Spring football game left more questions than answers

[Skipper]

Matt Brune | Staff Writer

Spring football has come and gone, leaving fans and players alike anxious for North Texas’ upcoming 2017 campaign. With five months to kickoff against Lamar University on Saturday, Sept. 2, let’s kill some time by delving into what we learned this spring.

And let’s start with this – last season’s mark of 5-8 was nothing to scoff at.

Five wins superseded most expectations in 2016, especially with the Mean Green coming off a 1-11 2015 season that featured one of the worst losses in school history. But very often in sports, teams regress to the mean after overachieving. For North Texas to win six or more games and get back to a bowl, they must get consistent quarterback play and show improvement on both the offensive and defensive lines.

In the spring game we saw a lot of things that can help us rate this team in those categories already. To win close games you have to be consistent. When times get tough, the Mean Green will need to repeatedly get stops on defense or convert opportunities on offense.

Neither side showed that consistency in the spring game.

The defense dominated the early stages of the game and in the second half, the offense dismantled the defense with quarterbacks Quinn Shanbour and Cade Pearson under center. Shanbour ended the day 13-of-22 for 253 yards and two touchdowns, while Pearson went 13-of-18 for 148 yards and a score of his own.

That’s right, last year’s starter Mason Fine did not have the best of days. Fine threw the lone interception of the afternoon, and he only threw for 116 yards.

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