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Nice problem to have! Face it, we gave this race away with two winnable loses. My how our expectations have changed in the past two years. I feel cheated, how about you? I’ll be at Apogee next Saturday for win #7. Let’s make it 10-2 this year. Still a lot to play for. This team just peaked a bit early. If you need a RESET, just go back 3 years. Disappointing as it is, I’ll take this season over that. GMG!

Posts like these drive me nuts. So far, what he has done here has been quite ‘elite’. I am loving this guy and what he is doing here. We all seem to forget where we have been and who we have been with. SL is amazing for us and I can’t think of another who could have done better. I hope this guy sticks with us for a very long time. He is a fantastic coach for us. We have consistently had something to play for in late October the past few years and were even flirting with a possible undefeated season halfway through. I am very much ok with that. I have closely followed this team for the better part of 20 years and some others twice as long. I don’t forget how bad we were and that we are light years from that. No way I am gonna get greedy now.

Good lord! 100% don’t agree. The wins are one thing. The culture is a whole other thing. Look at the quality of coaches and players he’s brought in. Look at their attitude and the classhe’s about to sign. Coach Littrell is in only his third season as a head coach. He’s still learning and has surpassed anything anyone ever imagined he would become at this point. Your not paying attention my friend. Rick

Man, these two losses this year have been real heart breakers. The team comes out on fire, offense just airing it out and we throw quick releases to protect Fine from our suspect offensive line. Whatever is happening in the adjustment segment of our halftime show just needs to stop. Since we've lost Loren, we haven't been able to run. Even with Torrey's 3 TD he had to break two or three tackles each time to get in. If the pass game is working, abandon the run. Seriously. The officiating was horrendous, but honestly it went both ways. I don't mind losing to superior teams, but I hate losing the way we've been losing. Fumbled balls in big moments, trying to do too much. Defense did enough, Offense almost did enough IN ONE half. Then, imagine when we went back to the pass, way too late in the game, we go flying down the field but can't beat the clock. NOW, I will say, i'm incredibly happy, and have a long enough memory to realize i'm grateful to have these kind of expectations and be this disappointed. We've come a really long way in three years. The team and staffs expectations were as high as ours with the way we handle business in the non-conference segment of our schedule. That's good, we should keep that and be disappointed. No one has convincingly beat North Texas this year, that's the plus side. 16 of UAB's starters are seniors. Most of them redshirt seniors and UAB got an incredible amount of waivers in order to revive their program (before someone bites my head off, it was well deserved, their program being shutdown was a railroad job). They should be good, most of their team is playing their 5th year of college ball. This season is still one for the books, it's still a really good North Texas team. Last year we had 6 one score or less games and won them all. That type of luck can't hold forever. We need to put a complete 4 quarter game together. That's on the staff. Got to find a way to not get out coached in the second half. The staff has to evaluate what is being done. If we have to throw the slant to Darden 30 times because it's working, do it. I know we have options and range in the playbook but man certain aspects of our game CLEARLY work. Others are not. No need to overthink it. Honestly, Coach Ref's crew is still playing out of their mind. Our o-line, is one of the bigger limits on this team right now. As much as Litrell tells us how excited he is about the RB group, we really need that emphasis in this recruiting cycle. Replacing EJ, BG, Brooks, and Hall is going to be tough too. I'm still excited for this season and i'm still grateful. Let's not forget the gutters from which we have come. I'm disappointed for this team more than I am with this team. We have lost two games on basically two plays 9 (both within the 5 yard line) and are those two plays away from being undefeated. When you're not a dynasty or a powerhouse, that's how football goes. G5 conferences are the wild west and the last great bastion of the ideal of any given "sunday". Recruiting is improving, donors are improving, attendance (on non-rain games) is improving, Defense is light years better than we ever expected it to be this year if we're being honest. We still have some of the best receivers and one of the best QB's in the country. Our defense is awesome, and fun and creates havoc. We just have to put it all together and we still have a shot at a 10+ win season. I'll see you guys out at the games. Always proud to be Mean Green. GMG

Do you mean “win a division...”? We won the division last year & certainly “competed/are competing” for it this year! A lot of people here are either too emotional, or spoiled after only 1.5 seasons of “competing for a division”.

