NT vs. MUTS Prediction Thread

[UNTcrazy727]

27-24 UNT

The Jimmy Show keeps rolling as he puts up 170 total yards and 2 TDs. Olen continues his solid kicking by draining 2 FGs including the game winner late in the 4th.

[oldguystudent]

UNT 31

MTSU 24

WE NEED BACK TO BACK WINS!!!

Somebody remind me of the last time that happened.

[Green P1]

28-17 MUTS

[UNTcrazy727]

Somebody remind me of the last time that happened.

Sometime in 2004

[Green59]

Green 27 MUTS 21

[CurveItAround]

Sometime in 2004

11/18/2004, Arky St and Idaho back to back.

2004-North Texas (Sun Belt)

9/4 @ Texas (11-1) L 0 65

9/11 vs. *Florida Atlantic (9-3) L 13 20

9/18 @ Colorado (8-5) L 21 52

9/25 @ Baylor (3-8) L 14 37

10/2 vs. *Middle Tennessee State (5-6) W 30 21

10/9 @ *Utah State (3-8) W 31 23

10/23 vs. *New Mexico State (5-6) W 36 26

10/30 vs. *Louisiana-Monroe (5-6) W 45 30

11/5 @ *Louisiana-Lafayette (4-7) W 27 17

11/13 vs. *Idaho (3-9) W 51 29

11/18 @ *Arkansas State (3-8) W 31 7

12/14 vs. Southern Mississippi (7-5) L 10 31 @ New Orleans, LA New Orleans Bowl

Edited October 25, 2012 by CurveItAround

[CurveItAround]

From this week's game notes...

North Texas knocked off Louisiana-Lafayette, which entered the game with a 4-1 record.

It was the first win for the Mean Green over a team with a 4-1 record or better since 2001.

The last North Texas win over a team with a 4-1 record or better was when the Mean Green

knocked off a 5-0 Middle Tennessee team in 2001. That win was the start of a 26-game conference

winning streak.

[KRAM1]

Excited to be heading to the Middle game tomorrow....I get to see this Mean Green win in person!

[BillySee58]

Is it too much to ask for a quick start? The most points we have scored in a first half this year is 14 and the most we have scored in the first half of a conference game is 10. I know we aren't a high scoring offense but we can't afford to start slow on the road against a still potent offense.

Why don't we just go ahead and start the Jimmy show and hour and half early? Byrd is not a bad running back but Jimmerson has proven to be a game-breaker so I don't see why we don't get him going early. I don't expect this to happen, I just don't see why not.

[10Eagle10]

I say Mean Green, 52 to 14.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I gotta give Da MUTS credit - I think they'll give Da McCarney's a game!

[UNT 90 Grad]

Is it too much to ask for a quick start? The most points we have scored in a first half this year is 14 and the most we have scored in the first half of a conference game is 10. I know we aren't a high scoring offense but we can't afford to start slow on the road against a still potent offense.

Why don't we just go ahead and start the Jimmy show and hour and half early? Byrd is not a bad running back but Jimmerson has proven to be a game-breaker so I don't see why we don't get him going early. I don't expect this to happen, I just don't see why not.

My understanding is that part of the strategy has been to wear down the other team and then take advantage of them when they are tired. That's not conducive to quick starts. The Jimmy Show requires an opening act of beating down the defense first.

[golfingomez]

My understanding is that part of the strategy has been to wear down the other team and then take advantage of them when they are tired. That's not conducive to quick starts. The Jimmy Show requires an opening act of beating down the defense first.

i think so too... I think Byrd helps the Jimmy Show be successful later in games by softening up those defenses

[BillySee58]

Yeah I keep seeing people on here say that Byrd is softening the defenses but I don't see that. When he runs up the middle he is hardly punishing the defenses. If you look at the film he is just putting his head down and he goes down very easily. When we run from under center with Byrd he very rarely breaks tackles and as a result has a very low yards per carry average.

Byrd is a much more effective runner when we go to zone blocking runs out of shotgun. This gives him a little more of a head of steam going before he meets the first arm tackle and he is able to run through it more consistently than counters and traps from under center.

As for Jim Jim, I just think we are wasting his play-making ability. We scored 24 points that second half of the LaLa game. That's more than we have scored against any other FBS team this year and it was thanks in large part to Jim Jim. Relying on Byrd and DT to get us going early just isn't working in my opinion. We are 101st in the country in scoring. That has to improve if we want to be in a situation to play in a bowl game or at least become bowl eligible.

[UNT90]

I have no idea.

But I'll guess...

UNT 31 MTSU 21

[CurveItAround]

A somewhat discouraging trend that is continuing over the season is our low conversion percentage on 3rd and short. Our 3rd and medium and 3rd and long conversion percentages are in line with most, but we are only converting a little over half of the time on 3rd and short while others are above 75%. I don't know how those stats break down by RB and 1st half vs 2nd half. Our overall 3rd down conversion percentage is poor nationally and ranked 9th in the Belt.

This tends to mean that you can't sustain drives and have to hit home runs, which explains our red zone woes and low scoring average.

