Is UNT in trouble up front defensively?

Harry · June 2, 2013

UNT fans were pretty spoiled for years when it came to watching great defensive fronts. UNT had Brandon Kennedy, a two-time Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year; Adrian Awasom, who went on to play for the Giants; Evan Cardwell, who played for the Dallas Desperadoes; Michael Pruitt, who passed on an offer from Kansas to play for the Mean Green. The list goes on and on.

As UNT heads into the 2013 season, its defensive front is a huge question mark instead of the strength of the team it used to be.

UNT lost its most productive player in defensive end K.C. Obi and a nose tackle with size in Tevinn Cantly to graduation at the end of last season. The situation has only become more dicey since. JUCO defensive end Quenton Brown looked like he would step in for Obi, who led UNT in sacks 5.5 and tackles for loss 10.5 last season, but tore his ACL late in spring practice, an injury that will likely put him out for at least the first few games of the season.

UNT head coach Dan McCarney later indefinitely suspended Richard Abbe, one of the only guys the team had left with the size to play nose tackle, due to off-the-field issues.

High school signee Dylan McDorman had to give up football due to shoulder injuries.

Read more: http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2013/06/post-spring-questions-series-no-5-is-unt-in-trouble-up-front-defensively.html/

BIG DAWG · June 2, 2013

Answer: Yes

Mo Green · June 2, 2013

Since Booger left!

risinggreen · June 2, 2013

Switch over one of the couple of guys on the OL with heavy high school DL experience ASAP. I know it's a little late, but I'm not sure we have too many other alternatives. We're already looking at starting a guy with SS/LB size at DE, and I really don't think we can afford to do something similar on the interior if things don't work out with some of the guys. At least get someone on the OL used to the idea early this Summer.

Harry · June 2, 2013

Big keys are Austin Orr and Dutton Watson's progression and yes if Sid can be a part.

UNT90 · June 2, 2013

This should be #1, not #5.

eulessismore · June 2, 2013

Switch over one of the couple of guys on the OL with heavy high school DL experience ASAP. I know it's a little late, but I'm not sure we have too many other alternatives. We're already looking at starting a guy with SS/LB size at DE, and I really don't think we can afford to do something similar on the interior if things don't work out with some of the guys. At least get someone on the OL used to the idea early this Summer.

Pretty much the way I see it.

Side Show Joe · June 2, 2013

UNT's defense gave up 334 points last season. Our best season since 2006 when Dickey's team gave up 304 points. 2012 was a step in the right direction, but it will be very hard for us to improve on those numbers next season as move to C-USA and fight these issues on the D-line. I'm sure the coaches are looking at creatively repositioning players and finding redshirt/true freshmen that can step up.

UNT90 · June 2, 2013

UNT's defense gave up 334 points last season. Our best season since 2006 when Dickey's team gave up 304 points. 2012 was a step in the right direction, but it will be very hard for us to improve on those numbers next season as move to C-USA and fight these issues on the D-line. I'm sure the coaches are looking at creatively repositioning players and finding redshirt/true freshmen that can step up.

Not to mention we don't have an FCS patsy lined up that we can hold to 3 points.

UNT 90 Grad · June 2, 2013

UNT's defense gave up 334 points last season. Our best season since 2006 when Dickey's team gave up 304 points. 2012 was a step in the right direction, but it will be very hard for us to improve on those numbers next season as move to C-USA and fight these issues on the D-line. I'm sure the coaches are looking at creatively repositioning players and finding redshirt/true freshmen that can step up.

My favorite defensive stat from last year was holding Kansas State to -1 yards of offense in the 1st quarter.

MeanGreen61 · June 2, 2013

I'm much more concerned about our ability to score in the Red Zone than I am about any part of our defense. Last season only 3 CUSA teams had a better scoring defense and 4 a better total defense. If we just hold where we are on defense and crank up the offense for some more points we'll win more games in '13.

mgfan · June 3, 2013

I'm much more concerned about our ability to score in the Red Zone than I am about any part of our defense. Last season only 3 CUSA teams had a better scoring defense and 4 a better total defense. If we just hold where we are on defense and crank up the offense for some more points we'll win more games in '13.

I totally see where you are coming from, but our d line has to be better. It took us so long to get to the QB that it really hurt out secondary.

