Unt-asu Game Preview

[Mean Green 93-98]

You know what it's going to say before you read it, but here it is anyway (Link).

Indians ready for wild ride tonight

BY MATTHEW V. ROBERSON

SUN STAFF WRITER

JONESBORO — Prepare for a track meet on turf.

Gone are the days when North Texas lined up and shoved the football down the pipe, overpowering Sun Belt Conference opponents like a bulldozer shovels sand. UNT has joined the new face of football, opting for a wide-open attack, spreading the field and flinging it all over the place.

With a new sheriff in town, North Texas is a one-win team in transition. The Mean Green are also a dangerous one-win team that has improved with each game this season, according to Arkansas State coach Steve Roberts.

ASU and UNT meet this evening in the final home game of the season. Kickoff is 6 p.m. at Indian Stadium.

“We have a tremendous challenge on our hands,” Roberts said. “There is no other way to put that. I think for once everybody can look beyond their record. You guys (in the media) don’t do a very good job of that, I don’t think, for a lot of times, but for once I think you have an opportunity to look beyond the record and see the improvement that North Texas has made throughout the year.”

Under first-year head coach Todd Dodge, who was hired after winning four Texas Class 5A state titles in five seasons while rolling up a staggering 79-1 record at Southlake Carroll High School, the Mean Green are playing a brand of football few have seen.

Twice North Texas has surpassed 600 yards offense in a game, including a mind-boggling 635 yards and 62 points last week against Navy. UNT quarterback Giovanni Vizza passed for 478 yards and set an NCAA record for a freshman with eight touchdown passes.

The Mean Green line up in a shotgun formation, sending three, four or five receivers out every play. Arkansas State (4-6 overall, 2-4 Sun Belt) has fared well against the pass, ranking 35th nationally, but the Indians realize this test is different.

“I’ve never seen anything like it before,” ASU safety Khayyam Burns said. “In all the years that I’ve been here, I’ve never seen a team do anything like they do. It’s going to be an up-and-down game. There’s going to be a lot of throwing the football. It’s going to be a huge offensive game. We have to play hard, be in the right place at the right time, keep our eyes on our man, and watch our keys.”

Arkansas State has been productive offensively, too, just not to the tune of North Texas. ASU averages 372 yards a game and appeared to be full strength in a 34-31 setback last Saturday at Florida Atlantic with Corey Leonard back at quarterback.

Roberts said establishing a ball-control attack is important for ASU.

“From an offensive standpoint, the challenge for us or any offense when you’re playing a great offense is to maintain possession of the football,” Roberts said. “We have got to score, but we’ve also got to maintain possession of the football.”

North Texas may have the ability to put defenses on their toes, but the Mean Green hasn’t fared well defensively. UNT is one of the weakest teams in the country when its offense isn’t on the field.

North Texas (1-8, 1-4) has allowed 49.6 points and 518 yards a game as teams have destroyed its 4-3 scheme. Oklahoma hung 79 on the Mean Green in the season opener while Navy rolled up 74 last week.

Eight of UNT’s opponents have scored 31 points or more, including Arkansas (66), Middle Tennessee (48), Troy (45) and SMU (45). North Texas’ only victory was a 31-21 upset of Louisiana-Monroe.

The Mean Green rank last in the nation in points allowed and next-to-last in yards allowed.

“There are three things we want to accomplish offensively,” Roberts added. “We want to win the battle of possession time, we want to score more points than them, and we want to keep getting first downs.”

Last year Arkansas State had no problem with UNT, beating the Mean Green 29-10. But after watching an 11-point fourth quarter lead slip away in the defeat at FAU, the Indians have lost three of their last four games and aren’t exactly confident.

ASU can’t finish with a winning record, is out of the Sun Belt race and won’t be invited to a bowl even if it wins its final two games. But Roberts doesn’t believe there will be a hangover effect from losing to Florida Atlantic.

“We’ve had good practices this week,” Roberts said. “We feel real good about our football team and their competitiveness and character. We’ve had lots of disappointments here in the last six years, and we’ve found a way to bounce back from those the majority of the time.”

Tonight’s game is the home finale for 17 Arkansas State seniors, many of them fifth-year seniors.

Among them are some of ASU’s all-time best at their positions including receiver Levi Dejohnette, specialist Darren Toney, linebacker Koby McKinnon and safeties Burns and Tyrell Johnson.

Johnson and Burns have had the biggest impact, ranking No. 1 and No. 2 in career tackles in the Sun Belt. Johnson has made 342, including 73 this year, while Burns has 313.

Dejohnette is sprinkled across ASU’s list of receiving records, ranking third in career receptions (141), third in receiving yardage (1,680) and fourth in receptions (50) for a single season. He is 17 catches shy of the school record for career receptions.

While Dejohnette said winning is motivation enough to finish strong at home, it will still be an emotionally charged evening.

“It’s been creeping up on me ever since last Saturday at FAU, knowing that this is going to be my last time to play on this field after all these years,” Dejohnette said. “It just came so quick. It seems like yesterday I was just a freshman. I never thought I’d be seeing this day.”

Burns shares similar feelings.

“We’ve had a lot of ups and downs with the group that I came in with,” Burns added. “It’s going to be meaningful, it’s going to be really intense, and there’s going to be a lot of passion in this game. We really are going to have to focus and hold our emotions back until after the game.”

For Roberts, it is the final home game for his first full recruiting class. Every player on ASU’s roster was signed by Roberts’ staff.

While there will be one more game left in the regular season, the home finale won’t be easy for him either. He wants nothing more than to watch this group add one more victory at home before their careers come to an end.

“It will be hard, but it’s hard every year. ... Those guys have meant so much to our program,” Roberts said. “They’ve certainly raised the expectation level of our program at Arkansas State.”

mroberson@jonesborosun.com

[Mean Green 93-98]

You've got to love this gem:

“There are three things we want to accomplish offensively,” Roberts added. “We want to win the battle of possession time, we want to score more points than them, and we want to keep getting first downs.”

Umm, I think if you accomplish #2, #1 and #3 do not really matter.

[greenminer]

You've got to love this gem:

Umm, I think if you accomplish #2, #1 and #3 do not really matter.

Turnovers matter turnovers matter! Lets get 7 of them in a SINGLE GAME. How can they possibly blow a game with 7 takeaways.

we'll show those bloody bastards.

[Dodge2007]

Looking at common opponents, it might be a tough night to move the ball. They have one safety headed to the NFL (from what I have been reading) and two senior DB's who might give us fits. OL is critical as usual. Come on "D," lets step up big.

Edited November 15, 2007 by Dodge2007