University of North Texas Athletics
Green Gang: Perception No Longer Reality For New Additions
8/11/2009 12:00:00 AM | Return to Play
By Steven Bartolotta August 10, 10:32 p.m.
Well now that LaChris Anyiam, Kennan Flax, Julian Herron, and K.C. Obi are with North Texas, what can we expect from them. The honest answer, nobody knows. It's great that North Texas got what I think will be good pickups perception wise, but as we down the corridor of years, the recruiting game is all about that, perception.
Do I think these four guys will come in and be All-American's? Nope. Heck I don't even know if any of these four guys will be all-conference when it's all said and done. And you know what, nobody knows.
The recruiting game is totally different from the game that's played on the field. Up until 2005, Mack Brown could tell you more about that. These four names are great to look up on Rivals, Scout, and the rest. I was getting downright giddy for a few minutes while I was doing it, thinking of the possibilities.
The perception for North Texas is, wow, nice pick-up's for a team that just went 1-11. And that's the whole recruiting game, perception.
Now it's time to talk about reality. Can these guys really play, will they play, and will they have an impact.
I've been down this road before in my time at North Texas. I've seen the big names that have rolled through with the promise of potential, the next can't miss guy, the three-star recruit that's gonna put us over the top.
Names like Michael Thrash and Evan Fentriss come to mind. Thrash, the brother of former Washington Redskin Michael Thrash, was said to be even better than his brother one former North Texas assistant coach told me. I believed him.
He ended his North Texas career with a grant total of seven catchers. Yikes.
Evan Fentriss was a transfer from Rice, big-time name and recruit, played at Carroll HS under Coach Dodge, he was gonna break all of Troy Redwine's records, take it to the bank.
Fentriss played a grand total of zero snaps for North Texas. Whoops. I could go on with other names and I'm sure you out there have some names you remember from previous years.
The point is I'd love to believe that all of the schools that were after Anyiam, Flax, Herron, and Obi knew what each one of them could do. But I don't.
The recruiting game is akin to black magic sometimes, you just can't always believe what you see and hear.
My hope and I' m sure the hope of all Mean Green fans is that we see good things from this group. But perceptually speaking, that time is over for these four. It's time for them prove it.
