A Report from Myrtle Beach

letsgiveacheer · December 22, 2020

There was no North Texas section for the game so we were scattered all over the stadium. Maybe twenty to thirty UNT fans were there in total? I had the good fortune to be seated near UNTCambell who is as dedicated a Mean Green fan as you would wish. Coastal Carolina University has a nice stadium that seats about 20,000. Social distancing, masks, etc etc were all enforced.

The Appalachian fans were all very gracious and friendly

The outcome of the game was about what I expected. "Happy Appy" was the far superior team as well as better coached. However, our team played hard the entire game. Unlike many games where I have seen them "give up" this was not the case tonight.

As I remarked to UNTCambell, after 50 years of following UNT football, I have seen only ten winning seasons. Once and awhile, it would be good to see a win in an important game.

tmjerm · December 22, 2020

What was your interpretation of effort on all of the many long sweep plays?

letsgiveacheer · December 22, 2020

Just now, tmjerm said:

What was your interpretation of effort on all of the many long sweep plays?

That was on the coaches. Our guys did their best as far as I could see.

tmjerm · December 22, 2020

1 minute ago, letsgiveacheer said:

That was on the coaches. Our guys did their best as far as I could see.

How do you mean?

letsgiveacheer · December 22, 2020

1 minute ago, tmjerm said:

How do you mean?

When you run the same play successfully for three or four times, adjustments should be made. I did not see that. More to the point, our guys played hard the entire game.

NorthTexasSportsNetwork · December 22, 2020

8 minutes ago, letsgiveacheer said:

When you run the same play successfully for three or four times, adjustments should be made. I did not see that. More to the point, our guys played hard the entire game.

100% true. Those guys backed up their teammates when App St was playing dirty, and it seemed they never gave up. SO many games this year, smuT the most memorable, they just gave up completely on all sides of the ball.

Upton Stout, in my mind, put forth the most heartfelt game. They wanted to be there, but sadly they are set up for failure.

tmjerm · December 22, 2020

We’re talking about stopping the sweep. Middle school teams are coached how to stop the sweep. I think our scheme and a bad defensive effort in the second half were why those things happened. I had major problems with the effort. I also think we need to move on from Bowen. Love our boys and they had moments, but there’s not a way to church up the late first half/second half play.

NorthTexasSportsNetwork · December 22, 2020

7 minutes ago, tmjerm said:

We’re talking about stopping the sweep. Middle school teams are coached how to stop the sweep. I think our scheme and a bad defensive effort in the second half were why those things happened. I had major problems with the effort. I also think we need to move on from Bowen. Love our boys and they had moments, but there’s not a way to church up the late first half/second half play.

You're set up for failure when you have 4 guys rushing and the rest dropping back into coverage (But somehow get burned on a lot of plays)

It's hard to stop a good offense when you already allow about 6-7 yards per play because of the horribly ran 3-3-5. Appy St was averaging around 10 yards a play, and had so many plays that should've been stopped for 4 yards, that ended up being huge chunk plays.

That's another thing. The kids have clearly not been taught to tackle properly. I have never seen so many whiffed attempt to tackle people until this year, and that is all coaching. They have the heart, and it seemed they put forth as much effort as you can possibly have with the overall state of the defense and program.

Edited December 22, 2020 by NorthTexasSportsNetwork

letsgiveacheer · December 22, 2020

2 minutes ago, tmjerm said:

We’re talking about stopping the sweep. Middle school teams are coached how to stop the sweep. I think our scheme and a bad defensive effort in the second half were why those things happened. I had major problems with the effort. I also think we need to move on from Bowen. Love our boys and they had moments, but there’s not a way to church up the late first half/second half play.

I certainly understand what you are saying and agree that a sweep should be easy to stop but my point is that they did their best. In person, it was very easy to see our guys were easily overmatched. The Appy State team was openly making fun of us in the second half. I also agree that Bowen, SL, etc etc need to go but then again, it will be just be more of the same with their replacements.

SHOSS · December 22, 2020

Since you were there, what happened to 34(Kyleb Howell?)? They chose not to show what happened on TV. This happened on a kickoff where there was a fair catch, if memory serves. I know that it had gotten very chippy, and I suspect they didn't show the incident on TV to prevent stoking the flames even more. There was no penalty on the play. There was just a UNT player down on the ground, motionless for a long long time. They showed a player on the App state sidelines. I don't think they ever identified him as the guy who hit Kaleb, but they followed him on the sidelines with the camera for a minute or so as he wandered around his teammates. Did you see what happened?

Edited December 22, 2020 by SHOSS

UNTcrazy727 · December 22, 2020

11 hours ago, letsgiveacheer said:

I certainly understand what you are saying and agree that a sweep should be easy to stop but my point is that they did their best. In person, it was very easy to see our guys were easily overmatched. The Appy State team was openly making fun of us in the second half. I also agree that Bowen, SL, etc etc need to go but then again, it will be just be more of the same with their replacements.

There was no effort from the defense in the second half. I have major problems with the coaches, but those long runs in the 2nd half are on the players. They were base runs into a base defense and our guys gave a piss poor effort. Everyone involved in the defense should be embarrassed today.

letsgiveacheer · December 22, 2020

2 hours ago, SHOSS said:

Since you were there, what happened to 34(Kyleb Howell?)? They chose not to show what happened on TV. This happened on a kickoff where there was a fair catch, if memory serves. I know that it had gotten very chippy, and I suspect they didn't show the incident on TV to prevent stoking the flames even more. There was no penalty on the play. There was just a UNT player down on the ground, motionless for a long long time. They showed a player on the App state sidelines. I don't think they ever identified him as the guy who hit Kaleb, but they followed him on the sidelines with the camera for a minute or so as he wandered around his teammates. Did you see what happened?

Sorry, but I did not catch what happened and no one seated around me saw what happened either. There was a lot of chippy play from both teams as you say but this seemed to calm things down a little.

untcampbell · December 22, 2020

Enjoyed getting to visit with letsgiveacheer. I have noted his positive nature on this board for years, even through some dark times. Very accomplished in life also. Inspiring!

Man, my eyes are really bad. I thought it was Christian Lee (84), not 34 Howell. And I was amazed that Christian was back on the kickoff team just a few minutes later (there were a lot of opportunities yesterday). LGAC was kind enough not to question or correct my amazement.

The unrelenting success on sweeps made huge question marks form over my head. Just unexplainable.

As the players walked off the field, our guys looked completely spent and their were quite a few hobbling. Very physical and contentious team we faced.

I don't think our offense could have kept up with our defense, but it would have been nice to see us with the same players that played at UTEP.

So when does Spring ball start?

GMG