For all the doubt about Morris….

[Coffee and TV]

4 hours ago, Meangreen Fight said:

That is the truth no sense downvoting or rolling your eyes at that comment.  UTSA is the ONLY team in college football south of Idaho and Syracuse that plays their home games in a dome.  I was there probably not like the people who downvoted and eye rolled.  It was cold, wet, windy a miserable.  We were a dominant running team and they were a passing team.  You couldn’t have crafted a better home field advantage for us that day with 20,000 more fans showing up.  
 

Being dishonest about our program doesn’t help it do better. 

In 2003 we had one of the top 10 rush defenses in D-1 going into our game against Air Force. They proceeded to throw for 300+ yards. UTSA being one-dimensional takes nothing away from that win. 

[DentonLurker]

The “wasn’t supposed to be a rebuild thing” is tired and crap. This program wasn’t where it needed to be. Any coach they hired was going to have a hard time this year. That’s just reality.

[Meangreen Fight]

4 hours ago, Coffee and TV said:

In 2003 we had one of the top 10 rush defenses in D-1 going into our game against Air Force. They proceeded to throw for 300+ yards. UTSA being one-dimensional takes nothing away from that win. 

That is green tinted assessment of our win against UTSA.  That team beat us in our next 2 matchups the following season.  And I argue that 2021 UTSA  was not as good as the 2022 we lost to twice.  And the Mean Green 2022 was probably a little better than the 2021 team.  I hope you enjoyed that wasted season that it earned Littrell and company. 🙄

Edited October 23, 2023 by Meangreen Fight

[keith]

So North Texas to get this excited at 3-4 and 1-2 in conference.  

[Aquila_Viridis]

There is alot to be said for being competitive overall in that Tulane game. This is a brutal stretch we're in now. At this point in time, I'd feel very good just about being competitive in all the remaining games this season, regardless of the outcomes. Hopefully we can win a few of them. There is still all the upside compared to SL we hope for from coach in the long term; if you didn't think there would be a time of adjustment, that's just delusional.

[Salsa_Verde]

[outoftown]

9 hours ago, Aquila_Viridis said:

There is alot to be said for being competitive overall in that Tulane game. This is a brutal stretch we're in now. At this point in time, I'd feel very good just about being competitive in all the remaining games this season, regardless of the outcomes. Hopefully we can win a few of them. There is still all the upside compared to SL we hope for from coach in the long term; if you didn't think there would be a time of adjustment, that's just delusional.

I was happy to see the improvement and am kind of ok to lose to the best team in the conference on the road by 7 for the moment. If you won that game you would be a conference contender, and prior to this game there was little to suggest such a thing. UNT looked like a team that is upper middle of the pack in its last two games, and lower middle of the pack against navy. The next 3 teams are all good i.e. middle of the pack in the AAC or a bit better. You can lose one or two of those. But only one can be the best team in the conference -likely Tulane- and if NT do not manage to get any of the next 3, then what looked like progress on the field will feel much more like fools gold to me.

SMU for example has great talent, but Lashlee is honestly a very pedestrian developer and scheemer and so far they got to play nothing but the dregs of the conference (Charlotte ECu and Temple combine so far for one AAC win - Charlottes win over ECU). Memphis has two common opponents with NT, and if you adjust for home and away, then NT did about the same against Tulane and Navy as Memphis, plus that game is in Denton. UTSA has been fairly decent, but NT has the home advantage.

Edited October 23, 2023 by outoftown

[MeanGreenTexan]

23 hours ago, kj86 said:

I have never seen an NT team get better like this as the season went along.  Sure, you're almost always going to clean some stuff up as the season progresses, but this team is really progressing and I'm very encouraged for the future of the program under Morris.

Didn't we start 2021 (yes, less than 2 years ago) 1-6, including a close loss to Liberty & Malik Willis...  only to see them reel-off 5 straight?

[MrAlien]

For me the jury is still out on Morris, he hasn't had a full year of recruiting yet, so it wouldn't be fair to make a judgment, he is still coaching a lot of Seth's recruits.  Lets be honest, if this would be Morris's 3rd season and UNT was 3-4, many people on this board would be calling for his removal. 

