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You can check out my write up at Pegasus News here.

And thus, I will start with UNT.  It has been a tough year for the Mean Green, and one win over a team stuck between Division I and I AA will not erase all of the damage.  However, it gives a much need jolt of confidence and momentum into a program that has face all kinds of adversity this year.  Ironically, it came the Saturday after it was revealed that 15 players tested positive for recreational drugs.  (Incedentally, it also came right after I wrote an article on how to turn around the Mean Green football team this year.  Maybe Coach Dodge read the article and used my advice.)

The offense got 51 points and the defense got 4 turnovers including a 97 yard INT returned for a TD by Tobe Nwigwe.  Even though the defense gave up 40 points, they had several big plays to preserve the victory.  This doesn’t mean that that UNT will rally and win the rest of their games, but a win in the remaining games gets them back to last year’s 2-10 record.  And, considering all of the problems that this team has faced this year, that doesn’t look so bad right now.

UNT 51, Western Kentucky 40

TCU

What can I say about the Frogs?  They went in to Vegas to play a tough and gritty UNLV team who has given teams fits and knocked off Arizona State in Tempe earlier this year.  I thought it might be hard-fought since TCU has the Utah game coming up.  Never mind.  The Frogs dominated the game 44-14, and right now, look like they might be the best of the non BCS schools.  I guess we’ll find out on Thursday night as they travel to Salt Lake City, UT to play the Running Utes.  Utah, however, struggled on the road against New Mexico to win 13-10.  Find a way to watch that game Thursday night.  TCU is on a roll.

SMU was idle.

What are they saying?

UNT

Brett Vito–Denton Record-Chronicle

Brett Vito–Denton Record-Chronicle

TCU

Josh Harvey–Big Purple Nation

Mercedes Mayer–FWST

Mercedes Mayer–FWST

How does the North Texas Mean Green turn around its football team?  If I knew the answer to that, then Athletic Director Rick Villarreal would be hiring me in December to replace Head Coach Todd Dodge.  So, I decided to check the stats for the year to see what I could find out.  I knew that UNT had been running the ball pretty well, therefore, I thought I would see things such as poor Red Zone conversion, poor third down conversions, etc.  I am a big believer in teams needing to run the ball and stop the run to be successful, or at the least, a championship team.  What I found were five areas of major differentiation between UNT and their opponents.

1.  Endzone woes
UNT is actually better than their opponents in the red zone, but where they are losing the battle is getting into the end zone.  While in the Red Zone, UNT gets into the end zone a paltry 57% of the time while their opponents are getting into the end zone 70% of the time while in the Red Zone.  Further, 90% of their opponents’ scores are touchdowns while 57% of the Mean Green scores are touchdowns.  That’s pretty tough when you consider that UNT is actually running more plays than their opponents.

2.  Pass rush
The UNT has gotten 7 sacks for 34 yards against their opponents.  The UNT offense has given up 15 sacks for 109 yards.  That is a difference of 75 yards, three quarters of an entire football field.  That is at least one Red Zone attempt.

3.  Turnover Margin
UNT is sitting at a minus 16 turnover margin.  The UNT defense has forced 5 turnovers while the UNT offense has given up 21 turnovers.

Early & Often
UNT opponents score early and often.

4.  Often
UNT opponents score every 8.89 plays while UNT scores every 23 plays.  That means an opponent scores twice before UNT scores.

5.  Early
UNT gets a slow start to every game.  The Mean Green are being out scored 276 to 66 in the first half this year.  That means that the Mean Green trails at half time by an average of 34 to 8.  They trail 15 to 3 after the first quarter.

These are just some of the areas of UNT woes on the field.  One cannot underestimate the series of bad luck that UNT and coach Todd Dodge has had this year.  First, it was announced yesterday that 15 UNT football players had failed drug tests.  That is almost 18 percent of the team according to the article.  That can’t be good for a team that is already behind in facilities, tradition, and recruiting successes.  UNT has also lost several players to a myriad of reasons some of which you will see here and here including second leading receiver Sam Dibrell.

The news hasn’t been all bad for UNT howerver.  The school and coach Dodge convinced students to vote for an athletic fee that will help pay for a new stadium and necessary facilities to help with recruiting.  If you don’t believe that will make a difference, then you need to go down to TCU and look at the Dutch Meyer Athletic Complex.  It is an outstanding facility with one of the best players’ meeting rooms in the country.  It houses a tutoring center for student athletes and an awesome weight room.  Further, it adds stadium seating and suites above the south end zone.

The coaches at UNT have their work cut out, and if Dodge does get it turned around, he deserves whatever he gets paid.  Maybe fans should be patient as a number of the nation’s top coaches had to have time to turn their programs around.

Once again, TCU won and UNT and SMU did not.  You can read my write ups at Pegasus News here and here.

