Disturbing Trend

NTEX91 · September 8, 2019

I have been home now for several hours and have had time to reflect on what I witnessed tonight. Something has to change and quickly or we will lose any and all respect and momentum we have gained. I walked out of Ford Stadium tonight disgusted and sick from what I observed. I was not alone. Many I walked with to our respective vehicles were expressing the same feelings. Why can we not take the next step? This is year four for SL and company and we are not seeing results. There is a disturbing trend starting to repeat itself. In 2016 we roll into West Point and whip Army on their field, only to crap the bed against UTSA the following week. It’s year one, but we are making baby steps. Moving to 2017, after a pool party and an ass whipping at the hands of FAU, we somehow manage to get to the Conference Championship only to get our ass handed to us again by the Lane Train. But things are forgiven, as it’s only year two. Let’s not forget a close HOD Bowl loss to Army and a NO Bowl blow out to Troy along the way. But we are making progress, right? So now let’s move onto year three. We start 4 and 0 with a P5 win over a struggling Arkansas team which SL says was not an upset. Another baby step in the right direction? After a win at Liberty we roll home to Apogee and dedicate a statue to a UNT Great, only to squander a double digit lead and take a crap on our home turf in a loss to La Tech. The next disaster would come a few weeks later at ODU when the heavy favorite Mean Green would piss away a 28 point lead in a loss to a conference bottom feeder. Don’t forget, this was after blowing a lead on the road at UAB in a game we were picked to win. With all of this said, I won’t even go into the New Mexico Bowl. Yes, I know Fine went down early but I think if we are being honest with ourselves, we all knew where this game was headed before the injury. Now we find ourselves in year four. We had a great first half in the home opener before letting things slide late against a weak FCS team. We were told the team lost interest. Really? So what the hell happened last night? Did the team lose interest again? This has got to end! We should not tolerate this kind of result in year four. This team has too much talent for this kind of performance. Anyone else see a trend here? The season is young. Will it be a success or filled with disappointments?

GMG

tmjerm · September 8, 2019

Agreed. You DO have to give a lot of credit to SMU. All their transfers have made them a much more talented team and I think they will have a strong yr. We relied heavily on upperclassmen on defense last yr and have been struggling to replace. The defense is bad. Bad bad. On top of being out of position and getting pushed wherever they wanted us to go, energy was also a concern. Beyond discipline, we need to see more fight out of these guys who are inexperienced on defense. Would’ve made the loss taste less disgusting.

Wag Tag · September 8, 2019

4 hours ago, NTEX91 said:

I have been home now for several hours and have had time to reflect on what I witnessed tonight. Something has to change and quickly or we will lose any and all respect and momentum we have gained. I walked out of Ford Stadium tonight disgusted and sick from what I observed. I was not alone. Many I walked with to our respective vehicles were expressing the same feelings. Why can we not take the next step? This is year four for SL and company and we are not seeing results. There is a disturbing trend starting to repeat itself. In 2016 we roll into West Point and whip Army on their field, only to crap the bed against UTSA the following week. It’s year one, but we are making baby steps. Moving to 2017, after a pool party and an ass whipping at the hands of FAU, we somehow manage to get to the Conference Championship only to get our ass handed to us again by the Lane Train. But things are forgiven, as it’s only year two. Let’s not forget a close HOD Bowl loss to Army and a NO Bowl blow out to Troy along the way. But we are making progress, right? So now let’s move onto year three. We start 4 and 0 with a P5 win over a struggling Arkansas team which SL says was not an upset. Another baby step in the right direction? After a win at Liberty we roll home to Apogee and dedicate a statue to a UNT Great, only to squander a double digit lead and take a crap on our home turf in a loss to La Tech. The next disaster would come a few weeks later at ODU when the heavy favorite Mean Green would piss away a 28 point lead in a loss to a conference bottom feeder. Don’t forget, this was after blowing a lead on the road at UAB in a game we were picked to win. With all of this said, I won’t even go into the New Mexico Bowl. Yes, I know Fine went down early but I think if we are being honest with ourselves, we all knew where this game was headed before the injury. Now we find ourselves in year four. We had a great first half in the home opener before letting things slide late against a weak FCS team. We were told the team lost interest. Really? So what the hell happened last night? Did the team lose interest again? This has got to end! We should not tolerate this kind of result in year four. This team has too much talent for this kind of performance. Anyone else see a trend here? The season is young. Will it be a success or filled with disappointments?

