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Shane Buechele

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47Straight
47Straight

I'm sure Tom would have had no problem with him transferring to OU. Definitely wouldn't have blocked it.

47Straight
47Straight

Yes because a safety is of the same importance as a quarterback who knows your offensive playbook and who you might play multiple times.

mr. sunshine
mr. sunshine

Being the mayor of Dallas has more benefits than I thought 

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satyanash

satyanash 15596

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Great article on Buechele's transfer to SMU from The Athletic

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DALLAS — Shane Buechele got the snap, took a couple of steps back, set his feet and launched it deep. He trusted receiver Reggie Roberson to get a step on the cornerback and to the end zone before the safety could get there. Roberson controlled his body perfectly and let the ball fall into his lap. Touchdown. The pair looked like they’d run that play together for years. The score gave SMU a 28-0 lead over South Florida in the second quarter last Saturday. The Mustangs would go on to win, move to 5-0 and find themselves at No. 24 in the AP poll, their first time ranked since 1986, before the NCAA’s death penalty that crippled the program for decades.

But neither Buechele nor Roberson began their college career at SMU. Buechele started at Texas, Roberson at West Virginia. When Sonny Dykes took over at SMU after the 2017 season, neither was there. He had a roster with serious holes. In the two years since, Dykes has reshaped the roster by taking full advantage of the transfer market, which has become its own recruiting game. More than 20 players on the current SMU roster came directly from another four-year college.

SMU’s starting quarterback is a transfer (Buechele). So is its leading receiver (Roberson) and its top tight end (Kylen Granson from Rice). So is its leading tackler (Patrick Nelson from Illinois), a starting defensive tackle (Zach Abercrumbia from Rice) and a starting cornerback (Brandon Stephens from UCLA). So is its starting kicker (Luke Hogan from West Virginia), kickoff specialist (Russell Roberts from Middle Tennessee) and kick returner (CJ Sanders from Notre Dame). “It’s been a really good thing for us,” Dykes said. “We had good players when we got here, but we’ve been able to build depth and do some things we’ve never been able to do.”

Dykes loved the potential of the SMU job in part because of its proximity to local high school talent, and the high school recruiting has gone well — his first full class last year was No. 3 in the AAC and No. 68 nationally, according to 247Sports’ Composite Rankings. Dykes, the son of longtime Texas Tech head coach Spike Dykes, knows the state like the back of his hand.

What Dykes didn’t expect was he’d be inundated with Power 5 transfers, most of them looking to come home to the Dallas-Fort Worth area. “I figured there would be three, four a year,” he said. This past offseason, SMU brought in 16 transfers, according to 247Sports’ transfer database. That’s at least four more than anyone else. The year before, the Mustangs’ six graduate transfer additions were the most in the country.

It has necessitated its own recruiting strategy. So many players have reached out to SMU that it has to be. Dykes said at one point during the last recruiting cycle, they had 38 potential transfers on their board. The transfer portal makes the process easier, and SMU staffers check it every day. During the daily recruiting film breakdown, the staff looks at high school players, then they look at potential transfer players.

“I’m not going to lie, we hear from three or four a day,” Dykes said of people reaching out. “I’ve heard four today — legit guys. They’ve either entered the transfer portal or have reached out to the high school coach to reach out to us and are considering the portal.”
Former Texas QB Shane Buechele is averaging 277 yards per game at SMU. (Kevin Jairaj / USA Today)

For Group of 5 programs like SMU, it’s become the best way to bring in Power 5 talent, whether it’s someone who is looking for more playing time or perhaps is homesick. “We weren’t getting Shane Buechele coming out of high school,” Dykes said. “We weren’t getting Reggie Roberson coming out of high school. When you can add guys who are difference-makers like that, you wouldn’t believe how many guys have reached out. It’s blown my mind. We’re just trying to make sure it’s the right guys.”

Of the eight FBS teams to bring in at least eight transfers last offseason, five were Group of 5 teams near major cities and fertile recruiting grounds (SMU, Houston, UCF, FAU, FIU). Those locations are where the most high school players come from, so it’s where most kids will look to return. Buechele is from Arlington. Roberson is from DeSoto. Stephens is from Plano. All in the Metroplex. Of SMU’s 16 offseason transfer additions, 10 were from the DFW area. Most are kids who are looking to come home, where it’s easier for family and friends to watch.

Roberson realized he wanted to leave West Virginia when his parents got sick and couldn’t travel to his games in Morgantown. He transferred to SMU in 2018 and received a hardship waiver, and his parents have made nearly every home game. “It means the world that everybody comes to see me play,” Roberson said. “It feels good when a kid reaches out on Twitter and says they want to come see me play. It means a lot to me and my family.”

