will say that I sincerely want them to succeed because a successful football team can help a University succeed writ large, and a successful University can help a community flourish. I am all about West Texas towns flourishing and being successful, so please know that was the impetus for my posting about the failures of WT recruiting talented local athletes.

And I do need to correct my prior post, apparently, there is a discussion of at least two Amarillo area kids who WT is trying to get. I saw the Tascosa kid play in person and he will transition nicely to the next level, not sure who the Amarillo High kid is, but they played us tough across the board and always have good skilled hardnosed kids. No idea about the Klafka kid but have heard good things out of Spearman.

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't say thank you Buffalo/Islander Alum for your work coaching, teaching, and raising young kids as a High School Coach. I have the utmost respect for folks who spend an entire career working with kids to make them better people.

You are alright in my book. WT football has been stuck in either reverse or neutral since the departure of Don Carthel. This last signing group does appear to be a good group but it may too little too late for Hughes. Who knows how long of leash he has? He says all the right things but his results on the field to this point have been lackluster at best. I suspect local talent is just a step behind what he is looking for. He has his own pragmatic way at looking at things.

[Buffalo/Islander Alum]

I think you're correct. I really don't know about the LSC with the new schools. At first glance, it appears WT should be a contender. Of course, that's what I was thinking last year.

Well first glance I think Central Washington essentially replaces Commerce in regards to a very good football team and playoff contender. Western Oregon is average middle of the pack and will probably be good for an upset. Simon Frasier will be a whipping boy like Western New Mexico.

If Commerce and Tarleton were still in the conference I would say WT has no shot at the playoffs. I don't know what Angelo, Midwestern, and Central Washington are bringing back.

WT had it lined up nicely last year with the better teams at home and the average/lower tier on the road. Losing to Western Oregon and UTPB were unacceptable.

It looks like Nick Gerber will be back so they will have experience there.

They need to beat 2 out of 3 (Angelo, Midwestern, Central Washington) with a quality non conference win.

I think the LSC will get back to having 2 playoff teams.

Even more than now I think WT needs to make the playoffs for Hughes to hang around.

[WT_TKW]

Even if WT wins 9 games, if they continue their trend of playing NAIA teams, the strength of schedule will probably keep them out of the playoffs. While Hughes can beat the weak teams early in the season, he tends to lose to good teams. One exception was 2019, the lone year Hughes had a good OC.

The 7th game of Hughes' 5th season was when we finally got a fairly reliable FG kicker. Hopefully Polivoda will be even better this year.

I wish I could say we will be in the playoffs but most likely next October people will once again be prefacing predictions with "if WT runs the table.." They won't.

When the time comes, the Western Oregon coach should be interviewed. He runs an exciting offense and knows how to motivate his team. He also knows how to beat teams with better players. Of course we could always hire another coordinator - that's worked so well.

[ASUPops]

OK. 95% is a sarcastic number but most of the talent is downstate and its foolish to not know that.

I scrolled through the top 150 on this list and only found 5 Lubbock kids and no Amarillo kids:
https://247sports.com/Season/2021-Fo...ings/?State=TX

I even looked up the Texas A&M Commerce roster from their 2017 championship team and only 7 panhandle kids.
https://lionathletics.com/sports/football/roster/2017

There are reasons teams like Tascosa, Lubbock Cooper, and Lubbock Roosevelt get thrashed by metroplex schools by the quarterfinal round plus. Depth and talent are king downstate. Same with Valley schools when they play SA, Austin, and Houston schools. News flash the valley isnt heavily recruited either.

Ive been a high school coach and lived all over Texas. I see it on display down here where I currently live in the Houston area.

There are players sporadically around the panhandle that are great talents. This year Major Everheart from Tascosa comes to mind.

The LSC schools that are looking for "talent" from the panhandle are going to be Eastern New Mexico level schools.

100% SPOT ON!

[ASUPops]

No need to apologize. Welcome to the board and the difference of opinions are what makes the discussions fun and great. Thank you for the kind words.

I also agree with most of your comments.

That being said I think there is a huge elephant in the room that everyone is overlooking to this conversation.

Hunter Hughes is on thin ice this year to make the playoffs or find employment elsewhere.

