Never too early for 2018 rankings

[Harry]

I agree with @forevereagle that we have come from a very low point and Littrell should most certainly be commended.  However, I do think that not being blown out by a G5 program is a reasonable goal.  I think it would make many of us feel even better about the program and where it is heading for the future.  I also feel that there are other g5 programs with less resources who are able to accomplish this.  We can as well.

I think the 2013 outlier year Mac had made us all paranoid about the aftermath of successful seasons.

To me the adjustments made in the recruiting staff is probably some of the best news I have seen.  It tells me that they are open to making improvements and getting better results.

[GreenN'walinsVet]

I tend to agree with BTG on this, going into next year.  Realistically though, If our defense doesn't improve it is going to be very difficult.  Hard to blow teams out, when you give up 30+ a game.   

[GrandGreen]

I am not worried about how many teams NT blows out versus eeks out a win.  I do hope NT greatly improves it ability not to get blown out.  The facts are that NT was not competitive against FAU and Troy and they should have been.   All those games were over early and NT looked like they were a bottom tier CUSA team.  

It might have been just a schedule thing but NT has not closed out the year well in the last two years.  NT has a schedule next year that they could actually win every game.  No, I don't think that is likely, but there are no schools on that schedule that should be prohibitive favorites.  SMU and Arkansas will be favored but are beatable, NT has FAU at home. 

[greenminer]

3 hours ago, GrandGreen said:

Next year's team has the capacity to be a juggernaut on the offensive side.  Add an average defense and that could lead to double digit wins.   

I have no idea what kind of defense we have to look forward to.

[Ben Gooding]

A lot of talking about not getting blown out, then turning around and saying be happy with 1 point wins. Fix the Godforsaken defense and no one will have to worry about neither thing happening. 

[BTG_Fan1]

5 hours ago, GreenN'walinsVet said:

I tend to agree with BTG on this, going into next year.  Realistically though, If our defense doesn't improve it is going to be very difficult.  Hard to blow teams out, when you give up 30+ a game.   

Realistically, the defense can not get much worse.. but SL kept Reff and did not make any chances to the defensive staff so who knows.. 

[MeanGreenTexan]

4 hours ago, GrandGreen said:

I am not worried about how many teams NT blows out versus eeks out a win.  I do hope NT greatly improves it ability not to get blown out.  The facts are that NT was not competitive against FAU and Troy and they should have been.   All those games were over early and NT looked like they were a bottom tier CUSA team.  

It might have been just a schedule thing but NT has not closed out the year well in the last two years.  NT has a schedule next year that they could actually win every game.  No, I don't think that is likely, but there are no schools on that schedule that should be prohibitive favorites.  SMU and Arkansas will be favored but are beatable, NT has FAU at home. 

Will they?

[meaniegreenie]

12 hours ago, MeanGreen_MBA said:

I'll take 8-10 wins, all by 1 point if that is the way they play out.  We are not to a point to where style points count.....we just need the wins...

If we win 7 1-point games, I'm not sure I'll make it to the 8th one! 

[greenjoe]

I want to see NT get off the strong season-weak season merry-go-round.  Where one year(2013) we go bowling, next 2 we don’t qualify, and then go to post season.  

Up and down.  Our fan base isn’t loyal enough to tolerate this. 

GO MEAN GREEN

[greenminer]

6 hours ago, BTG_Fan1 said:

Realistically, the defense can not get much worse.. but SL kept Reff and did not make any chances to the defensive staff so who knows.. 

I know we didn't have any playmakers regularly in the backfield.

[Mean Green Matt]

We have a long way to go before we can start complaining about style points in victories. 

[GMG24]

On 1/26/2018 at 4:32 PM, Ben Gooding said:

A lot of talking about not getting blown out, then turning around and saying be happy with 1 point wins. Fix the Godforsaken defense and no one will have to worry about neither thing happening. 

Offensive success directly impacts defense.  See FAU game 1.  But if the defense can go one less TD a game on average, I love our chances 

[BTG_Fan1]

On 1/27/2018 at 3:32 PM, Mean Green Matt said:

We have a long way to go before we can start complaining about style points in victories. 

A long way? We had people here complaining how we didn’t get a Top 25 vote with our HC having a vote this past season, even our HC knew we were not a top 25 team. We have people thinking we will go 13-1 (which we need to tap the breaks on talk, before we UTSA we turn out like UTSA going undefeated).

FAU got national pub 1- because of the HC, 2- because they flat out wrecked teams.. CUSA is likely going to have another down year, this is when UNT should be dishing out the beat downs and not taking them. 

Going from 1-11 to 5-8 was because we played some flawless games but mostly we did enough to get by that first year of SL.. Year two it was score and pray, with the occasional defensive stop.. Year 3 is when this needs to be finally put together.. Most of the offense, defense will be all SL, GH, TR guys.. Mason could be making the case potentially for some national awards potentially with the graduation of Wilson meaning Fine will have more on his plate.. 

