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In 2009 Darius Carey had a standout true freshman season racking up 509 receiving yards. Not sure what the record was before that but here are the top true freshmen seasons in terms of receiving yards since, by my research: 378 - Miles Coleman 2024 363 - Landon Sides 2023 295 - Wyatt Young 2024 281 - Jaelon Darden 2017 253 - Carlos Harris 2012 240 - Deonte Simpson 2019 151 - Darvin Kidsy 2013 146 - Tyler Wilson 2016 97 - Rico Bussey 2016 These guys on our roster are in really good company being atop some real ballers on this list. NFL guys, 1,000 yard seasons, etc. Two takeaways here are that you can make an impact early here, especially at receiver, and that even in the transfer portal it’s still important to sign top high school talent as they seems to be the guys more likely to remain loyal when they otherwise would have good stock in the transfer portal/NIL market.

Austin TV Station just did a very nice segment on the UNT vs Texas State bowl game. They totally focused on the QB play of local Drew Mestemaker. Even though we lost the game it was nice to see Drew making those nice plays for UNT.

@SUMG - THANK YOU for posting this. I was going to do the same thing so you saved me some time. Glad to see the national media sees what occurred yesterday at the same time we had moronic hot sports takes tagged under "We picked the wrong quarterback" and "So sick of the crap this football program slings us". Pretty sure most of us expected to get blown out (let me raise my hand) with so many hitting the portal, so IMO we played a really solid game and barely lost. For those people that constantly berate all things UNT and are never happy, it's a New Year -- find something that DOES make you happy. Back to the point, great article by ESPN. Very eye opening and well done! 🙂

Tulane and UNT were the only AAC schools to lose their starting QBs for the bowl. That's the difference. Mestemaker played a great game. I think a *healthy* Chandler Morris wins the game. That's just me. Mestemaker made great plays for sure but there were also several deep misses early on. Before the Coleman TD, he was 3/8. He found his groove then sputtered some then picked things up again. I hope he stays and I'd love to watch him start next season. On the flip side, we played a 25 year old QB who started all year for Texas State (edit). There's no substitute for experience and continuity. I don't think this loss indicates in any way we're stuck in neutral. I think it shows how well this staff identifies and develops offensive talent. To compete in your bowl, you either need a senior QB, a loyal QB, or to get very lucky like we did with Mestemaker.

Is this his view? We're three rows behind the bench.

What if we stopped patting ourselves on the back for being disappointed at the result after losses and see if that works? Maybe that’s what’s holding us back. Being so proud that we don’t accept moral victories instead of actually figuring out how to get real victories. Everyone is always so happy to say they don’t accept moral victories on here when we lose without actually digging into the details to refute the optimism beyond a simplistic statement. Almost every good season we have had in the last 20 years was followed by a losing season. Most of our good seasons were followed up with losing seasons. A lot of our losing streaks were preceded by wins that showed weaknesses that could be exploited by better teams (i.e. FAU this season). Some of our best winning streaks were on the heels of losses where we played tough against a good opponent, like Iowa in 2017. All that to say, it’s not all black and white. We can and should analyze the nuances and details in between. Our HC has done nothing but churn out elite QB play from 3-star and below rated QBs for the last decade as an HC and OC, most recently evidenced by one of the most wild instances many people around college football have ever seen. We hired a DC who had a top 25 defense in the FBS and is bringing 5 starters and 2 more of his backups from that defense with him. There are logical reasons for optimism coming out of this bowl game and acknowledging that doesn’t equate to complacency or prevent us from turning the corner as a program.

Update from a good buddy, Memphis alum, long-time season ticket holder: Well, I am at the game but a pretty sparse crowd. Really bad weather and storms moving thru. Don't you just hate fair weather fans? I see 3 North Texas fans in front of me. (Guessing that is @Matt from A700 and his crew) GMG

I expected to lose, and we did. Forget the storylines. If UNT is ever going to get out of the shadow of itself, we have to stop making ourselves feel better after losses and focus instead on how to win.

I think the interior DL of Texas State had an incredible impact on our ability to run the ball. Those two interior fellas were MASSIVE. Surprised to see such large human beings playing at TX State AND excited to see Cassity bring us some big boys like that to UNT. Next year is going to be fun, I can't wait!

Yeah buddy!! Now, Run The Damn Ball 😆

Here we go!!

