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No, this was not worse than Portland State. I know you're pissed, we all are. But just stop.

Nick Harvey needs to sit down. Sorry, he just does. Mason looked as rattled as I have seen him since his freshman year. Our O-line got their asses whipped Reeder was supposed to bring tempo and creativity. I saw neither. We looked like we were afraid to throw deep and ran the same ground game repetitively. When it is clear your defense is getting overwhelmed then EVERY trip into the red zone is 4 down territory. Field goals are a give up. Get seven or give them the ball back deep in their end of the field. SMU is far from the best team we will face this year, and if anything they are pretty much just average. The issue is, every time we go to Ford Stadium we make them look like they are all stars.

Watching the game last night I couldn’t help but think back to Littrell’s first three recruiting classes. We don’t have many Mccarney recruits left and a lot of the JUCOs we signed early on are gone. In year four we’re at the stage where we are leaning on the early high school signees to be the upperclassmen and leaders of the team. According to 247, the 2016 class was ranked 8th in CUSA, the 2017 class was ranked 11th, and the 2018 class was ranked 8th. And by my metrics based on offers, these classes were even a little below the last two Mccarney signed. The turnaround since then is well documented but those guys from the 2019 and 2020 class are years away from being the upperclassmen of our roster. What also hurts is that we only signed, by my count, 10 high school signees in that first class in 2016. It was always a peculiar decision to go so JUCO/transfer heavy right away in a rebuild. And while some of it definitely paid off early, it definitely would be nice to have another 5-10 seniors and redshirt juniors, especially at some of the positions where we are not looking great. At this point the roster is what it is. We are recruiting better at most positions, and that took time to turnaround our reputation. We have won the last two years without having great depth, and we’re going to have to do so this year as well. All this to say I don’t need to go into detail on where the team needs to improve, but based on recruiting results this team should be an average to slightly below average CUSA roster with a really good QB and that’s what we’ve looked like this year.

I have been home now for several hours and have had time to reflect on what I witnessed tonight. Something has to change and quickly or we will lose any and all respect and momentum we have gained. I walked out of Ford Stadium tonight disgusted and sick from what I observed. I was not alone. Many I walked with to our respective vehicles were expressing the same feelings. Why can we not take the next step? This is year four for SL and company and we are not seeing results. There is a disturbing trend starting to repeat itself. In 2016 we roll into West Point and whip Army on their field, only to crap the bed against UTSA the following week. It’s year one, but we are making baby steps. Moving to 2017, after a pool party and an ass whipping at the hands of FAU, we somehow manage to get to the Conference Championship only to get our ass handed to us again by the Lane Train. But things are forgiven, as it’s only year two. Let’s not forget a close HOD Bowl loss to Army and a NO Bowl blow out to Troy along the way. But we are making progress, right? So now let’s move onto year three. We start 4 and 0 with a P5 win over a struggling Arkansas team which SL says was not an upset. Another baby step in the right direction? After a win at Liberty we roll home to Apogee and dedicate a statue to a UNT Great, only to squander a double digit lead and take a crap on our home turf in a loss to La Tech. The next disaster would come a few weeks later at ODU when the heavy favorite Mean Green would piss away a 28 point lead in a loss to a conference bottom feeder. Don’t forget, this was after blowing a lead on the road at UAB in a game we were picked to win. With all of this said, I won’t even go into the New Mexico Bowl. Yes, I know Fine went down early but I think if we are being honest with ourselves, we all knew where this game was headed before the injury. Now we find ourselves in year four. We had a great first half in the home opener before letting things slide late against a weak FCS team. We were told the team lost interest. Really? So what the hell happened last night? Did the team lose interest again? This has got to end! We should not tolerate this kind of result in year four. This team has too much talent for this kind of performance. Anyone else see a trend here? The season is young. Will it be a success or filled with disappointments? GMG

I’d cut him some slack. He was the only bright spot of the night. And it is first real go at it. He should be happy with his contribution. Regardless.

I wouldn’t confuse his nervous smile with pleasure. This may have been the first time for him to be interviewed like this. Probably a little surreal. He was just answering the questions given to him.