AND NOW WE ARE ALL OVERREACTING. Litrell and what he has accomplished in only three years. Will still make him one of the most sought after coaches in all of college football. If you think otherwise, you're lying to yourself. Frank Wilson and Lane Kiffin are the dudes who aren't moving on after this year without a doubt. And I think Seth would consider staying. His stock hasn't dropped for losing two games by less than a total of 10 points. It's absolutely mind blowing. If this is such a crushing blow and he's a bad coach I guess you'll be happy when he moves on. There are teams hoping their third year coach is bowl eligible. If I would have asked anyone if we would have one a division title in year two, they would have laughed. Ya'll went from tortured fan base to entitled pretty quick. Seriously, if you're that upset, try the sleep on it rule and come back with logical talking points. And if he doesn't get poached, we should consider ourselves incredibly lucky.

He won 5 games with a 1-11 roster. He won 9 a year later. He's a few calls away from an 8-0 season. And...we have the best recruiting class in C-USA. I'll take SL everyday of the week. Losing sucks, but we're on the road to winning much more than losing.

Reading some of the posts, one would believe that NT has the history of a Notre Dame type program. The facts are that NT, despite those apparently unacceptable losses to some, are playing the best football they have since Hayden Fry was on the sideline. What is more exciting is that little ole NT has the budget and facilities to be an elite team among the G5's. The current recruiting class is the best rated ever and everything is pointing upward. NT has two very disappointing loses to two good teams that could easily have been wins. NT wins out or even with another loss could play in the HOD bowl which is a great opportunity. There is still a lot to play for. Not to mention, next year's team should be even better.

After a heartbreaker, I think it’s important to find bright spots. Obviously Fine is an all-time Mean Green Great. And I’m thrilled with Darden’s Performance today. But mercy... EJ Ejiya reminded me so much of Craig Robertson out there tonight. 14 tackles. 14! He was absolutely EVERYWHERE tonight, and I hope they send this game film to the NFL scouts so he gets his rightful combine invitation. EJ Ejiya is special, y’all!

you don’t deserve to win football games. Period.

A few of us old farts find it really funny that we are grumbling about a coach who might win only eight games per year.

I hope I NEVER have to work for you as a boss if you think Littrell is doing a so-so job. Year 1 his win total was a “middling” +4 compared to the year before (5 wins vs 1). He followed that “mediocre” performance up in year 2 by again being +4 in the win column (9 wins vs 5). I know he will fail to maintain his established “so-so” pace...but not every team can win 13 games. I can see how, given our illustrious history or winning (3 bowl wins TOTAL), one could wish to hold his feet to the fire for failing to measure up. I just think I’ll keep my torch and pitchfork in the shed for a little longer, show up Friday night to kick off my Homecoming celebration, and then watch my team pick up win #7 along with a very large crowd of those who enjoy the taste of winning (because it’s not commonplace in these parts YET).

We hit the upright on a FG attempt that would have won the game then we got the next one blocked (again that would have won the game). Tonight we fumbled on the 4-yd line when we were driving for the go-ahead score. We've had some bad breaks this year. We had all the breaks last year. I don't know about everyone else, but I penciled us in at 6-2 at this point of the season. A different path to 6-2 for sure, but 6-2 none the less. Think about that. We're angry to be 6-2 after 8 games. This is a different generation. Could we be 8-0?. Yes, but absolutely everything would have had to bounce our way. Sometimes it doesn't Let's regroup and win the rest.

Watching Mason run for his life against Incarnate Word should have told everyone all they needed to know. Without an offensive line this team is gonna be lots of fun but nothing more than a coin flip against the above average CUSA defenses. You can’t compete with what we’ve got up front. But it is a really nice Heisman quality hat.

Are we not 6-2 with a road win at an SEC school? Do we still have 4 games to play? Do we still have the number 1 recruiting class in CUSA? IPF? BOWLING 3 years in a row? I know there are few trolls on this board but I never knew there were so many crybabies who throw a pity party after a tiny bit of adversity. We have 2 losses to winning teams.

1) Recruit a decent pass rushing end 2) Line him up against our LT 3) Repeat step 2

Just wow. There is a total of 8 teams in FBS that have more wins than the Mean Green this season.

Gotta keep in mind we have a lot of new fans who don’t know any better. Rick

Good perspective. In the Littrell era the team has been a step a head of normal expectations.The problem is all of these things have raised our expectations beyond where the team realistically his. This team can still get 10 wins this season, which is a huge benchmark for UNT. Winning our bowl game is another important milestone for this program. Normal expectations: stop the bleeding in year one, .500 record in year two, get to a bowl in year three. UNT has exceeded expectations: bowl game in year one, conference championship game in year two, undefeated OOC schedule in year 3.

