2014 C-USA Preview from Harry Minium

Harry · February 3, 2014

About North Texas: The Mean Green upset Rice, yet missed the C-USA championship game when they fell at Texas-San Antonio, 21-13, late in the season. They nonetheless defeated UNLV in the Heart of Dallas Bowl, 36-14 – their seventh win in their final eight games. McCarney, in his fourth season, faces something of a rebuilding task offensively. Most of his offensive line returns, but most skill players were seniors, including wide receiver Brelan Chancellor, a second-team all-league choice, and quarterback Derek Thompson, the MVP of their bowl game. North Texas is an aggressive, physical defensive team that allowed just 17.8 points per game, the stingiest in C-USA. North Texas had 39 sacks and led the nation in blocked punts with five and blocked kicks with eight. North Texas may not be a household name, but has played football since 1913 and made its first bowl appearance in 1959 in the Sun Bowl. The university is located in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, one of the nation’s largest TV markets.

Read more: http://hamptonroads.com/2014/02/odu-monarchs-2014-football-schedule

BillySee58 · February 3, 2014

Man, what a stacked football conference this is becoming. Especially in the east.

Charlotte and ODU are located in two of the best per capita recruiting hotbeds in the country (Charlotte and Chesapeake/Norfolk). FIU and FAU are in South Florida, maybe the all-time recruiting hotbed and right up there with Dallas, SoCal, and Atlanta as the best recruiting regions in the country. And those are the schools that are not supposed to be the big name football schools in the East. Throw in that prestigious Marshall football program, a school that won't settle for mediocrity in WKU, and a similar school in MUTS that is stationed in one of the budding recruiting areas in the country in metro Nashville.

We might have all these Texas schools, Southern Miss, and La Tech to deal with, but going forward the East division schools will provide great competition. Really need to establish ourselves as the premier Texas school in CUSA. Can't be playing second fiddle to any of the Texas schools in CUSA.

Edited February 3, 2014 by BillySee58

PlummMeanGreen · February 3, 2014

Man, what a stacked football conference this is becoming. Especially in the east.
Charlotte and ODU are located in two of the best per capita recruiting hotbeds in the country (Charlotte and Chesapeake/Norfolk). FIU and FAU are in South Florida, maybe the all-time recruiting hotbed and right up there with Dallas, SoCal, and Atlanta as the best recruiting regions in the country. And those are the schools that are not supposed to be the big name football schools in the East. Throw in that prestigious Marshall football program, a school that won't settle for mediocrity in WKU, and a similar school in MUTS that is stationed in one of the budding recruiting areas in the country in metro Nashville.
We might have all these Texas schools, Southern Miss, and La Tech to deal with, but going forward the East division schools will provide great competition. Really need to establish ourselves as the premier Texas school in CUSA. Can't be playing second fiddle to any of the Texas schools in CUSA.

Like I've heard from a few already, it is within reason that our school's football team takes a short detour this next Fall, but maybe not so much that we don't get a bowl game. With all the stars aligning again, who knows what the 2014 edition of the Mean Green can do.

Can our home game attendance (with potentially record-setting crowds because of newbie fans we retain from the HOD Bowl) be the much needed 12'th man this Fall; that is, for what will largely be a young, inexperienced football team? No doubt our offensive line will be the strongest part of this next Fall's team with a couple of Mean Green RB's just as experienced with some past bright moments of their own.

Need our early schedule once again to develop those who will be important to this team for our conference schedule. Would have preferred to have played SMU with our bowl winning team, but I have no idea what SMU has lost from their non-bowl team of this last Fall. I think the score of the North Texas/SMU game at Apogee Stadium will be close.

Spring football and further player development will be important again (as it always is). Also wonder to what degree the extra month of HOD Bowl practices helped?

2014......?

Edited February 3, 2014 by PlummMeanGreen