The transfer recruiting process is different than high school recruiting. There aren’t the same bells and whistles. Buechele noted he wasn’t taking pictures in jerseys. Players aren’t announcing their top five. They know what matters most when they’re looking for a school, especially grad transfers, and it mostly stays quiet publicly. “It’s ultimately a more mature way to do the recruiting process,” Buechele said.

At SMU, the transfer players help each other get acclimated. Buechele and Roberson got close in the summer, throwing passes together since Buechele didn’t participate in spring practice. Patrick Nelson transferred to SMU from Illinois because of the relationship he had with SMU defensive coordinator Kevin Kane when Kane was at Northern Illinois. His move wasn’t a homecoming, and his biggest adjustment was the heat. Now he helps the new transfers fit in, figure out academic scheduling and the things that come outside of football. “We tell them the ropes, how things are,” Nelson said. “They get the feel from the coaches. They know it’s an up-and-coming program. They feel the family environment once they’re working out.”

Transferring is one of the toughest issues for the NCAA to figure out right now, but the addition of the transfer portal last year made the process cleaner, as did getting rid of the requirement for a school to give permission to a potential transfer. Despite using the transfer market more than anyone else recently, Dykes doesn’t have a hard opinion on any major changes. He understands why rules are in place and that coaches are always looking for loopholes. He would just like it to become more standardized and consistent.

“To me, the considerations are some health issues and proximity makes sense,” he said. “If you go to USC and you’re from Dallas, maybe your parents travel for a year and it costs $2,000 a week to watch their son play football and maybe we can’t afford to do that. I think there’s some consideration for that, coming home. That’s where it fits well for us, when we can get some waivers that were pretty important for us.”

Dykes doesn’t want to rely so much on transfer players moving forward as he builds the program, especially grad transfers, but if there are difference-makers who want to come in, it would be foolish not to jump on it. With SMU at 5-0 and thinking about a championship now, the strategy is clearly worth the effort, even if it wasn’t the original plan. “I can only imagine what our team would look like right now if we hadn’t taken transfers,” Dykes said. “We wouldn’t be nearly as competitive as we are. It would not be good.”

 

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Funk Doctor Spock

Funk Doctor Spock 13284

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2 minutes ago, slim9797 said:

Fuck everybody who ever doubted Shane. He was as advertised. His deep ball is the real deal. With a O line that can hold their own he is the real McCoy. SMU is 6-0


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I'll rep this in the morning when I get it back. You're correct, a lot of us had our doubts, but we also never had a line + Sam being here. SMU and Shane are perfect for each other. Not having been ranked since 1986 or something, to Shane being the guy who brings it back? One hell of a story. Glad he's also a lifetime Longhorn 🤘

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Funk Doctor Spock

Funk Doctor Spock 13284

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1 minute ago, Tex Pete said:

Good line and offense that fits his style. Sonny Dykes has always been a good coach, but I think he was unhappy at Cal. He’s using transfer rules to their advantage, and I think he can build something in Dallas. Fun to watch. 

SMU is the winner with the portal if Dykes can recruit players there. He's a good coach, and I'm excited to see how he does. 

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Magus Ossis

Magus Ossis 2997

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1 hour ago, Beau Vine said:

SMU is nearly twice as old as UD.

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The University of Dallas' charter dates from 1910 when the Western Province of the Congregation of the Mission (Vincentians) renamed Holy Trinity College in Dallas, which they had founded in 1905.[23][24] The provincial of the Western Province closed the university in 1928, and the charter reverted to the Diocese of Dallas. In 1955, the Western Province of the Sisters of Saint Mary of Namur obtained it to create a new higher education institution in Dallas that would subsume their junior college, Our Lady of Victory College, located in Fort Worth.[25] The sisters, together with Eugene Constantin, Jr. and Edward R. Maher, Sr., petitioned the Diocese of Dallas to sponsor the university, though ownership was entrusted to a self-perpetuating independent board of trustees.[26]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Dallas

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ztejas

ztejas 44228

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15 minutes ago, Jkwellborn said:

Serious question. Given the poor state of the secondary currently, injuries and everything, could SMU beat Texas?

Our secondary is just as good. Our skill position players are almost as good. Our quarterback is a shade under Sam. 

SMU might get blasted off of the line but in the other phases we might make it a competitive ballgame. I don't know, say, 2 in 10 wins?

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nnm

nnm 37904

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On 10/19/2019 at 6:49 PM, DeadArmadillo said:

 


They beat TCU in Fort Worth, but beating Texas is a different situation. When was the last year TCU was better than Texas?

 

Seriously?  You’re seriously asking this question?

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