Expectations for Saturday

[TheColonyEagle]

So I'm watching the Memphis/Ole Miss game on Saturday and they put up a "Top G5 coaches" to watch.

Mike Norvell was obviously on there,  Bryan Harsin from Boise, Josh Heupel at UCF and Seth Littrell.

You know who wasn't on that list? Sonny Dykes.

We have what everyone is saying is a top G5 coach. He's certainly one of the highest paid. He has the best QB in the state and the most talented team he's had. Offensive weapons galore.

My point here: If we get beat my SMU on Saturday it should be viewed as an upset and shouldn't be excused. (I don't care what the line is....Vegas also said FSU was a 6.5 point favorite over Boise) I also don't care about the hodge podge of transfers he has over there. Our team should simply be better. And we are.

This is Seth Littrell's 4th year. His players. If anyone thinks that he should not go into SMU on Saturday and win...then you must think he is NOT the hot commodity that everyone says he is. If he is...then SMU shouldn't be a problem. Think about it....we have slugged and slogged our way up to where we are....building something. But SMU just hires a G5 retread and gets a group of players from P5 garage sales and in his 2nd year he's going to beat Seth Littrell and what he's established here? No way should that happen.

He has to go into Dallas and win on Saturday....period. No excuses. 

[Philip Ferguson]

[NorthTexasSportsNetwork]

I have never overlooked SMU, but this is our game to win. If Seth and Co don't win on Saturday, this season could end of like 2017.

[MeanGreen2019]

This is a must win game.

[edcollopy]

If we lose a tight game but beat Cal and Houston, all will be fine. If we lose to smu, cal, and Houston with this offense, some of the shine is definitely off Seth. I want all the shine in the world on Coach...that means we win and people have noticed. Just once in my life I want to see a one loss team and feel that joy. 

[NorthTexasWeLove]

1 hour ago, TheColonyEagle said:

So I'm watching the Memphis/Ole Miss game on Saturday and they put up a "Top G5 coaches" to watch.

Mike Norvell was obviously on there,  Bryan Harsin from Boise, Josh Heupel at UCF and Seth Littrell.

You know who wasn't on that list? Sonny Dykes.

We have what everyone is saying is a top G5 coach. He's certainly one of the highest paid. He has the best QB in the state and the most talented team he's had. Offensive weapons galore.

My point here: If we get beat my SMU on Saturday it should be viewed as an upset and shouldn't be excused. (I don't care what the line is....Vegas also said FSU was a 6.5 point favorite over Boise) I also don't care about the hodge podge of transfers he has over there. Our team should simply be better. And we are.

This is Seth Littrell's 4th year. His players. If anyone thinks that he should not go into SMU on Saturday and win...then you must think he is NOT the hot commodity that everyone says he is. If he is...then SMU shouldn't be a problem. Think about it....we have slugged and slogged our way up to where we are....building something. But SMU just hires a G5 retread and gets a group of players from P5 garage sales and in his 2nd year he's going to beat Seth Littrell and what he's established here? No way should that happen.

He has to go into Dallas and win on Saturday....period. No excuses. 

Agreed. It's a must win. 0 excuses to be had. 

 

11 minutes ago, edcollopy said:

If we lose a tight game but beat Cal and Houston, all will be fine. If we lose to smu, cal, and Houston with this offense, some of the shine is definitely off Seth. I want all the shine in the world on Coach...that means we win and people have noticed. Just once in my life I want to see a one loss team and feel that joy. 

 I highly doubt we beat Cal or UH if we lose to SMU. It just wouldn't be in the cards at that point. 

After watching UH last night, I think our chances of beating Cal is greater than UH. King will run rampant on Saturday's UNT defense with minimal resistance. Cal at least has a relatively stagnant offense. 

Point is, losing to SMU in the current state of each program is absolutely inexcusable. @TheColonyEagle said it best. 

Edited September 2, 2019 by NorthTexasWeLove

[Mean Green Matt]

No excuse for NT to have less than 15,000 fans there. 

[Felozano]

7 minutes ago, Mean Green Matt said:

No excuse for NT to have less than 15,000 fans there. 

Students and Alumni should be fired up about this team!  We’re bringing 4. GMG!

[CMJ]

I think we should win by 10-14, but I suspect it will be closer than it should be and we'll sweat it out at the end and either come away happy or upset  This will not be easy, especially after we annihilated them last season.

