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I and others have said multiple times how much we were pleased about the win. A huge albatross has finally been lifted from this program and Mac and company deserve a ton of credit for this. My only concern on the game was two fold. One, we again have a slow start on the road and shoot ourselves in the foot with the ill advised screen and INT. Against a rebuilding team like Tech - who is an absolute shadow of their former selves - you can make those types of starts and recover. We had to learn painfully that sometimes it doesn't work out for you (Tulane/Ohio) and against a better team you have to strike early a limit your mistakes. Why can't we come out on fire in a game? Why the slow starts? Secondly, I know Mac praised the team for the long time consuming drive that ate up so much clock at the end but yielded no points. Again, it worked and due praise for the team for making it work in that game situation. My concern is against a team with a better QB and offense you better damn well get some points out of a drive like that or they will come back and make you pay for that strategy. I've said it before on here, I don't like the prevent defense and I grow wary whenever we start nursing a lead. Against La. Tech who has a freshman QB that they must bring along it makes sense but even still what if he caught fire there at the end of the game? I will follow those pieces of constructive criticism with major praise -- I though the decision to punt the ball inside of their 50 was pure genius. Of course Macek's execution was superb as was Marcus Trice's fielding of the pinpoint punt. But then you force a weak offense and young QB to operate from inside their 5-yard line. I really thought that was a masterful coaching decision and many other coaches would have gone for it in that situation. I really felt that the game changed dramatically in our favor after that decision. GMG

RUSTON — With the snap of a finger, Louisiana Tech’s previously effective downfield passing attack vanished into thin air. North Texas’ defense stacked the box Saturday, while its defensive backs played off the line, and figuratively held up a sign that said “throw it deep.” Instead, Tech dinked-and-dunked its way to 343 yards on 54 pass attempts, while the run game was non-existent in a 28-13 loss to North Texas. “I give North Texas a lot of credit,” Tech coach Skip Holtz said. “They loaded the box, said we’re not going to let Kenneth (Dixon) beat us and did a great job. We weren’t able to make enough big plays in the passing game to make them pay for it.” Tech ran mostly short routes with slot receivers Hunter Lee, Andrew Guillot and Trent Taylor as the benefactors. The trio combined 19 catches, but the outside receivers accounted for just seven. It was a disappointing effort after the Bulldogs had made strides during the past two games. Against Kansas, redshirt freshman quarterback Ryan Higgins moved the ball down the field with ease and hit big plays against Army. His arm wasn’t needed against UTEP as he sat back and watched Kenneth Dixon run wild for 200 yards. Read more: http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20131021/SPORTS/310210019/Tech-s-passing-game-struggles-loss

DL IK Enemkpali On the frustration after not being able to get to the QB vs. North Texas: Today, we just did not get the job done up front. I have played against ACC, SEC and Big 12 offensive lines and by far, North Texas is the most physical offensive line we have played against. My hat is off to them. They are physical. This is football. It is physical. They come off the ball every play. Read more: http://www.latechsports.com/sports/m-footbl/recaps/101913aaa.html

RUSTON — The uniforms were the same color; the only difference was the name on the jersey. Fittingly enough, the last time a team wore green and white in Joe Aillett Stadium, Louisiana Tech looked equally dumbfounded. That was more than a month ago when Tulane stymied Tech, 24-15. It was much of the same Saturday as the Bulldogs patched together a lackluster performance in a 28-13 homecoming loss to North Texas. UNT (4-3, 2-1 Conference USA) rallied off 28 straight points to take control of the game and a stringy defense did the rest, holding Tech to just three points over the last 35-plus minutes of game action. Read more: http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20131019/SPORTS/131019004/Tech-stymied-by-North-Texas-defense

Big big win tonight on the road! Great job players and coaches!! GO MEAN GREEN! ESPN Box Score Link Click here to view the article

27-10 starting the 4th and tech D looks tired. What a great call to punt the ball inside their 50 and Macek executes a punt downed inside their 5. That decision ended up changing the entire game. Great second half adjustments by the UNT coaching staff. This would be a NICE win on the road. GMG

Join us before, during and after the big game against the Bulldawgs! It truly is the next best thing to being there! Click here to join in GMG.com CHAT