This game felt like #olddenton

So what happened? Well besides the 4-5 pass interferences against #39 Moore, we were out coached. It was known that we could pass very well, so put your top new athlete on our top receiver. We got out coached, but I still believe in Littrell and Fine. This could have been a great thing for the team and coaches to wake up from some hype. As for Reeder, I’m not convinced, I didn’t see a lot of TE passes Or uptempo. Beat Cal and show us what we are, Mean Green!!

For better or worse he is the best coach (by winning percentage) we have had since Hayden Fry left for Iowa 40 years ago. 40 years! Cool your jets and be grateful we aren’t just striving to be bowl eligible anymore. We are trying to hit 9 these days instead of 6. Although that loss sucks hard because of who the opponent was, we still have an entire conference slate coming that could be a totally different season from this start. And those of you saying Seth isn’t going anywhere because no P5 would want him forget that he was a staff disagreement from being the KSU head coach despite losing to Old Dominion and blowing several 21+ point leads. Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.

I agree. If you have corners that struggle on an island, then don't put them on an island. If they play 5 in the box, run it until they quit it. If your defense line is getting blown back, get them on the move. I think it is obvious we have some kids that are going to have trouble playing in last year's scheme. As coaches, you have to ask your kids to do what they can do. And catch the ball. Too many drops by people we count on to come up big.

2017 New Orleans Bowl - Troy 50 points 2018 New Mexico Bowl - Utah State 52 points 2019 Game two - SMU 42 points through 3 quarters. It's time we start to question the colossal failure that is our defensive recruiting during Littrell's tenure. This defense has 36 interceptions over the last three seasons as well, further masking our deficiencies. The only way we make a bowl game is if we produce a similar amount of turnovers.

Here are my final observations. Unrequested, unedited and uncensored. 1. Almost impossible to beat the opposing team and the refs in the same game. So many bad calls, it’s almost unbelievable. 2. The color commentator needs to drink less before/during the game. 3. We can take down the 6 for Heisman website and just play some god damn football. 4. Learn what defense is and how to apply it to the game of football. 5. More Tre Siggers. 6. Offensive line: what is the purpose? Do we really need them? Can we swap them for a new hot tub, or a good, running used car? (Same for DBs) 7. Will we ever meet/exceed expectations? Or will we underperform for all of existance? 8. smu sucks, and Buechele is a bitch. 8. When I read of the dangers of drinking, I gave up reading. Go Mean Green!

We got punked in Dallas. Fine is a good QB but not great, SL is the same. Another big game and another disappointing result. SMU came to play and North Texas was once again unprepared in a big game. Sigh GMG

Is Kahlua supposed to be chunky?

I've moved onto drinking the cooking wine already. Will post results. For science...

Bringing the game to the Courthouse lawn was a fine idea. Not a huge crowd, but a good time, and lots of folks passing by stopped and watched. Hopefully this will be ongoing. October weather will be very nice.

Seth’s gonna earn some experience stripes with this bunch. He has to pick their faces up off the ground except sig’s and get this team to compete. Meanwhile we have 2 brutal teams to lineup against this months and our always expected grinder with UTSA. Does it feel worse to lose like Washington did last night or get curb stomped? Not sure but this beat down last night was unexpected and yet I am ready to turn the page. On to the next cheer. GMG

Too many long pass routes. Just my opinion. Short routes could’ve changed the whole game. Quit looking for a home run on every play. Take what the defense is giving and move the ball down field

Dude, you really forget what we were like before SL?? I will take winning seasons all day. I will take a 5-6 game winning streak to start like last year. Or our first big win over an SEC opponent. Or destroying an SMU team last year. Or even just making it to Bowl games. If you want change, sometimes you will get it. And that ain’t always a good thing.

Easier to distract the kids from this at home games. Traveling to SMU and having a bunch of 20 year olds scream this in the ears of my 7 year old reeks of adolescence. Not sure how we can justify this is ever a good look on the University.

To your point, Arkansas hired Morris after him accomplishing nothing of significance at SMU. I very much like Littrell and hope he stays here a long time. I do find some of the “at least we have winning seasons now” or “hey he’s better than the last few coaches” comments to be frustrating. It is possible to be both thankful for what he’s done here and express concern about the fact that we don’t seem to win big games.

