UNT Working Hard To Reschedule LSU Game

[MeanGreen61]

Football: UNT working hard to reschedule LSU

Mean Green looking to move game to Oct. 29

09:05 AM CDT on Friday, September 2, 2005

By Brett Vito / Staff Writer

North Texas and the Sun Belt Conference are examining a plan that would allow the Mean Green to take on LSU on Oct. 29, head coach Darrell Dickey said Thursday.

UNT is currently scheduled to face conference rival Louisiana-Monroe that day. UNT is working with other teams in the Sun Belt to juggle their schedules to accommodate the Mean Green’s first non-conference game of the season.

UNT and LSU were set to open their season on Saturday before the affects of Hurricane Katrina forced the game to be postponed.

“We are awaiting official word because two other teams would have to move games, but the game is going to get rescheduled,” Dickey said.

UNT has signed a $500,000 contract to play the game. LSU has an even larger financial interest in playing the contest that was expected to draw a capacity crowd of more than 90,000 to Tiger Stadium.

Moving games to accommodate another conference team’s needs is not unprecedented in the Sun Belt.

UNT moved its game against Arkansas State in March so the Indians could sign a contract to play Army in a home-and-home series. The Mean Green moved its game with ASU a second time to accommodate their national television game against Troy on Oct. 4.

UNT will now face ASU on Nov. 26.

The UNT athletic administration and the Sun Belt Conference have now turned to the rest of the league to make another few changes to help the Mean Green get their game against the Tigers in this season.

Cobbs, Thomas on Doak watch list

UNT running backs Patrick Cobbs and Jamario Thomas were both on the list of candidates for the Doak Walker Award that was released on Thursday.

A total of 47 players were nominated by their schools for the award that goes to the nation’s top running back.

Cobbs won the national rushing title in 2003 with an average of 152.7 yards a game before a knee injury cut his 2004 season short after just two games. Thomas took over for Cobbs and won UNT’s second straight national rushing title with an average of 180.1 yards a game.

The SMU Athletic Forum board of directors will select the semifinalists on Nov. 17 before the Doak Walker Award national selection committee selects the finalists on Nov. 18. The national committee will then pick the winner on Nov. 28.

The winner will be announced on Dec. 8 and will be honored Feb. 27 in Dallas.

UNT getting short on line

UNT is getting dangerously short on interior defensive linemen heading into its season opener against Middle Tennessee on Sept. 10.

The Mean Green found out this week that sophomore T.J. Raymond did not meet NCAA eligibility requirements and will not play this season. To make matters worse, projected starter Sky Pruitt injured his shoulder on Wednesday and missed Thursday afternoon’s practice.

“It’s probably a slight separation or a hairline fracture, but he will be ready for the Middle Tennessee game unless something further happens,” Dickey said.

UNT lost all four of its starters on its defensive line after last season and has spent most of fall practice looking for a way to rebuild its defensive front.

Pruitt is listed as UNT’s starting defensive tackle, while Raymond was the backup at nose tackle. Raymond had been impressive throughout fall practice and was expected to play a significant role.

Isaac Thomas has also missed a significant amount of fall practice while working through issues related to playing in the heat. Thomas practiced on Thursday.

“We have had a rotation of five on the defensive line in fall practice, and we will still have five when Sky comes back,” UNT defensive tackle Chris Miller said. “I am confident. We will be thin, but we will be OK.”

UNT’s rotation will likely include several young players. Thomas, a redshirt freshman, sophomore Montey Stevenson and freshman Joseph Miller should all play significant roles this season.

Stevenson played in every game last season and finished with 11 tackles.

“I had a lot of experience last year,” Stevenson said. “This year I know what to expect. I learned what I needed to improve on last year. I am ready to go.”

The performance of UNT’s young players has given Dickey confidence in the future of his defensive line, a unit that has been a strength of the Mean Green’s defense the last several years.

“It hurt to lose T.J., but Sky will be able to play,” Dickey said. “We feel very good about the players we have there. In the past we have had one or two guys who did the majority of the playing and some guys who backed them up. This year it will be like a pitching staff. We will keep rolling them in there and keep them fresh.”

Moore, Smith leave UNT

Junior running back Kevin Moore and senior defensive back Ricardo Smith have left North Texas and will continue their college education at another school, Dickey said this week.

Both players could return to the team at a later date.

Moore and Smith were both projected as backups for the Mean Green. UNT returns the last two national rushing champions in Patrick Cobbs and Jamario Thomas who won the title in the 2003 and 2004 seasons, respectively.

Moore was a key backup for Cobbs during the 2003 season and had compiled 408 career rushing yards. He was also among UNT’s top kickoff return specialists. He averaged a team-best 28.9 yards on 11 returns last season.

Smith started his career as a backup running back before moving to safety during spring practice.

Sun Belt offices move to Lafayette

Sun Belt Conference Assistant Commissioner Chris Jackson said Thursday that the league would relocate its offices to Lafayette, La., from New Orleans by Monday morning.

The conference’s offices, located in downtown New Orleans, were evacuated in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Jackson said Sun Belt officials know that some of the windows in the building where the league’s office is located were broken, but are unsure of the extent of the damage.

The league’s offices are located in the upper floors of a building on Poydras Street.

BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870. His e-mail address is bvito@dentonrc.com.

[Huff]

My wife and I attended the President's Council function last night in Ft. Worth. Several of the higher level UNT staff members were in attendance. The concensus opinion from them was that Homecoming was going to be moved to allow us to play LSU on that date. There was not any concrete information available about when we would then play UL-M. I hope the deal works so we can play them wht week before Thanksgiving. Any games in December - except Bowl games - would not be good.

[STxEagle95]

Any idea of when Homecoming will be moved to?

[eeally]

If this happens then Homecoming would probably be moved a week later to the Lafayette Game on NOV 5th.

[CMJ]

While I understand this....it does not make me happy. I already bought my plane fare for Homecoming, and since it's expedia - it's non-refindable. I guess another year of not seeing my team play...or Bonfire.

[untbowler]

speaking of bonfire where will it be this year since they drained the pond in front of it??

[MootPoint]

homecoming would likely be for ULL. . . .

[DeepGreen]

Regarding the article, and the fact that we are now thin on the defensive line, I think PlumMeanGreen had an excellent idea. Move Adam Venegas to the defensive line. That's what he played in high school, and according Plummer's post, Venegas was quite good on the defense.

[MeanGreen61]

Regarding the article, and the fact that we are now thin on the defensive line, I think PlumMeanGreen had an excellent idea.  Move Adam Venegas to the defensive line.  That's what he played in high school, and according Plummer's post, Venegas was quite good on the defense.

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Wondering if we'll see mostly 3-4 this season?

Edited September 2, 2005 by MeanGreen61

[H-towngreen]

I would like to see both the 3-4 and the 4-3 played equally.