Football: Meager Kept Faith In Qb Battle

NT80 · August 23, 2007

Football: Meager kept faith in QB battle

09:01 AM CDT on Thursday, August 23, 2007

By Brett Vito / Staff Writer

In his first three seasons at North Texas, quarterback Daniel Meager missed spring practice once with a shoulder injury, was benched twice and took part of the blame for arguably one of the worst seasons in the last decade of Mean Green football.

Through it all, Meager never lost his confidence, which is perhaps the most important reason he will be back as UNT’s starter on Sept. 1 when the Mean Green opens at Oklahoma.

The former Richardson Pearce standout appeared like a long shot to start in the first season of the Todd Dodge era at UNT heading into spring practice, but ended up winning the battle for the starting job with three other players.

“Daniel is a very confident person,” said UNT offensive lineman Chad Rose, Meager’s roommate and one of his best friends on the team. “He never got down on himself. He saw everything that happened to him as a challenge. He wanted to go out there and work to put everything that people said was wrong with his game behind him to make himself a better quarterback.”

Meager had plenty of reasons to get down after being thrust into a series of tough situations beginning early in his career. UNT’s former coaching staff recruited Meager as a potential heir apparent to Scott Hall, who led the Mean Green to three Sun Belt Conference titles.

Meager missed nearly all of spring practice before his redshirt freshman season with torn ligaments in his shoulder, but ended up starting the first game of the following season, a 14-7 win over Middle Tennessee.

From then on nothing seemed to go right for Meager or the Mean Green. UNT won just one more game the rest of the way in a 2-9 season, partly because Meager managed just 941 passing yards and four touchdowns.

UNT’s former coaching staff benched Meager for the first two games of his sophomore campaign a year ago, brought him back as a backup for four games, started him for five games and then pulled him from the starting lineup again in the season finale.

“You take it how it is,” Meager said of what he learned from the experience. “You can only deal with what is going on right now and not what has happened in the past.”

While Meager’s history hasn’t been ideal, it’s one that Dodge believes has helped him win the starting job over a field that included Matt Phillips and highly regarded freshman Giovanni Vizza.

Meager beat out Phillips in spring practice and then edged Vizza in a competition that continued through the second scrimmage of fall practice.

“Daniel has had to overcome some adversity in his career, but if you look at it, in college football most guys don’t get to play a lot until their junior year,” Dodge said. “He has two years ahead of him. There might have been some disappointments before, but he has a lot of experience to fall back on.”

Meager spent the summer trying to avoid another disappointing season by working with his wide receivers in Denton. When they weren’t available, Meager often drug his girlfriend to the practice field to retrieve balls out of target nets.

That extra work helped Meager win the starting job, although he knows from experience that injury or another player could take it away any day.

“It’s not like this thing is over with,” Meager said. “I still have to come in and do the job. I believe there is still a competition going on.”

Cox leads competition for backup job

Senior Deavin Cox is leading in the race to be the backup for former national rushing champion Jamario Thomas, Dodge said.

Cox rushed for 204 yards last season and is competing for playing time with several players, including freshman Micah Mosley.

“Deavin is our No. 2 right now, but I have been very pleased with Micah Mosley,” Dodge said. “He has gained a lot of trust for a freshman from our coaching staff. We are taking a real hard look right now as to whether he will redshirt. He is getting a lot of reps and has performed well. I have been very pleased with him.”

Alexander to be a student assistant

Senior Josh Alexander will serve as a student assistant offensive line coach for the remainder of his time at UNT, Dodge said.

The Fort Worth Southwest product was forced to give up the game this fall after he was unable to recover from a knee injury he suffered in the 2005 season. Alexander, who was a tackle for the Mean Green, returned to practice for the first time since giving up the game Wednesday.

“It was great to see Josh at practice,” Dodge said. “He wants to be around the team and I definitely wanted him to around the team. He will help out [offensive line coach Spencer] Leftwich. He has a ton of experience and will help our young offensive linemen. He will be a big asset.”

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

mad dog · August 23, 2007

Meager spent the summer trying to avoid another disappointing season by working with his wide receivers in Denton. When they weren’t available, Meager often drug his girlfriend to the practice field to retrieve balls out of target nets.

With all due apologies to the future Mrs. McCombs, I think this girl gets my nomination for girlfriend of the year.