Edited October 26, 2012 by CurveItAround

[Mean_Green09]

North Texas 20 - MTSU 13

I think UNT wears the Blue Raiders down in second half. We should be able to control their running game. Just have to watch for the play action and quick slant over the middle. That play tends to give us trouble. Their QB is good, but he throws a floater for a deep ball and its supposed to be windy. Any ways I broke down the match-ups on my blog this week. Check it out let me know what you think.

http://tmgbr.com/2012/10/26/the-breakdown-7/

[greenminer]

Yeah I keep seeing people on here say that Byrd is softening the defenses but I don't see that. When he runs up the middle he is hardly punishing the defenses. If you look at the film he is just putting his head down and he goes down very easily. When we run from under center with Byrd he very rarely breaks tackles and as a result has a very low yards per carry average.

Jimmy follows up Byrd's work with that kind of production and you're trying to say Byrd is not wearing them down?

I agree that Byrd is not knocking people's teeth out; he's certainly no Adrian Peterson or anything. But we whooped LaLa in the second half for 24 points. Whether it was due to Byrd or not, I think LaLa was down.

[BillySee58]

Jimmy follows up Byrd's work with that kind of production and you're trying to say Byrd is not wearing them down?

I agree that Byrd is not knocking people's teeth out; he's certainly no Adrian Peterson or anything. But we whooped LaLa in the second half for 24 points. Whether it was due to Byrd or not, I think LaLa was down.

My point is I don't see Byrd doing anything to wear out the defense that Jim Jim couldn't. When Jimmerson gets the ball the play, and the drive, usually lasts longer which I think would wear the defense out just as much, if not more than Byrd's 2 to 4 yard plunges. Don't forget, our studly offensive line wears down the defense pretty good regardless of who gets the ball. Also, as good as our offensive line is Byrd is only averaging 3.8 yards per carry.

I'm not saying Byrd should be getting zero carries, I just don't see why he gets so many more carries than Jimmerson.

[StealthEagle84]

A somewhat discouraging trend that is continuing over the season is our low conversion percentage on 3rd and short. Our 3rd and medium and 3rd and long conversion percentages are in line with most, but we are only converting a little over half of the time on 3rd and short while others are above 75%. I don't know how those stats break down by RB and 1st half vs 2nd half. Our overall 3rd down conversion percentage is poor nationally and ranked 9th in the Belt.

This tends to mean that you can't sustain drives and have to hit home runs, which explains our red zone woes and low scoring average.

This helps explain why we are 100th in the nation in scoring offense. We move the ball effectively but always seem to bog down when we get close. And I would attribute much of not scoring in the red zone to ultra conservative play calling. We have seldom, if never, throw the ball on a first and goal. And low conversions on third and short can be traced back to the ultra conservative play calling and Coach Mac's old school philosophy of manning up and getting it done on short yardage situations.

[greenminer]

My point is I don't see Byrd doing anything to wear out the defense that Jim Jim couldn't. When Jimmerson gets the ball the play, and the drive, usually lasts longer which I think would wear the defense out just as much, if not more than Byrd's 2 to 4 yard plunges. Don't forget, our studly offensive line wears down the defense pretty good regardless of who gets the ball. Also, as good as our offensive line is Byrd is only averaging 3.8 yards per carry.

I'm not saying Byrd should be getting zero carries, I just don't see why he gets so many more carries than Jimmerson.

I thought it had already been discussed that Byrd is the best between the tackles. Jimmy's great on the outside.

It might all be related to the limited understanding JimJim has of the offense right now, as Mac stated...fewer packages. We can only speculate, I guess.

[CurveItAround]

This helps explain why we are 100th in the nation in scoring offense. We move the ball effectively but always seem to bog down when we get close. And I would attribute much of not scoring in the red zone to ultra conservative play calling. We have seldom, if never, throw the ball on a first and goal. And low conversions on third and short can be traced back to the ultra conservative play calling and Coach Mac's old school philosophy of manning up and getting it done on short yardage situations.

It also kind of implies we can't pin our ears back and move the pile when we want to. Kind of surprising, but would explain why the play calling has looked conservative. Reality is that we are not winning the battle at the line often enough on the short yardage situations. It seems that the coaches have been taking notice because it feels like they have been calling a few more screen and play action passes in these situations.

Edited October 26, 2012 by CurveItAround

[Harry]

UNT wins 35-10

[meanrob]

My odd prediction. If Chancellor and Jimmerson combine for 3 or more touchdowns, we win. It's tired and cliche but we need our best players to be our best players.

[Side Show Joe]

I think we have the better defense, and I think we will win the turnover battle.

UNT 32 MTSU 23

[BillySee58]

I thought it had already been discussed that Byrd is the best between the tackles. Jimmy's great on the outside.

It might all be related to the limited understanding JimJim has of the offense right now, as Mac stated...fewer packages. We can only speculate, I guess.

I think the second part of your statement might be more likely,even though I find it a little hard to believe he doesn't know the playbook now in this his second year.

We're just gonna have to agree to disagree, because I have seen Byrd do nothing to make me think he is better than Jimmerson in between the tackles. I hope Byrd does good Saturday and proves me wrong because he is going to get the ball in between the tackles, you can count on that.