GMG

We were totally out coached by SMU DC and we have 2 outstanding Offensive gurus! Remember the D game plan against us was stack the box? Now it is unstack the box. In game adjustments seems to continue to be a challenge for Seth. We have seen it in second half meltdowns and now right out of the box. As stated 4 yrs later we demand better!

UNT 90 Grad · September 8, 2019

This game felt like #olddenton

SilverEagle · September 8, 2019

Ready for the old guy rant?

What is it that I do every year on signing day (now days)? I look over the list of QB's/WR's/RB's that everyone else is salivating over and ask the same question..........WHERE'S THE BEEF? It's really simple people, who is consistently getting pressured and who is consistently applying pressure in a game? Who got sacked five time last night and who got sacked only once?

On both sides we are (and have for God knows how long) being dominated at the line of scrimmage.

I started really worrying last week when Abilene Christian started doing their Old Dominion imitation.

DON'T WE EVER SCOUT OURSELVES? I MEAN REALLY AND VERY CRITICALLY SCOUT OURSELVES?

SMU ran the same long pass plays, and same long running plays to the exact same side of the defense that ACU did!

Someone commented on another post that (hopefully) the team will get mad and take it out on UC? Really? Getting 31 points scored on them by ACU didn't make them mad? So much so that they would have/could have gone down to Dallas and taken it out on SMU?

As the character "Hobart" said in "Silverado"......"It's a bad start boys"

Greenrex · September 8, 2019

Well stated, NTEX91.
To update an old saw: The father of disappointment is Expectation. Sometimes the mother's name is Dodge, sometimes, McCarney, or Littrell.. But, the father is always Expectation.

Mean Green Matt · September 8, 2019

We also have a bad habit of laying complete eggs in front of big crowds (whether it be at home or large traveling crowds).

NorthTexasWeLove · September 8, 2019

1 hour ago, SilverEagle said:

Ready for the old guy rant?

What is it that I do every year on signing day (now days)? I look over the list of QB's/WR's/RB's that everyone else is salivating over and ask the same question..........WHERE'S THE BEEF? It's really simple people, who is consistently getting pressured and who is consistently applying pressure in a game? Who got sacked five time last night and who got sacked only once?

On both sides we are (and have for God knows how long) being dominated at the line of scrimmage.

I started really worrying last week when Abilene Christian started doing their Old Dominion imitation.

DON'T WE EVER SCOUT OURSELVES? I MEAN REALLY AND VERY CRITICALLY SCOUT OURSELVES?

SMU ran the same long pass plays, and same long running plays to the exact same side of the defense that ACU did!

Someone commented on another post that (hopefully) the team will get mad and take it out on UC? Really? Getting 31 points scored on them by ACU didn't make them mad? So much so that they would have/could have gone down to Dallas and taken it out on SMU?

As the character "Hobart" said in "Silverado"......"It's a bad start boys"

Defensively, there is a lot to be desired up front. We have not recruited all that well to those position groups and it is showing. I think it may be time to can the 3-3-5 as well.

bstnsportsfan3 · September 8, 2019

13 minutes ago, Mean Green Matt said:

We also have a bad habit of laying complete eggs in front of big crowds (whether it be at home or large traveling crowds).

this is what frustrates me more then anything...any sliver of momentum that NT gets we seem to crap away! drives me nuts.

Big Z · September 8, 2019

8 hours ago, NTEX91 said:

