DRC (updated with story): Littrell -- Aune remains UNT's starting QB after today's scrimmage

[MGNation92]

Just now, keith said:

I know the pendulum swings back and forth on this one.  Can someone remind me what phase of rationalization we are in with respect to bowl games?  Is it that there are too many meaningless bowls that no one cares about or is it that winning a bowl game is the ultimate measure of a team's success?

Bowls are an opportunity to compete and win against at least a comparable(if not better) team. 

Littrell has done neither.

[UNTLifer]

Did our offense really make that drastic a change after the 1-6 start?  I looked back at the box scores from last year and discovered the following:

1.  During our 1-6 start, we averaged 48.4 running plays per game and 35 passing plays.

2.  During the 5-1 end of the season, we averaged 50 running plays per game and 24.8 passing plays.

3.  We went from averaging 83.4 plays per game to 74.8 plays per game.

4.  During the slow start to the season, we ran the ball 58% of the time as opposed to 66% of the time during the winning streak and bowl loss, but we were also running about nine less offensive plays per game.

It appears we slowed down the pace of the game to keep the clock running more than shifting to a run heavy offense.  Also, in playing from behind in many of the earlier games, we were forced to throw to try and catch up.

Our heaviest running games were against Northwestern St. (50 carries), Liberty (60 carries), Southern Miss (59 carries), FIU (57 carries) and UTSA (60 carries).  Obviously, against Northwestern St., we jump out to a lead and controlled the game with the running game which they never really stopped allowing 6.9 yards per carry.  Against Liberty, we led early and kept running to keep Willis off the field.  Unfortunately, mistakes led to us losing the lead and the game.  Against Southern Miss, once we got the lead, we relied on the run to run the clock, plus the couldn't stop us.  In the final two, FIU and UTSA, we were able to jump out to early leads (35-0 at the half vs. FIU and 31-13 at the half vs. UTSA) and used the run to keep the clock moving.

I think we were able to utilize the run to manage the clock in the games we were able to jump to early leads, but I don't really recall a big shift to come out and just run, run, run.

[Cr1028]

10 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

Did our offense really make that drastic a change after the 1-6 start?  I looked back at the box scores from last year and discovered the following:

1.  During our 1-6 start, we averaged 48.4 running plays per game and 35 passing plays.

2.  During the 5-1 end of the season, we averaged 50 running plays per game and 24.8 passing plays.

3.  We went from averaging 83.4 plays per game to 74.8 plays per game.

4.  During the slow start to the season, we ran the ball 58% of the time as opposed to 66% of the time during the winning streak and bowl loss, but we were also running about nine less offensive plays per game.

It appears we slowed down the pace of the game to keep the clock running more than shifting to a run heavy offense.  Also, in playing from behind in many of the earlier games, we were forced to throw to try and catch up.

Our heaviest running games were against Northwestern St. (50 carries), Liberty (60 carries), Southern Miss (59 carries), FIU (57 carries) and UTSA (60 carries).  Obviously, against Northwestern St., we jump out to a lead and controlled the game with the running game which they never really stopped allowing 6.9 yards per carry.  Against Liberty, we led early and kept running to keep Willis off the field.  Unfortunately, mistakes led to us losing the lead and the game.  Against Southern Miss, once we got the lead, we relied on the run to run the clock, plus the couldn't stop us.  In the final two, FIU and UTSA, we were able to jump out to early leads (35-0 at the half vs. FIU and 31-13 at the half vs. UTSA) and used the run to keep the clock moving.

I think we were able to utilize the run to manage the clock in the games we were able to jump to early leads, but I don't really recall a big shift to come out and just run, run, run.

We may disagree on this Lifer but I feel like dropping your pass plays by nearly 30 percent is huge.

[NT80]

20 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

3.  We went from averaging 83.4 plays per game to 74.8 plays per game.

4.  During the slow start to the season, we ran the ball 58% of the time as opposed to 66% of the time during the winning streak and bowl loss, but we were also running about nine less offensive plays per game.

It appears we slowed down the pace of the game to keep the clock running more than shifting to a run heavy offense. 

More run plays keeps the clock moving which also accounts for less total plays in a game.  Incomplete passes or pass catches then out of bounds stops the clock = more plays in the game. 

[UNTLifer]

1 minute ago, Cr1028 said:

We may disagree on this Lifer but I feel like dropping your pass plays by nearly 30 percent is huge.

True, but we also ran about 10 plays less per game during the last six games of the year as compared to the first seven.  You remove the 90 plays were ran against Southern Miss (easy win) and we ran about 12 less plays per game.  By getting out to early leads, we were able to slow the game down and keep the clock moving by utilizing our running game.  