[MGNation92]

3-2 going into the bye looks a hell of a lot better than 2-3

This is our 2nd best chance(outside of UTSA) to get a win before then

 

Edited September 2, 2019 by MGNation92

[GrandGreen]

2 minutes ago, MGNation92 said:

3-2 going into the bye looks a hell of a lot better than 2-3

This is our 2nd best chance(outside of UTSA) to get a win.

 

Never assume NT is going to lose to both UH and CA.  

[MGNation92]

Just now, GrandGreen said:

Never assume NT is going to lose to both UH and CA.  

never assume they're gonna beat them both.

Hell if Frank Harris is as good as he looked we might have a hard time beating UTSA too. Mobile QB's always present issues

[GrandGreen]

3 minutes ago, MGNation92 said:

never assume they're gonna beat them both.

Hell if Frank Harris is as good as he looked we might have a hard time beating UTSA too. Mobile QB's always present issues

I didn't.  

If the defense, looks anything like it did in the second half last week; NT could lose to anyone.   I chose to assume NT's defense gets much better.    

[Big Z]

7 minutes ago, GrandGreen said:

I didn't.  

If the defense, looks anything like it did in the second half last week; NT could lose to anyone.   I chose to assume NT's defense gets much better.    

Luckily we had a tune up opponent 

Edited September 3, 2019 by Big Z

[meanJewGreen]

With a defense that's leakier than my foundation, I expect absolutely nothing. In fact, I bet first to 40 wins. 

[TheColonyEagle]

I’m not concerned about the defense as a whole  

YET

We were up 31-0 early and blowing them out and let up. 

What I am concerned about is that we let up. Again. 

I was hoping we’ve learned our lesson from last year. 

But week 1 to week 2 is supposed to be the jump. I’m glad we have stuff to work on. 

[vpackrats]

Based on all these "it's a must win game", "we better win or else", and "no excuses" comments, I have a feeling this will be the board Saturday night if we end up losing the SMU game.    😉

Edited September 3, 2019 by vpackrats

[NM Green]

This offense struggles to change pace. We simply must not slow down until we get to 45.  We struggle to change pace.  I don’t think we face that issue the next few weeks or months. 

But in the event we do get it to 45 then freak out when you slow the pace.

GMG

[NT93]

“Must win”. The most overused phrase in sports?

This is not a must win game.  Would it be nice to win? Yes. Do we really need to win? Yes.  But it is not a must win game.  If we lose we can still be CUSA west champs and host the championship game at Apogee.  Same as if we win.  

A win would be really nice and needed before we play Cal and Houston; but this is far from a must win game:

[MeanGreen2019]

38 minutes ago, NT93 said:

“Must win”. The most overused phrase in sports?

This is not a must win game.  Would it be nice to win? Yes. Do we really need to win? Yes.  But it is not a must win game.  If we lose we can still be CUSA west champs and host the championship game at Apogee.  Same as if we win.  

A win would be really nice and needed before we play Cal and Houston; but this is far from a must win game:

It’s definitely a must win. This is a regional game that we play every year, with an opponent that we recruit against quite often. This isn’t a must win in terms of having a successful season, but it’s s must win in terms of keeping our momentum as a program and to keep progressing. 

 

If we lose it’ll only be disappointing because we know we can beat SMU, we have the talent this year (unlike 2015-2017) to beat them and hang with Houston/ Cal

[NT93]

We can lose this game and end the season 11-1.  How can it possibly be must win?

[Harry]

6 minutes ago, NT93 said:

We can lose this game and end the season 11-1.  How can it possibly be must win?

I think what he was trying to say is these games for teams like SMU and UNT early in the year are so critical because they affect attendance and interest in the program for the remainder of the season.   This is a weird season because most of our big rivalry type important games all seem to be bunched up at the beginning of the season.

[NT93]

19 minutes ago, Harry said:

I think what he was trying to say is these games for teams like SMU and UNT early in the year are so critical because they affect attendance and interest in the program for the remainder of the season.   This is a weird season because most of our big rivalry type important games all seem to be bunched up at the beginning of the season.

I completely agree.  This is a huge game for both teams.

[untjim1995]

My guess is we win a crazy game, like 52-48...Fine pulls it out for us. I’ve said it for a while that I’ll be thrilled with winning this game by a point—I think it’ll be that close.

[greenminer]

Will SMU suffer long-term for taking in all these transfers for 2019?