Reality of this season?

[NT93]

First of all, let me say that this season was fantastic.  Hats off to the players, coaches, and athletic department.  This was without a doubt the best season I've experienced as a Mean Green fan.

BUT...were we not the worst 9 win team in college football?  We were blown out 4 times and EASILY could have lost 5 other games (most of my season following the team we would have lost most, if not all 5 games).  I know Bill Parcells said that "You are what your record says your are.", but I'm not sure that's true of UNT this year.

I say this mainly to temper expectations for next season.  While I hope for improvement next season, the reality is that we may have seriously over-achieved this year.

 

[Aquila_Viridis]

Wins are wins. We can’t know all they are faced with in allocating resources. It was very impressive to get the 9 wins. You can’t take away from that. But against better teams, you see the gaping holes that had to be made up for to get the wins. Those have to be addressed or they will be better exploited even by the lesser teams.

[NM Green]

Fau and Troy are near top 25.  Army was receiving top 25 votes when we played them.  So we went 1-3 against those squads.  Iowa is iowa.  We are at the top of the next level of G5.  Jumping up into fau and Troy air will be tough, and this year UCf and USF were a cut above Troy and fau.  You never scoff at 9 wins because so  few teams have them.  P5 powers have them and a lot of p5s dream of them.  

We have grown since our sunbelt days even though we were back in New Orleans I felt the progression.  The sunbelt is not the old sunbelt we dominated either.  

You have to know where you stand to close the gap.  Load up to beat down fau Times 2 in Apogee next year! 

GMG

[NT93]

Completely agree with the "You can't take away from 9 wins" idea.  This team found a way to win those 5 games that they easily could have lost.  Most UNT teams I've watched since the early 90's would have found a way to lose those games.  That's what made this season so special.  It's all the more impressive considering it's only year 2 of the SL era.

[meangreenJW]

I consider this season a huge success. We got 9 wins for the 7th time in history. Part of that history is D2 and we are in the best conference we've ever been in. That being said, our defense has to get better. And we must fine a way to improve on the O-line and D-line. We didn't get beat by Iowa because while their line was big it wasn't big and fast. We had problems blocking Southern Miss even though we won the game. Their line wasn't big but was extremely athletic. We struggled mightily against FAU an Troy because they big and fast/athletic linemen. Both of those teams had linemen comparable to the low to mid level Big 12/SEC teams. And they throttled us. We need our redshirts to be as good as advertised and recruiting to help if we want to seriously challenge those kind of teams. And our defense has get better all over the field. Hard to point to a defensive strength.

[MattMakesLoans]

Over the last two seasons this team is 14-10 in the regular season with 7 of those wins against bowl teams.  Your letting the 0-3 post season cloud your judgement.

[NT93]

8 minutes ago, MattMakesLoans said:

Over the last two seasons this team is 14-10 in the regular season with 7 of those wins against bowl teams.  Your letting the 0-3 post season cloud your judgement.

Nope.  It's the blowout losses and the games that we won in the last minute or two that could have easily been losses.  I understand a win is a win, but the reality is that we won five games that we very, very easily could have lost.  I'm glad we won them and the win total shows 9 victories, but if you're being honest you know it's unusual to win that many games that come down to the wire.  

I'm getting downvoted and I knew I would, but I don't mean this as a negative, just as a reality check.  I'm wearing my Mean Green gear proudly  and I'm very happy with the season, but I'm also realistic.

It should be noted that I had us down for 6, maybe 7 wins this year so the team exceeded my expectations and I honestly thought I had pretty high expectations considering where we were just two seasons ago.

[FirefightnRick]

We are the second lowest ranked 9+ win team...defensively.  Only Memphis ranked lower.

 

Rick

[NM Green]

You call it luck I call it clutch.  With Fine at the helm I feel we have a legit shot at winning those close games.  It’s the Rodgers factor, the Brady factor - we have a magical quarterback and we lose when the other team is leaps and bounds better than us.  I do sense a false sense of security with mason at times, like he can bring us back from anything.  That has to be tempered.  But our progress as a program will be to put some separation between us and utsa, la tech and uab in 2018.  

