Mean Green could be key player in C-USA race

Harry · September 30, 2013

When we last left Conference USA — or at least talked about how the league might shape up a few weeks ago — there were a few safe assumptions one could make.

Rice, which won five of its last six and then beat Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl a year ago, would be pretty darn good after returning nearly all of its key players. Tulsa would be at the top of the league just like it always is. Louisiana Tech lost pretty much everyone, including head coach Sonny Dykes to Cal, but has a recent history of success and didn’t seem to be headed for much of a drop-off.

And UNT?

The Mean Green was largely overlooked and projected to finish in the middle of the pack.

Five weeks and a few stunners later, it’s tough to come to any conclusions about C-USA, especially when it comes to the West Division.

That’s good news for the Mean Green, which will dive into league play after a much-needed bye on Saturday at Tulane.

UNT handled its buy-a-win game at home against Idaho and showed a lot of guts to come back from an 18-point deficit to beat a pretty good Ball State team. A 2-1 start was UNT’s best since resuming playing on the Football Bowl Subdivision level in 1995.

What might have been even more encouraging was UNT’s performance last week at Georgia, when the Mean Green was locked in a 21-all tie with the ninth-ranked team in the country early in the third quarter.

Read more: http://www.dentonrc.com/sports/colleges/north-texas-headlines/20130929-brett-vito-mean-green-could-be-key-player-in-c-usa-race.ece