Just Got Back...game Observations From Smu's Side

Got5onIt · September 9, 2007

1. Defense was bad, showing lots of the same. Lots of straight up cover 1 man, Hair Roman was getting picked on (not surprised), D appears to be deathly afraid of the run & looks to be playing it almost every down.

2. Meager had lots of poorly thrown balls. Many underthrown & overthrown, but receivers made some great catches. The radio guys were sweating him hard, but when you only hand the ball off 5 times, what do you expect as far as stats are concerned???

3. Jamario's days are over. Dodge's offense does NOT utilize a running back. The RB does nothing but block 95% of the time, with an occasional draw play (only 1 play that goes left or right) with hopes to catch the D off gaurd for a huge gain.

4. SMU's cheerleaders are BAD. They care about as much as the fans do. Myself along with other NT fans were making the most noise even though we were outnumbered on that side.

5. NT lacks overall offensive speed. WR's were run down or could not really break free on man coverage. Could have something to do with Meagers underthrown balls.

6. NT lacks overall defensive speed. The DB's were being outrun by SMU's receivers on many occasions.

7. With the right players, a few years, NT could match & surpass that UH Andre Ware team as far as offense is concerned. I'll be anxious to see what "his" players can do in this system.

8. The QB is THE most important person on Dodge's team, period.

That is all.

good_ken · September 9, 2007

1. Defense was bad, showing lots of the same. Lots of straight up cover 1 man, Hair Roman was getting picked on (not surprised), D appears to be deathly afraid of the run & looks to be playing it almost every down.
2. Meager had lots of poorly thrown balls. Many underthrown & overthrown, but receivers made some great catches. The radio guys were sweating him hard, but when you only hand the ball off 5 times, what do you expect as far as stats are concerned???
3. Jamario's days are over. Dodge's offense does NOT utilize a running back. The RB does nothing but block 95% of the time, with an occasional draw play (only 1 play that goes left or right) with hopes to catch the D off gaurd for a huge gain.
4. SMU's cheerleaders are BAD. They care about as much as the fans do. Myself along with other NT fans were making the most noise even though we were outnumbered on that side.
5. NT lacks overall offensive speed. WR's were run down or could not really break free on man coverage. Could have something to do with Meagers underthrown balls.
6. NT lacks overall defensive speed. The DB's were being outrun by SMU's receivers on many occasions.
7. With the right players, a few years, NT could match & surpass that UH Andre Ware team as far as offense is concerned. I'll be anxious to see what "his" players can do in this system.
8. The QB is THE most important person on Dodge's team, period.
That is all.

I would question the comment about speed on the offensive side of the ball. I watched Fitzgerald get some great separation last week. He actually pulled away from the OU safety on his TD catch.

Defensive speed has been lacking for a while now.

Could the SMU cheerleaders actually have been worse than the OU ones? There's a sizable collection of roots.

GangGreen · September 9, 2007

All in all, that is a fair summary of the game. As far as Roman goes, he must be starting for a reason. If we beg for the next guy in line to start, we may just get what we ask for.

jperg2 · September 9, 2007

Just curious, as I couldn't see from my vantage point. How filled was our side of the stadium? It' looked packed.... I ask because prior to the game during the festivites at tailgating... RV mentioned that we had sold out of our alottment of tickets and had to by more from SMU that they hadn't sold! The folks within earshot of him went nuts. Dr. B was next to him and also gave a hearty speach and rallied the fans. The two of them did a great job with the tailgating festivities and showing their support and ability to get involved.

GMG!

meangreen2018 · September 9, 2007

We had an amazing turnout! About 8000 UNT fans is my guess.

Got5onIt · September 9, 2007

Just curious, as I couldn't see from my vantage point. How filled was our side of the stadium? It' looked packed.... I ask because prior to the game during the festivites at tailgating... RV mentioned that we had sold out of our alottment of tickets and had to by more from SMU that they hadn't sold! The folks within earshot of him went nuts. Dr. B was next to him and also gave a hearty speach and rallied the fans. The two of them did a great job with the tailgating festivities and showing their support and ability to get involved.
GMG!