TCU

TCU played a Thursday night game against BYU on national TV (sort of, it was on Versus) and really drummed eighth/ninth ranked BYU 32-7.  TCU had not done so well on Thursday nights lately, but this time, they got the job done and looked good doing it.  They showed the nation that they have a very good defense.  For some people, the BYU/TCU game was more compelling than the Florida State/NC State game on ESPN.  Kudos to the guys from the Northeast (or the “mouse ears” as Randy Galloway calls them) for picking the best game ahead of time.  I suppose they thought this was the year that Florida State would be good again.  Of course, those are teams from the ACC, a BCS conference.  At least that game was closer.  TCU gets a couple extra days to rest, and then they get a hapless Wyoming team at Amon G. Carter Stadium.

SMU

SMU is playing competitively.  They have been close to getting wins the last three weeks including a near upset of Tulsa.  I really do believe that a team has to be able to run the ball and stop the run to be a championship level team.  There defense doesn’t seem to be getting the job done.  They can’t hold the leads that their offense gets for them, and the Pony offense is still too young to complete the come-from-behind victory.  By young, I mean young in the system and at QB.  They have some mature, older players such as Emmanuel Sanders along with the emergence of Aldrick Robinson.  SMU’s offfensive line has had injury problems too.  I think that Mustang coach June Jones is about a year away from a significant turn around.  He will need to get help on both sides of the line as it seems he has been able to find guys to step in to the skill positions and make plays.

UNT

The students have approved a referendum which will allow a Athletic fee to be charged so that the Mean Green Athletic programs can experience improvement.  One of the areas of improvement needed is a new football stadium.  Fouts Field, the UNT home, is old and deteriorating.  The facility was not kept up very well, and the Mean Green stadium and its facilities are among the worst in the Sun Belt.  Just imagine that your a young man being recruited by UNT and you visit their facilities.  Every where you turn you see outdated facilties that are falling apart.  Then, you get a phone call from SMU or TCU with their nice facilities.  Is there any doubt where you would rather go play?  I have been in the TCU’s Justin Athletic Complex.  It is brand new, and it is awesome.  The first step is to get the stadium up to par and then build athletic facilities for tutoring, meetings, etc.  You can check out the concept drawing at GoMeanGreen.com.  Unfortunately, the Mean Green football could not match the referendum’s success on the football field.

What are they saying?

TCU

Matt Zemek–BigPurpleNation.com

Mercedes Mayer–FWST

Trae Thompson–FWST

Gil Lebreton–FWST

SMU

Bobbi Roquemore–DMN

PonyPride.com

UNT

Brett Vito–DRC

Brett Vito–DRC

Another week and another loss for SMU and UNT.  Could there have been improvement?  Check out my write up at PegasusNews.com.

UNT

The Mean Green’s offense finally woke up after its season long slumber putting up 30 points on Louisiana-Lafayette.  Too bad the needed to score 60.  The Ragin Cajun beat UNT 59-20.  There does seem to be some hope for optimism according to GoMeanGreen.com.  UNT’s defense has some work to do, and it probably starts up front.  They are going to have to find some guys who make plays in the front four during recruiting season.  That being said, Eddrick Gilmore has been playing, but had to move inside to DT due to injuries.

SMU

The Mustangs let an upset slip away against Tulsa for the second year in a row, but the fact that they had a lead in the fourth quarter against one of the most explosive offenses in the country is good news for the Pony faithful.  The Mustangs seem to be close to getting their first Conference USA win.  They have been competitive the past couple of weeks.

TCU

In case you haven’t heard, there is a big game in Fort Worth on Thursday night.  Ninth ranked BYU comes to town to play TCU.  Both teams are undefeated in conference with TCU’s loss to Oklahoma as the only loss among the two.  Both team were sloppy in their wins last week.  TCU needs to find its offense.  If Andy Dalton can come back and play well, and the running game is clicking, then this game will be a great one.  However, as Spitbloodtcu rightly pointed out, there are some problems with the offense.

What are they saying?

UNT

Brett Vito–DMN/DRC

Brett Vito–DMN/DRC

SMU

Bobbi Roquemore–DMN

Bobbi Roquemore–DMN

TCU

Josh Harvey–Big Purple Nation

Michael Hicks–DMN

Mercedes Mayer–FWST

Mercedes Mayer–FWST

While UNT’s offense was productive last season and stands in a position to improve, the defense struggled and its ability to improve is uncertain.  The defense seemed unable stop any opponent last year, and was a nation’s worst in scoring at 45.1 ppg.  In an era of the high-flying, air-it-out football of the Sun Belt, UNT gave up 229.7 yards per game rushing.  Much of the damage in rushing defense was done against stellar run teams and nonconference foes Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Navy.  UNT still gave up 300 yards rushing to Louisiana-Lafayette, and only held one opponent less than 100 yards rushing (Florida Atlantic).  UNT didn’t do much better with pass defense ranking 95th giving up 256.8 yards per game.  UNT ranked 110 in turnovers at -11 for the year.

