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My LSU buddies were talking about what we witnessed on Friday 24 hours later. As the story of DM kept unfolding on espn my friends marveled at what we had just seen. They had never ever seen that before. Didn’t think it was possible. To walk into a top tier college football game after 2 weeks of prep and ball out. It was a fun watch. He stated, “North Texas would not die.” I’ll take that fight every day. And yes I did think we were going to get blown out. I invited two alums for the Friday afternoon affair and they couldn’t be bothered. Showed zero interest. But I took 2 SEC diehards and there they were having fun supporting our Mean Green. I’m not giddy about the loss. Rather I believe there will be lots of fireworks and cannon fodder in a few short months in DATCU. Analyze everything. Every win every loss every missed opportunity every rarity. GMG

The first few on the list are situational dependent, so I will address the last two points. You don’t think it is problematic that our backup all season was a walk on that didn’t start in high school? I sure do given that they brought in Tisdale from TCU, a Juco, and a scholarship freshman who were not better. Maybe that speaks to their ability to spot a diamond in the rough walk on, but isn’t it also an indictment of the lack of evaluation of the other three recruits? On the final point. Yes, they were asking too much from the QB in his first start since ninth grade! For a hundred years coaches have simplified the playbook and leaned on the running game when the inexperienced backup quarterback comes in. Suddenly, Morris is smarter than all coaches in history and decides that this kid should attempt around 45 passes (41 attempts plus plays that ended up as scrambles/sacks). Completely out the game in the hands of an inexperienced 18 year old. He exceeded our expectations but of course the player is going to have turnovers! Some have said the first INT isn’t on the qb and I could agree with that. It was another stupid WR screen (that we all hate) that went wrong. So also on Morris. I don’t hide it at all: I don’t believe in Morris. Said this from the beginning. And he has backed up my lack of faith by his actions! No defense for two years, the insane going on fourth down in our own territory in the first quarter, passing up on field goals when we just should take the points, etc. So yes, I hold him accountable for the results on the field.

Morris has talked about it before but with high school signees there is a much stronger relationship built with them and their families, as well as between them and the University itself. To a high school signee, this is their home and the only college they have ever known. To a transfer portal it’s just the next stop and a chance to bump up their stock for a better NIL/program opportunity. A freshman comes in and has a good season, they’ve successfully taken the first step at UNT in the plan they laid out when they came here. A transfer has a good season here and they’ve gotten what they wanted out of our school and program and typically will leverage it into a better opportunity. In terms of retaining players, you’re gonna have more success with the guys you got out of high school. But even if it’s just for a season, you still take guys who can produce like Morris and DT out of the portal all day. All about finding the right mix now. Definitely agree about the o-line and play calling. Looks like we have some quality help coming to supplement guys like Blair and Nelson. Play calling definitely has room for improvement, especially on those money situations on 3rd down and in the red zone where we weren’t near as highly ranked as our overall offensive statistics were.

What if we stopped patting ourselves on the back for being disappointed at the result after losses and see if that works? Maybe that’s what’s holding us back. Being so proud that we don’t accept moral victories instead of actually figuring out how to get real victories. Everyone is always so happy to say they don’t accept moral victories on here when we lose without actually digging into the details to refute the optimism beyond a simplistic statement. Almost every good season we have had in the last 20 years was followed by a losing season. Most of our good seasons were followed up with losing seasons. A lot of our losing streaks were preceded by wins that showed weaknesses that could be exploited by better teams (i.e. FAU this season). Some of our best winning streaks were on the heels of losses where we played tough against a good opponent, like Iowa in 2017. All that to say, it’s not all black and white. We can and should analyze the nuances and details in between. Our HC has done nothing but churn out elite QB play from 3-star and below rated QBs for the last decade as an HC and OC, most recently evidenced by one of the most wild instances many people around college football have ever seen. We hired a DC who had a top 25 defense in the FBS and is bringing 5 starters and 2 more of his backups from that defense with him. There are logical reasons for optimism coming out of this bowl game and acknowledging that doesn’t equate to complacency or prevent us from turning the corner as a program.

lol I can't believe the bowl officials didn't paint the endzones for Mean Green/Bobcats. They left it at Mustangs.