Marcus Smith had just left a meeting with the rest of North Texas’ tight ends on a nondescript winter afternoon early this year when his phone buzzed to let him know a message was waiting. Smith’s phone was always ringing, often to let him know his father was trying to get in touch with him to offer encouragement as he battled his way back from a second reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. The shock of hearing that those conversations were over after returning the message his grandmother left still resonates with Smith. Jerome Edward Smith died of a heart attack Feb. 27, just seven days short of turning 56. “My dad loved to talk to me and I loved to talk to him,” Smith said. “He would give me words of wisdom and encouragement. He told me nothing would be easy in life and was a major help when I was coming back from surgery. He was there with me the entire time.” Smith, a solidly built sophomore with broad shoulders above biceps covered in tattoos, wondered Monday if he would have made it all the way back from a second ACL reconstruction and enjoyed his finest moment with the Mean Green last week if it hadn’t been for his father. The former San Antonio Warren standout caught his first three passes of the season in a 34-7 win over Middle Tennessee on Saturday at Apogee Stadium. Smith finished with just one reception in three games a year ago, when his season was cut short by his second major knee injury. UNT is hoping Smith’s performance against the Blue Raiders is an indication that he is beginning to capitalize on his considerable potential while honoring his father in a season that will continue with a game Saturday at Louisiana Tech. Read more: http://www.dentonrc.com/sports/colleges/north-texas-headlines/20131017-football-loss-of-dad-the-latest-test-smiths-passed.ece

http://www.latechbbb.com/forum/showthread.php?123070-UNT-Look-A-Like-Thread

In their years as teammates, Brandin Byrd and Brelan Chancellor have made numerous trips to various high school and college stadiums to represent both Copperas Cove and the University of North Texas. But, there is one thing that the duo has yet to do, go bowling. At least in terms of the college football postseason. They aim to change that this year as the senior running back and wide receiver look to lead the Mean Green (3-3, 1-1 Conference USA) to its first bowl berth in nearly a decade. “The main goal for my senior year is to try and get us to a bowl game because we haven’t been to one since we’ve been here,” Byrd said. “That’s the key goal and to do whatever I need to do to help my team win ball games.” “I feel like I owe this university a lot,” Chancellor said. “They gave me a chance to play football and get a great education.” North Texas hasn’t made a bowl appearance since the 2004 New Orleans Bowl. The Mean Green’s last bowl win came in 2002 when it beat Cincinnati 24-19 in that same bowl game. The Mean Green would be bowl eligible with three wins in their last six games. UNT is currently in third place in the Conference USA West Division behind co-leaders Tulane and Rice. The Mean Green visit Louisiana Tech on Saturday. Read more: http://kdhnews.com/kdhpressbox/duo-aims-to-lead-mean-green-to-bowl-game-this/article_96429e66-36e8-11e3-81ac-0019bb30f31a.html

Back before North Texas opened its season against Idaho, Dan McCarney felt good about the Mean Greens chances to be in the bowl hunt, largely because he had a roster full of experienced seniors. Starting quarterback Derek Thompson was back, as was starting middle linebacker Zach Orr, wide receiver Brelan Chancellor and safety Marcus Trice. Those players gave UNTs head coach a great core to build his team around. Nothing has transpired in the first half of the season to change the mind of UNTs head coach, who has the Mean Green squarely in the bowl chase heading into the second half of the season, which begins at Louisiana Tech on Saturday. I love being around this football team, McCarney said. We would love to have one or two more wins, but I see a team that is getting better and is motivated. The senior class has taken control of this team and the locker room. They are making sure that we are following through on things we are striving for and stay hungry. Read more: http://www.dentonrc.com/sports/colleges/north-texas-headlines/20131018-football-unt-not-too-comfortable-after-first-half-of-season.ece

FACTS & STATS: Site: Joe Aillet Stadium (30,600) -- Ruston, Louisiana. Television: CBSSN. Home Record: UNT 3-0, LA Tech 1-1. Away Record: UNT 0-3, LA Tech 1-2. Neutral Record: UNT 0-0, LA Tech 0-1. Conference Record: UNT 1-1, LA Tech 1-1. Series Record: Louisiana Tech leads, 6-5. GAME NOTES: Conference USA foes will try to make a leap in the standings on Saturday afternoon, as the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs play host to the North Texas Mean Green at Joe Aillet Stadium. North Texas has endured an inconsistent start to the season, resulting in a 3-3 overall record and a 1-1 league ledger. The Mean Green have played well on their home field, winning all three of their matchups in Denton, including last week's bout with Middle Tennessee (34-7). The story has been quite different on the road, however, as they have dropped all three contests away from home. Louisiana Tech has been largely a disappointment this season. Through its first five games, its only win came at home against FCS foe Lamar (27-14). The Bulldogs were able to get their season back on track in their latest game by defeating Texas-El Paso on the road, 38-35, to improve to 2-4 overall and 1-1 in conference. These newly-minted C-USA rivals have not met since Louisiana Tech beat the Mean Green in 2006, 34-31. The Bulldogs lead the all-time series, 6-5. The Mean Green have one of C-USA's most efficient offenses, as they rank in the upper-half of the league in both scoring (28.5 ppg) and yardage (402.7 ypg), although they have averaged just 21.0 ppg in their three road games. Derek Thompson calls the shots under center for North Texas. He has completed 68 percent of his passes for 1,459 yards and eight touchdowns, but he has also been mistake-prone with seven interceptions, two of which came in last week's win over Middle Tennessee. Thompson is fortunate to have a strong duo of wide receivers to throw to, as Darnell Smith (41 receptions, 445 yards, three TDs) and Brelan Chancellor (27 receptions, 397 yards, two TDs) rank fifth and sixth in the conference in receiving yards, respectively. Brandin Byrd is the most utilized tailback and has 325 yards and three scores on 72 carries. Reggie Pegram (228 yards) has his number called near the goal line and has cashed in with four touchdowns, but he is averaging just 3.6 yards per carry. Most of North Texas's success this season can be attributed to its strong defense, which ranks second in the league and 39th in the nation in allowing just 22.7 ppg. The unit has been opportunistic as well with 17 takeaways. Read more: http://www.macon.com/2013/10/16/2722081/north-texas-3-3-at-louisiana-tech.html Read more here: http://www.macon.com/2013/10/16/2722081/north-texas-3-3-at-louisiana-tech.html#storylink=cpy

