Feel Good Comments From Rice

All About UNT · September 13, 2010

I only continue to insert these quotes from the other boards to show that not just Clemson....but now Rice has our respect.

"I think that everyone here is discounting just how much N Texas is improved from last year, especially on defense. Nothing quite like adding a 300 lb DT and a 320 lb NG from the juco ranks, plus 5 other BIG DL, to help turn a porous defense into a fairly stout one. They moved big LB's to DE to get more speed on their defense too. The result is that this year's UNT defense is light year's better than last year's version. Rice's offense isn't where we want it to be, but realistically, we have played against two very stout defenses in our first two games. I don't know what Northwestern or Baylor have on defense, but I doubt they will be any better than what we saw in the first two games and arguably will not be as good."

"C'mon talon. Clemson had half of their yardage on 3 plays. We had 25% on 2 plays. We were better in the passing game than Clemson and worse in the running game, which was to be expected. Take away 5 big plays and UNT is sitting at 2-0 right now. Heck, take away 2 (one each game) and UNT is sitting at 2-0. Like it or not, UNT is a very improved defensive unit this year."

"I agree. And as far as establishing an identity goes - we're a spread team, but are now finding our strength is at RB....so, we want to be a balanced team - but we haven't got that all sorted out yet. I think our struggles last night were five-fold:

1. UNT's defensive line was quite stout - consistently beating our OL

2. Our WR's were not getting open - so UNT was able to crowd the box even more, making it even harder to run - and also the reason we went to Luke Wilson over and over - he was the only one open. Every completion to a WR was a pinpoint pass.

3. Our playbook, especially running plays, is too small. They had an over-committed defense of the read option figured out before the game even started, but we had almost no other run plays to counter with.

4. Passing game frequently run out of a no-back set, so UNT DL could pin their ears back even more. This only works well if your receivers can gain some separation quickly, and we weren't.

5. Playing down to the competition. UNT has very good talent, but played dumb. We eventually matched their screw-ups tit for tat."

"I think UNT is better than many people give them credit for. At least as far as talent."

"Fair enough. There were some balls Rice caught that UNT receivers did not show the ability of catching. If UNT caught some of the passes that they should have - pedestrian opportunities - then they would've had a 21-28 point lead in the second half."

"UNT played a good game on defense, that doesn't mean we can't have more success vs Northwestern."

"Agree about talent. UNT looked a lot better than their previous records would suggest. Disagree about WRs catching -- we dropped two sure TDs that were very catchable. Those cost us 11 points. IMO the difference was that UNT spotted us 10 points before they started playing. ETA: our special teams, though not perfect, were much much better than theirs."

There would be more....if Rice's board was half as active as ours is (as of recent).

LoveMG · September 13, 2010

IMO the difference was that UNT spotted us 10 points before they started playing. ETA: our special teams, though not perfect, were much much better than theirs."

this.