THSCA connections help North Texas close 2023 recruiting cycle with bang

Photo courtesy of North Texas Athletics

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Recruiting is a relationship business. 

North Texas head coach Eric Morris understood this concept, so when he put together his initial staff in Denton, he made sure to include a few coaches with strong ties to the Texas High School Coaches Association. Those moves paid off in a big way Wednesday as the Mean Green closed its 2023 recruiting class with a bang. A statement of future intent. 

Morris hired Drew Svoboda, a former head coach at Klein Collins with extensive ties in the Houston area, as associate head coach and special teams coordinator. He added Chris Gilbert, the former Lancaster head coach and head of high school relations at the University of Texas, as assistant head coach and tight ends coach. Morris also landed Josh Kirkland, who was a head coach at three different stops across Texas, as director of player personnel. 

“I don’t think we can put into words how important the high school coaches are here in the state of Texas,” Morris said. “Our roster will be built predominately on Texas high school players, so it was important to me to have coaches on the staff that understood that and had ties across the state.” 

North Texas signed two players during the early signing period. The Mean Green added 12 more heading into national signing day – nine of which played high school football in the state of Texas. The headliner was three-star linebacker Jayven Anderson. The Galena Park North Shore product is the fourth-highest rated recruit to sign with North Texas since the turn of the century. North Texas also added signees from South Oak Cliff, Aledo, Gladewater, and Shadow Creek. 

Morris was hired a few days before the early signing period began in mid-December and he hadn’t put together a staff until the window closed. North Texas had a month to identify, visit, and sign targets. The Mean Green brought in eight transfers to remedy roster deficiencies in the short term. 

Kirkland took the first step by building a “critical factors” sheet that described seven or eight attributes that the Mean Green want in a player at a certain position. He spent time watching film with each position coach and coordinator to get a feel for what traits each coach wanted his players to possess. Kirkland estimates that he watched at least 60 hours of film with his fellow coaches within the first few days of 2023. 

But film doesn’t tell the whole story. The right fit doesn’t just possess the physical skills to play FBS football. The perfect signings also help the culture within a locker room. The Mean Green coaching staff was forced to speed date with their targets due to the time constraints of national signing day. To filter out who would and wouldn’t fit, the coaching staff relied on the high school coaches for off-the-field scouting reports. 

“We all know that the coaches in this state are different than everywhere else in the country, so it is a lot easier to put our faith in them and trust what they’re saying about their players,” Kirkland said. “The tape speaks for itself, but the trust we have with the high school head coaches around the state allows us to get information on if they’d be a good culture fit with what we’re trying to build here in Denton.” 

The timing wasn’t all bad for North Texas, either. Sure, most of the top talent in Texas was signed to programs by the time Morris and his team hit the ground running. But there wasn’t as much competition for the remaining players. Most teams filled up in the early period. The Mean Green had scholarships to spare. 

The portal also helped North Texas. The 12 FBS programs in Texas signed 289 high school prospects in 2019. That number dropped to 203 in 2021 and 210 in 2022. The same 12 FBS programs in the Lone Star State signed roughly 230 high school prospects in this cycle. That means about 60 players who theoretically would sign with FBS programs in the past were still there for the taking when the Mean Green came calling. 

“Without the portal, I’m not sure those types of players are still around for us to go get,” Kirkland said. “Pre-COVID or pre-portal, most of those kids would already be committed and signed to other schools.” 

North Texas didn’t need to hastily over sign prospects to fill a depleted roster. The Mean Green retained the core of a group that reached the Conference USA championship game in 2022. Most new coaches inherit a program in the dumps. Morris took over one that merely needs a spit shine and a few fresh ideas. The program has reached a bowl game in six of the last seven years after reaching only one in the previous decade. 

“We’re just trying to find some good pieces that can come in here and help us. We didn’t need to start from scratch,” Gilbert said. “I was happy with how quickly we’ve been able to establish ourselves on the road as a new staff.” 

 

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