My LSU buddies were talking about what we witnessed on Friday 24 hours later. As the story of DM kept unfolding on espn my friends marveled at what we had just seen. They had never ever seen that before. Didn’t think it was possible. To walk into a top tier college football game after 2 weeks of prep and ball out. It was a fun watch. He stated, “North Texas would not die.” I’ll take that fight every day. And yes I did think we were going to get blown out. I invited two alums for the Friday afternoon affair and they couldn’t be bothered. Showed zero interest. But I took 2 SEC diehards and there they were having fun supporting our Mean Green. I’m not giddy about the loss. Rather I believe there will be lots of fireworks and cannon fodder in a few short months in DATCU. Analyze everything. Every win every loss every missed opportunity every rarity. GMG

Morris’ system is a really good one. It makes the game easier to read for QBs. Therefore, easier for QBs to succeed. A true Leach Air Raid, instead of the Leach/Briles hybrid Littrell was running. Not saying Brophy isn’t a good coach. But we should see a QB who can put up #s as long as Morris is here. Now having those QB #s turn into more than a 6-6 record will depend on if we can find a successful defense. TBD…

Well, we can just add this to the immense collection that we already have. That trophy case must be *huge*

The Band has been a shell of what it used to be for at least a couple of decades. Our cheerleaders are gymnast only. They know nothing about promoting spirit. But then, neither does the Talons and neither does the Band.

Just going to bump this post. By the way, I guess an eye roll means... "Damn, you're right."

What are you people talking about???? Drop back down to D1AA? Drop football altogether and put the money into basketball? Crazy talk!!!

By the way, that story is on the front page of the ESPN website. (at the time I am posting). So the kid got us great national publicity. https://www.espn.com/

Did you really expect a win with our record and all those who deserted to the portal? I didn't... but went to the game anyway.

I'm calling him Drew "Breeze" https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/43278528/north-texas-mestemaker-opens-eyes-first-responder-start

SHORT NOTICE: Come watch the top 2 men’s basketball teams in the American battle it out as the North Texas Mean Green take on the #21 Memphis Tigers! Wings Over Frisco will be hosting us directly across the street from the UNT Frisco campus. 4 PM CT tip off on Sunday, 1/5/25. Please share and invite your friends! https://www.facebook.com/share/18Qzk1tJRi/?mibextid=wwXIfr

We got him. Yanta, Blair, and Nnanna should be a really experienced interior offensive line with a ton of career starts amongst them. Nelson and Obidegwu at the tackles and you’re looking at an offensive line with over 110 career starts collectively at the division 1 level, by my count.

I don’t think it’s at all problematic that have to think the coaches were surprised that Mestemaker won the backup QB job, but thank goodness it was a meritocracy. What would I would find problematic is if Mestemaker wasn’t given the opportunity to be the backup because he is a walk-on. Regarding asking too much of him, don’t you think they based it on how he was playing? The announcers mentioned that the first 15 or so plays were scripted (in no particular order) to see how things went. When it was obvious he could handle it, they allowed him to do so. Had he struggled early, I’m sure we would have seen more of a run game. You view that as bad coaching and I view it as good coaching that allowed us to be competitive as a big underdog. I agree with everything you said about the defense being bad, going for it in 4th down, passing up field goals, etc. Those things drive me nuts, but I see it all the time in other games I watch as well. I hold him accountable as well, but I just don’t blame him for every-single-thing that goes wrong.

Well, since he installed him as the #2 back at the beginning of the season, I don't think it was a surprise to Coach Morris.

Yes, I would say most first-time transfers are either guys who want more playing time, guys whose coaches were hired away or fired, or guys whose stock is just too high for them to pass up the NIL opportunities presented elsewhere. Here is pretty much all of the guys who hit the transfer portal after the last two seasons who were actually starting or getting a lot of playing time: Chandler Morris - transferred from TCU DT Sheffield - transferred from Wash State Oscar Hammond - transferred from UCO Tyler Mercer - signed out of HS by Morris Chandler Rogers - transferred from ULM Ja’Mori Maclin - transferred from Mizzou Trey Cleveland - transferred from TTU Jordan Smart - transferred from UTPB Ayo Adeyi - transferred from Harding Oscar Adaway - signed out of HS by Littrell Ethan Miner - transferred from Ark State Febechi Nwaiwu - former walkon brought in by Littrell Phil Hill - transferred from UNLV Logan Wilson - transferred from ULM Patrick Smith - signed out of HS by Littrell By and large, the key players who we have lost to the portal were transfers here.

An opportunity for the first Mean Green road win over a T25 team since 1971.

When you try and talk about how "we are getting better" and look at small things that don't move the needle expecting to be a better team without actually winning games, that's pretty standard moral victory. I hear a TON of it on here.

Yes, EM has very similar records to SL, but are we not in a better conference, playing better teams? The AAC was 6-2 in bowl games, C-USA was 1-4. This is an important aspect that is always overlooked in the EM vs SL argument. Also, SL didn’t have to deal with NIL or the portal (granted, it’s possible he would have handled it well, but I have my doubts). Finally, I just don’t feel like we get our asses handed to us near as much as with SL. I know there are those that say “a loss is a loss,” but I’d much rather lose by one score instead of three score. I looked up the numbers at one time, but the number of 21+ point losses under SL was just crazy. In the past two seasons we have 10 conference losses, and 6 of those have been one score games. Only twice have we been throttled in conference…last year vs SMU and this year vs UTSA. This year we lost to 3 of the top 4 teams in the conference (Army, Tulane, and Memphis). Last year we lost to the top 4 teams in the conference (SMU, Tulane, Memphis, and UTSA). That’s bad luck on scheduling to even have to play all of the top teams in the conference. None of this is meant as praise for EM. I’m just saying that I think it’s obviously better than SL. I’ll give the rest of the argument as I honestly don’t have a clue.