Sean Isabella of the Monroe News Star is our special guest on the blog this week to talk about UNT’s game against Louisiana Tech. Isabella covers Tech for the News Star. You can find his work on the paper’s website that includes a Louisiana Tech section. Here is what Isabella had to say about Saturday’s game. 1. What happened to Scotty Young? He’s a former Denton Ryan standout that a lot of people in Denton were looking forward to seeing play this year. Simply lost his job. Young started the first two games of the season then injured his ribs against Tulane. Redshirt freshman Ryan Higgins finished the game with mixed results, but played well against Kansas, then followed that up with another solid outing against Army and has kept the job. Young hasn’t seen the field since, except for Tech’s last game against UTEP when Higgins injured his ankle and couldn’t finish the game. The ankle isn’t a concern and Young will be relegated back to backup duties. 2. Tech has gotten off to a bit of a slow start. What has been the issue? No issues, per say. A slow start was expected, but probably not to this extent. Tech lost 32 seniors last year, including its quarterback and two wide receivers, both of whom are on NFL rosters. The offense was among the best in the country in 2012, so it was somewhat unrealistic to expect the same. Having said that, Tech could easily be 4-2. Turnovers cost the Bulldogs in losses to Tulane and Kansas — the only games they were outplayed in were North Carolina State and Army. Read more: http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2013/10/qa-with-sean-isabella-of-the-monroe-news-star.html/

A few months ago, Saturday’s game between UNT and Louisiana Tech looked like it would be a referendum on whether or not Dan McCarney and Mike Canales went after the right transfer quarterback. UNT took Kansas transfer Brock Berglund after talking with former Ryan and Texas Tech quarterback Scotty Young, who ended up at Louisiana Tech. Now it looks like neither will see the field in a significant capacity. Berglund never made it off the bench when Derek Thompson improved during the off-season and held down the starting job for the third straight year. Young began the season as Tech’s starter, but has since been surpassed by redshirt freshman Ryan Higgins. Higgins led Tech to a win over UTEP last week and has thrown for who has thrown for 776 yards on the year. Read more: http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2013/10/qb-matchup-against-tech-who-would-have-seen-this-one-coming.html/

