Toughest Schedule in CUSA

Cerebus · July 24, 2016

TheNewsStar: Toughest schedules in Conference USA

Quote

New North Texas coach Seth Littrell can send a thank you note to the league office for welcoming him into C-USA with a gauntlet of a schedule in 2016. UNT is the only team from the C-USA West Division tasked with the challenge of playing MTSU, Marshall and WKU, three teams regarded as the elite class in the C-USA East Division.

Matt from A700 · July 24, 2016

If the conference wants us to leave, just tell us to leave already...

All About UNT · July 24, 2016

Now where did I put that lipstick?

jtm0097 · July 24, 2016

Hit 6 and lock the gate. Oh wait, wrong year.

Edited July 24, 2016 by jtm0097

Ben Gooding · July 24, 2016

We get 2/3 at home with a revamped defense, new offensive philosophy, and s rejuvenated fan base. Bring em on. GMG

UNTexas · July 24, 2016

I don't care about strength of schedule projections. You play the teams on the schedule and if you're good then you win. At the end of the day, who cares? Football is upon us...

UNT 90 Grad · July 24, 2016

2 hours ago, jtm0097 said:

Hit 6 and lock the gate. Oh wait, wrong year.

Those were the days...

Matt from A700 · July 24, 2016

All negatives beside, I am still very optimistic about the season. With a clean house, and opening the season with two home games against SMU and Bethune-Cookman, we have a good chance to start the year 2-0. Now somebody tell me the last time we did that. If we can get to our BYE week at 3-3, I think we can hit 6. Plus if we can give Florida any kind of scare like we did to Georgia in 2013, that'd be a great confidence boost and paycheck as well.

UNT86 · July 24, 2016

I see it as extremely lazy of the conference to keep the same schedule as last year. Do your job at the conference office and change the schedule every year.

That being said, we probably are not going to a bowl game with this team regardless of the schedule.

Looking ahead, it may be a blessing so that we get the bottom of the other side of the conference in a year where we have a much better shot at a bowl game.

So, grin and bear it for a year. It should get better next year.

Ben Gooding · July 24, 2016

12 minutes ago, UNT86 said:

I see it as extremely lazy of the conference to keep the same schedule as last year. Do your job at the conference office and change the schedule every year.

That being said, we probably are not going to a bowl game with this team regardless of the schedule.

Looking ahead, it may be a blessing so that we get the bottom of the other side of the conference in a year where we have a much better shot at a bowl game.

So, grin and bear it for a year. It should get better next year.

IIIII don't know. There are some pretty horrid teams in CUSA (Us unfortunately one of them). But if we could swap fau, Charlotte, and ODU with mtsu, Marshall, and WKU then I'd like our chances more than I already do. We'll take 1 from either mtsu or Marshall with it probably being mtsu, book it. This is not our last year's team. We may be thin in our depth, but there is some decent talent and now experience.

casual fan · July 24, 2016

Are we now complaining/concerned about playing WKU and MTSU because they are "elite" teams in CUSA?

Really?

I bet 10 years ago no one would have predict this.

Ben Gooding · July 24, 2016

28 minutes ago, casual fan said:

Are we now complaining/concerned about playing WKU and MTSU because they are "elite" teams in CUSA?

Really?

I bet 10 years ago no one would have predict this.

I know. I do not sweat about wku or mtsu. Wku lost their all everything QB. That's going to be difficult to replace, to say the least. Mtsu has a decent qb, but nothing at all to fear. I think our new D will be having him very uncomfortable. It's also not as if either of these teams have been recruiting 4 and 5 star studs by any means. I don't like our chances vs Marshall this go around. They actually do recruit well and they are an actual plug and play team.

UNT90 · July 24, 2016

1 hour ago, Ben Gooding said:

IIIII don't know. There are some pretty horrid teams in CUSA (Us unfortunately one of them). But if we could swap fau, Charlotte, and ODU with mtsu, Marshall, and WKU then I'd like our chances more than I already do. We'll take 1 from either mtsu or Marshall with it probably being mtsu, book it. This is not our last year's team. We may be thin in our depth, but there is some decent talent and now experience.

Look, Coach Littrell himself said they have had to go after fall JUCOs and other risky type recruits because UNT is so undermanned. Littrell even said all this kids wouldn't make it to campus in the fall. It's obvious he has taken risks he wishes he didn't have to take due to a talent and scholarship void.

3 wins against this schedule will be quite the accomplishment.

Edited July 24, 2016 by UNT90

baberuthbomber8 · July 24, 2016

6 hours ago, Ben Gooding said:

We get 2/3 at home with a revamped defense, new offensive philosophy, and s rejuvenated fan base. Bring em on. GMG

I think if we even go 1 of these 3 games, that is a good for us.. We just need to put in solid performances.. because last year I think the team was honestly phoning it in after the homecoming blow out. I do agree about that defense, with the depth it seems that we have a few spots at LB and DB it seems.. with a few additions along the D-Line in Hoston, the blue-shirt DT.. I "should be" greatly improved, I think Ekler will make this defense very aggressive and take a lot of chances as well. I'm afraid that the defense could do so well we lose him next year, which would suck but it would show at least we had a great year.. The offense I think is in good hands with SL and GH, I think they are smart enough to run what will be best for us and not try to force something that doesnt work. With that said, I think alot will come down to the OL and how they do. With that said I think it would go along way for the coaches and fanbase if Hayes and Johnson are here(which I think is still up in the air) because the 2 of them should be impact players within their position groups.

