They walk the line

[Harry]

Dan McCarney has drilled two key aspects of his philosophy into his players as North Texas nears the halfway point of his third season with the Mean Green.

The first is to be disciplined and avoid mistakes. The second is to be an aggressive, hard-hitting team that causes turnovers and forces opponents into the same types of mistakes it is trying to avoid.

That approach has UNT walking a fine line — one the Mean Green is struggling to find as it heads into a game against Middle Tennessee (3-3, 1-1 Conference USA) on Saturday at Apogee Stadium.

UNT has done a great job of forcing turnovers with 14, but also is the most penalized team in Conference USA both in terms of the number of penalties committed (40) and penalty yards per game (69.8).

The Mean Green (2-3, 0-1) was flagged a whopping 11 times for 105 yards last week in a 24-21 loss to Tulane in its C-USA debut.

“We are coached to be aggressive and physical,” UNT linebacker Zach Orr said. “That is what we are going to do — try to hit as hard as we can every time we get a chance. That is our M.O. as a defense. That won’t slow us down. We can’t let that affect us. We can’t let those calls back us off. If you back off, then maybe the guy breaks a tackle.”

Read more: http://www.dentonrc.com/sports/colleges/north-texas-headlines/20131010-football-they-walk-the-line.ece