DRC: UNT picked to finish 4th in C-USA West Division

Brett Vito · July 18, 2017

DRC:

http://beta.dentonrc.com/sports/mean-green/2017/07/18/unt-picked-finish-fourth-c-usa-west-division

MeanGreenTexan · July 18, 2017

I'm not convinced UAB will be a cellar dweller this season.

UNTLifer · July 18, 2017

Where does the love for USM come from?

oldguystudent · July 18, 2017

5 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

Where does the love for USM come from?

Domino's?

AustinFromUNT · July 18, 2017

My thoughts.

UNTFan23 · July 18, 2017

1 hour ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

I'm not convinced UAB will be a cellar dweller this season.

They are a giant question mark since they haven't played a down of football in the past two years.

Edited July 18, 2017 by UNTFan23

Harry · July 18, 2017

1 hour ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

I'm not convinced UAB will be a cellar dweller this season.

You and I are of the same view.

MGNation92 · July 18, 2017

47 minutes ago, AustinFromUNT said:

My thoughts.

UTSA beat us last year and blew us out of the water in recruiting. I think it might take a small miracle to beat them.

Looks like most of the experts feel the same

outoftown · July 18, 2017

I am ok with this. Personally, I would have put UNT fourth also.

UAB is currently seventh by default of not having played in two years, but they got a good coach and nobody really knows where they really belong and they even got a small number of leftover players from before the shutdown. I think UNT should win this, but I do fear it might need a lot of scratching and clawing.

Edited July 18, 2017 by outoftown

ABrownGMG · July 18, 2017

I'm very surprised with the trust in La Tech from everyone. Last year they relied on specifically their air attack to outscore opponents and it worked wonderfully. However, they're missing their starting quarterback and two best receivers from last season. Their QB will likely have played little to no competitive NCAA football and a lot of players will need to step up to make up for the production lost to the NFL.

I think we're going to be an unhappy bunch come week 12 when UTSA beats them and takes the division championship.

cdizzle86 · July 18, 2017

Call me crazy, but this years team has all the pieces to be similar to the 2011 team. On paper our defense looks like it could be stout, which could make up for any lack of production on the offensive side of the ball.

Aldo · July 18, 2017

1 hour ago, UNTLifer said:

Where does the love for USM come from?

All things aside, a typically good program.

2012-2014 were the only times they were below .500 since 1993.

NorthTexan95 · July 18, 2017

22 minutes ago, MGNation92 said:

UTSA beat us last year and blew us out of the water in recruiting. I think it might take a small miracle to beat them.

Looks like most of the experts feel the same

I'm not convinced one year of recruiting makes much of a difference the following season. I'd say that no reason at all.

When I watch our game with them last year the only difference I saw was they lucked into a walk-on quarterback who's pretty good while we had a true freshman quarterback with a bad offensive line. I thought talent levels were pretty evenly matched. Still, I felt we lost that game more than they won it. They still have that quarterback so I can understand the ranking.

Ranked 4th sounds about right until we prove something on the field.

Aldo · July 18, 2017

1 minute ago, NorthTexan95 said:

Still, I felt we lost that game more than they won it.

2 fumbles, 2 INTs

Mean_Green09 · July 18, 2017

27 minutes ago, ABrownGMG said:

I'm very surprised with the trust in La Tech from everyone. Last year they relied on specifically their air attack to outscore opponents and it worked wonderfully. However, they're missing their starting quarterback and two best receivers from last season. Their QB will likely have played little to no competitive NCAA football and a lot of players will need to step up to make up for the production lost to the NFL.

I think we're going to be an unhappy bunch come week 12 when UTSA beats them and takes the division championship.

They do have more returning starters this year than they did last year. Have the best DL in the league. Get USM and UTSA at home. Wouldnt be surprised if Jaylon Ferguson ends up as the defensive player of the year. If you had to chose between USM, UTSA, & La Tech as a writer you'd probably lean towards the better coach in Holtz. 14-2 at home last 2 years. Title game 2 out of last 3 years. 19-7 in CUSA in those 3 years.

They come off as being more trustworthy than UTSA or USM.

Ben Gooding · July 18, 2017

4th place in our division marks a 6-6 season. It infers that they think we'll at least beat Rice, UTEP, and UAB. Given FAU's finish at 5th in the East, these voters think we'll split between ODU and FAU. That's 4-4 in conference play. We will beat Lamar to get to 5 wins.

Army and SMU are big games. FAU and ODU are big games for us as well. The season kind of hinges on these games. I think they got our division ranking spot on, unfortunately. We will probably not beat USM or La Tech on the road. Utsa, though nothing near unbeatable, is a better team than us right now.

Rice, UAB, and UTEP (and Lamar) are must wins. We win those 4, we're going bowling.

untjim1995 · July 18, 2017

2 hours ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

I'm not convinced UAB will be a cellar dweller this season.

I am....I think they're gonna be terrible just getting back into the swing of things at this level again.