5 hours ago, UNTexas said:

I don't care about strength of schedule projections. You play the teams on the schedule and if you're good then you win. At the end of the day, who cares? Football is upon us...

I agree, but I honestly think we just need to look for solid match ups. If the team is motivated and challenged like I think that it will be by our coaches, this could be a year we surprise some teams.

1 minute ago, UNT90 said:

Look, Coach Littrell himself said they have had to go after fall JUCOs and other risky type recruits because UNT is so undermanned. Littrell even said all this kids wouldn't make it to campus in the fall. It's obvious he has taken risks he wishes he didn't have to take due to a talent and scholarship void.

3 wins against this schedule will be a miracle.

I do think 3 wins would be a miracle, but I also believe that we will be alot more competitive then we had been last year.. I could see winning 2 or 3 games, but with us playing it close in some/most of the others.

untjim1995 · July 25, 2016

4 hours ago, UNT90 said:

Look, Coach Littrell himself said they have had to go after fall JUCOs and other risky type recruits because UNT is so undermanned. Littrell even said all this kids wouldn't make it to campus in the fall. It's obvious he has taken risks he wishes he didn't have to take due to a talent and scholarship void.

3 wins against this schedule will be quite the accomplishment.

It would be damn near miraculous with the number of scholarship players we have now.

this is the perfect season to play the tougher CUSA east teams. Next year and the year after will be greatly aided by the poor teams in the east that we will get to play, especially as we build up our talent level and scholarship players in the future.

this is the throw away year, just as it was for Morris at SMU last year, just as it was for Todd Monken at USM in 2013. Going 1-11 again isn't going to make me think one bad thing about Seth Littrell as our coach, not with this collection of players.

VideoEagle · July 25, 2016

First of all, EVER conference with divisions only rotates the schedules every two years unless there is a shift in conference membership. It's not being "lazy," it's being a FBS conference.

15 hours ago, casual fan said:

Are we now complaining/concerned about playing WKU and MTSU because they are "elite" teams in CUSA?

Really?

I bet 10 years ago no one would have predict this.

Yes, exactly! The alleged stink of moving from the SBC certainly doesn't smell as much, does it? The strength of individual programs usually goes in cycles. UT won't stay down forever, OU is already bouncing back as is Southern Miss. That's why you can't make decisions on how some school played in the last couple of years, at least in football. Unfortunately for us, the idea is to look for longer term trends and we don't look good at all based on that! Hopefully our new coach can start turning that around but it takes a while to establish a trend.

NorthTexan95 · July 25, 2016

I posted this on the CUSA board:

Quote:North Texas is the only team in Conference USA that has to face Southern Miss, Louisiana Tech, Marshall, Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee in 2016.

My prediction is UNT will one of these five games. We may only win 3 games this season but one of these five teams we will surprise and/or one of these top teams will unexpectedly fall off this year. [/quote]

I'm predicting 4 wins this season. I think we have a tough schedule ... we lack depth ... and I'm still not sold on our quarterbacks.

Aldo · July 25, 2016

I am not trying to be a negative guy here but we're not beating MTSU. Sorry.

We could surprise at WKU with a high scoring game.

Edited July 25, 2016 by Aldo

TreeFiddy · July 26, 2016

UAB should be on our schedule starting next year so we will only play 2 from the East unless realignment messes things up again. We should also get Charlotte in 2017 and 2018.

Edited July 26, 2016 by TreeFiddy

untjim1995 · July 26, 2016

12 hours ago, NorthTexan95 said:

I posted this on the CUSA board:

Quote:North Texas is the only team in Conference USA that has to face Southern Miss, Louisiana Tech, Marshall, Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee in 2016.

My prediction is UNT will one of these five games. We may only win 3 games this season but one of these five teams we will surprise and/or one of these top teams will unexpectedly fall off this year. [/quote]

I'm predicting 4 wins this season. I think we have a tough schedule ... we lack depth ... and I'm still not sold on our quarterbacks.

We have these teams that we can compete with. SMU, BCU, Army, UTEP, and UTSA. Two are at home and three are on the road. I'm not sure I see more than two wins in this group, but I'd be doing backflips if we did. That would tell me that Littrell is the real deal. If we go 0-12, it will not prove anything to me about Littrell as a coach because our numbers are so low for talent and depth. But if he takes a team that miraculously went 1-11 last year and turns this collection into 3 or more wins, we will not have Seth as our coach for much longer. He will have attracted the attention of major schools all over the country.