AUGUST 29 WEDNESDAY

YOU WANT GENETICS, YOU GOT IT. YOU WANT THE BEST NAME EVER FOR A QUARTERBACK? READ THIS!

Hello, please be aware of perhaps the greatest in quarterback history: GENERAL BOOTY. GENERAL BOOTY (sorry, you can’t just not yell that name) is a quarterback recruit from the class of 2021 from San Antonio, Texas. Per 247Sports, he doesn’t have a star rating or ranking just yet.

But GENERAL BOOTY’s family blood runs deep with quarterbackin’, from Horns 247:

“General has a blood line that you need to follow closely. His mother is the sister of Joe Ferguson, a long time NFL quarterback with the Buffalo Bills and Detroit Lions,” [Texas QB coach John] Jenkins said. “He (Ferguson) played about 20 years in the NFL. His granddad, Johnny Booty was one of the highly recruited quarterbacks coming out of America years ago from Shreveport Woodlawn, which is the same school Ferguson and Terry Bradshaw (NFL Hall of Fame – 1989) went to.”

“His dad (Abram Booty), who I still think holds records at LSU for receiver, is an NFL guy. His uncle, John David Booty played in the NFL and Josh Booty, his uncle, was in the NFL and played Major League Baseball.”

 

SCOUTING REPORT NORTHERN COLORADO

Check out the video of Bears confidence of destroying the McNeese defense.

The Bears are  positive of a win on Saturday because they woke up to a sign from Heaven. It is a bear outline in the clouds.

Last year Northern Colorado got torched on defense in not being able to stop the run. Most of the year, depending on formation, they lined up in a similiar scheme of 3 down linemen and 3 linebackers. The Big Sky is known as a wide-open offensive league, thus this scheme may have been justified. The end result was the DC was fired and the Bears brought back legendary DC Marty English. English has been at Colorado State for the past few years after leaving the very successful Northern Colorado Bears.

English retired last winter, but was recruited to come out of retirement and resurrect the Bears’ defense. The Bears have ditched their three man front to put more guys in the box with a 4-3 defense. The players love it!

2017 UNC alignment at times.

WHO ARE THESE GUYS?

If you have followed D2 football since the 1990’s then you have heard of North Dakota State, Grand Valley State, Valdosta State, Northern Colorado, and Northwest Missouri State. They are the power programs of the 1990’s and 2000’s. Northern Colorado and North Dakota State have moved up to D1. UNC has been to the quarterfinals, semifinals, and won back to back National Championships in 1996 and 1997 with Coach Joe Glynn. Coach Glynn got the Montana job due to his success at Northern Colorado. They put together another good run in 2002 before falling in the semi-finals.

I know there are McNeese fans who think this game should be a cake walk due to the Big Sky pre-season polls having Northern Colorado anywhere from 9-11 in a 13 team league. However, half of the Big Sky has made the playoffs in the past four years. Southern Utah, Northern Arizona, and Weber State have really elevated their programs. I think they all made the playoffs last year. Their commissioner thought they should have gotten five teams in. Eastern Washington, Montana, Montana State, and Portland State have been in the playoffs recently. This year they added Idaho from the Sun Belt Conference and they are picked 5th.

By the way, Idaho was pretty good last year. They beat ULM , South Alabama, and Georgia State, and lost by 3 to Appy State, 5 to ULL, and 7 to bowl champion New Mexico State. This is a good league when you throw in North Dakota , Cal Poly, Cal-Davis, and Sacramento State.

As I have mentioned, UNC played a home and home with HBU and ACU in 2015 and 2016. They won all four games while averaging around 38 points. The Bears were 6-5 in both 2015 and 2016 before getting crippled by injuries last year. Just two years ago, they beat Montana and Northern Arizona.

Regardless of what I say, or what you read, the bottom line is Las Vegas does their homework when money is involved. They have these two teams only 3 points apart, exactly where Jeff Sagarin has his ratings.

If I still don’t have your attention, look at the computer rankings. Northern Colorado is rated higher than the following SLC programs going into this season.

SLU +1, SFA +5, Alcorn +7, ACU +7, NSU +10, UIW  +15, Lamar +16, HBU +25.

