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The 2013 football season is one of the biggest years in the University of North Texas football program’s history. This year, UNT is celebrating 100 years of football, starting its first year in Conference USA, opening the season at home for the first time in 12 years and playing four of its 12 games on national television. Not to mention, for the first time in head coach Dan McCarney’s three-year stint, the UNT program has 85 scholarship players. “We have to take advantage of the opportunities that are out there because nobody is going to hand you anything,” McCarney said. “It’s real easy to be average in football and in life so if you want to be an elite program you have to give more and be an even better team than we’ve been in the past.” Conference USA is connected to six different bowl games and with the addition of all the bowl game opportunities, the Mean Green will have to face its share of teams coming off bowl games at the end of last year’s campaign. On the Mean Green schedule are five teams that went to a bowl game last season: the University of Ohio, Ball State University, the University of Georgia, Rice University and the University of Tulsa. UNT will play Ball State, Tulsa and Rice in the friendly confines of Apogee Stadium. “We all know how to play with each other, we all know what coach expects from us and we all know what to expect from each other each time we hit the field,” senior linebacker Zach Orr said. For the second time in his career at UNT, senior Derek Thompson came out on top of a quarterback position battle and will start for the season opener against the University of Idaho. However, coach McCarney has made it clear that he will not be the only quarterback to take snaps throughout the games. True freshman Dajon Williams will see playing time in certain offensive packages and situations come game day. Read more: http://ntdaily.com/unt-football-heads-season-high-hopes/