Five things UNT fans should know about Nicholls

[Harry]

North Texas will host Nicholls State at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday at Apogee Stadium. Here’s a quick scouting report of the Colonels:

UNT Record: 1-2, 0-1 Conference USA (Lost to Louisiana Tech 42-21 last week)

Nicholls State: 0-3 (Lost to Henderson State 27-10 last week)

Key number: 3.2 (Yards UNT is averaging per rushing attempt through three games, down from 4.3 yards per attempt last season)

1. UNT will be first opponent for Nicholls under interim Axman

Steve Axman, a longtime college assistant who has made stops at UCLA, Washington, Minnesota, Stanford and Arizona, will make his debut as Nicholls State’s interim head coach when he leads the Colonels into Apogee Stadium to face UNT. Axman took over for Charlie Stubbs, who resigned due to health concerns on Sunday. UNT head coach Dan McCarney said earlier this week that he expects Nicholls’ players to be ready to play for their former coach.

Read more: http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2014/09/five-things-unt-fans-should-know-about-nicholls-state.html/

[eulessismore]

North Texas will host Nicholls State at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday at Apogee Stadium. Here’s a quick scouting report of the Colonels:

UNT Record: 1-2, 0-1 Conference USA (Lost to Louisiana Tech 42-21 last week)

Nicholls State: 0-3 (Lost to Henderson State 27-10 last week)

Key number: 3.2 (Yards UNT is averaging per rushing attempt through three games, down from 4.3 yards per attempt last season)

1. UNT will be first opponent for Nicholls under interim Axman

Steve Axman, a longtime college assistant who has made stops at UCLA, Washington, Minnesota, Stanford and Arizona, will make his debut as Nicholls State’s interim head coach when he leads the Colonels into Apogee Stadium to face UNT. Axman took over for Charlie Stubbs, who resigned due to health concerns on Sunday. UNT head coach Dan McCarney said earlier this week that he expects Nicholls’ players to be ready to play for their former coach.

Read more: http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2014/09/five-things-unt-fans-should-know-about-nicholls-state.html/

From the article, I'm thinking there's a 6th thing to know; they have 2 quarterbacks who can throw the ball. Read and learn.

[All About UNT]

Not to sound like a UT fan...but if we don't beat them by 30 then I'm let down

[untbowler]

if we don't beat them by 40+ it is bad, they just got blown out by a freaking DII team

[UNT90]

if we don't beat them by 40+ it is bad, they just got blown out by a freaking DII team

Henderson St (whoever that is) beat Nichols St 27-10 at Nichols St., leading their coach to "retire" because of "health reasons."

This SHOULD be a 40 plus point rolling of Nichols St., who lost to Arkansas 73-7 to open the season.

Edited September 18, 2014 by UNT90

[BIG DAWG]

Mac isn't going to run up the score, so don't expect a huge amount of points

[MeanGreenTexan]

Mac isn't going to run up the score, so don't expect a huge amount of points

We ALMOST beat SMU 43-0. I would expect that same kind of output.

[untjim1995]

Seeing us play Nicholls State reminds me of just how low our program got back when we dropped down to i-aa. When I was a sophomore, in 1992, we played Nicholls State at Fouts on a Saturday night in November. Neither of us were any good, probably had a combined 4 wins between us that night in a SLC 1-aa conference game. We won 31-3, to go to 3-6, under Dennis Parker in his second year as our head coach. It all sounds good, except for the fact that there were about 200 people in the stands that night, including the Green Brigade. Literally, the "crowd" was made up of the players families. I remember that we were on the sidelines and a couple of us actually counted 12 people beyond the band in the student side of the stands at Fouts at the beginning of the 4th quarter.

No matter how much we wish we were higher up the totem pole in the current FBS setup, we are light-years ahead of where we were then...of course, part of why we are where we are is that we allowed our program to get to that point.

[Cerebus]

No matter how much we wish we were higher up the totem pole in the current FBS setup, we are light-years ahead of where we were then...of course, part of why we are where we are is that we allowed our program to get to that point.

People talk about how the Dickey years failed to accomplish anything. However the official attendance of the 2000 season was ~12k, and that was inflated by about ~2k. Even after the end of the bowl runs our actual crowds were over the 15k cutoff that was being bandied about by the NCAA. Doesn't sound like much, but that's a 50% increase.

Dodge brought an initial boost, but then a collapse. I was surprised it never feel to 2000 levels. Mac has brought the averages up again. If he can string together 3 winning seasons I think the new average raises to 25k even in not great seasons.

[Mean Green 93-98]

Dodge brought an initial boost, but then a collapse.

When did the collapse happen? In 2006 (Dickey's last year), we averaged 15,650. Dodge's first year (2007) did bring a little boost, bringing us up to 17,734.

In 2010 (Dodge's last partial year, taken over by Chico), we averaged 17,718. In 2009 (Dodge's last full year), we averaged 18,228.

Edited September 18, 2014 by Mean Green 93-98

[Travis Scott]

People talk about how the Dickey years failed to accomplish anything. However the official attendance of the 2000 season was ~12k, and that was inflated by about ~2k. Even after the end of the bowl runs our actual crowds were over the 15k cutoff that was being bandied about by the NCAA. Doesn't sound like much, but that's a 50% increase.

Dodge brought an initial boost, but then a collapse. I was surprised it never feel to 2000 levels. Mac has brought the averages up again. If he can string together 3 winning seasons I think the new average raises to 25k even in not great seasons.