[Mean Green Matt]

7 hours ago, BTG_Fan1 said:

A long way? We had people here complaining how we didn’t get a Top 25 vote with our HC having a vote this past season, even our HC knew we were not a top 25 team. We have people thinking we will go 13-1 (which we need to tap the breaks on talk, before we UTSA we turn out like UTSA going undefeated).

FAU got national pub 1- because of the HC, 2- because they flat out wrecked teams.. CUSA is likely going to have another down year, this is when UNT should be dishing out the beat downs and not taking them. 

Going from 1-11 to 5-8 was because we played some flawless games but mostly we did enough to get by that first year of SL.. Year two it was score and pray, with the occasional defensive stop.. Year 3 is when this needs to be finally put together.. Most of the offense, defense will be all SL, GH, TR guys.. Mason could be making the case potentially for some national awards potentially with the graduation of Wilson meaning Fine will have more on his plate.. 

Yes. A long way. 

[Aldo]

It's all in how you look at it (or state it).

We went from losing 50/50 games, to winning 50/50 games. 

Now it's time to take over games (ie, not be in 50/50 games).

[flyonthewall]

A coach once told me "With our offense, if we hold teams to 25 points on defense I would consider that winning football".  I thought "Shit, we gotta score a lot of points then".   The point is, in an "air raid" up tempo kind of offense, the offense scores and gets off the field so fast, that the defense has to play more.  I agree with the earlier post.  If our defense can just improve an average of one touchdown per game, Mason has proven that he cannot be held back.  Now, if we lose our quarterback, which can and will happen then how good is the next guy?

Either way, I will take this based on what I have been watching for the past ten years.  Lord how much fun was 97 yards in one minute?  Might have been my best mean green time ever.......

Soak it in boys, because there is a very real possibility that a coach will walk out of here next year rather than being shot and pushed out in a coffin.......

[BTG_Fan1]

19 minutes ago, flyonthewall said:

A coach once told me "With our offense, if we hold teams to 25 points on defense I would consider that winning football".  I thought "Shit, we gotta score a lot of points then".   The point is, in an "air raid" up tempo kind of offense, the offense scores and gets off the field so fast, that the defense has to play more.  I agree with the earlier post.  If our defense can just improve an average of one touchdown per game, Mason has proven that he cannot be held back.  Now, if we lose our quarterback, which can and will happen then how good is the next guy?

Either way, I will take this based on what I have been watching for the past ten years.  Lord how much fun was 97 yards in one minute?  Might have been my best mean green time ever.......

Soak it in boys, because there is a very real possibility that a coach will walk out of here next year rather than being shot and pushed out in a coffin.......

This offense did not go "up-tempo" as much as it should have.. They had times they had teams on their heels and we did not speed up the game to exploit this, instead it was business as usual. 

I'm hopeful that in Year 3 of this offense (on top of the years of Fine running 1 similar in HS) he will be allowed to make changed at the LOS and be allowed to speed up the plays similar to what FAU does/did.

If the defense can even get back to what it was year 1 of SL, that is a huge boost to this team, and most of all potentially Mason. Mason should and hopefully will put up some big time numbers in his JR/SR year. If this defense can even just be a middle of the road team in the 60s) it will increase the Point margins and hopefully allow for this team to surprise someone like Arkansas and FAU  while Mason shreds the likes of UTEP, Rice, I-Word, Liberty, among other programs. If he can do that, hopefully he is mentioned and included in some National QB/offensive awards and maybe even an All-American slot which would do alot of good for the football program. 

[BTG_Fan1]

9 hours ago, Aldo said:

It's all in how you look at it (or state it).

We went from losing 50/50 games, to winning 50/50 games. 

Now it's time to take over games (ie, not be in 50/50 games).

The worrisome thing is.. Year 1 it seemed to be we lost 50/50 games (or games we viewed as toss ups), year 2 we won them all (and some games we shouldn't have won)... 

Year 3 we need to see separation and not the 50/50 because the law of averages will not do us kindly.. Just ask someone like UTSA who lost to us by 3, and USM by 1... The difference between a bowl-bid and staying home... 

[FirefightnRick]

For me our success will always be predicated on our defense.

Get our defense to where UTSA or Troy is and this is a top 25 team next season.

 

Rick

[Ben Gooding]

4 hours ago, FirefightnRick said:

For me our success will always be predicated on our defense.

Get our defense to where UTSA or Troy is and this is a top 25 team next season.

 

Rick

I agree. 

But this isn't happening in 2018. And to be honest, I don't think this is will be happening under this coaching regime. We will have to outscore weak to average opponents and take our beatings vs the better opponents on the schedule. Lucky for us, there are a lot of weak to average teams in CUSA.  

[UNTLifer]

10 hours ago, Ben Gooding said:

I agree. 

But this isn't happening in 2018. And to be honest, I don't think this is will be happening under this coaching regime. We will have to outscore weak to average opponents and take our beatings vs the better opponents on the schedule. Lucky for us, there are a lot of weak to average teams in CUSA.  

Why do you assume we will take beatings?

[BTG_Fan1]

1 hour ago, UNTLifer said:

Why do you assume we will take beatings?

Because this defense is terrible and folds under pressure???