NT's side looked fantastic!!!! You guys were cheering the whole time it seemed. Lots of noise! I was very proud.

nownot · September 9, 2007

my .02 cents. meager looked great. i went in the game saying booo but i was very impressed tonight, he had two pics but made good throws ( from what i saw ) 90% of the time. defense was couldnt tackle, the hardest hits were on kickoff. db's were, are, and are going to be slow, i accept that, but please stop the run up front. reason why we lost you may ask, it was mental mistakes. several off-sides, one i remember was in the red zone which killed us on the drive. drops, i remember one on 3rd down. bad time for turnovers, expect some but just bad timing on them. still should of won but i think things are looking up for the future and a trip to new orleans.

gangrene · September 9, 2007

1. Defense was bad, showing lots of the same. Lots of straight up cover 1 man, Hair Roman was getting picked on (not surprised), D appears to be deathly afraid of the run & looks to be playing it almost every down.

Agreed...defense sucked again tonight...lots of work needed.

2. Meager had lots of poorly thrown balls. Many underthrown & overthrown, but receivers made some great catches. The radio guys were sweating him hard, but when you only hand the ball off 5 times, what do you expect as far as stats are concerned???

Agreed again...underthrown passes everywhere. Had a few of those passes been thrown to the proper spot, they would have resulted in TDs. The WRs had to wait on nearly every pass, just like last week...the biggest difference is that SMU's DBs are slower and weren't able to keep up with our WRs as much. That great catch by Fitz on the sideline (driving to the grass endzone) in the 4th was also poorly underthrown...he was held by the DB and that's the reason he was able to stay under the ball. We were able to score on that drive but weren't as lucky earlier in the game. There was a pass to Jacobs either at the end of the 2nd or the 3rd quarter in which the ball was also badly underthrown. Jacobs stopped, waited, caught the ball and was tackled around the 10. I think we fumbled on that drive....I can't find a box score anywhere yet.

3. Jamario's days are over. Dodge's offense does NOT utilize a running back. The RB does nothing but block 95% of the time, with an occasional draw play (only 1 play that goes left or right) with hopes to catch the D off gaurd for a huge gain.

Does anyone know the story on J-mo...was he hurt or did TD simply choose to start Mosley over J-mo?? I saw all the draw plays too, but I know TD ran the ball more at SLC and he certainly utilized the RB as another receiver. I saw Meager struggling with the hand-off again tonight...you'd think he'd be an expert at handing off after a couple of years in DD's offense, but he just seems afraid to let go of the ball.

8. The QB is THE most important person on Dodge's team, period.

Yep, and Meager is not the right person to be running this show. He's too ancy in the pocket, choosing to scramble instead of finding a receiver. That's what I like about Vizza...instead of worrying that the defense will beat the O-line he's looking downfield for a receiver and, if the pocket does collapse, he gets rid of the ball. Meager would rather hang onto the ball or throw to a receiver that's got a DB hanging all over him.

Other observations I had:

The rainbow flags the flag corps uses are gay...and, speaking of gay...I think I saw four or five guys in our flag corps...what's that all about??? How long 'til have we dudes on the dance team, or has that already happened too??

It seems we can count on Adam Venegas for a couple of penalties in key situations. Come on Adam...you're a Senior...we need you to be the leader of that line.

I thought TD planned to rotate 8 WRs per game, yet I only saw the same 4 WRs on every play.

Our no-huddle offense was good to force a few TOs by SMU and seemed to be successful in tiring out their defense.

SMU converted too many 3rd and 15+.

Phil Bennett coached that game like he knew it would be his last if he lost. Going for the TD at our 3-yard line with :03 left, and then :00 in the first half was a dumb-ass but gutsy call. Lucky for him he succeeded in getting the TD. Otherwise, we may have been up by 7 at the end of the game before Meager threw his back-to-back picks.

Oh, and one more thing...the kick-off field position really hurt us tonight too. SMU's kicker put the ball in the end zone several times and Spencer never even got it within SMU's 5-yard line, which allowed SMU to regularly return the ball to the 30-40. Obviously, we didn't notice this last week too much because we only kicked off three times all game.

Edited September 9, 2007 by gangrene

GoMeanGreen1999 · September 9, 2007

1. Defense was bad, showing lots of the same. Lots of straight up cover 1 man, Hair Roman was getting picked on (not surprised), D appears to be deathly afraid of the run & looks to be playing it almost every down.
2. Meager had lots of poorly thrown balls. Many underthrown & overthrown, but receivers made some great catches. The radio guys were sweating him hard, but when you only hand the ball off 5 times, what do you expect as far as stats are concerned???
3. Jamario's days are over. Dodge's offense does NOT utilize a running back. The RB does nothing but block 95% of the time, with an occasional draw play (only 1 play that goes left or right) with hopes to catch the D off gaurd for a huge gain.
4. SMU's cheerleaders are BAD. They care about as much as the fans do. Myself along with other NT fans were making the most noise even though we were outnumbered on that side.
5. NT lacks overall offensive speed. WR's were run down or could not really break free on man coverage. Could have something to do with Meagers underthrown balls.
6. NT lacks overall defensive speed. The DB's were being outrun by SMU's receivers on many occasions.
7. With the right players, a few years, NT could match & surpass that UH Andre Ware team as far as offense is concerned. I'll be anxious to see what "his" players can do in this system.
8. The QB is THE most important person on Dodge's team, period.
That is all.