Factor in opening on the road at 5,300 feet in an environment of 99% UNC support, and you have a competitive game.

Forgive me for selling this team like I would sell it to my players. They have scholarships as well, and they are not in awe of some team from Louisiana. They played in front of 45,000 last year in Boulder, Colorado.

I could take the opposite approach and tear down their team, but remember these computer rankings are based on 2017. Just about every SLC team listed above is expected to be better in 2018. Computers base much of their strengths on schedule. You will always have 8 of the Top 15 teams in computer rankings from the SEC. It is because their strength of schedule is so high.

It has been proven in head to head battle that the Big 12 can compete very well with their counterparts of the SEC, but with Kansas and Baylor on the schedules, everyone has a lower SOS rating. OU is given little chance to compete against SEC teams due to computer ranking, but they have been to three playoff level games for national titles since 2014. They beat Alabama by 14, beat Auburn in 2016 by a couple of TD’s, and then lost in double overtime to Georgia last year.

Oh well, respect them if you wish, don’t respect them if you wish. All that matters is the football team respects them.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Jacob Knipp 6’4 210 QB– Jacob was setting the world on fire prior to his shoulder surgery in 2016, but came back too early in 2017 and played in only three ballgames. He is 100% now and the offense rest on his shoulders. NFL scouts have him rated #14 among quarterbacks.

Trae Riek 5’11 205 RB- The fans talk about how tough a runner Trae is and it takes more than one guy to bring him down. We will see!

Milo Hall 5’10 200 RB- Transfer from Wyoming who has been pressing Riek for starting duties, but not this week. Riek gets the start.

Alex Wesley 6’1 185 WR- The fastest guy in the FCS so there is not much more you can say. If he gets behind our safeties, turn out the lights; the party is over. Alex burned the Colorado Buffalo secondary last year for 6 catches for 102 yards and two touchdowns.

Keifer Morris 6’4 270 DE– Their best pass rusher and defender. This is his 3rd year to start and if our OT does not block him, he will tally some sacks.

Henry Stelzer 6’2 225 LB- The man behind the man. A very active linebacker who brings energy to the Bear’s defense.

Zack Wilkerson 6’5 290 DT-  The biggest run stopper up front is back. Zack missed last year, as did several other starters, due to surgery. He anchors the front line.

YOU SAID WHAT?

Last recruiting season I had Cy Fair linebacker Jace Bobo (6’1 210 2-star) down as one of our visitors and hopefully signee. Instead, Jace took the Air Force offer. I forgot all about him until I saw him on the Northern Colorado roster. I assume he reported this summer to Colorado Springs and bailed out. UNC got them a good one!

I have written many times over the years at my disappointment that the football coaches do not go to state track meets and follow the fastest guy at the Texas Relays, etc. I have been told over and over again going back to the last coach (Bobby Keasler ran track at ULM) who believed like I believe, track guys with speed can be developed if they played high school football. Roger Carr did not play high school football and walked on after signing with track. Enos Hicks at MSU was an All-Conference running back after trying out while on track scholarship.

In the past three years, I have listed guys that I am drooling over. Caleb Jolivette ran at Manvel on a national record 400 relay. He won the national high school Indoor 55 at Madison Square Gardens and 247Sports declared him as the fastest football player in Texas after he ran a 4.33 at their camp. He ran 10.4 at the Texas Relays. He visited ULL and was not offered. He ended up getting an offer from Sam Houston after no other offers. He got hurt last August in camp, but if he comes back 100%, watch out.

So last year the great relay team in Texas was at Port Arthur Memorial. They ran a 40.4 in the 400 and had a guy named Greg Laday run a 10.5 100 meters and has run under 4.4. He was MVP in his district on defense as a cornerback. I don’t know how he got away from Lamar or McNeese, but he is at Northern Colorado. They also picked up the leading running back in North Texas in Matt Gadek who broke the UIL rushing record. It is kind of ironic that Denver residents warn folks about the smell coming out of Greeley. In the winter they say it can be brutal. Whatever they are doing in recruiting is working.

I do want to reiterate that fans(myself included) have no idea of what is going on behind closed doors as to grades, problems, etc. There are many, many reasons coaches pass on guys whether it is skill, size, grades, or  bad recommendations.