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After a brief hiatus from our summer questions series on UNT football, we are back at it today with question No. 10 — Does the pressure to break through break UNT? I’ve been working on a series of stories that will run later in the summer on the 100th year of UNT football that will look at the program’s past and its future. The one thing I’ve heard over and over from UNT officials, coaches and fans is the bottom line — “UNT just needs to win some football games.” That isn’t exactly breaking news. It’s the same thing fans and boosters have been saying as well. Read more: http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2013/07/post-spring-questions-series-no-10-does-the-pressure-build-and-impact-unt.html/

While a few of its old Sun Belt Conference rivals celebrated their move to Conference USA earlier this week, North Texas remained patient. UNT officials and fans were thrilled about joining the league, a move that became official Monday. UNT just decided to wait a little longer to have what amounts to an unofficial celebration tonight when the Denton Noon Kiwanis Club sponsors the city’s annual fireworks show at Apogee Stadium. The event that annually attracts thousands will offer UNT officials and fans a chance to celebrate the school’s move to C-USA, not to mention promote all that the new league offers to a large chunk of the city’s residents. The event, which previously took place at Fouts Field, moves to Apogee for the first time tonight. UNT officials plan to promote C-USA with displays on the video board and also will be on hand for the annual parade through downtown, where they will pass out T-shirts and trinkets. UNT spent 12 years as the only Texas school in the Sun Belt and now will be aligned in a league with Rice, UTEP and Texas-San Antonio, as well as regional foe Louisiana Tech. Read more: http://www.dentonrc.com/sports/colleges/north-texas-headlines/20130703-good-ol-c-usa.ece

There was a lot to like about what transpired during the 2012-13 school year when it came to UNT athletics. The UNT soccer and tennis teams made the NCAA tournament. The Mean Green volleyball team made the conference tournament final. UNT fans spent time looking forward to the school’s move to Conference USA this summer. But not everything that transpired was candy and nuts. Today, we look back again in our fourth installment of the year in review on a historically tough year in the Big Three (football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball). The UNT football team was just a year removed from coming within a game of .500 at 5-7 in 2011, but slipped back to 4-8 last year due to a few missed opportunities while rebuilding under Dan McCarney. The UNT women’s basketball team was also coming off a season where it just missed breaking through to finish .500 only to switch coaches and fall back to 11-19 in its first season under Mike Petersen. And then there was the real downer. UNT came into the men’s basketball season projected to be among the top mid-major teams in the country. UNT had posted six straight seasons with at least 18 wins, had a future first-round NBA draft pick in Tony Mitchell coming back, along with its other top six scorers. Then Johnny Jones left for LSU, UNT suffered a host of key injuries, the guys that were left struggled to adjust to the system installed by new head coach Tony Benford, Mitchell stopped being Mitchell and later admitted he coasted through the year and the Mean Green crashed to 12-20. UNT hadn’t finished with a record that poor since the 2002-03 season. Read more: http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2013/06/looking-back-at-the-school-year-part-iv-a-down-year-in-the-big-three.html/

25. North Texas Mean Green: The name Mean Green originally referred to a North Texas football team that second in the nation in rushing defense during the 1966 season. It later stuck as the official nickname for all athletic teams. Read more: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/top-25-unusual-college-football-team-nicknames-170500963--ncaaf.html