1. Yes, the defense was pathetic, again. We will win some games this season if this offense continues to improve, but it will out scoring the other team, as our Defense looked exactly the same as last week. Noticed that we once again made no changes at the break.

2. Meager had a great game until the fourth quarter. Your STARTING QB can NOT toss 3 INT's in the fourth quarter when you need him the most. If he doesn't toss 2 of them, we probably win the game. He still has not proved to me, that when the pressure is on, he can perform well.

3. Great play by our WR's tonight. Fitzgerald was awesome. Wonder if DD realized he was on the team. Don't know where JM or CM was.

4. AWESOME, GREAT, ENTHUSIASTIC UNT crowd tonight. WOW is all I can say. That was more fans there with green on that I have seen for a road game in a very long time. Was very impressed with how many students where there.

5. I will take losing an exciting game like that ANY day over the days of DD. His teams would have mailed it in when we went down 31 - 17.

Great game to watch and am excited about the rest of the season!

GoMeanGreen1999 · September 9, 2007

Agreed...defense sucked again tonight...lots of work needed.
Agreed again...underthrown passes everywhere. Had a few of those passes been thrown to the proper spot, they would have resulted in TDs. The WRs had to wait on nearly every pass, just like last week...the biggest difference is that SMU's DBs are slower and weren't able to keep up with our WRs as much. That great catch by Fitz on the sideline (driving to the grass endzone) in the 4th was also poorly underthrown...he was held by the DB and that's the reason he was able to stay under the ball. We were able to score on that drive but weren't as lucky earlier in the game. There was a pass to Jacobs either at the end of the 2nd or the 3rd quarter in which the ball was also badly underthrown. Jacobs stopped, waited, caught the ball and was tackled around the 10. I think we fumbled on that drive....I can't find a box score anywhere yet.
Does anyone know the story on J-mo...was he hurt or did TD simply choose to start Mosley over J-mo?? I saw all the draw plays too, but I know TD ran the ball more at SLC and he certainly utilized the RB as another receiver. I saw Meager struggling with the hand-off again tonight...you'd think he'd be an expert at handing off after a couple of years in DD's offense, but he just seems afraid to let go of the ball.
Yep, and Meager is not the right person to be running this show. He's too ancy in the pocket, choosing to scramble instead of finding a receiver. That's what I like about Vizza...instead of worrying that the defense will beat the O-line he's looking downfield for a receiver and, if the pocket does collapse, he gets rid of the ball. Meager would rather hang onto the ball or throw to a receiver that's got a DB hanging all over him.
Other observations I had:
The rainbow flags the flag corps uses are gay...and, speaking of gay...I think I saw four or five guys in our flag corps...what's that all about??? How long 'til have we dudes on the dance team, or has that already happened too??
It seems we can count on Adam Venegas for a couple of penalties in key situations. Come on Adam...you're a Senior...we need you to be the leader of that line.
I thought TD planned to rotate 8 WRs per game, yet I only saw the same 4 WRs on every play.
Our no-huddle offense was good to force a few TOs by SMU and seemed to be successful in tiring out their defense.
SMU converted too many 3rd and 15+.
Phil Bennett coached that game like he knew it would be his last if he lost. Going for the TD at our 3-yard line with :03 left, and then :00 in the first half was a dumb-ass but gutsy call. Lucky for him he succeeded in getting the TD. Otherwise, we may have been up by 7 at the end of the game before Meager threw his back-to-back picks.
Oh, and one more thing...the kick-off field position really hurt us tonight too. SMU's kicker put the ball in the end zone several times and Spencer never even got it within SMU's 5-yard line, which allowed SMU to regularly return the ball to the 30-40. Obviously, we didn't notice this last week too much because we only kicked off three times all game.

Speaking of other observations:

It was interesting to see that the band director seem to come up with the money to get the band to dress all in uniform tonight. I got a HUGE laugh out of that one.

Number 74 - who is that - FOUR false start penalities in ONE game is a bit much.