[Coffee and TV]

13 hours ago, Meangreen Fight said:

 I hope you enjoyed that wasted season that it earned Littrell and company. 🙄

Upsetting a ranked team and you find a way to be bitter about it. Couldn't be me.

[MeanGreenGlory]

You have to give this staff and team credit. They have improved week after week, and I'm far more excited about the last stretch of the schedule than I was after the Cal and FIU games.

I agree with others that Morris' aggressive playcalling has been a positive and, frankly, refreshing. It's still balanced, but we're stretching the field about as wide and far as I've seen us stretch it in a long time. I also thought the onside kick call in the Tulane game was brilliant.

The defensive players seem to be getting more comfortable in the 3-3-5 scheme. They've made dramatic improvements since the first game. The run defense, which was our Achilles heel at the beginning of the season, has improved, and the number of interceptions we've forced this year compared to the past few has been impressive. With continued experience in the scheme plus another recruiting cycle for the staff to hit the portal and address personnel gaps/depth, I'm more confident than before that Caponi will field a stout defense next year.

[Green Otaku]

1 hour ago, MrAlien said:

For me the jury is still out on Morris, he hasn't had a full year of recruiting yet, so it wouldn't be fair to make a judgment, he is still coaching a lot of Seth's recruits.  Lets be honest, if this would be Morris's 3rd season and UNT was 3-4, many people on this board would be calling for his removal. 

 

The only valid critique we can make on recruiting is he had ample time to hit the transfer portal in the spring window and didn't. I'm hoping he goes for some big transfers this offseason. 

[BigWillie]

16 hours ago, DentonLurker said:

The “wasn’t supposed to be a rebuild thing” is tired and crap. This program wasn’t where it needed to be. Any coach they hired was going to have a hard time this year. That’s just reality.

Especially for when he was brought in. I mean comon guys, I get the criticism, but it has been said on here, unless your name is Deion Sanders, getting transfer portal players, a staff, having players on both side of the ball learn a new playbook in the length of time they were given is very hard for any school.

I am not making excuses for this staff, but to think that with the above stated facts this team was going to steam roll opponents right out of the gate is looking through your green telescope.

[UNTLifer]

If we play like, or improve upon, our second half performance against Tulane for the remainder of the year, then I will be extremely pleased.

[rcade]

On 10/22/2023 at 8:51 AM, golfingomez said:

I'm not a Morris hater, nor did I think firing Littrell was wrong... 

But Littrell beat the last ranked opponent he faced

He did, and kudos to him for that UTSA beatdown forevermore.

But when you expand the picture to include performance in bowl games, it wasn't pretty.

I hope Morris knows that Mean Green nation expects bowl game wins, not just appearances.

[rcade]

14 hours ago, Meangreen Fight said:

I hope you enjoyed that wasted season that it earned Littrell and company. 🙄

Even with a UTSA loss and no bowl game in 2021, we don't know he would've been let go that year, given the financial considerations. In 2022 he got a $1.6 million buyout with only one year left on the deal. Stack on another $1.6 million if he was fired a year earlier. That's a lot of cheese for a G5 program without big money boosters known for making it rain.

[NT80]

1 hour ago, rcade said:

He did, and kudos to him for that UTSA beatdown forevermore.

But when you expand the picture to include performance in bowl games, it wasn't pretty.

I hope Morris knows that Mean Green nation expects bowl game wins, not just appearances.

Seth's Frisco Bowl against Miami-O was a total embarrassment!   

[Cr1028]

1 hour ago, NT80 said:

Seth's Frisco Bowl against Miami-O was a total embarrassment!   

Didn’t help that our number one offensive weapon sat that game out.

[GrayEagle]

I thought at first that this is a mirage.  However, it really did happen.  After the FIU fiasco it seems that each week both sides of the ball are buying in.  My player, Jordan Brown, just keeps getting better.  He had 15 tackles against Tulane to lead the team!  