I think this team is great. We may not win a championship this year, but no one on this board can honestly say they thought we would even be competing for championships or in the conversation about one in year three of a rebuild. We were 1-11 in 2015, 5-8 2016, 9-5 2017, and now 6-2 so far with the most difficult part of our schedule behind us. We have 5 more games left because we should beat everyone else and have a good chance of winning our bowl game. That would make for an 11-2 season. We still have McCarney era players on this team. We have a lot of Littrell players as well, but really how well could he recruit when he came to us mid December and had a very short time to convince kids to come to a school that was really a dumpster fire? He had to take what he could get. He took what he inherited and coached them up to exceed expectations and came away with a 5-8 season. After that season, his staff was raided and he had to reset. Plus 5-8 doesn't convince a lot of 3 star kids to come to a place that has been losing for years. He coached them to a 9-5 season and the result is now we have the number one recruiting class in CUSA coming in. Next year all of McCarney's players will be gone and this will be completely SL's guys and a huge recruiting class coming in. If he cannot start winning championships in the next two years, then I would worry, but right now I think he is moving this team right along nicely. I think we as fans want more sooner because we are just so tired of losing.

Guys, 2019 class will be the first step towards next level football. Do I wish they happened Season 1 Litrell instead of Season 3? Definitely. But this is the missing piece in what is otherwise a remarkable program. Now just doesn’t seem like a time to abandon them. Just my 0.02

To be honest we could all blame many things: bad pass blocking, not consequently calling the quickest slant, decent defense, but not enough depth to keep up with this kind of team. The refs, Fumbles etc... we could blame those ... or we could name the real culprit: beIN sports! We had three games with them this season, and each and every time NT played waaaay worse than whenever they were not on that channel from hell. NT is 5-0 when NOT playing on beIN with all wins by 23 points or more! UTEP, LaTech, and UAB were easily the three worst games of the season, and they all were: on beIN. I am sure everyone will agree, that HAS to be it! 

This is about the furthest thing from the truth. This fan base is massively upset about a 6-2 football team. I think we’ve made the transition from “old Denton”.

Good game guys. I look forward to travelling out to Denton next year. Mason Fine is a really great QB.

Frustrating. No doubt. But I am so glad we are where we are these days. I don’t miss the Mac, dodge, or late Dickey years. This is a lot of fun. And near heart stopping too.

UAB is a good squad with a very good coach. It showed tonight. We just aren’t there yet. These two CUSA losses come down to these other teams having physical defenses. As for Seth Littrell, right now, he appears to be fully following the Mike Leach path of being able to pound bad teams, but really physical defenses usually will stop the offense enough to keep you from winning big games. I really don’t know if that ever really changes because of their styles of coaching.

this is what green privilege and entitlement looks like.

Define big games. I think you're doing some amazing cherry picking. 2016: Consider the awful roster Seth had his first season and the fact he was starting a true freshman QB, I'd consider the Rice OT game, the road win at Army, and the Southern Miss game as huge. We lost the bowl game to Army in OT with Fine out with an injury. This roster had no business winning 5 games but they did due to the coaching. 2017: UAB, @USM, @LaTech, Army ... they were all big game wins. We were outclassed by FAU and Troy but we were still a very young team that won more than anyone should have expected. 2018: Arkansas and USM were both big games. How well does the team do in close games? In games decided by 8 points or less, under Seth we are 8-3. Stop the cherry picking.

Herein lies the problem. We are just now growing our donor and season ticket base after years of surviving on a threadbare budget, so the first sign of a problem is not when we need to jump ship. We want IPFs, bigger weight rooms, fancy meeting and locker rooms, increased coaching budgets, etc... yet people want to complain and not support these items that make our program better. Can't have it both ways.

This pretty much sums it up. It is difficult to go undefeated. Some perspective: I will take the 2 losses this season to any season I have ever watched as a UNT fan. All I ask is that our team is competitive in its losses. If we lose (and every team does), I want it to be by a possession with chances to win. It's frustrating, yes, but so much better than getting our heads beat in. We have the players, we need some more of them. It is still a good year to be a Mean Green fan.

It’s going to be hard for us to beat anyone worth a damn as long as our oline is a flaming pile of garbage. It’s a miracle Mason is able to do what he does with so little protection.

I don’t think we’re losing our coaching staff this year.

NT moved up in the S&P rankings again, despite losing. All the way up to 33rd now. I think this can be taken as an indicator that the team plays better than last season, but is not as lucky as last season when all the one-possession games seemed to end up in NTs favor and all the losses were blowouts. I expect that when the "post-win probabilities" come out, they will say that NT should have won yesterdays game in more than 50% of the cases.