I like this post. When I was a freshman at UNT in 96, I actually laughed when my BLAW professor asked if any of us went to the game. On campus I mostly saw other schools hats and shirts being worn. The campus bookstore had like 3 shirts available for sale. I never once even thought of going to a football game...in fact, the only one I went to as a student was the TCU game, which we lost but it was a decent crowd. I didn't know a single player on the team or who the coach was. I realize this was my own mindset at the time. It wasn't until graduation that I became a die hard fan. My wife and I (and now kids) haven't missed more than a couple of home games since then and have had season tickets every year. We are Mean Green crazy now. I drove through campus last week and saw 95% mean green gear...and didn't see any other schools attire. We have come a long way from the depths of hell...and it will continue to get better and better.

[untjim1995]

People talk about how the Dickey years failed to accomplish anything. However the official attendance of the 2000 season was ~12k, and that was inflated by about ~2k. Even after the end of the bowl runs our actual crowds were over the 15k cutoff that was being bandied about by the NCAA. Doesn't sound like much, but that's a 50% increase.

Dodge brought an initial boost, but then a collapse. I was surprised it never feel to 2000 levels. Mac has brought the averages up again. If he can string together 3 winning seasons I think the new average raises to 25k even in not great seasons.

I think the biggest differences between 2004 attednance and 2014 attendance are really just having a MUCH better place to watch a game in Apogee and the fact that we are playing more teams that people actually have heard of and care something about. Back then, in 2004 and 2005, we played the following teams in Fouts: Florida Atlantic (L), Middle Tennessee (W), New Mexico State (W),Louisiana-Monroe (W), Idaho (w), Tulsa (epic L), Troy (L), Louisiana-Lafayette (L), and Arkansas State (L). In 2013 and 2014, we have played or will play these teams: Idaho (W), Ball State (W), Rice (W), Middle Tennessee (W), UTEP (W), UTSA (L), SMU (W), La Tech (L), Nicholls State, Southern Miss, Florida Atlantic, and Florida Interntaional. Yes, the FAU, FIU, Idaho, Nicholls State, and MUTS games don't get anyone terribly interested in coming to Denton to watch a game, but Ball State was a really good team, and Rice, UTEP, UTSA, SMU, and La Tech are great teams to play against in Denton.

I think it also helps to have a guy like McCarney as the head coach to get people interested in the program than Dickey, but that horse has been beaten to death and buried (hopefully).

Edited September 18, 2014 by untjim1995

[UNTcrazy727]

If we're not winning by 24+ at halftime I'll be pissed

[Ben Gooding]

Score is irrelevant. At the half nothing will surprise me right now. 21-0 or 7-3 will not surprise me. I just want to see in-game development of DW and DW having a coach, particularly Chico, on the bench coaching him up every time he comes off the field. Show me flashes of significant potential against a group of 1's, FCS or not.

[Cerebus]

21-0

7-3

[Eagle1855]

I attended the last game we played against them. My how the time does fly by.

Anyhow, I think it's hard to start anew mid-season with a coaching change over. Thus, I'll be disappointed if we don't score 56 points in this one. And I'll be really disappointed if they score more than 7.

[ColoradoEagle]

Yes, the FAU, FIU, Idaho, Nicholls State, and MUTS games don't get anyone terribly interested in coming to Denton to watch a game

I actually get excited for MUTS games now since we've been playing them for so long. F_U I'd feel better about if they actually climbed out of the depths. That said, the FAU game might be interesting this year given the beatdown they issued Tulsa last week.

[untjim1995]

I actually get excited for MUTS games now since we've been playing them for so long. F_U I'd feel better about if they actually climbed out of the depths. That said, the FAU game might be interesting this year given the beatdown they issued Tulsa last week.

We might care about MUTS or even one of the F_Us just because we are diehards and we remember knocking MUTS down a few pegs back in the early SBC days, but most peoiple that aren't diehards think that Middle Tennessee State sounds like a Division II school and an F_U school sounds like a scrimmage is about to break out between our football team and a bunch of airport workers...

[Withers940]

We ALMOST beat SMU 43-0. I would expect that same kind of output.

I am with you, as bad as SMU was I would think Nichols state has got to be much worse. That being said I would think we could topple 50 points fairly easily even if we just run, run, run the ball. Instead of kicking 5 FG like we did in the SMU game, I am thinking we would be able to convert a lot better against an inferior team and change those 3's into 6's.

[Ben Gooding]

I would rather only score 28 rather than 50 while installing an offense that molds to DW. If we run the ball 40+ times in this game we are not giving DW the reps that he truly needs.

[ColoradoEagle]

We might care about MUTS or even one of the F_Us just because we are diehards and we remember knocking MUTS down a few pegs back in the early SBC days, but most peoiple that aren't diehards think that Middle Tennessee State sounds like a Division II school and an F_U school sounds like a scrimmage is about to break out between our football team and a bunch of airport workers...

Sounds like the perception of someone who watches and cares about P5 only. Anyone who's been around our program for more than a couple years knows of Middle Tennessee. FAU is trying to rebrand themselves as Atlantic to get some distance from FIU. Both schools have terribly unfortunate names, though.

[meangreanmick]

Score is irrelevant. At the half nothing will surprise me right now. 21-0 or 7-3 will not surprise me. I just want to see in-game development of DW and DW having a coach, particularly Chico, on the bench coaching him up every time he comes off the field. Show me flashes of significant potential against a group of 1's, FCS or not.

How will you determine if Chico is "coaching him up"? If he is talking to him at anytime does that count? What if he is really telling him about this great car insurance he found that will help him save alot of money? Maybe you should send Chico some requirements you are looking for so he understands your expectations, I heard he was really concerned about it.

[Ben Gooding]

Uhh... You're not very smart.

[Cerebus]

Uhh... You're not very smart.

[MeanGreenTexan]

I would rather only score 28 rather than 50 while installing an offense that molds to DW. If we run the ball 40+ times in this game we are not giving DW the reps that he truly needs.

Need to stay balanced though. We don't need to call a bunch more passing plays just because DW is getting acclimated.