Monday Lunch With Coach Kugler (UTEP HC)

[Harry]

Moving on to North Texas….

“We have a North Texas team coming in that done a good job this year and sitting at 5-6. They’re playing for bowl eligibly slot in Conference USA. And it’s our Senior Day and I’m hoping that our seniors really rally around each other, play for each other one last time and keep that team from celebrating on our field.

“Talking about North Texas, as I’ve mentioned, they’ve had some good victories this year. In particular, last week, they beat Southern Miss to go 5-6. They’ve had some tough losses to SMU, UTSA, LA Tech and WKU. Where they’ve really improved from last year is defensively They’ve switched to more of an out scheme. They’re really flying around on defense. They’re leading Conference USA in interceptions. Their secondary is playing extremely well. I wouldn’t expect less, Troy Reffett coaches their secondary. W have a lot of history with him. He played and coached here at UTEP. But their safety no. 23 [Kishawn McClain], he’s got three interceptions. Their corner, no. 2, as nine pass breakups and their other corner has four interceptions. So they’re getting the ball at a frequent rate on defense and it’s really helped them, and they’re plus-one in turnovers."

“Their linebackers, in particular no. 17 [Cortney Finney] and no. 18 [Joshua Wheeler], are flying all over the field; fast and athletic and probably the most productive defensive lineman is no. 7 [Jareid Combs]. They’ve been getting sacks; 25 sacks on the year, which is fifth in Conference USA. But the thing that stands out is 14 interceptions.

“Offensively, they’ve played two quarterbacks. The freshman quarterback, No. 6 [Mason Fine], he won the job coming out of camp and played in every game, but got injured against WKU. I really don’t know the availability of him, he had a shoulder injury. But they play with Alec Morris [no. 5] who’s a transfer grad-student from Alabama and beat Southern Miss last week. We’ll see one of the two and we’ll prepare for both."

"Running back, their leading rusher was also injured against WKU and he was close to 1,000 yards and 13 touchdowns. His availability for this game is also in question. But the guy who replaced him last week, Willy Ivery, has also had a solid season and had 111 yards against Southern Miss; they’re very capable at the running back spot."

"Another tall and athletic group of receivers; no. 3 Terian Goree] is 6-foot-3, no. 11 Thaddeous Thompson] is 6-foot-2, and no. 1 [Turner Smiley], who’s also their punt returner. They’re a very tall and very fast group and they’re doing nice job for them. The things that probably standout for them offensively, they’ve done decent job in red zone, but they’ve been sacked 41 times, which again, they do put the ball it the air quite a bit; time of possession has not been in their favor. So those are things we need to try to take advantage of to win this game.

read more:  http://www.minerrush.com/2016/11/21/13709432/monday-lunch-with-kugler

[UNTexas]

We need to ruin their senior day.

[ADLER]

Spoiling North Texas' bowl bid is the major motivation factor

“You never want to see a team celebrate on your field like we did on theirs last year. They have an opportunity to go to a bowl and go 6-6 – which would be a great accomplishment for them. They’ve done a great job this year, coach [Seth] Littrell has done a great job with that program. But it is our Senior Day and it is our home turf and it is the Sun Bowl. Our kids have a chance to defend it one last time. And certainly we don’t want to see [them celebrating earning a bowl bid] at the end of the game. Yeah it is a motivation factor.”

Edited November 22, 2016 by ADLER