Finding the root cause of the struggles of Texas' smaller FBS schools

[caption id="attachment_25846" align="alignright" width="350"]Photo by Diana Porter Photo by Diana Porter[/caption] Depth creates successful football programs. The individual rarely matters, especially at the G5 level. The difference in the top five players at each program isn’t much different. It is the next 10, and then the 40 after that that determines wins and losses. The G5 programs are in a state of disarray and most of the fault can be traced to depth, which stems from an underlying problem facing programs stuck in traffic behind massive P5 budgets: coaching continuity. Take away Houston’s emergence under Tom Herman and the numbers are disturbing. The six remaining G5 schools – SMU, North Texas, Rice, UTEP, UTSA and Texas State – all failed to reach a bowl game last season. Texas State’s last winning record came in 2014, but the Bobcats were left out of a bowl game. UTSA has never been to a bowl game. Rice and UTEP last recorded winning records in 2013, while it was 2014 for North Texas and 2012 for SMU. And the early returns on 2016 aren’t promising. The six squads are a combined 7-17. Three of those wins are against FCS opponents and two others are against each other. That means the Texas G5 schools not named Houston have a combined two wins over FBS schools outside of the state of Texas this season. To be fair, seven of the losses were to P5 teams in out-of-conference play. Still, take away the FCS schools, P5 schools and games against each other and the group is 2-8. Any way you slice it, it's bad. There are a few common qualities. Minus Texas State, not one of these programs receives consistent quarterback play. A few Bobcat fans would probably argue Texas State doesn’t either, but Tyler Jones is still the most proven and reliable of the bunch. UTEP can barely throw the ball in a forward direction. UTSA can’t decide on an FCS transfer or a former walk-on. Rice’s situation is only getting worse after 2015, while SMU deals with injuries and North Texas starts a freshman. It goes beyond quarterback. Recruiting is the lifeblood of college football and few of these head coaches have had time to build an 85-man roster to their liking. Rice’s David Bailiff is the OG of the bunch in his 10^th year. UTEP’s Sean Kugler is the second longest tenured coach, entering his fourth season. That’s it. Chad Morris is in year two, while Frank Wilson, Everett Withers and Seth Littrell all took over in the offseason. Building a car with broken tools is impossible. There was reason the programs needed change at the top and the new coaches are paying for those reasons with rosters not equipped to stack up. Sure, each program has some stars like Aaron Jones at UTEP or Michael Egwuagu at UTSA. It is in the bottom half of the two-deep where the Texas schools lost its way. The road back to success is through recruiting. And recruiting takes time.

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