I have been home now for several hours and have had time to reflect on what I witnessed tonight. Something has to change and quickly or we will lose any and all respect and momentum we have gained. I walked out of Ford Stadium tonight disgusted and sick from what I observed. I was not alone. Many I walked with to our respective vehicles were expressing the same feelings. Why can we not take the next step? This is year four for SL and company and we are not seeing results. There is a disturbing trend starting to repeat itself. In 2016 we roll into West Point and whip Army on their field, only to crap the bed against UTSA the following week. It’s year one, but we are making baby steps. Moving to 2017, after a pool party and an ass whipping at the hands of FAU, we somehow manage to get to the Conference Championship only to get our ass handed to us again by the Lane Train. But things are forgiven, as it’s only year two. Let’s not forget a close HOD Bowl loss to Army and a NO Bowl blow out to Troy along the way. But we are making progress, right? So now let’s move onto year three. We start 4 and 0 with a P5 win over a struggling Arkansas team which SL says was not an upset. Another baby step in the right direction? After a win at Liberty we roll home to Apogee and dedicate a statue to a UNT Great, only to squander a double digit lead and take a crap on our home turf in a loss to La Tech. The next disaster would come a few weeks later at ODU when the heavy favorite Mean Green would piss away a 28 point lead in a loss to a conference bottom feeder. Don’t forget, this was after blowing a lead on the road at UAB in a game we were picked to win. With all of this said, I won’t even go into the New Mexico Bowl. Yes, I know Fine went down early but I think if we are being honest with ourselves, we all knew where this game was headed before the injury. Now we find ourselves in year four. We had a great first half in the home opener before letting things slide late against a weak FCS team. We were told the team lost interest. Really? So what the hell happened last night? Did the team lose interest again? This has got to end! We should not tolerate this kind of result in year four. This team has too much talent for this kind of performance. Anyone else see a trend here? The season is young. Will it be a success or filled with disappointments?

GMG

It’s only the second game and it was out of conference. Let’s tap the brakes and not get all emotional over one loss. I’m happy to see that we have a hard nose running back in Tre Siggers, this guy can be a major contributor down the road.

trud1966 · September 8, 2019

4 hours ago, Wag Tag said:

We were totally out coached by SMU DC and we have 2 outstanding Offensive gurus! Remember the D game plan against us was stack the box? Now it is unstack the box. In game adjustments seems to continue to be a challenge for Seth. We have seen it in second half meltdowns and now right out of the box. As stated 4 yrs later we demand better!

SMU did EVERYTHING right, UNT looked like they went into this went into this not seeing the value of this win, across the board, for the program, school, Denton, DFW , ...You know how someone always posts, at the beginning of the year; “Would rather rather lose to SMU -or- not win the conference and still go to a bowl game?” (Or some variation of that question, etc...). Interesting to think about how you answer those questions before the season, then after a loss like last night. .

SMU’s transfers, made a difference, we were out coached, and they studied film. They knew if they shut down Bussey and pressure Fine, that eliminates at 75% of the threat we bring. We have got to be deeper than that. Defense. Wow... awful...like Todd Dodge vs OU awful. Shows just how inexperienced we are. And Geez, what happened to the whole “We’re gonna really start incorporating the Tight End” thing?

Tire Fire

My concern is we really showed our cards last night. Every opponent we have this season will watch the SMU game to figure out how to beat UNT.

And, it was HOT out. I’m just grumpy cause of this damn heat. There’s only one person to blame for that, and that’s RV.. (cause I blame him for everything...even at work)

Edited September 8, 2019 by trud1966

GrandGreen · September 8, 2019

One trend is that this was nearly exactly the same game as NT vs SMU was last year, only in reverse. The home team stomped the visitor.

It was the one game on the schedule that I most hoped that NT would not lose.

It was a loss, learn from it and go on.

UNT 90 Grad · September 9, 2019

8 hours ago, Big Z said:

It’s only the second game and it was out of conference. Let’s tap the brakes and not get all emotional over one loss. I’m happy to see that we have a hard nose running back in Tre Siggers, this guy can be a major contributor down the road.

True dat. UAB is the only team in our entire conference that hasn’t had a loss yet. Pretty sad when we are only two games in, but still.

MeanMag · September 9, 2019

9 hours ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

Defensively, there is a lot to be desired up front. We have not recruited all that well to those position groups and it is showing. I think it may be time to can the 3-3-5 as well.

Does canning the 3-3-5 solve the problem of not recruiting that position well, or something?

NorthTexasWeLove · September 9, 2019

1 minute ago, MeanMag said:

Does canning the 3-3-5 solve the problem of not recruiting that position well, or something?

No. But it's a bush league defense and I've never liked it. It's easy to expose when you don't have great linebackers and just that much more easier to expose when you're linebackers are meh and your secondary is awful. Another reason, it lessens the emphasis on recruiting DL and that is a part of our roster that needs complete attention.

MeanMag · September 9, 2019

7 minutes ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

No. But it's a bush league defense and I've never liked it. It's easy to expose when you don't have great linebackers and just that much more easier to expose when you're linebackers are meh and your secondary is awful. Another reason, it lessens the emphasis on recruiting DL and that is a part of our roster that needs complete attention.

It just sounds like we need to fix DL, LB, and secondary recruiting... What kind of scheme we run sounds irrelevant.