BillySee58 · June 3, 2013

Call me a homer, but I'm really excited about Syd Moore and Alex Lincoln this year. I'm thinking that Moore, Wallace, and Reinhardt will allow us to play Lincoln, and maybe Boutwell, on the outside more.

I think Moore will be Freshman all conference and Lincoln will get at least some honorable mention for all conference. Come on guys, prove me right!

DT 90 · June 3, 2013

There are reasons an offensive lineman is an offensive lineman. The D-line guys will take care of their business.

SilverEagle · June 3, 2013

There are reasons an offensive lineman is an offensive lineman. The D-line guys will take care of their business.

Richard Abbe played both OL and DL in HS. I remember reading an early coverage of fall practice when the freshmen (including Abbe) joined the varsity in practice. One of the first things that happened was Abbe getting into a fight with our all-conference O-lineman Kelvin Drake. As I recall, the story implied that Abbe started the fight. I remember thinking "well, as far as I'm concerned Abbe's playing the right position". You can talk about size, strength and technique all you want. And all of those are very important. But the first (and main) quality I like to see in my defensive players is......ornery. And if you are not "ornery" all the time, then I'll settle for vindictive.

I keep hearing that the TE from Saginaw has an attitude. So for that reason alone I'm very much in favor of moving him to the DL.

Edited June 3, 2013 by SilverEagle

FirefightnRick · June 3, 2013

I'm much more concerned about our ability to score in the Red Zone than I am about any part of our defense.

Todd Dodge would agree.

Rick

LongJim · June 3, 2013

Manti T'eo had lots of attitude and Bama drove him out of the TV picture all game. Just sayin'.

untjim1995 · June 3, 2013

I think the thing about both of our lines is fairly simple. You have the OL being developed fairly effectively by McCarney, since he is known for this as his specialty. Dodge left him with some decent pieces there and he has actually been able to develop some recruiting pieces into nice parts on the OL.

The DL is a different deal, just because everyone recruits this position so hard. Since we aren't very good at recruiting here, the key then becomes in development and in out-of-the-box strategies on this. Patterson at TCU has made his name on recruiting RBs or LBs at of high school as seeing them as projects that can be developed into DLinemen. This is how you turn 3 star kids into All-American candidates. Coach Mac is going to have to do something similar here. He cannot--for whatever reasons--get top talent here from high schools, and since this is the premier place that everyone targets in recruiting, we are going to have to get better at development, whether its getting DLinemen from high schools that are lowly regarded and can be developed by your coaching and S&C program, or by following the recipe that Patterson has incorporated at TCU.

McCarney is a good caoch and I actually believe he will continue to coach up the talent on the roster that is improving with each year, at least as compared to 2010 when he took the job. He knows that this is a results business and that a good year in 2013 probably gets him an extension, or at least keeps him from entering 2014 on the hot seat. It was going to take a while to rebuild this thing up and his 3rd year should be a year that we see better results. His mentor, Hayeden Fry, won 5 games his first year here, then went 2-7-2 in his 2nd season. We all know by now what the thrid year and beyond looked like. This is what I think will happen here, too. But the DL and the QB are absolute musts to have better play from or this is all a moot point. And Coach Mac knows that, which I think is why we will see better results this year than last year. It wouldn't surprise me to see a slow start to the year, something like 1-3 in OOC, but to end up the year with 5-6 wins once conference play comes around. Idaho, UTSA, Tulane, UTEP, Southern Miss, La Tech, and MUTS are all beatable. For that matter, so are Rice and Tulsa if things fall the right way, but expecting 5-6 wins in 2013 is not too much. And this is coming from someone who predicted we would be lucky to win 4 games in 2011 and probably would finish with 4 wins in 2012. I'm usually as realistic as I can be about the schedule and the state of the program, which is why I truly believe we will see an improvement in our record this fall.

MeanGreen61 · June 3, 2013

Todd Dodge would agree.
Rick

So apparently you don't feel that our inability to score from within the red zone is much of a problem or that the DL is a much bigger problem. Regardless of your cute Todd Dodge remark, I still believe the offense in the Red Zone is a bigger challenge.

We: Scored under 25 points in 10 of 12 games, scored 30 or over only two times (Texas Southern & ULL) & 24 only 2 times. So we scored over 21 points in only 4 games (34,30,24,24).

Edited June 3, 2013 by MeanGreen61