What Rick said

Don't believe the players lost these two games.....the coaching did. But since SL and GH are still in a learning curve you can't grip too much. Two years from now if they still haven't won a Conference title or Bowl game then maybe they are in over their heads. After following NTSU & UNT football for almost 50 years if you think I'm spoiled that's funny!

Hit 10 And A Bowl Win! Who’s with me? Rick

We get recruits attention with the SMU & Arkansas wins. We got more of our casual fans attention with those 2 wins. Beating CUSA schools don’t come close to getting similar attention as did wins over the Mustangs & Hogs. Littrell? Coaches come & go. Ask Boise St. about that, but I hope SL stays & continues to improve our recruiting to where we can beat the best of the Sun Belt (Troy) & CUSA. GMG!

No I would not. My reasoning may be a little different than anyone else. My reasoning is because of recruiting. Although a conference championship would be nice, but let's be honest, high school football players probably do not pay too much attention to CUSA let alone our championship game. Secondly we are not in competition with UAB for recruits, but we are with SMU. If we want to dominate this 4 county metroplex for players, we better beat SMU. I got it that we have to compete with P5 schools coming in here, but we shouldn't have to compete with SMU or any other G5 that hits this area. I do not think there are many kids from Texas who want to go to Alabama unless they are going to the Tide or Auburn, which if they have a shot at one of those schools, we probably do not have much of a shot to land them anyway. Sure we compete with LaTech for a lot of the east Texas players, but there again, how many really pay attention to LaTech until Tech contacts them? I guarantee you that they pay attention to Arkansas. Them seeing us beat Arkansas carries a hell of a lot more weight than us getting beat on BEiN sports where no one probably saw the game anyway other than die hard UNT and UAB fans. The game that we really need to win now is the game against FAU because that will be primetime on a night when we will be the only game on. We need to dominate FAU and show all potential recruits that LaTech and UAB were anomalies. Because honestly, I doubt any kid from Texas will watch the CUSA Championship game that will probably be Marshall vs UAB. I doubt any kids saw us get beat by LaTech or UAB other than the kids who have already committed to us. Then I do not think those two losses changed their minds. I can almost guarantee that they saw us beat AR especially after the Brewer punt return. So, no I wouldn't trade it.

What Littrell has done here is amazing. He has been a miracle for UNT. Love that he’s here. But the fact remains, he’s never won a big game with something on the line. Just a fact.

That was always going to be a tough challenge on the road. Give the opponent some credit and stop all the talk about abandonment. There are some more wins ahead.

I don’t care about going for it there. Call a damn play and execute it. Whatever But they didn’t. My thing is we return 10 of 11 offensive starters next year. Think about it. But if we’re going to have playcalling like this....what difference does it make.

I love aggressive play calling. I think going for it on both 4th downs was the right call. I think running it on third down was actually the worse call in our current run game. Or, if we're going to run it, fine has to keep that option from time to time to keep them honest.

Good God, it is lose not loose. This drives me crazy. It is simple English. @NorthTexasWeLove you are just a breath of stale air along with the others that give up during the game and then claim they are done supporting the program because we are 6-2! What were your predictions for our record prior to this year? We can still finish the regular season at 10-2 and I don't recall any predictions of a 10-2 record. Sure, this is disappointing. UAB has a good defense but their offense is fair and I stand by my belief they are overrated. We gave this game away just as we did against La Tech and that is the tough part. This program is light years ahead of where it was when this staff arrived and is still headed in the right direction. Again, I am disappointed but some of you need a dose of perspective.

If you want to complain take it to the NCAA who gave them unbelievable accommodations when they returned. They basically allowed them to build a semi-pro team.

What I wanna see from Littrell on next week’s Beyond the Green: Littrell stand in front if the team and apologize for the coaching staff letting them down. Because that’s what happened.

Why? no more slants? running against a dline that is whooping our ass? not putting Darden in space? This is the same s#%t as latech.

I'll go back to something I said 2 weeks ago.. Is Darden our most sure-handed and "go-to" receiver now? Bc good lord he's a beast and seems to make an exciting play every time he touches the ball!

LMAO at Garner and company going with a blatantly basic celebration of the sack. High fives and firm handshakes.

My wife surprised me with a trip to a B&B in Granbury for my birthday Tuesday (big 4-0). Not quite a trip to Birmingham, but I did find a place that sells some North Texas stuff on the square.