This statement may ruffle some feathers. If my arse is in a sling and I need to win now to keep my job then filling up my roster with panhandle kids isnt going to save my job. He is going to go after proven talent downstate that has played against the best competition week in and week out as well as the transfer portal.

If he craps the bed and misses the playoffs then I will be interested to see how the next coach handles that philosophy of building a team.

Unfortunately I think the transfer portal has changed that game up a bit to strictly go by the model of 4 year high school kids.

Wait....your CAREER was coaching hs football????

When and where did you coach?

DM me....if you coached HS ball in Texas, I must know you.

[Buffalo/Islander Alum]

Even if WT wins 9 games, if they continue their trend of playing NAIA teams, the strength of schedule will probably keep them out of the playoffs. While Hughes can beat the weak teams early in the season, he tends to lose to good teams. One exception was 2019, the lone year Hughes had a good OC.

The 7th game of Hughes' 5th season was when we finally got a fairly reliable FG kicker. Hopefully Polivoda will be even better this year.

I wish I could say we will be in the playoffs but most likely next October people will once again be prefacing predictions with "if WT runs the table.." They won't.

When the time comes, the Western Oregon coach should be interviewed. He runs an exciting offense and knows how to motivate his team. He also knows how to beat teams with better players. Of course we could always hire another coordinator - that's worked so well.

I understand the philosophy of cupcakes on the schedule if you are a 1st year coach and facing a total rebuild.

Obviously we are way past that here and even the covid excuse should be in the rear view mirror.

The WT coaching staff isn't stupid (maybe stubborn). If you want the playoffs you have to beat teams in the region non conference to boost that SOS. They had Mines on there and let that game get away from them.

Central Washington is a great example of that last year. Angelo State beat them and Midwestern didn't. There you go even with a LSC championship and 1 loss couldn't help MSU.

Now that the GNAC is dissolved it may be a race to schedule the RMAC upper tier schools. The rest of the conferences around look to be silo scheduling (GAC, MIAA, NSIC, etc.).

If not RMAC then GSC is probably the best bet. Commerce had a few games with that conference.

Now that there are 9 LSC games WT should and needs to schedule those 2 remaining non conference games as D2 games.

WT in my opinion needs 9-2 with one LSC loss and non conference loss as an absolute minimum. Realistically 10-1.

[WT_TKW]

I understand the philosophy of cupcakes on the schedule if you are a 1st year coach and facing a total rebuild.

Obviously we are way past that here and even the covid excuse should be in the rear view mirror.

The WT coaching staff isn't stupid (maybe stubborn). If you want the playoffs you have to beat teams in the region non conference to boost that SOS. They had Mines on there and let that game get away from them.

Central Washington is a great example of that last year. Angelo State beat them and Midwestern didn't. There you go even with a LSC championship and 1 loss couldn't help MSU.

Now that the GNAC is dissolved it may be a race to schedule the RMAC upper tier schools. The rest of the conferences around look to be silo scheduling (GAC, MIAA, NSIC, etc.).

If not RMAC then GSC is probably the best bet. Commerce had a few games with that conference.

Now that there are 9 LSC games WT should and needs to schedule those 2 remaining non conference games as D2 games.

WT in my opinion needs 9-2 with one LSC loss and non conference loss as an absolute minimum. Realistically 10-1.

I don't disagree with anything you said. However, I just don't see how the "Up the Middle to Mediocrity" coaching staff is going to ever win more than 7 games against D2 teams. Remember, WOU (4-6) was supposed to be a cream puff but WT couldn't stop them. Their only other wins were against Simon Fraser(2) and Lincoln. Angelo and Kingsville were kind enough to implode when they played us. Look at WT's offensive stats against Angelo. https://gobuffsgo.com/sports/footbal.../boxscore/8185

WT did play an impressive half against Mines, which turned out to be a really good team. The MSU win was the most impressive of the season, but I still think Hughes hung "PLAYOFF GAME" signs around the stadium to befuddle Maskill. :)

WT could have made some moves to improve the coaching staff but decided against it. So I wouldn't look for any improvement in the record, unless they add even more NAIA teams.