The last time I wrote a post here at CFTT, I was watching TCU’s BCS dream go down the drain as they came within a short slant with a few seconds left in the fourth quarter from beating Utah in Salt Lake City.  That night I wrote a post about how the head coaching carousel was beginning to spin, or as I put it last week, the dominoes are beginning to fall.  I alluded to the possible Gary Patterson rumors that night, and little did I know there would be this huge story the following morning about Coach Patterson jumping ship to Kansas State which, of course, turned out to be completely false.  A lot has happened, but I wasn’t able to write because I had a stomach virus.  I will spare you the details, but I did not feel well at all.  Therefore, I was silent.

For those of you in the Fort Worth area, don’t forget that Bob Lilly will be signing copies of his book Thursday night at Borders Books in Fort Worth from 7 PM until 9 PM.

According to Phil Steele, UNT’s 2008 schedule is ranked 92nd toughest out of 120 teams.  If you just take wins and losses of the teams on the 2008 schedule from the year before, UNT is ranked 82nd compared to 96th in 2007.  With their 92 ranking in Steele’s magazine, UNT’s schedule is considered tougher than Texas teams Rice, a UNT opponent, and Houston as well as nearby Tulsa, also a UNT opponent.  With that in mind, let’s take a look at the UNT schedule.

@ Kansas State, August 30, TBA
The Wildcats are known to Texas fans for knocking off the Longhorns the last two years.  In his first year as coach, Ron Prince took the ‘Cats to the Texas Bowl, but last year K State fell apart after a promising start.  The Wildcats return 7 offensive starters and 5 defensive starters and will be relying on some newcomers to get back to a bowl game.

Tulsa, September 6, 6 PM
This will be the home opener for the Mean Green, and it should be rough.  Tulsa had basically the best offense in the country last year with about 543 yards of total offense per game.  This is an interesting match up as UNT Coach Dodge was leading Southlake Carroll High School to the 2005 Texas 5A DII State Championship at the same time that Tulsa Offensive Coordinator Gus Malzahn was leading Springdale High School to the Arkansas 5A State Championship.  Both coaches employ a hurry-up, no huddle, spread offense.

@ LSU, September 13, 7 PM
Mark this down as a nice pay day.

@ Rice, September 27, TBA
Only once did Rice hold a team to less than 29 points, and that was FCS Nicholls State.  Rice will be looking to get better on defense, but the offense returns 9 starters.

Florida International, October 4, 6 PM
Simply speaking, FIU was the worst team in the nation last year winning just one game, but they beat UNT in the last game of the season.  I guess the Golden Panthers were due for a win.  They return 9 starters on both sides of the ball.  FIU was fairly competitive with most of its Sun Belt Conference foes, just don’t get them mad.

Louisiana-Lafayette, October 11, 6 PM
The Ragin’ Cajuns return 8 starters including the QB on an offense that rushed for 252 yards per game.  In fact, ULL rushed for 300 yards against UNT last year.  The Ragin’ Cajuns finished last year 3-9, and, of course, look to build on that toward a winning record.

@Louisiana-Monroe, October 18, 6 PM
The Warhawks return 7 starters on offense and 8 on defense.  The defense struggled last year, but the offense rushed for 209 yards per game.  ULM finished the season winning 5 of their last 6 after losing to North Texas including a stunning 21-14 upset at Alabama in front of 92,138 fans.  UNT is 3-2 against ULM in the last 5 years.

Troy, October 25, 6 PM
The Trojans, the Alabama version, returns 7 starters on both offense and defense.  Troy has a new Offensive Coordinator after OC Tony Franklin left to take the same position at Auburn.  Troy has been one of the most consistent teams in the Sun Belt the past couple of years winning 8 games in each year including a trip to the New Orleans Bowl as the representative of the Sun Belt Conference.  Trivia:  Ohio State plays back to back Trojans, first USC and then Troy (September 2008).

@Western Kentucky, November 1, TBA
UNT won a thriller last year in Denton, but the Hilltoppers who are still in transition from the Football Championship Subdivision to the Bowl Championship Subdivision, will return 7 starters on offense and 6 on defense.  WKU averaged 247 yards on the ground but a meager 162 through the air.  So, who wants to travel to Bowling Green?

@ Florida Atlantic, November 8, 3 PM
The Owls were the surprise champions of the Sun Belt Conference a year ago when they knocked off Troy at the end of the year to earn the trip to the New Orleans Bowl.  This season FAU returns 10 starters on offense and 8 on defense.  QB Rusty Smith may be the best QB in the state of Florida not named Tim Tebow.  Smith passed for 463 yards in their upset at Minnesota.  For the year, Smith threw for 3688 yards with 32 TD’s and only 9 INT’s.  In 2008, FAU begins the season in Austin against the Longhorns.