Gutty road win. Nice play call to give Hardaway the game winner in front of family . Memphis belongs to our Hardaway today !

I think we can say by now that Eric Morris is good with QBs (And I bet you that Chandler Morris will not look better next year than he did this year). That is a super important skill in coaching. However, he still needs to prove a thing or two for the whole rest, including actually on offense as well as defense, because it feels that not all parts of the offense work nearly as well as the QB, and sometimes he appears to be too focused on getting the QBs good numbers rather than having the overall offense being maximally efficient at scoring points. And that is before we talk about the defense. I am hopeful though, that he has learnt some of his lesson there and that the new hires on that side of the ball are indeed better. They don't even need to be great, just average, and EMs teams might be conference championship contenders.

EM knows quarterback traits when he sees them. In this I very much trust! EM is also a can of Red Bull and gets really excited easily. Putting all this together I think EM is really excited about year 3. He’s been saying this for 2 years now. He sees the promise of the season to come. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun in Denton this fall. GMG

EM mentioned the bad snaps specifically as being a thing that slowed the entire offense. Also State had only 90 yards rushing until the 4th where they had that 73 yarder and a couple QB runs. I agree being able to run is a good thing but I don’t know that it was ever going to be Plan A. I like that we were able to punch it in from the goal line from under center though. That was big.

Then EM has a whole lot of explaining to do if he kept a “franchise NFL quarterback” on the bench all year. And, by the way, he never said he was a franchise QB in the NFL, he said he shared some traits with NFL quarterbacks he’s been around. There’s a key distinction there. I’m not saying the kid didn’t ball out yesterday, he was a very very pleasant surprise and the team MVP, but he doesn’t have a Cam Ward body of work.

If we’re already comparing him to Cam Ward, we need to slam on the brakes like we’re trying to avoid rear ending a semi on the freeway

Great post. Also, I didn’t spend much time researching, but a very quick Google search shows that teams that played the bowl games without their starting QB were not successful. I believe USC and Louisville were the only teams to win with a back-up. UNT, Coastal, Tulane, Cal, Pitt, OU*, Duke, and Miami** lost. Not having your QB is obviously a big deal. From the little I’ve seen, we’ve gotten better publicity in a loss due to Mestemakers performance than we would have gotten with a win if Morris had played. The media absolutely loves the “hasn’t started a game since freshman B team” narrative, and are blown away by his performance***. *Hawkins started games for OU this year **Cam Ward played half the game ***thanks to those giving EM some credit for how Mestemaker played.

I agree. The key to success next year will be substantial defensive improvement.

Hey sport, where did you read that I'm a basketball fan first? To set the record straight, I AM A NORTH TEXAS FAN FIRST! Football has always been my favorite sport, with basketball a close second. Capece?

You might have the board record for downvotes in a single thread..... congrats!

"Came up a little short....." That's what she said.

I preferred the win instead of coming up short. We had plenty of those already.

State fans showed up because they rightfully expected to win in this game. If the AD thinks they're going to depend on people to show up just cause NT has a team there, they are dead wrong. There are a few, but there are many many more who will not show up when they don't think their team will win. There are too many obligations and opportunities to devote precious time and money watching a team lose.

Reminds me of Riley Dodge in his state championship game at Southlake-Carroll.

If we struggle to another six win season then Morris has to go. Not a “hot seat” let’s see how year four goes.

After Morris and Sheffield transferred, how many here were actually expecting to win? Many of us were just hoping TXST didn't handle us like they did UTSA this year or Rice in last year's First Responder Bowl. Sure, it's the head coach's job to have his team ready to play and in position to win regardless of the adversity faced, but it's still incredible the performance Mestemaker had. Tonight was better than any game C. Morris has had since Memphis. Coastal Carolina lost their starting QB to the portal and got dog walked in their bowl game against UTSA in their own building. Yes, the loss increases our bowl futility streak to an active high, and it sucks to lose to an intrastate program in an inferior conference, but that shouldn't take away from Drew's game. The biggest disappointment to me was how badly we were outnumbered by TXST fans. We went from packing the lower level of the Cotton Bowl to being matched ON OUR OWN SIDE. Like our team, our fans also struggle to wear green. However, there should be optimism surrounding next season. Eric made a poor hire with his first DC obviously, but made the tough (but right) call in getting rid of him. Next year's presumed starter will be in his last year of eligibility, so no losing another 4000 yard passed before the bowl game. If we struggle to another 6/7-win season and bowl loss with next year's schedule, I think Eric's seat should be pretty hot again.