With six returning starters, it looked as if UNT had something to build upon, but yesterday UNT announced that Eddrick Gilmore will not return for UNT in the fall.  Gilmore was one of UNT’s few returning starters at Defensive Line, but certainly not the only Defensive Lineman with experience.  UNT will return the services of Sophomore OLB Craig Robertson who had 48 tackles and 5 interceptions.  Robertson finished the year with an Honorable Mention All Sun Belt Conference award.  They also will return Antoine Bush and Kartey Agbottah in the secondary.  The Mean Green may have gotten a big boost to its defense when it nabbed Alonzo Horton.  Horton was rated as a JUCO Top 100 by Rivals.

Coach Dodge has turned the defense over to former Defensive Coordinator Gary DeLoach in an attempt to shore up the defense.  DeLoach’s defenses were very good in 2001 and 2002 ranking first in the Sun Belt Conference.  DeLoach may have to count on some young players to help turn the defense around.  If he can find more young players like Robertson, he might make the turn quicker than later. Royce Hill of Cypress Ridge HS in Houston, Darien Williams of Vernon, TX and James Hamilton of Cedar Hill, TX look to be able to contribute early.  A darkhorse early contributer is Jeremy Phillips of Waller, TX.  His brother is All Mountain West LB Jason Phillips of TCU.  Phillips is a coach’s son, and former QB for Waller.  He may be too good to keep on the sidelines.

Special Teams

If any area was worse than defense, it might have been special teams.  UNT Punter Truman Spencer fell off his pace last year with a 34.2 Net Avg.  His actual punting average went up, so look for improvement in the punting game with better coverage.  UNT Place Kicker Thomas Moreland was 8 for 15 kicking and did not hit a field goal longer than 37 yards.  However, UNT signed JUCO kicker Jeremy Knott who was an NJCAA All-American kicker at Northeastern Oklahoma A & M.  Micah Mosely held the KR duties last year and returns for the Mean Green.  UNT will be searching for a new Punt Returner and a second Kick Returner.

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.

When Todd Dodge became the new head football coach at The University of North Texas, few people doubted that he would put up big offensive numbers. Some even believed he would be successful leading the Mean Green to be a top program in the Sun Belt Conference. Others, however, doubted his ability to be successful at the college level. Dodge’s previous stop was at the high school level, head coach at Southlake Carroll High School in Southlake, TX.

Dodge proved both sides right, and wrong. Dodge’s offense was good. Freshman Giovanni Vizza was Freshman of the Year in the Sun Belt Conference. He threw for over 2300 yards with 17 touchdowns as a starter in 8 games. Wide Receiver Casey Fitzgerald was a 1,000 yard receiver for UNT, including a game against SMU where he caught 18 passes for 327 yards and 2 touchdowns. The Mean Green moved the ball well, but struggled to score a lot of touchdowns in the red zone. The big problem was their defense. Dodge and his Defensive Coordinator, Ron Mendoza, seemed to be overmatched at the college level.

At the end of the season, Dodge made a defensive coaching change. Dodge brought former UNT Defensive Coordinator Gary DeLoach. DeLoach’s defenses at UNT were spectacular. During the spring practices, it seemed as if the UNT defense is already making progress. This move may have been a college level move by Dodge. If DeLoach can make the UNT defense significantly better, then UNT will be a dangerous team in the Sun Belt Conference.

For the Mean Green to be successful, Dodge, DeLoach, and UNT has to put the mean back into the Mean Green. They have to force turnovers like they did against UL Monroe, their lone conference win in 2007. They will need more depth at the defensive line. There is enough talent in the DFW area to recruit and find the defensive skill players, therefore, it is the defensive line they have to find talent to help make the front 7 better. If we remember Terry Bowden’s characteristics of a champion, we will recognize the need to stop the run. A good, a better, defensive line is key to stopping the run. The highlight of UNT’s ineptness against the run was against Navy when the Mean Green gave up 572 yards on the ground.

Keep an eye on UNT this fall to see if they put the Mean back into the Mean Green.

Just a quick check over at Fanblogs.com and SMU is tied with Georgia Tech and South Carolina for 8th in the Charity Bowl. Where is TCU and UNT? This is a chance to show your school spirit and to help with relief in Myanmar.

I’ll do this. The school that is the highest in the Charity Bowl between TCU, SMU, and UNT will get multiple exposure at collegefootballtopten.com. I will put the team logo or helmet on all the pages of my site. I will then list as many blogs as I can find dedicated to your team.

We will call this the DFW Charity Bowl Challenge. SMU Mustangs vs. TCU Horned Frogs vs. UNT Mean Green.