Top 26 storylines for 2016: No. 11 – Three new FBS coaches enter the fray

[caption id="attachment_24917" align="alignnone" width="800"]Courtesy UNT, UTSA, Texas State North Texas HC Seth Littrell, UTSA HC Frank Wilson, Texas State HC Everett Withers. (Courtesy UNT, UTSA, Texas State)[/caption] A battle is brewing for mid-tier talent inside the state of Texas. To keep up with recent additions at UTEP, SMU and Houston, three other G5 programs in Texas hired new coaches in the offseason. FBS football in Texas should be broken into two distinct groups. One group contains Texas A&M, the Big 12 schools in the state and Houston. The other group is comprised of SMU, the Conference USA schools and Texas State. In the offseason, three of the six schools in the second group made changes. Texas State, UTSA and North Texas are led by new men, and each will be judged to some extent by the collective’s success. UTEP is in the Mountain Time Zone, making it hard to pair regionally with any particular school. Rice and SMU stand apart due to the exclusiveness of each university. That leaves UTSA, North Texas and Texas State as three schools competing for similar talent on the recruiting trail in athletics and student population. Battles are taking place and victories are already being claimed. North Texas hired Seth Littrell to spark the offense and bring excitement back to Denton. Former LSU assistant Frank Wilson became the Roadrunners’ second-ever head football coach and has already shown a masterful understanding of recruiting in Texas. The same could be said for Everett Withers at Texas State. The trio, fairly or not, are linked. Quick success by one will be an indictment on the others. It’s how this works. Let’s say Withers and Texas State go 8-4 and reach a bowl game while Littrell and Wilson finish with fewer than five wins. How well do you think the fan bases in Denton and San Antonio react? And how quickly will fans in San Marcos claim a victory in offseason football? Littrell and Withers likely avoid much comparison. Denton and San Marcos aren’t close and the two programs play in separate conferences. Wilson at UTSA is linked to both Littrell and Withers. UTSA and Texas State, while not in the same conference, are bitter rivals with proximity, have a history in other sports and are scheduled to face each other a few times on the football field starting in 2017. North Texas and UTSA are fighting for relevancy in Conference USA, pitting Wilson and Littrell firmly against each other for the foreseeable future. All three programs were in need of a change. All three programs should move in the right direction under improved leadership. And all three programs will be monitoring each other carefully. Perception depends upon it.

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