Mean Green Hopeful After Slow Start

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Football: Mean Green hopeful after slow start

09:25 AM CDT on Thursday, October 11, 2007

By Brett Vito / Staff Writer

Before North Texas began its season, head coach Todd Dodge laid out some lofty goals for his first campaign with the Mean Green, including competing for the Sun Belt Conference title.

That goal appears to be out of reach after UNT dropped its fifth consecutive game to open the season and its second straight in league play last week against Louisiana-Lafayette. The Mean Green was forced to re-evaluate its prospects for the rest of the season this week heading into a home game against Louisiana-Monroe on Saturday and came to one conclusion:

UNT still feels like it has a lot to play for the remainder of the year.

"We have seven games left, more than we have played and have a great opportunity to improve," Dodge said. "We still expect to win every game that we play. As the head football coach of this team, we know that we are 0-5 and 0-2 in conference, but we have to make sure that we slow it down and make sure our players see the improvement we are making."

The situation is one a few of the Mean Green's veteran players have faced before.

UNT lost its first four games of the 2004 season before coming back to win the Sun Belt title and play in the New Orleans Bowl. Several of the Mean Green's veterans were members of that team.

UNT also started with five straight losses to start the 2001 season before coming back to tie for the Sun Belt title and advance to the New Orleans Bowl.

The key difference in those situations and what the Mean Green now faces is UNT only lost one Sun Belt game in its season-opening slide in 2001 and managed to turn the corner before beginning conference play in 2004.

Two losses put the Mean Green in a deep hole. Only once in the six-year history of the Sun Belt has a two-loss team won a share of the title.

"We don't think about or talk about it a lot, but it is in the back of a lot of guys' minds," UNT defensive lineman Montey Kennerson-Stevenson said of the Mean Green's previous rallies from slow starts.

UNT's chances of winning a title this season are all but gone, but Dodge pointed to several other goals the Mean Green could reach, including pulling off an upset in one of its remaining games. Dodge cited some of the shockers that have happened in college football already this season.

Appalachian State beat Michigan, while Stanford knocked off USC. UNT doesn't have one of the college football world's giants left on its schedule, but it will face Sun Belt frontrunner Troy and Navy in a nonconference game.

"We don't want to miss out on an opportunity to have one of those weekends where we upset someone and have people say that they never saw it coming," Dodge said.

UNT will have plenty of opportunities to reach that goal. Dodge pointed out that the Mean Green has four home games coming up after playing four of its first five on the road.

UNT plans to pull out all the stops to try and break through.

"People have asked if there will be wholesale changes to younger players," Dodge said. "There won't be. I told my senior class that I think we are going to do special things at North Texas and I don't want to wait until they are gone."

Montgomery making progress

Running back Cam Montgomery has made an impression on Dodge the last few weeks and is seeing additional playing time in practice.

"Cam is getting a lot more confidence and is more healthy," Dodge said. "Because he has gotten more reps in practice over the last three weeks, he is more confident. He is starting to free-flow in practice. You can see that burst again."

Montgomery, a junior transfer from Northeast Mississippi Community College, was one of the Mean Green's top recruits in Dodge's first signing class, but has just three carries for 7 yards on the season.

Montgomery has received extra time in practice partly because of a series of injuries to starter Jamario Thomas. Montgomery is still listed third on the Mean Green's depth chart.

UNT battling a flu bug

Defensive lineman Jonathan Stewart, defensive end Blake Burruss and offensive lineman Ajani Banks missed practice on Wednesday because of the flu.

Several UNT players have been sick over the last few days, including offensive lineman Matt Menard and wide receiver Brock Stickler.

"We traded about four for four," Dodge said. "Fortunately it is all the same symptoms and is a 24-hour deal. We will be all right. I think it will cycle through before the weekend."

UNT's slow start

Slow starts are nothing new for North Texas. The following is a look back:

Season 5-game start finish

2006 1-4 3-9

2005 2-3 2-9

2004 1-4 7-5

2003 2-3 9-4

2002 1-4 8-5

2001 0-5 5-7

Edited October 11, 2007 by MeanGreen61