NSD 2025: Two Signings

Oh yeah it was national signing day

It used to be that MGN and the rest of college football fandom placed big emphasis on the NSD dates in February. It was when the big hauls came in, faxes were monitored, tweets were examined, many a fold-out table was used in gyms across the nation. Today? Well you could be forgiven for not noticing the action. North Texas signed two — a receiver and a corner — on the big day.

I’ve learned in my journey in this life that one shouldn’t wax nostalgic for silly things like this, but it used to be a big day. It is remarkable that it isn’t any longer. The first window, and the transfer portal have completely dominated the proceedings. The entirely of college football is alien to the one I remember as a kid. This is neither good nor bad. The righting of some wrongs comes at a cost. The NCAA and its member institutions for many years refused to address basic inequities and now the changes that were pent up are being forced upon the landscape with little or no barrier. We are in College Football No Man’s Land.

2004 national signing day at a high school - yay AI

I do not have much hope that our various governing institutions will muster up anything like a will or focus to address it, considering we are undergoing a massive reshaping of our American Government (again, for good and ill depending on your perspective). Who cares about little old college football when thousands will lose their gigs? I suppose I will.

Meanwhile back in Denton:

"We really like this entire group of high school players we signed," Morris said. "We got bigger in a lot of areas. We addressed some needs that we had on both sides of the football. Everyone saw it this past season, we played 10 true freshmen in the bowl game. So being able to get this group of players added to improve our roster for 2025 is big."

North Texas got a little better, according to the head coach and person responsible for building the roster.

The most impactful signings are of the transfers, as we mentioned. We wrote a little about them previously, but we’ll save the bulk of analysis for the Spring and Summer, when we are closer to knowing the reality of the situation.

If you do not like clicking links, here is the condensed version:

1. North Texas has a couple of guys who can play QB. The transfer Reese Poffenbarger and Drew Mestemaker, the kid who shined brightly vs Texas State. The likely starter is Poffenbarger.

2. NT has rebuild the running back room, and added some depth at WR. They don’t have a Name, but there are some candidates.

3. NT has added names to the OL, but that is still in flux.

4. The defense was rebuilt, with two big DTs and a long list of Edge guys to generate a pass rush. The linebacking corps is also refreshed.

5. The secondary was overhauled, with two starting corners added, and some depth at safety, and some depth at CB.

6. As Morris said, they got older, and bigger across the depth chart.

North Texas will still run the Air Raid+ (running more than Leach’s version) and will change to a 4-2-5 system from the old 3-high.

Will that be enough? It should be. North Texas under Morris has had a top-3 offense in the league for two years running. He whiffed badly on the DC hire, not only in choice of guy, but also in system. He wanted the 3-high because it gave people in the Big 12 fits when Lincoln Riley and OKST were limited by Iowa State. The issue encountered here in Denton, was that no one else runs an Air Raid system here. There is much more focus on power running and multiple sets — so Memphis, Navy, Army, Tulane, and UTSA were all happy to line up with TEs and push the defense back a few yards.

While Morris’ offense sputtered in the second half of this last year (injuries to the QB), you can still make the argument that a mediocre defense would have brought more wins.

So it goes. Morris made a change, and without knowing the details of the discussions, had even advocated for some more 4-man sets last year. All it means is that the big defensive system change has happened, and the expectation is that the offenses scores big and the defense gets stops and turnovers. The schedule, as one transfer corner mentioned, is such that a big number of wins is probable if it all goes according to our plan. Will it? Well that’s why we play the games.