Calling it now uab will be our chief challenger in 2018 in the West. There is so much room for growing with this team. It’s going to be fun to watch.

GMG

 

 

[NT93]

6 minutes ago, NM Green said:

You call it luck I call it clutch.  With Fine at the helm I feel we have a legit shot at winning those close games.  It’s the Rodgers factor, the Brady factor - we have a magical quarterback and we lose when the other team is leaps and bounds better than us.  I do sense a false sense of security with mason at times, like he can bring us back from anything.  That has to be tempered.  But our progress as a program will be to put some separation between us and utsa, la tech and uab in 2018.  

Calling it now uab will be our chief challenger in 2018 in the West. There is so much room for growing with this team. It’s going to be fun to watch.

GMG

 

 

 

42 minutes ago, NT93 said:

Completely agree with the "You can't take away from 9 wins" idea.  This team found a way to win those 5 games that they easily could have lost.  Most UNT teams I've watched since the early 90's would have found a way to lose those games.  That's what made this season so special.  It's all the more impressive considering it's only year 2 of the SL era.

Nope, I didn't call it luck.

[LongJim]

You make your luck.  Otherwise you get beat. 

[TreeFiddy]

The team was 4 - 5 in the 9 games where UNT was the underdog this season.  That is a sign of maximizing that talent on the roster. 

However, if we are going to maintain the win levels, the overall talent level on the team has to be raised at all positions as has been brought up many times.  There are many glaring holes that need to be addressed this offseason.

[TIgreen01]

I think the reality of the season is that, within our conference, having the best QB and RB pairing was enough to win ball games.  Not to mention we developed some serious playmakers in the receiving core.  

I think we sorely missed Jeff Wilson in the last 2 games of the season and it's now left a bad taste after an otherwise great season.  He's a home run threat that defenses had to honor, and he's one of the better blocking RBs I can remember here (maybe that's colored by the dramatic blocks he made all year that are memorable).  Take him off the field and we were easier to defend.  Our defense always made sure we were playing from behind, thus making things even harder on the offense.

Next year we need to replace Wilson, a couple of offensive linemen and probably the best kicker any of us have seen at UNT.  Replacing Wilson and Moore will not be easy.  Assuming that we come close, to take the next step, though, we need more playmakers on the defensive side of the ball.  We have to make gameplaning against our defense more difficult than it currently is.

[GrandGreen]

Luck didn't win or lose any NT games.  Winning all the close games is a sure sign that your team doesn't give up easily and is very well led.  

The talent level differential between FAU, Troy and NT was just too great to overcome and NT frankly collapsed in all three games.  FAU and Troy are both at the top of the G5 pyramid and NT is not close to that level yet.  

[drex]

When I think of the many times we have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory,  I have to smile about this season.  Every dog has his day.....2017 was ours.

[EagleMBA]

37 minutes ago, drex said:

When I think of the many times we have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory,  I have to smile about this season.  Every dog has his day.....2017 was ours.

Taking into consideration your use of an old adage above, I am hopeful that next season will disprove my father's frequent use of another old adage "The dog that shits fast don't shit long!".

[NT93]

18 minutes ago, drex said:

When I think of the many times we have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory,  I have to smile about this season.  Every dog has his day.....2017 was ours.

Ain't that the truth.

1 hour ago, GrandGreen said:

Luck didn't win or lose any NT games.  Winning all the close games is a sure sign that your team doesn't give up easily and is very well led. 

Agreed!

[NT91]

This team was overrated. I could see NT .500 in 2018.

I hope I am wrong.

[breaker110]

The wins were great. big one on Army. But shit SLittrel is gotta turn up the creative genius, gotta be one of those to top the best programs. Or have a solid history of recruiting and an alumni base of parents that push P5 kids to UNT

[Tyler Maryak]

12 hours ago, NT91 said:

This team was overrated. I could see NT .500 in 2018.

