Mean Green a threat due to electric offense

[Jonnyeagle]

Despite going to a bowl game, last season felt like it could have been a lot better for the Mean Green. COVID interrupted their season at certain points and by the time the bowl game vs Appalachian State came around, North Texas Football looked worn down from the season and then got blown out. This program has been steadily on the rise under head coach Seth Littrell and expects to have a better ending to their season than the one they suffered last season.

North Texas has been defined by high-powered offenses ever since Littrell took over as the head coach and this one might be the most complete one he has had yet. The quarterback has experience and is talented, the backfield is deep and despite losing receiver Jaelon Darden to the NFL, the receiving corps has playmakers around. The big question that has been around the program ever since Littrell started having success was if he would ever find a defense to complement his offenses? That remains to be seen, even in his sixth season as head coach.

North Texas football was a program that had struggled to win at a consistent level before Littrell had arrived, but he has taken the Mean Green to a bowl game in four of the five years there and that has raised the expectations. After being one of the most sought-after coaches on the market early during his time at North Texas, some of the shine has worn off of Littrell, and now he finds himself on a bit of a hot seat after his record the past two seasons. This season could be telling on if Littrell can fix the issues that have prevented the program from being better or if it will be more of the same.

Read more:  https://saturdayblitz.com/2021/07/10/north-texas-football-electric-offense-should-make-north-texas-threat-in-c-usa/

[Salsa_Verde]

I remember when SL got hired and how people were saying it was going to be fun to watch if he came to North Texas and established an offense like Texas Tech’s. How it would be such a great recruiting pitch for QBs to tell them “hey do you want to lead the NCAA in passing?” Well….here we are and yeah SL can score points but it’s frustrating to watch when the defense is soft AF. 

[UNT 90 Grad]

5 hours ago, Salsa_Verde said:

I remember when SL got hired and how people were saying it was going to be fun to watch if he came to North Texas and established an offense like Texas Tech’s. How it would be such a great recruiting pitch for QBs to tell them “hey do you want to lead the NCAA in passing?” Well….here we are and yeah SL can score points but it’s frustrating to watch when the defense is soft AF. 

 

[MeanGreen_MBA]

1 hour ago, UNT 90 Grad said:

 

North Southlake Texas. 

[untjim1995]

It’s the Leach System. Leach, Mangino, Briles, and SL don’t care at all about defense doing much stopping, just get us the ball enough times each half to our score the other team. Briles used to tell Phil Bennett that I just need you to make one stop per half and they will win. I’m certain SL thinks the same way, based on the results of his tenure here.

[untjim1995]

Of course, on the flip side, we had Dickey and McCarney who thought the leather helmet offensive scheme was awesome…we never get a balanced approach here.

[meangreen11]

It seems to me that our offense may be somewhat overrated due to the fact our defense is so bad.  Our offense gets the ball a lot and is able to score because the defense can’t stop anyone.  So Iin many ways out offensive statistics are misleading.

Edited July 11, 2021 by meangreen11

[ChiefTenBeers2015]

2 hours ago, untjim1995 said:

Of course, on the flip side, we had Dickey and McCarney who thought the leather helmet offensive scheme was awesome…we never get a balanced approach here.

We’ll, Dickey seems to be successful with his scheme in College Station…

[greenminer]

1 hour ago, ChiefTenBeers2015 said:

We’ll, Dickey seems to be successful with his scheme in College Station…

Can't wait to see another page's worth of posts, debating who had control of his offense.

 

4 hours ago, untjim1995 said:

Of course, on the flip side, we had Dickey and McCarney who thought the leather helmet offensive scheme was awesome…we never get a balanced approach here.

Balance is rare anywhere.

[UNTLifer]

1 hour ago, ChiefTenBeers2015 said:

We’ll, Dickey seems to be successful with his scheme in College Station…

His scheme?

[NorthTexasSportsNetwork]

5 hours ago, ChiefTenBeers2015 said:

We’ll, Dickey seems to be successful with his scheme in College Station…

I’m pretty sure Dickey doesn’t have that much involvement in the offense there. 

[southsideguy]

11 hours ago, meangreen11 said:

It seems to me that our offense may be somewhat overrated due to the fact our defense is so bad.  Our offense gets the ball a lot and is able to score because the defense can’t stop anyone.  So Iin many ways out offensive statistics are misleading.

