UNT facing 1-and-done situation

NT80 · November 5, 2005

Football: UNT facing 1-and-done situation

Mean Green likely must win out to claim SBC championship

09:26 AM CST on Saturday, November 5, 2005

By Brett Vito / Staff Writer

North Texas head coach Darrell Dickey used an analogy often associated with college basketball to describe the Mean Green’s plight in the final four weeks of the regular season.

It’s tournament time for UNT.

And just like the NCAA college basketball tournament, the Mean Green appear to be facing a one-and-done situation.

UNT has already lost one Sun Belt Conference game earlier this season against Troy. To stay in the race for the league title, the Mean Green will likely have to win their four remaining games, beginning with tonight’s tilt with Louisiana-Lafayette at Fouts Field.

“Our focus this week needs to be on Louisiana-Lafayette because if we don’t win, it’s pretty much over for us,” Dickey said.

UNT (2-5, 2-1) sits in third place in the Sun Belt Conference standings with four weeks left in the season and is in what shapes up to be a three-team race for the league title with Louisiana-Monroe (3-4, 3-0) and Arkansas State (4-3, 3-1).

Trying to chase down the league leaders is an unfamiliar situation for the Mean Green, who went undefeated in Sun Belt play the last three years. UNT won 26 straight conference games before Troy ended the streak with a 13-10 win at Fouts Field on Oct. 4.

UNT has not played a home game since that loss and dropped three straight games.

The Mean Green believe they are capable of bouncing back, despite some dismal performances the last few weeks.

“We are very capable of getting on a roll,” UNT running back Patrick Cobbs said. “We have seen improvement in the last two weeks. … Hopefully we will take another step forward in conference.”

If the Mean Green are to make that step, they will have to build on a few small signs of progress they have shown offensively in the last few weeks. UNT was hammered by LSU (56-3) and Louisiana Tech (40-14) in its last two games, but found a few positives in the wreckage.

Running back Jamario Thomas posted his best game of the season when he rushed for a season-high 83 yards against LSU, the seventh-ranked team in the country. Redshirt freshman quarterback Daniel Meager also looked more comfortable than in previous games while leading the Mean Green on three drives that lasted at least eight plays against the Tigers.

Those accomplishments might not sound all that impressive, but they were positives for a team that ranks last among 117 Division I-A teams with an average of 9.0 points a game.

UNT’s low scoring average can be attributed partly to a tough non-conference schedule. The Mean Green have played a difficult slate of games before the Sun Belt season the last few years and have been able to bounce back each time. The Sun Belt’s coaches are not ruling out another late run by UNT.

“With the two running backs they have, they are going to be dangerous,” ULL coach Rickey Bustle said of Cobbs and Thomas. “Defensively they are running to the ball and playing hard.”

The question is whether that effort will be enough to help the Mean Green turn the corner against ULL, which has won its last two conference games. The Ragin’ Cajuns run has corresponded with a switch from a pro-style offense to an option-based attack.

ULL is averaging 227 rushing yards a game, a total that ranks 10th nationally in addition to leading the Sun Belt. UNT is normally the top team in the Sun Belt when it comes to running the ball, but is facing a whole new set of circumstances this year.

The most unfamiliar is trying to chase down two other teams in the Sun Belt standings. If the Mean Green are to complete the task, they will have to take the first step today in what could prove to be an elimination game for UNT.

“We have made some progress here and there, but we have to make a big jump to compete with Lafayette and get back in the mix for the conference title,” UNT defensive end Jeremiah Chapman said. “This team is very capable. It comes down to executing.”