Sports Network Preview -UNT/Tulsa Game

MeanGreen61 · September 14, 2005

Predicted score at end of preview.

http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform...ive/pv10376.htm

Tulsa (0-2) at North Texas (1-0)

The Sports Network

DATE & TIME: Saturday, September 17th, 7:00 p.m. (et)

FACTS & STATS: Site: Fouts Stadium (30,500) -- Denton, Texas. Television: None. Home Record: Tulsa 0-1, North Texas 0-0. Away Record: Tulsa 0-1, North Texas 1-0. Neutral Record: Tulsa 0-0, North Texas 0-0. Conference Record: Tulsa 0-0, North Texas 1-0. Series Record: Tulsa leads, 13-6.

GAME NOTES: The Tulsa Golden Hurricane will battle the North Texas Mean Green this weekend at Fouts Stadium in a non-conference tilt. The Golden Hurricane had the 18th-ranked Sooners on their heels late in the third quarter last week, but unfortunately for Tulsa, it was unable to pull off the upset, falling to Oklahoma, 31-15. The Golden Hurricane will be looking to snap a non-conference road losing streak of 15 games this weekend. The last non- league victory for Tulsa on the road came against Oklahoma back in 1996. This is the last non-conference contest of the season for Tulsa, which will open its Conference-USA schedule next week against Memphis. As for the Mean Green, they are coming off a very tough 14-7 victory over the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders. The Mean Green collected their 26th consecutive conference victory with the win over MTSU. North Texas had its first game of the 2005 campaign cancelled against LSU due to Hurricane Katrina. Next week UNT will battle Kansas State on the road before coming home to battle Troy in a SBC clash. This will be the first meeting between the two teams since November 20th, 1982. In that contest, the Golden Hurricane got the best of North Texas, defeating the Mean Green, 38-20.

The Golden Hurricane offense was able to collect 344 yards against the Oklahoma defense, unfortunately it was not enough to help Tulsa prevail over the Sooners. QB Paul Smith completed 24-of-36 pass attempts for 246 yards, but tossed a terrible interception that was returned for a touchdown. The Tulsa ground attack struggled, gaining just 98 yards on 39 carries (2.5 ypc). Smith lead the rushing attack with just 48 yards and one touchdown. Uril Parrish added 37 yards on 14 carries. Nine different receivers caught passes in the contest, but Garrett Mills caught the majority of them, hauling in 13 passes for 152 yards. Tulsa finished the game 8-of-17 on third down attempts and won the time of possession battle by a little over nine minutes. However inside the red zone, the Golden Hurricane converted just 3-of-4 attempts, with two of them going for field goals.

A week after allowing Minnesota's Laurence Maroney to rush for a career-high 203 yards, the Golden Hurricane defense was embarrassed again, this time by super sophomore Adrian Peterson. Peterson racked up 222 yards and scored three times, while Oklahoma finished the game with 227 yards on the ground (5.0 ypc). Tulsa held Oklahoma to just 13 first downs and 5-of-13 on third down attempts, but inside the red zone is where the Hurricane struggled, allowing OU to convert on all three attempts. Linebacker Nick Bunting was busy throughout the contest and finished the game with a team-high nine tackles. It is painfully obvious that Tulsa has had trouble stopping the run which doesn't bode well for this weekend's matchup against the run heavy offense of North Texas. The Golden Hurricane will need a superb performance if they plan on keeping the game within reach.

North Texas only racked up 274 total yards of offense against Middle Tennessee State, but that paired with the tremendous effort from the defensive unit gave the Mean Green their first victory of the season. Patrick Cobb led the rushing attack with 103 yards and one score on 28 carries, while Jamario Thomas added 58 yards on 10 rushing attempts. Cobb saw his first action since injuring his knee last season. The injury to Cobb opened the door for Thomas who went on to lead the nation in rushing (189.9 ypg) while scoring 17 touchdowns. He also set a UNT and Sun Belt record with 1,801 yards, earning him the league's Offensive and Freshman Player of the Year awards. While the ground game was extremely effective, the passing attack was the exact opposite. Daniel Meager finished the contest with just 122 yards on 10-of-15 passing. Expect a tremendous outing from both Cobbs and Thomas this week as they face a horrendous Tulsa defense. Both backs should have no trouble helping North Texas towards its second victory of the season.