The DEFENSE SHOULD NEVER, EVER be offsides. Watch the ball, not listen to the snap count. We did this TWICE tonight. Penalties killed us.

As I mentioned before, Meager is not our guy. I don't know why Vizza can't get in more. In fact, after two INT's tonight in the fourth, down 14, I was shocked he stuck Meager back in.

Boomer23 · September 9, 2007

The rainbow flags the flag corps uses are gay...and, speaking of gay...I think I saw four or five guys in our flag corps...what's that all about??? How long 'til have we dudes on the dance team, or has that already happened too??

There was one guy

Smitty · September 9, 2007

One other observation:

There was a group of extremely attractive North Texas female students in very short shorts and sports bras, with M-E-A-N-G-R-E-E-N-! spelled out across their bellies. Oh my. However, the stadium's big screen showed three SMU girls in a similar fashion, except they had the following letters on their abdomens: O-M-U. Very confusing.

gangrene · September 9, 2007

One other observation:
There was a group of extremely attractive North Texas female students in very short shorts and sports bras, with M-E-A-N-G-R-E-E-N-! spelled out across their bellies. Oh my. However, the stadium's big screen showed three SMU girls in a similar fashion, except they had the following letters on their abdomens: O-M-U. Very confusing.

I saw the UNT girls walking to their cars after the game...nice....VERY nice.

greenminer · September 9, 2007

I marched 6 years. ALways had a few guys in the flag corps. Sometimes the dance team, too.

GoMeanGreen1999 · September 9, 2007

I did notice that the band looked great tonight. Apparently the band director was not too upset about the posts on here after the OU game, as he went out and made sure each band member matched the other ones.

MeanMag · September 9, 2007

God, I wish we could pretend that we've all been off the board for just enough time to have seen a beautiful naked girl before. Then we could stop talking about how hot we all know our North Texas students are and not look like horny old D bags. Seriously.

UNT_92_Fan · September 9, 2007

God, I wish we could pretend that we've all been off the board for just enough time to have seen a beautiful naked girl before. Then we could stop talking about how hot we all know our North Texas students are and not look like horny old D bags. Seriously.

Random.....

GoMeanGreen1999 · September 9, 2007

One more observation that will come as a shocker to some of you, but there is one of the new shades of green that I actually think looks good and with enough time, may just in fact grow on me. It is the "darker" shade of the newer green and it looked good from what I saw tonight.

There were some collar shirts with the new "eagle" on them in the dark green that I would like to know where people are getting them from - I saw this shirt probably 10 times tonight, but I sure have not seen it in either of the book stores.

MeanMag · September 9, 2007

Random.....

Not really..... Want to know why we can no longer comment on the attractiveness of current scholarship athletes?

Coach · September 9, 2007

Jamario's days are over. Dodge's offense does NOT utilize a running back.

Did you see Newton's stats last year? How about Aaron Luna before him? Dodge likes to run, but against OU, we couldn't, and SMU couldn't stop the pass, so why get too far away from it. Dodge will attack the weakness of the defense, and he showed that tonight with the play calling. I have no concerns about balance in the offense or play calling with Dodge.

Jamario is probably benched because he is hurt, ineffective, or a combination of those two. Nothing new from the previous two seasons.

Edited September 9, 2007 by Coach

JayDub · September 9, 2007

Did you see Newton's stats last year? How about Aaron Luna before him? Dodge likes to run, but against OU, we couldn't, and SMU couldn't stop the pass, so why get too far away from it. Dodge will attack the weakness of the defense, and he showed that tonight with the play calling. I have no concerns about balance in the offense or play calling with Dodge.
Jamario is probably benched because he is hurt, ineffective, or a combination of those two. Nothing new from the previous two seasons.

Agree completely. There IS a place for the running game in Dodge's offense.

I love Super Jamario as much as the next guy...but I think his day has come and gone. Not his fault...he's just got a jacked up hammy. Look for him to play mentor to Mosely this season, but don't expect him to put up any huge numbers. Not a damn thing wrong with that, either. (Here's to hoping I'm way wrong.)

rcade · September 9, 2007

We had an amazing turnout! About 8000 UNT fans is my guess.

UNT's fans could be heard on the radio. At times it sounded like a home game.

rcade · September 9, 2007

God, I wish we could pretend that we've all been off the board for just enough time to have seen a beautiful naked girl before. Then we could stop talking about how hot we all know our North Texas students are and not look like horny old D bags. Seriously.

Point taken, but be honest. Sideline shots of hot female fans during college football telecasts are the reason God invented Tivo.