“Looking at North Texas, I am really impressed with this football team and what they are doing on film right now. I start with their staff and I have great respect for Dan McCarney and the success he has had. He is a first class individual and he has done a good job of building that program at North Texas. You can see as he is getting into multi years that they are getting better and better fundamentally, recruiting wise and upgrading their talent. Right now, they are really playing well together as a football team.” “When you look at them on offense with Mike Canales as their offensive coordinator, and I was the offensive coordinator the year he was at Arizona. He had a little quarterback at NC State named Phillip Rivers. He has developed some great talent. He is a great football coach with a good mind. I have had the opportunity to be around him a little bit in this business and I have great respect for him and Mike Simmonds, the offensive line coach, and Michael Grant, the wide receivers coach. I have a lot of history with a lot of guys on this staff on offense.” “I am really impressed with what they are doing now. When you look at them as an offense, I would say balance is the key. They have had games where they have thrown for 300 yards and games where they run for 300 yards. I think they are playing really well right now as an offense and are doing some things to put up some yards and points on the board. They have a quarterback who is completing 68 percent of his passes. He is a third-year starter. He has an awful lot of experience and a great head on his shoulders.” “Mike Simmonds’ offensive line returns four starters off last year’s team. They are playing really well together and you can see just the way they are communicating, turning back, picking up blitzes and protecting the quarterback.” “Their running back is by committee. They have about three guys that carry the load with the ball for them. They are always keeping fresh guys in there at running back and then with wide receivers, they have some big-play receivers. I will talk a little bit more about (Brelan) Chancellor when I get to the special teams, but he is a big-play guy that they will put at receiver, in the back field and throw him the ball. They will throw him the ball as many different times as the can in many different situations. They have a very good, sound offensive scheme. I think they are very fundamentally sound and hard-nosed and a very physical group with an experienced quarterback.” “When you look at them on defense and what (defensive coordinator) John Skladany has done with them defensively, you can see the progress they have made from the beginning of the season to where they are now. They are a very simple team in what they do in that they are a 4-3 based defense with quarter coverage. They have held their last two opponents to seven points. Defensively, they held Middle Tennessee to seven. They also held Tulane to seven, but Tulane had two pick-sixes for 14 points to win that game 24-21.” “I think defensively they are really playing well. I talked about them being physical and fundamentally sound. As I said, Skladany is really doing an awfully good job with them on the defensive side of the ball. They play an awful lot of people. I do not think it is about one superstar as much as it is the power of the pack when you talk about them as a defensive football team. “Statistically, they are a little bit gaudy when you look at them, especially in their last two conference games. One of the great things Conference USA does to try and get a good evaluation of the entire conference is they keep statistics of just conference games, not everyone we play because we have played such a wide variety of non-conference opponents. When you look at this defense, they are first in total defense, scoring defense, passing defense and first-down defense. When you look at what they are doing as a defensive football team, they are ranked in the top three in almost every statistical category from a conference play standpoint. I have really been impressed with what they have done defensively.” “Coach McCarney has done a really good job of building this program up. I know Frank Wintrich, their strength coach, we were together at South Florida and I have great respect for him and the job he does and I have a lot of respect for this program. I think it is up and coming. I think they are in the same boat we are. They are excited about having the opportunity to play in Conference USA with where we are both trying to go with this program.” “I think it will be a great challenge for us Saturday, but one we are looking forward to after having the opportunity to have an open date and get that fundamental work. Not only for the coaches itching to get back into game week and ready to play a game, but I think these players are pretty excited about getting back into the season. I do not think they want to go through another open date and some of the things we did fundamentally this week. We are really looking forward to the challenge, having the opportunity to be here at homecoming and for me, experience my first homecoming here at Louisiana Tech and we are excited about the week.” - See more at: http://www.sportsnola.com/sports/local-sports-news/louisiana-tech-news/600759-louisiana-tech-weekly-press-conference-transcript-oct-14.html#sthash.JtcIesPg.dpuf

RUSTON — Louisiana Tech’s air-it-out offense is a thing of the past. What that means for the Bulldogs’ immediate future has yet to be determined. In the meantime, Tech has settled on an increasingly productive run game that features one of the nation’s best young running backs in Kenneth Dixon. It’s been more of a slow crawl to this new identity than anything, but it’s not like Tech had much of a choice after losing quarterback Colby Cameron and two future NFL wide receivers. “I think it is hard to say that we are known for what we did a year ago,” Tech coach Skip Holtz said. “Colby Cameron as a freshman and senior are not the same. What Colby did as a senior is phenomenal. I do not think you can ask (redshirt freshman) Ryan Higgins to come in and match that productivity. I do not think right now that hanging our hat on an inexperienced group, is to throw it all over the field.” Read more: http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20131015/SPORTS/310150006/Pass-happy-offense-thing-past-Tech-relies-run-game

North Texas (-6 1/2) at Louisiana Tech, 2:30 p.m. (CBS Sports Network) -- Has Tech's program sunk to the point that the Bulldogs are a touchdown underdog at home to a North Texas team that didn't get above .500 in the Sun Belt in the last eight years? Surely Tech has enough to handle the not-so-Mean Green and become a factor in a C-USA league that looks weaker by the week. Louisiana Tech 27-24. - See more at: http://www.sportsnola.com/sports/local-sports-news/college-football-news/600716-louisiana-college-football-picks-of-the-week-october-15-19.html#sthash.yyxuJBsC.dpuf

The North Texas Mean Green head to Joe Aillet Stadium to take the field with the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs. North Texas improved to 3-3 in 2013 with a dominating performance on both sides of the ball in a 34-7 rout of visiting Middle Tennessee State. The Mean Green have a managable schedule and should have their sights set on the postseason but they can ill afford any let downs. This one was over early with UNT taking a 24-7 lead after 30 minutes before turning things over to the defense who held the Blue Raiders to 205 yards while forcing three turnovers and getting on the scoreboard with a pick six. North Texas kept things on the ground with over 300 yards and five yard average with Bandin Byrd leading the way with 139 yards while Reggie Pegram and Antoinne Jimmerson combined for 160 yards. Derek Thompson (13-19/113) was largely quite in the air with a pair of interceptions. Read more at http://sportschatplace.com/cfb-picks/2013/10/19/louisiana-tech-bulldogs-vs.-north-texas-mean-green-free-pick#Lc7llDEG4dCxpcTY.99

read more: http://www.latechbbb.com/forum/showthread.php?122953-10-19-North-Texas-(HC)-game-thread