Coming into the season there were many questions about stability of the Mean Green defensive unit, but those questions were answered against Middle Tennessee State this past week. UNT did allow the Blue Raiders to rack up 383 total yards, however the defense forced five turnovers which led the Mean Green's victory. North Texas recorded three interceptions, including one by Maurice Holman which he returned 99 yards for a touchdown. Holman finished the game with 5.5 tackles. Cornerback Roderick Cotton led the Mean Green with 8.5 stops in the win. Usually when a cornerback leads a team in tackles, that means the defensive unit struggled to stop the run and in this case that is correct, as UNT allowed 188 yards on the ground. Look for the North Texas defense to continue to improve this weekend and as the season progresses.

Tulsa has started the season against Minnesota and Oklahoma, which are two teams with dominant rushing attacks. It does not become any easier this week when the Golden Hurricane are pitted against the Mean Green's two-headed monster of Patrick Cobbs and Jamario Thomas.

Sports Network Predicted Outcome: North Texas 38, Tulsa 17

adman · September 15, 2005

Sports Network Predicted Outcome: North Texas 38, Tulsa 17

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PlummMeanGreen · September 15, 2005

Bull hockey !

This horrendous defense of Tulsa (as described by the reporter) almost beat the OU Sooners and in Norman to boot. This reporter needs to wait a few weeks to let our young team develop before he goes out on the limb so much with as much expection for our team.

We "ARE" a young football team and that is for certain. Funny how SMU has had a "young" team the last 5 years which I guess means their freshmen 5 years ago had grade problems and are still in the lower classes over on the Hilltop?

Tulsa is coming to Fouts Field with coaches, players and fans who believe they will beat the University of North Texas Mean Green. They feel it is their duty as a new CUSA school to do so, too.

Edited September 15, 2005 by PlummMeanGreen

September 15, 2005

OU may have won that game against Tulsa but they have clearly lost a step. Until last weekend I thought maybe the Frogs had just really gotten it together. Tulsa could possibly win the game, but it is encouraging to see independent observers clearly impressed with the Mean Green. I'm pretty confident our team is going to put something together that controls the outcome.

By the way, I don't feel too bad about 10 of 15 with no picks. I thought there were too many swing passes for not much gain though. The rollout looked good. The Mighty Quinn will be open.

good_ken · September 15, 2005

This horrendous defense of Tulsa (as described by the reporter) almost beat the OU Sooners and in Norman to boot.

It was the Tulsa offense that kept them in the OU game. IT was their defense, run defense specifically, that gave way.

andrewrozell · September 15, 2005

I think instead of saying "their defense held OU", you have to start to realize OU isn't "OU" anymore. holding OU isn't that big of a deal.

UNTFan23 · September 15, 2005

The more I think about the game, the more I think we're both pretty much even. At this time however, I'd have to give NT a slight edge being the home team. The edge will increase depending on how many will be at the game and how into it they get.

If you were the opposing offensive coordinator, you'd be salivating over how NT has what appears to be a weak pass defense, which plays to Tulsa's stregnth and how Tulsa gives up plenty on its rush defense, which plays to NT's strength. This game could very well be won by the team that makes the fewest mistakes and capitalizes on the other team's mistakes.

The only thing that might prove difficult for Tulsa to develop its best game plan against us is that they only have one game to judge us by, whereas we have two. It will be far easier for Dickey and Co. to throw out some weird formations/player matchups to try and keep the defense guessing. I also kinda wish we hadn't tried for that onside kick against Middle, since Tulsa will now prepare for it.