Green Lantern · September 9, 2019

20 hours ago, Mean Green Matt said:

We also have a bad habit of laying complete eggs in front of big crowds (whether it be at home or large traveling crowds).

It’s strange to me that every time we play at Ford that SMU seems to come out with much more energy, focus and physicality. You’d figure the Mean Green players and coaches, coming out of the tunnel and seeing around 40% of a stadium forty five minutes from home filled with their fans would be enough to “lock in” and get excited. It’s not like it’s a house of horrors from an atmosphere standpoint to overcome. In fact on TV, it often sounds like a UNT home game. But we come out FLAT at Ford every time.

cdizzle86 · September 9, 2019

This is where we see what kind of team we have. Do the SMU loss define this team or will they come out pissed next week and redeem themselves against a P5 team?

Big Z · September 9, 2019

4 minutes ago, Green Lantern said:

It’s strange to me that every time we play at Ford that SMU seems to come out with much more energy, focus and physicality. You’d figure the Mean Green players and coaches, coming out of the tunnel and seeing around 40% of a stadium forty five minutes from home filled with their fans would be enough to “lock in” and get excited. It’s not like it’s a house of horrors from an atmosphere standpoint to overcome. In fact on TV, it often sounds like a UNT home game. But we come out FLAT at Ford every time.

It’s weird like that, maybe because we get the side with sun beaming on us?

GreenFlag · September 9, 2019

Here’s the inconvenient truth. We lucked out on a few diamonds in the rough on otherwise very #OldDenton recruiting classes since SL has been here. Two solid JUCO’s are now residing in the NFL. We’ve only had one good recruiting class and they are true freshmen.

I’m in the camp that thinks SL has done a magnificent job with what he’s had to work with. It’s going to take two more years at CURRENT recruiting performance before this thing is truly competitive. I give SL full credit for making adjustments in the recruiting game instead of literally crying about it like those who shall not be named here did.

Harry · September 9, 2019

33 minutes ago, GreenFlag said:

Here’s the inconvenient truth. We lucked out on a few diamonds in the rough on otherwise very #OldDenton recruiting classes since SL has been here. Two solid JUCO’s are now residing in the NFL. We’ve only had one good recruiting class and they are true freshmen.

I’m in the camp that thinks SL has done a magnificent job with what he’s had to work with. It’s going to take two more years at CURRENT recruiting performance before this thing is truly competitive. I give SL full credit for making adjustments in the recruiting game instead of literally crying about it like those who shall not be named here did.

IPF should also help things going forward.

UNTLifer · September 9, 2019

13 hours ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

No. But it's a bush league defense and I've never liked it. It's easy to expose when you don't have great linebackers and just that much more easier to expose when you're linebackers are meh and your secondary is awful. Another reason, it lessens the emphasis on recruiting DL and that is a part of our roster that needs complete attention.

Tell that to TCU.

greenminer · September 9, 2019

There was a change in recruiting two classes ago, but the benefits (if any) will come in a couple years.

untjim1995 · September 9, 2019

SL has performed a great rebound from where things were before he got here, but Sonny Dykes is a very accomplished and solid coach. We all hate SMU, but they are in a better league, so they get to play better competition to get the attention of transfers. Add in the fact that SMU's talent was pretty low from last year, so the transfers know they can also play right away for a good coach. Dykes and his staff saw some things on film and used that preparation with the added motivation of last year's ass-kicking in Denton to just crush us from the start.

SL will be most likely be done here at UNT at the end of this season, unless we finish around .500. Too many people across college football think he's a miracle worker for what he has done here--which is pretty accurate, based on our history, whether you look at the previous 5 years, since moving up to FBS again in 1995, or going all the way back to when Fry left. But one thing that we don't ever talk about much around here is just how much Mike Leach's influence was on SL. Leach, while at Tech, had awesome offenses and the defense was just asked to get a few stops per game. Recruiting for defense was always second to any and all offensive talent.

greenminer · September 9, 2019

12 minutes ago, greenminer said:

There was a change in recruiting two classes ago, but the benefits (if any) will come in a couple years.

I got a confused emoji for this. I don’t think what I posted is that hard, but I would be willing to respond to the person that’s confused/disagrees.

my point being, there was a very clear change in recruiting that helped with the 2019 and 2020 classes. It will take a few years for them to take over the roster.

Edited September 9, 2019 by greenminer