@ Middle Tennessee State, November 22, TBA
The Blue Raiders have flirted with the Sun Belt Conference Championship in each of the last 2 years with their best chance in 2006 when they were upset in the last game against Troy to lose the title.  MTSU returns their top QB’s Dwight Dasher and Joe Cradock.  The Blue Raiders return 6 starters on offense and defense.  Despite injuries at the QB position all year in 2007, the Blue Raiders averaged 336 yards per game including 202 yards passing per game.

Arkansas State, November 29, 1 PM
2008 marks the first year as ASU will be called the Red Wolves changing it from Indians per the NCAA.  The Red Wolves returns the dynamic duo of Corey Leonard and Reggie Arnold.  QB Leonard accounted for 3057 total yards of offense for ASU in 2008 for an average of 254 total yards per game.  Arnold was a 1000 yard rusher for the second year in a row, and when he and Leonard are healthy the Red Wolves are dangerous and never out of a game.  However, the Red Wolves lose a lot from a defense that included Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Year Tyrell Johnson who was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in the second round with the 43rd pick.

This is UNT Preview week at Collegefootballtopten.com.  We will review the offense today and the defense and special teams tomorrow.  Finally, we will conclude with a look at the UNT 2008 Schedule.

After just averaging 12.8 points a game in 2006, Todd Dodge brought “Dodge Ball” to North Texas and the Mean Green picked up the pace with an average of 24.8 points per game.  The transition wasn’t easy as UNT scored more than 20 points just once in the first four games in 2007.  By the time that the Green played the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, Dodge had turned to true freshmen QB Giovanni Vizza to run the offense, and the points began to rise along with yardage.

Of course, no performance had garnered more passing yards than the performance by QB Daniel Meager against SMU.  Meager passed for a staggering 601 yards against the Mustangs, but UNT failed to score enough points and lost the game 45-31.  Meager threw eight interceptions in four games, and Vizza became the starter.  Vizza had a huge performance in the late season shootout with Navy.  Vizza passed for 478 yards as the Mean Green lost 74-62 in the highest scoring regulation game in NCAA history.  Vizza went on to earn Sun Belt Freshman of the Year honors.  What makes Vizza so potent in Dodge’s Spread Offense is his ability to run.

Vizza had options at the wide receiver spot, and most of those return.  At the top of the list is Casey Fitzgerald whose performances in 2007 earned him an Honorable Mention All American from SI.com.  Fitzgerald tunred in a dizzying performance against SMU when he caught 18 passes for 327 yards.  Overall, Fitzgerald caught 111 passes for 1322 yards and 12 touchdowns.  UNT also returns Micah Mosely at Running Back.  Mosely had 461 yard rushing and 5 touchdowns and should be called upon to be the leading rusher with the departure of Jamario Thomas.  Helping out Mosley will be Cam Montgomery.  Montgomery took a Medical Redshirt last year after coming from Northeast Mississippi Community College.  Rivals.com listed Montgomery’s 40 time at 4.4.

The Offensive Line is a more uncertain area of the UNT Offense, but it seems to be in better shape than it was last year.  The Mean Green return 4 starters and at least 7 lettermen which should provide better depth.  UNT will hope to improve on the 39 sacks it gave up last year.  The UNT line will be anchored by Junior Center Kelvin Drake and Sophomore Right Guard Esteban Santiago.  To help strengthen the Offensive Line, UNT signed a couple of JUCO players.

The X Factor for the UNT offense is Freshman QB Riley Dodge.  Will Riley play as a true freshman or redshirt?  Will Riley take over the starting job at QB?  How will coach Dodge use his son?  Dodge is a great athlete who could be used on the field in certain situations or in other posistions such as a WR or some kind of H Back.  However, as good as an athlete as he is, college football takes time to get accustomed to.  If Dodge can adapt to the speed of the college game and adjust to college life, he might be playing on Saturday.  If QB Giovanni Vizza continues to improve, then  there should be no pressure on Coach Dodge to throw his son into the fire early.  Then, he would have the option to ease Riley into college football.

I expect to see UNT’s offense be even better in 2008.  The Mean Green played a lot of young players last year and now everyone is in their second year of “Dodge Ball.”  The Offensive Line may be slow to improve, especially with early games against Kansas State and LSU.  However, by the time conference play rolls around, they should be better able to protect the QB.