I doubt that Rogers can do this well every game but he's definitely the one for the job.  What's good is that he's not relying on just one or two receivers.  He used four receivers for scoring.  I liked that Lively got a touchdown in his first game.

[97and03]

4 hours ago, BigWillie said:

Especially for when he was brought in. I mean comon guys, I get the criticism, but it has been said on here, unless your name is Deion Sanders, getting transfer portal players, a staff, having players on both side of the ball learn a new playbook in the length of time they were given is very hard for any school.

I am not making excuses for this staff, but to think that with the above stated facts this team was going to steam roll opponents right out of the gate is looking through your green telescope.

Texas State. 

[meaniegreenie]

28 minutes ago, GrayEagle said:

I thought at first that this is a mirage.  However, it really did happen.  After the FIU fiasco it seems that each week both sides of the ball are buying in.  My player, Jordan Brown, just keeps getting better.  He had 15 tackles against Tulane to lead the team!  

I doubt that Rogers can do this well every game but he's definitely the one for the job.  What's good is that he's not relying on just one or two receivers.  He used four receivers for scoring.  I liked that Lively got a touchdown in his first game.

[keith]

4 hours ago, MeanGreenGlory said:

You have to give this staff and team credit. They have improved week after week, and I'm far more excited about the last stretch of the schedule than I was after the Cal and FIU games.

I agree with others that Morris' aggressive playcalling has been a positive and, frankly, refreshing. It's still balanced, but we're stretching the field about as wide and far as I've seen us stretch it in a long time. I also thought the onside kick call in the Tulane game was brilliant.

The defensive players seem to be getting more comfortable in the 3-3-5 scheme. They've made dramatic improvements since the first game. The run defense, which was our Achilles heel at the beginning of the season, has improved, and the number of interceptions we've forced this year compared to the past few has been impressive. With continued experience in the scheme plus another recruiting cycle for the staff to hit the portal and address personnel gaps/depth, I'm more confident than before that Caponi will field a stout defense next year.

We ran the ball 24 times for 83 yards and threw the ball 51 times for 343 yards.  I don't have an issue with this, because you have to go with what's working and go away from what's not.  Against Tulane we couldn't move the ball on the ground so we went to the air and were almost able to pull off the upset.  I appreciate that we did not stubbornly keep trying to run it up the middle, but (for this game anyway) it definitely wasn't balanced, nor does it necessarily need to be either apparently.  We also won the turn-over battle which is always a plus.

[BigWillie]

25 minutes ago, 97and03 said:

Texas State. 

Not sure I am following you here. They beat a bad Baylor team and that's about it. They are 5-2 and lost to Louisiana-Lafayette and South Alabama. We are really like 2-3 plays away from being 5-2 ourselves, which all don't have to do with the HC. 

[BigWillie]

10 minutes ago, keith said:

We ran the ball 24 times for 83 yards and threw the ball 51 times for 343 yards.  I don't have an issue with this, because you have to go with what's working and go away from what's not.  Against Tulane we couldn't move the ball on the ground so we went to the air and were almost able to pull off the upset.  I appreciate that we did not stubbornly keep trying to run it up the middle, but (for this game anyway) it definitely wasn't balanced, nor does it necessarily need to be either apparently.  We also won the turn-over battle which is always a plus.

This was the MOST frustrating part of the SL era the last couple of years.

[NT93]

9 hours ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

Didn't we start 2021 (yes, less than 2 years ago) 1-6, including a close loss to Liberty & Malik Willis...  only to see them reel-off 5 straight?

I feel like the schedule got much easier rather than us improving in 2021.  
 

If SL were still here, I think we would have:

1)  Gotten hammered by Cal

2) Beaten FIU handily

3) Beaten LaTech by 10-14

4) Beaten ACU comparably 

5) Gotten hammered by Navy

6) Beaten Temple by 10-14 points

7) Gotten hammered by Tulane

So, we’d have a better record, but we’d have been blown out 3 times instead of once.  I also think I would be less optimistic about being competitive the last month of the season and beyond.

Edited October 23, 2023 by NT93