Times are changing in Texas and the surrounding region when it comes to college football.
North Texas, Louisiana Tech and UT-San Antonio are headed to Conference USA. SMU and Houston are joining the Big East.
And there are a whole lot of big questions about how those moves will impact each program, especially when it comes to the life blood of any football program — recruiting.
I bring it up because this next recruiting cycle will be the first since C-USA announced that it is adding UNT in 2013. UNT hasn’t won a lot of recruiting battles with its regional rivals in recent years, which is something that is going to have to change if UNT is ever going to get to where it wants to go.
The first of those wins came earlier this week when Pflugerville Connally quarterback Dajon Williams committed to play for the Mean Green. Williams was also offered by La. Tech.
The question is if that will be the first in a series that will help vault UNT to a higher level in the world of college football.
Well, maybe.
A few people have suggested that SMU and Houston moving to the Big East could be a boon for UNT. The idea is that kids want to play at schools where they will face regional rivals on a regular basis like UNT will in C-USA.
So far that shift hasn’t seemed to help UNT in head-to-head battles with either. To tell you the truth, I don’t think it will matter, not when you consider teams have only six road games a year.
Three players have come off the board so far who had offers from both UNT and Houston and all of them have decided to play for the Cougars thus far: Spring athlete D’Juan Hines, Louisiana wide receiver Donald Gage and Louisiana offensive lineman Josh Thomas have all committed to the Cougars.
Hines committed this week.
SMU won a head-to-head battle for Pottsboro defensive end Justin Lawler.
Rice, one of UNT’s future opponents in C-USA, won the battle for El Campo tight end Cole Hunt.
We still have a long way to go until national signing day.
It is interesting to note that UNT showed some signs of progress with a win on the recruiting trail.
We will know a lot more about the Mean Green’s future if that becomes a common or something we only see every once in a while.