TexasDog

Agree with this completely. If you go back to my score prediction before the game, it's essentially what I said. Had UNT played better competition in the first four, they likely would have been prepared for close/scrappy games and might not have made the mistakes that led to a loss. Who knows? As I mentioned, I am not convinced that La Tech is better than UNT, but we were better last weekend. We might well lose to UAB this weekend and then everything is back in play.

You were on your way to that, and we reversed it. A football game is a 4 quarter match. You dont get to extrapolate after one quarter.

Congrats. Woulda, coulda, shoulda been better. Our top RB was out too. We simplified what we were doing after the first quarter and outscored you 23-6. We deserved the win, better in all three phases. Much more physical.

BleedTechBlue is our rivals site. That was written by a beat writer, not by the team. Secondly, I saw a ton of 28 point victory predictions on this board, that seems much more arrogant to me.

I haven't personally met or seen any of those types of fans. It's difficult for most Tech fans to go on our message boards because the majority is so negative. I guess every fan base has fans with their noses in the air.

SMU and the rest of the "P6" will always demand that WE (CUSA) kiss the ring before they grant us the privilege of playing them on a regular basis. They act like a home and home is a favor to us. We know that the Tech/UNT rivalry will continue because we are in the same division, and that makes it all the more important, IMO.

Just to echo that, great experience. Hope you guys win out.

When the game was on the line UNT made the mistakes. In my opinion that's what playing bad teams four games straight to open the year will do. It's a long way from over. I would not be shocked to see us lose to UAB and then to UTSA over the next two weeks. We have a history of being up and down. Thanks to all mean green fans. Y'all were very hospitable and the stadium, campus and atmosphere was top notch. Hope to see y'all in Ruston next year.

Bingo. Our beat writer posted in the Tech forum on Wednesday that coach holtz told him we had a chance to block a kick this week...

*DISCLAIMER: Tech fan. Not here to troll. Here to discuss game.* Let's start with my analysis of Tech so far. First and foremost, we have a history of laying eggs in big games. While we have won four bowl games in a row (opponents: Illinois, Navy, Ark State and SMU), we have lost big conference matchups to Marshall (CUSA title game), USM and WKU. In addition to that, we lost to Arkansas a few years ago after leading by a touchdown in the 4th, lost to South Carolina after leading by 2 with about 90 seconds left, and way back in the Dykes era lost to Houston after being up 35-7 in the third quarter. I give you guys credit for being able to not only close out the Arkansas game, but keep your foot on the gas all the way through.This being an effective elimination game troubles me because of our history in big games. Our schedule thus far has also been pretty lackluster. Our performance against USA in game one was underwhelming to say the least and had many in Ruston down on what we thought would be a good team this year. Despite the final score, there were long stretches in the Southern game where our defense had the ball moved on them by our SWAC opponent. Most of you probably know the story against LSU, came out and turned the ball over twice inside our own 20 yard line in the first half and got in a 0-24 hole before closing it to 21-24 and ultimately losing in the fourth quarter. That should probably be added to the list of choke jobs I've mentioned above. In summary, we don't really know what we have in our team yet. Our offense has been pretty good. In said LSU game we put up more yards on them than Miami, Auburn and SELA combined. All that counts in the end is the W, which we did not get, but our offense has to be feeling pretty confident. We also did not give up a sack to the vaunted LSU defense until the final drive of the game. However, our starting RB and leading rusher Jaquis Dancy is likely out for tomorrows game. J'Mar Smith appeared to make major strides by throwing for 330 yard and 3 TD last week, but in the Arkansas and South Carolina games I noted in point one he also played big in big moments before coming back to earth in conference games. The big question for our offense is if J'Mar has really progressed or if what we saw last week was just another flash. He tends to hold the ball too long and take unnecessary sacks. Despite what I have read here on this forum, he is not much of a threat to run. He can run, for whatever reason he chooses not to. You probably won't see many read options, it's just not something we do much. Most fans thought our defense would be the strength of our team this year and so far they have looked pretty good. We gave up more yards than we wanted to against USA partly because after they didnt do anything in the first half they went to the triple option, which we didn't really prepare for given that they had a new staff and there wasnt much film out there. That has inflated the amount of yards we give up on the ground. Our defensive line is solid with the star being Jaylon Ferguson who will probably be either a first or second round pick in the NFL draft next year. L'Jarius Sneed and Amik Robertson are stellar corners. The weakness of the defense are our LBs (brought in two JUCO guys and that hasnt really worked out so far). I'm worried UNT might have success right in the middle of our defense. Special teams might make or break us tomorrow. Our kicker is also a transfer guy. He missed a 49 yarder at LSU off the upright but I think other than that has made all of his XPs. He is untested. Punting is always an adventure. We do both traditional and rugby style punting since that position is in flux. UNT could really grab an advantage here. I've read about all of yall's strengths and know Tech football pretty well. I think this will be a really good atmosphere and great game, I am excited to visit Apogee since I have never had the chance to do so. Congrats on the great season so far and on the wonderful facilities and enhancements. We need to try to keep pace, UNT is definitely a program on the up and up. The one thing I see from UNT that I would be worried about if I were you is over confidence. Blowing out three bad teams with an impressive win at Arkansas might not have you guys optimally prepared for what I think is the best team you have played so far. It will be an emotional, scrappy conference game, different from any out of conference game youve played so far. The atmosphere in the week leading up to the game reminds me when Tech played ULL back in 2014 and they thought they were the next big thing. They made a huge production of the game in Lafayette and invited about 20 of our commits to the game to watch. They got beat by 30. I think the throwback uniforms, the statue unveiling and jersey retirement, talk of sellouts and hyped up fan predictions have the potential to get into the teams head. As Bill Parcells used to say, dont eat the cheese. All factors considered and with a confidence factor of 50.00001% I'm going La Tech 34, UNT 28.