2014 Athlon Football Rankings: #86 North Texas

[Harry]

Final Analysis

A new starting quarterback and a rebuilt defensive front seven usually point to a rebuilding year, and that still may be the case for the Mean Green. But there are enough concerns elsewhere in the C-USA West Division to keep North Texas right in the mix for contention. Plus, the program has a different feel after posting nine wins and the Mean Green’s first bowl victory in 11 years last season.

“(Rebuilding) is fair for people to say, but great programs reload,” McCarney says. “Not many people knew about us when I got here. We need to keep it going and not go back into the woods.”

A home opener against SMU should be telling about the team’s potential. And if the Mean Green are still in the hunt, an Oct. 25 trip to Rice could provide a title shot. North Texas handed C-USA champion Rice its lone league loss last season.

- See more at: http://athlonsports.com/college-football/top-25/2014-college-football-rankings-predictions-86-north-texas-mean-green#sthash.Q3W3hrZS.dpuf

[UNTexas]

Pretty fair assessment.

[UNTeagle88]

Fair analysis

[DirtySavage]

If they think we will be #1 in the west then I think we should finish better than 86.

But that is a big if.

Edited June 4, 2014 by DirtySavage

[UNT90]

Shows you what the national media thinks of our new conference.

[DirtySavage]

Shows you what the national media thinks of our new conference.

[Ben Gooding]

Yeah, Southern Miss & La Tech must come back to form. CUSA is turning into a running joke. FAU needs to have a good year as well. Best case scenario would be for the conference to pull a couple P5 upsets the first couple weeks of the season. There are plenty of opportunities conference wide.

[UNT90]

Lol.

We are the best conference in 'Murica and we be in the national championship game!!!!!!1!1!!

Better?

[untjim1995]

Shows you what the national media thinks of our new conference.

Our new conference is fine for us--its the best we've ever had by a mile in the modern era of college football. But Southern Miss, Louisiana Tech, and Marshall are the best known teams in the league from a reputation standpoint and all three are in small markets within smal populated states that give 99% of their attention to the big AQ schools in their state. Its a huge stepup from the SBC in prestige, but its waaayyyy behind the AAC and the MWC on the conference ladder.

A good conference doesn't add FCS startups to their league when they didn't belong there already in the other sports (i.e. South Florida, UAB, or UConn). The new SBCUSA added a ton of Belt teams, but when you throw in UTSA in just its second year of FBS football and then prepare to add in Charlotte and Old Dominion, while replacing East Carolina, Tulsa, and Tulane and all those who ran off to the AAC before we even got invited, its pretty easy for any media outlet to look down on that league--until they do something about it to change their minds.

[Cooley]

“Not many people knew about us when I got here"

Classic Dan McCarney

[UNT90]

Not many people knew about us when I got here"

Classic Dan McCarney

Yep, classic coach speak.

I thought they all knew we were the worst FBS program in America? Smallest AND slowest?

[MGNation92]

In order to to win the west we'll have to go through UTSA and Rice. Unfortunately they're both away games for us. I feel like if we can go 1-1 against those two we have a solid shot at winning the west. Obviously a 2-0 would be optimal, but with our schedule another 8-4 record isn't out of the question. I see losses against TU, Indiana, Rice, UTSA, FAU, and SMU being all plausible. Although I fully expect us to beat the bronies at home. So for me 7-5 would almost be underachieving. But we lost a lot of talent on both sides of the ball so we'll see.

[GOMG2013]

In order to to win the west we'll have to go through UTSA and Rice. Unfortunately they're both away games for us. I feel like if we can go 1-1 against those two we have a solid shot at winning the west. Obviously a 2-0 would be optimal, but with our schedule another 8-4 record isn't out of the question. I see losses against TU, Indiana, Rice, UTSA, FAU, and SMU being all plausible. Although I fully expect us to beat the bronies at home. So for me 7-5 would almost be underachieving. But we lost a lot of talent on both sides of the ball so we'll see.

I asked this question a few Weeks ago, but did not get an answer. What makes FAU good enough to beat us this year? Most of the rankings have them low. I saw them on tv a few times last year, but nothing special.

im almost inclined to say the same thing about rice, but I give them a slight edge being at home.