Cant even give us a little bit of hope can you.   lol

[GrandGreen]

12 hours ago, meangreen11 said:

It seems to me that our offense may be somewhat overrated due to the fact our defense is so bad.  Our offense gets the ball a lot and is able to score because the defense can’t stop anyone.  So Iin many ways out offensive statistics are misleading.

Sure, having a bad (horrible) defense will increase positive offensive stats.  However, NT was next to last, in offensive time of possession. 

NT was over an 100 total offensive yds a game over the second place team.   That a lot to contribute to a bad defense.   

NT also substantially led in offensive yards per play,   A stat that ignores the time of possession edge.  

NT' offense was far from overrated based on conference play.  

Edited July 12, 2021 by GrandGreen

[TheColonyEagle]

22 hours ago, untjim1995 said:

It’s the Leach System. Leach, Mangino, Briles, and SL don’t care at all about defense doing much stopping, just get us the ball enough times each half to our score the other team. Briles used to tell Phil Bennett that I just need you to make one stop per half and they will win. I’m certain SL thinks the same way, based on the results of his tenure here.

I think you're right....

The problem with that thinking is our offense isn't CLOSE to good enough to be able to pull that off like those other teams could. Those offenses (Baylor, Tech, etc) were head and shoulders better than ours. In points per game, Baylor was #1 in the nation 3 years in a row. We've never sniffed that. The highest LIttrell has ever been is #19 in 2017. Someone said earlier that his offense is overrated and they are correct. It is massively overrated. Last year in pts per game, we ranked #23 at 34.4 and 2 cancellations probably helped us as we didn't play A&M. Above us on the list, Coastal Carolina, LIberty, SMU, Buffalo...even Texas whose coach was run out of town for many reasons but one being his offense wasn't good enough. They averaged 42.7 per game last season.

To put this in perspective....Littrell is seen as the offensive guru, he's not even the best in a 30 mile radius. La Tech had the #1 offense in the nation in 2012 at 51 points per game! That was Sonny Dykes. Then it took Skip Holtz 4 years and he had La Tech's offense back at an elite level at #2 in the nation in scoring at 44 pts per game. #1 that year? Conference mate WKU. We've never been close to that level. I'm not even going to get into the meaningless yards and points Littrell has stacked up after being blown out early as it's been covered.

While 34 points per game is nice...especially considering how dreadful our offense was with McCarney....after 6 years our offense is no where near the level necessary to make up for the defense that is played here. If Littrell is going to have that mindset, he needs to be averaging 40-50 pts per game. 

[97and03]

On 7/12/2021 at 5:24 AM, GrandGreen said:

Sure, having a bad (horrible) defense will increase positive offensive stats.  However, NT was next to last, in offensive time of possession. 

NT was over an 100 total offensive yds a game over the second place team.   That a lot to contribute to a bad defense.   

NT also substantially led in offensive yards per play,   A stat that ignores the time of possession edge.  

NT' offense was far from overrated based on conference play.  

Our offense is so plainly overrated by our fans. It was above average but completely pedestrian early in games.

[greenminer]

2 hours ago, 97and03 said:

Our offense is so plainly overrated by our fans. It was above average but completely pedestrian early in games.

The pieces are there to be incredible, but you're right.  I honestly wonder if we are just 5% improved in a few areas, we will be 95% more productive on the field.

[Green Crazy]

On 7/16/2021 at 4:29 PM, 97and03 said:

Our offense is so plainly overrated by our fans. It was above average but completely pedestrian early in games.

Yes. Early in games our offense couldn't get critical first downs on 3rd and shorts and our defense couldn't stop a DVD player. We were constantly down 2 or 3 scores in the first half and would get 20+ points in the second half when it was usually out of reach. Offense is good, not great.  I do expect it to be slightly better this year though. 

[UNT 90 Grad]

On 7/11/2021 at 10:03 AM, meangreen11 said:

It seems to me that our offense may be somewhat overrated due to the fact our defense is so bad.  Our offense gets the ball a lot and is able to score because the defense can’t stop anyone.  So Iin many ways out offensive statistics are misleading.

Yeah.  The same way it would be misleading if the defense was causing 3 and outs for the opposition each possession.