MeanGreenTexan · July 18, 2017

3 minutes ago, untjim1995 said:

I am....I think they're gonna be terrible just getting back into the swing of things at this level again.

They've been recruiting better than ever these past 2 years since the NCAA was allowing them to go after partial qualifiers to get them up to speed. They'll have some ballers ready to play, and Clark is a heckuva coach. I'm just saying, this aint Lamar 2.0. They will not go winless in C-USA. I honestly would not be surprised if they show up to Denton with a 3-0 record. I just hope UNT is not their first C-USA victim.

UNTLifer · July 18, 2017

2 hours ago, Aldo said:

All things aside, a typically good program.

2012-2014 were the only times they were below .500 since 1993.

I agree, typically a good program, but they have to replace Mullins with an unproven QB and have a number of other positions to replace. We could easily flip-flop with them.

techdawg88 · July 18, 2017

3 hours ago, ABrownGMG said:

I'm very surprised with the trust in La Tech from everyone. Last year they relied on specifically their air attack to outscore opponents and it worked wonderfully. However, they're missing their starting quarterback and two best receivers from last season. Their QB will likely have played little to no competitive NCAA football and a lot of players will need to step up to make up for the production lost to the NFL.

I think we're going to be an unhappy bunch come week 12 when UTSA beats them and takes the division championship.

Tech's starting QB, J'Mar Smith, started last season's season opener at Arkansas and came close to pulling off the upset 21-20

BTG_Fan1 · July 19, 2017

11 hours ago, UNTFan23 said:

They are a giant question mark since they haven't played a down of football in the past two years.

They are more of a wildcard than anything. They have been able to recruit and I believe they have been able to practice as well. Its good we are getting them early in the season when they are hopefully still trying to figure out who can and can't play and some guys hopefully will still have those early seeing gitters like we did vs. SMU.

9 hours ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

They've been recruiting better than ever these past 2 years since the NCAA was allowing them to go after partial qualifiers to get them up to speed. They'll have some ballers ready to play, and Clark is a heckuva coach. I'm just saying, this aint Lamar 2.0. They will not go winless in C-USA. I honestly would not be surprised if they show up to Denton with a 3-0 record. I just hope UNT is not their first C-USA victim.

Weren't they allowed to practice as well?

untjim1995 · July 19, 2017

18 hours ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

They've been recruiting better than ever these past 2 years since the NCAA was allowing them to go after partial qualifiers to get them up to speed. They'll have some ballers ready to play, and Clark is a heckuva coach. I'm just saying, this aint Lamar 2.0. They will not go winless in C-USA. I honestly would not be surprised if they show up to Denton with a 3-0 record. I just hope UNT is not their first C-USA victim.

Ill go further insane if we cannot beat UAB.

MeanGreenMailbox aka TFLF · July 19, 2017

On 7/18/2017 at 11:38 AM, UNTLifer said:

Where does the love for USM come from?

Returning enough on offense and defense. In particular, Ito Smith and Allen Staggers on offense. The two QBs battling to replace Nick Mullens were well-regarded prospects.

Jay Hopson has also been a good coach and recruiter, picking up nine 3-star players last year on top of the eight he singed in his first class in 2016. His debut last year was a roadie against SEC's Kentucky; they won it 44-35. They open with Kentucky in Hattiesburg this year. They also won their bowl game last year, so they do have positive momentum going into 2017.

Southern Miss will be tough. I think they'll be better than UTSA, despite what the pre-season polling says.

MeanGreenMailbox aka TFLF · July 19, 2017

3 hours ago, untjim1995 said:

Ill go further insane if we cannot beat UAB.

Agree 164%. If a team that has been on the shelf for a couple of seasons rolls in and hands it to us, we're done. And, to me, at that point, we're Dan McCarney 2015 done.

Sorry, I'm too old now and long in the tooth to see bullsh*t then call it anything else. For the better part of three decades now, we've become too accustomed to seeing outright bullsh*t and calling it "rebuilding,"

The "rebuilding" bit is, to me, bullsh*t on top of bullsh*t because we've never been built in the first place since we came back to D I-AA in 1995. Corky had something built at I-AA. Hayden Fry and Odus Mitchell had something built. Dickey was getting sparks, it seemed, but the fire didn't last long.

Dickey had three winning seasons in a row from 2002-2004. Before that, Hayden Fry went four in a row from 1975-1978. Before that, Odus/Rod Rsut strung together four winners from 1966-1969.

If it looks and smells like a loser, these days, it probably is. Losing to UAB in 2017 will certainly have the look and smell of another loser. That Dickey three year run is getting further and further away as the seasons pass, too.

southsideguy · July 19, 2017

preseason polls are just that. Let revisit after the season is over. I like being the underdog. UTSA and UTEP will continue gives us problems. Most CUSA are spread offenses and that how are defense is set up. UTEP and UTSA are run first and that is why we struggle against them.