I guess what I am driving at is that we were able to get out to leads against the lesser competition and then utilize the running game to "shorten" the game vs. we just decided to give up on the passing game all together.

[Cr1028]

12 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

True, but we also ran about 10 plays less per game during the last six games of the year as compared to the first seven.  You remove the 90 plays were ran against Southern Miss (easy win) and we ran about 12 less plays per game.  By getting out to early leads, we were able to slow the game down and keep the clock moving by utilizing our running game.  

I guess what I am driving at is that we were able to get out to leads against the lesser competition and then utilize the running game to "shorten" the game vs. we just decided to give up on the passing game all together.

You make a good point that we didn’t just ditch the passing game altogether. I think since the strategy employed actually worked, Seth Littrell deserves a modicum of praise for it.

Edited August 16, 2022 by Cr1028

[Withers940]

On 8/15/2022 at 12:15 PM, UNTLifer said:

No videos, no mentions by SL, nothing from Vito and nothing from Smith.  Tells me he either hasn't fully recovered from last year's injury or is hurt again.

From what I was told is that his injuries have lingered over and he is still struggling with them. I pray he can get over the injury bug and hit the field. Dude was a BEAST every season until he got hurt 

[southsideguy]

 

[Mike Jackson]

On 8/15/2022 at 8:01 AM, GMG_Dallas said:

We need a guy who can throw us to a win in a close game late. I don't know if Gunnell (or somebody else on the roster) is that guy but I know for sure Aune isn't.

I think that guy might be on the team but I don’t think there is a coach in on staff to get that potential to bear fruit.  Day by day it looks like Harrell was responsible for getting the best out of QB and offensive talent.  

Edited August 21, 2022 by Mike Jackson

[greenminer]

26 minutes ago, Mike Jackson said:

I think that guy might be on the team but I don’t think there is a coach in on staff to get that potential to bear fruit.  Day by day it look like Harrell was responsible for getting the best out of QB and offensive talent.  

Maybe we underestimate Fine.

[Rudy]

On 8/14/2022 at 9:09 AM, GMG_Dallas said:

Ain't no way they're rolling him with the 1s all this time all for him to miss game 1 due to school starting. I'm going to guess those are false rumors. I wouldn't blame him for taking care of his family first, I just want to believe the coaches would see the urgency to get the other QBs more team 1 snaps if it's true.

I don't know where his kid goed to school but many DFW schools started last week.

[GMG_Dallas]

4 minutes ago, Rudy said:

?

[SteaminWillieBeamin]

On 8/13/2022 at 8:34 PM, Tom McKrackin said:

Agreed - really feel like Vito is having one of his best fall camps this far.

Are you on the spectrum? I ask respectfully.

Edited August 18, 2022 by SteaminWillieBeamin

[UNTLifer]

3 hours ago, GMG_Dallas said:

?

Aune's daughter is a freshman at UNT this year.  That post you replied to was a joke.

Edited August 18, 2022 by UNTLifer

[GMG_Dallas]

59 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

Aune's daughter is a freshman at UNT this year.  That post you replied to was a joke.

That makes more sense. It'd seem like an odd decision for a senior citizen to re-enroll in college while having a kindergartener. Don't know how I missed that obvious flaw in the story.

[Mike Jackson]

On 8/16/2022 at 11:53 PM, greenminer said:

Maybe we underestimate Fine.

That could be also but that still doesn’t bode well for our future hopes for Mean Green Football.  If Fine is a once in a lifetime talent that overcame subpar coaching then our program squandered his time here.  Because if he was that all time talent then just an okay coach gets at least one conference title out of him especially in a weak CUSA.  I would much rather believe that Harrell was responsible for getting the best out of Fine because we could hire another coach.  We aren’t likely to get another once in a lifetime QB talent that is “too short” to be fully appreciated by bigger brand programs.

Edited August 21, 2022 by Mike Jackson

[Cr1028]

1 hour ago, Mike Jackson said:

That could be also but that still doesn’t bode well for our future hopes for Mean Green Football.  If Fine is a once in a lifetime talent that overcame subpar coaching then our program squandered his time here.  Because if he was that all time talent then just an okay coach gets at least one conference title out of him especially in a weak CUSA.  I would much rather believe that Harrell was responsible for getting the best out of Fine because we could hire another coach.  We aren’t likely to get another once in a lifetime QB talent that is “too short” to be fully appreciated by bigger brand programs.

I’m more in the Harrell camp because Mason did seem to regress a little bit in 2019 with Bodie Reeder running things.

[NT80]

3 hours ago, Cr1028 said:

I’m more in the Harrell camp because Mason did seem to regress a little bit in 2019 with Bodie Reeder running things.

Yes.  Plus he was being kept in games for the Heisman campaign.  He just looked banged up sometimes, but not taken out for rest.