I hope I am wrong.

Even being the pessimist I am, I don't see UNT losing any of the close match-ups it won in 2017. Next year we'll have the same culture and spirit we had this year plus more experienced players PLUS new, highly touted players. And, if we're lucky, a fully in-tact coaching staff.

We'll win 9 again next season, and probably in more compelling a fashion.

[DT 90]

Winning college football games is very hard.  I'd rather win in the last seconds than loose in the last seconds any day.

[untjim1995]

I think we are a 7-8 win team next season. I see us going 5-3 in CUSA play, assuming that the CUSA East foes are again FAU and ODU. I think we will lose to FAU, at UTSA, and at UAB. I figure we will go 3-1 in OOC play, with SMU being the wildcard game. Win that game, we have 8 wins. Lose and we are still a 7 win team. 

[MeanGreenTexan]

The reality of this season?

• We punished (maybe unfairly) a very downtrodden/distracted LAMAR team.
• We had some serious defensive coverage lapses that allowed 1 man to put up 24 points by himself VS SMU.
• We went up to IOWA and put up a great fight until their OL just started wearing our DL out.
• We won what wound up being a very critical game with some late game heroics VS UAB.  Those late game heroics should not take away the impressiveness of this win when observing it via hindsight (which we all have now).
• We went to Hattiesburg and legitimized our chances of being a contender with a solid game VS a solid SOMISS squad.
• We got the UTSA monkey off our back, once again with some late game heroics.   A TON on the line at the time & our guys responded while UTSA folded.
• We rebound poorly on the road after that emotional win & lay an egg VS FAU.  We knew FAU was good, but most of us bought in that this game was not a representation of our team... turns out, we were right.
• We come back home and deal with some STs mental lapses en-route to another close win VS ODU.  Offense found a way to dig this one out... again, the closeness of this game should not take away from the accomplishment.
• We put a stamp on the season as winners against the class of CUSA-West over the past 5 years @ LATECH.
• We beat a down UTEP team, and I don't see them getting better any time soon.
• We beat an ARMY team getting Top25 votes.  And despite the late-game heroics again, was there anyone who did NOT expect to win that game when we got the ball back with 1:23 left?  No, because we had set a precedent of winning this kind of game.
• We went down to RICE & coasted.  
• We went back to the scene of the crime and, I'll be durned, did it again... Can anyone argue that FAU couldn't do that same thing to anyone in C-USA?  Buzzsaw'd.  Does that take away from what NT accomplished?
• We went to the NO Bowl (don't get me started) and played another (should be a) Top 25 team in TROY.  That defense was the real deal, and even though I thought we had a good game plan, those guys would not allow the run game to get going & forced too many turnovers.  We simply ran into another buzzsaw, and again, that does not take away from what UNT accomplished this year.

TL;DR:
The reality?   The Mean Green won 9 games (several in exciting fashion), and lost 5 games (all but 1 in embarrassing fashion)

It seems that some of you want to explain away the close wins and focus on those 4 embarrassing losses as an encapsulation of our year.   You're not living in reality.   

I believe we're looking at another C-USA West championship next season.

Edited December 20, 2017 by MeanGreenTexan

[HoustonEagle]

I really have no axe to grind on this subject.  We beat teams that were even with us.  We beat teams that were worse than us.    Our losses came to to teams that were just flat better personnel wise.   FAU and Troy looked bigger and faster and it was not even close.  

[MeanGreenTexan]

25 minutes ago, HoustonEagle said:

I really have no axe to grind on this subject.  We beat teams that were even with us.  We beat teams that were worse than us.    Our losses came to to teams that were just flat better personnel wise.   FAU and Troy looked bigger and faster and it was not even close.  

And that's why those teams finished with 11 wins each!   They looked bigger and faster, because they are.