DRC Mahan finds grove with MG

[OldTimer]

Mahan finds groove with Mean Green

Linebacker has 10 tackles in each of last two games

10:53 PM CDT on Wednesday, September 27, 2006

By Brett Vito/Staff Writer

Colt Mahan seemed like a forgotten man at North Texas just a few weeks ago.

The former Keller linebacker was buried on UNT’s depth chart, had his biography cut from the team’s media guide and was drifting toward becoming labeled a big-time recruit who didn’t pan out.

Thanks to a series of injuries to players ahead of him, Mahan has started to change the course of his career heading into the Mean Green’s Sun Belt Conference opener against Middle Tennessee on Saturday at Fouts Field.

Mahan has started in each of the last two weeks because of injuries to Phillip Graves, Brandon Monroe and Derek Mendoza and responded by leading UNT with 10 tackles in each game.

Mahan had just three tackles in UNT’s first two games of the year and eight in his career before his breakout outings.

“In our system if you stay around and work hard with the schedule we play, guys are going to get beat up and hurt and some opportunities are going to present themselves,” UNT head coach Darrell Dickey said. “Some people get 20 or 30 opportunities and take advantage of none of them. Some people, all they need is one shot.”

Mahan took advantage of his chance and was named the Mean Green’s Defensive Player of the Game the last two weeks.

That type of production is what UNT was hoping Mahan could provide after he signed with the Mean Green in the spring of 2004. The Dallas Morning News rated Mahan No. 70 on its list of the top 100 college football prospects in the area and he had long-term ties with the Mean Green.

Mahan’s grandfather, Quincy Armstrong, was named All-Texas College and a Williamson All-American during his career as a linebacker and center at UNT from 1950-51. He was inducted into UNT’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 1993.

Mahan struggled to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps while competing for playing time with a host of talented players who signed with the Mean Green about the same time. Graves is a candidate for the Butkus Award that goes to the nation’s top linebacker, while Maurice Holman, Shawn Early, Monroe and Mendoza have all been starters during their careers.

Graves and Holman were both members of the All-Sun Belt Conference team last season.

“It was frustrating that I was not getting a chance to play, but I was behind some great players,” Mahan said. “It’s tough when you have so many great players at one position, but I was not going to give up. … I knew that as long as I kept working at some point I would get a shot. If I had quit, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything with it.”

UNT’s switch to a 3-4 defense from a 4-3 this season helped Mahan find a role with the Mean Green. Mahan started out as an outside linebacker, but was moved inside this season to the same position he played at Keller.

Mahan is small for an inside linebacker at 6-1, 201, but has made up for a lack of bulk with his speed.

“Colt has pretty good athletic ability,” Dickey said. “He’s not the biggest guy, but he is pretty fast and more than anything he wants to get to the ball and make a play. That is as important as designing great defensive schemes.”

Mahan showed that he could make the most of his ability when he started for the first time in his career against Tulsa.

“I was nervous for my first start because I knew that if I didn’t make the most of it, that might be my last shot,” Mahan said. “If I did well, I might get a chance to play more.”

Mahan’s 10-tackle outing earned him that opportunity. He started last week against Akron and will play a more prominent role on special teams against MTSU.

UNT is hoping Mahan can help the Mean Green improve a kickoff coverage unit that ranks last in the Sun Belt.

“I played with Colt in the Oil Bowl, so I knew he was a player,” Monroe said of the summer all-star game. “It was a matter of him getting a chance.”

Mahan isn’t sure what his future will hold when the rest of UNT’s players return from injury, but is pleased with how he performed when he had his first chance to play a prominent role with the Mean Green.

“I hope that I am going to keep on playing,” Mahan said. “I did all I can do. Hopefully I did enough to get on the field more than I have in the past. We will still have to share time because we have so many good players.”

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