I have UT, Indiana, and UTSA favored as of now.

[Harry]

I asked this question a few Weeks ago, but did not get an answer. What makes FAU good enough to beat us this year? Most of the rankings have them low. I saw them on tv a few times last year, but nothing special.

im almost inclined to say the same thing about rice, but I give them a slight edge being at home.

I have UT, Indiana, and UTSA favored as of now.

In regards to FAU I think their QB Jaquez Johnson is a main reason they scare me. He is a juco transfer that really showed big at times last season. Very mobile big arm. I watched one of their games on Fox Sports 1 last season and you could tell he was still figuring out their offense. From his bio: "Had a breakout performance in his first season as an Owl...made 11 starts at QB...had a total of 772 rushing yards and 1876 passing yards...named Conference USA and FAU "Newcomer of the Year" and is the first FAU player to receive an individual award from the conference.."

Last thing on FAU and this applies to FIU as well. These programs are sitting on a TON of talent due to their location and like us will get some local kids who are bouncing back from high level p5 programs as transfers. I know people slam these two for bad coaching hires and lack of fan support but I am real bullish on both of them to get better with what appear to be decent coaching hires. You may recall FAU lost their coach in the middle of the season due to him smoking marijuana at a public party or something like that. Even with that situation they still managed a pretty good year.

[MGNation92]

From what I can tell they have a solid rushing attack and a good amount of starters returning on a defense that was really good down the stretch. Plus their quarterback is known as a dual threat guy. They finished the season off strong to have some momentum going into this season so I would be concerned about our front seven being able to contain a dual threat type guy. Along with our offense's ability to out some points up. But with so many questions at quarterback I don't know how well we'll be able to score. Again, it's a long ways away, but I see them as a potential sleeper in the east that could give us trouble

[MeanGreenTexan]

I asked this question a few Weeks ago, but did not get an answer. What makes FAU good enough to beat us this year? Most of the rankings have them low. I saw them on tv a few times last year, but nothing special.

im almost inclined to say the same thing about rice, but I give them a slight edge being at home.

I have UT, Indiana, and UTSA favored as of now.

FAU finished the year very strong and was bowl-eligible, but sat home. They're going to be a good team.

[GOMG2013]

I can see them being a decent team, but 6-6 is still very average. they have talent, so I dont expect an easy win.

Ok, yall like the qb returning and the fact that he is a dual threat. They lost the starting RB, and top wr. They lost 5 on defense. 2 ends, 2 lbs, and 1 db.

I can agree on the defense part. They bring back both safeties and an NFL caliber corner. The top LB in the middle returns also. I can see us playing scared against an experienced secondary.

[Harry]

Not to hijack but, man the more I read about UTSA the more they appear to be the team to beat. They return their entire offensive line their running backs and skill position players and a bunch of their defense. If their QB can just run the show they could make their non-conference games (Houston, Arizona, New Mexico Oklahoma State VERY interesting. They have the most returning senior starters in ALL of NCAA d-I at 21.

[UNTDoubleAlum]

Not to hijack but, man the more I read about UTSA the more they appear to be the team to beat. They return their entire offensive line their running backs and skill position players and a bunch of their defense. If their QB can just run the show they could make their non-conference games (Houston, Arizona, New Mexico Oklahoma State VERY interesting. They have the most returning senior starters in ALL of NCAA d-I at 21.

Uggggggggghhhhhhhh.

I can't catch a break with my wife's dumb teams.

[UNT90]

Their QB and the fact that they appeared to finally learn how to win toward the end of last season, winning 4 straight to close out the year.

The lost to Rice in a game they should have won and easily could have beaten MTSU.

They thumped an admittedly bad S. Florida team.

They were bowl eligible at 6-6 and easily could have had the same record as UNT.

And what did they lose? 5 offensive and 5 defensive starters.

What didn't they lose? Their starting QB. Easily the most important position in the field.They also don't have to replace their entire defensive line. They have 2 starters back.

So, if you think UNT will be 8-4 or even 7-5, then you really should believe the same about FAU, especially in a very watered down east division.