Ready for the old guy rant? What is it that I do every year on signing day (now days)? I look over the list of QB's/WR's/RB's that everyone else is salivating over and ask the same question..........WHERE'S THE BEEF? It's really simple people, who is consistently getting pressured and who is consistently applying pressure in a game? Who got sacked five time last night and who got sacked only once? On both sides we are (and have for God knows how long) being dominated at the line of scrimmage. I started really worrying last week when Abilene Christian started doing their Old Dominion imitation. DON'T WE EVER SCOUT OURSELVES? I MEAN REALLY AND VERY CRITICALLY SCOUT OURSELVES? SMU ran the same long pass plays, and same long running plays to the exact same side of the defense that ACU did! Someone commented on another post that (hopefully) the team will get mad and take it out on UC? Really? Getting 31 points scored on them by ACU didn't make them mad? So much so that they would have/could have gone down to Dallas and taken it out on SMU? As the character "Hobart" said in "Silverado"......"It's a bad start boys"

Poche is maybe the fastest guy on the field. Why we are not jamming him with safety over the top is beyond me. That is what SMU was doing with us.

I agree. When you take a kid whose natural position is Safety and you move him to CB, watch him get toasted two weeks in a row, I stop blaming Harvey. I blame the coaching staff for not putting him in position to be successful. This is a complete coaching failure.

Of course we are. If we weren’t you wouldn’t be here gloating. Rick

One thing that REALLY bothers the shit out of me is we saw ACU expose #9 LAST WEEK. LAST WEEK!!!!!!!!! So after two and half quarters of the same tonight and he’s still out there does that mean we have no one else? Skladany would have yanked him at half time. Anyhow,....all my fears about this defense has come true. Hard to stomach that. Rick

So the punt returner should try to catch a bouncing football with two SMU defenders within 3 feet of him and if he screws up they score a touchdown? Nah, that was not the problem with our game plan.

I think the Alumni Association did a good job with this tonight with a great turnout. That and Tre Siggers were the only bright spots this evening. Oh, and that my car didn’t get towed outside Trinity Hall during the game.

Correct me if I’m wrong but North Texas had what 47 seconds or so left in the second quarter with 3 time outs and we let the clock run out?! Then we’re kicking field goals down by two scores in the second half. Sigh....just sigh

I feel you on this. Every time we're projected to be great, we fail. its frustrating.

Yup, GREAT idea. Yes, they should do this for all away games.

If they are going to play two deep with straight up man underneath, you need to run shallow crossing routes. We ran zero of those.

Dykes gave Seth a coaching lesson tonight. SMU deserved to win. They are a better team. If he keeps this up others might start signing entire classes of transfers

CUSA is at the very bottom.

I've held judgement but I think Seth has reached his peak at UNT.

Dude is not good. Like shouldn't be on the field.

With the speed of the concessions workers, that will take most of the second half.

Two contract extensions in a relatively short period of time. Two salary increases as well. Yearly income that would take many of us 20 years to equal. I have to raise my eyebrow and become very concerned when the head man has become better at Coaches "speak" than winning Conference Championships, critical conference games, bitter rivalries and bowl games.

I feel bad saying this, but I'm surprised it's only 12 points after last night. A lot was exposed...

I was in complete shock at how many times our defense was looking at the sideline for the defensive call while SMU was about to snap the ball. Several long runs happened when the defense wasn't ready. Inexcusable.

How in the world is he behind Torrey and Easley? Sorry, but he was special last night.

My thoughts. I can take a loss, but a complete beat down is unconscionable. Their punter had to be the most rested guy in the stadium. I think he came out twice and one of his punts pinned us on the 1 yard line. Our defense couldn't have stopped my son's high school (Lone Star) who beat my Alma Mater, Denton High School 75-0 on Friday night. For that matter, I don't know if our offense could have moved the ball on them. This was a tough loss to stomach.

It was fantistic! Loud and packed! Great job to those who put this together.

But there’s one for 58 seconds.

I’m going to be honest here, but the online didn’t get punked IMO. SMU had a helluva game plan where they kept Mason contained in all the mix. Mason couldn’t see the field. Bussey got open multiple times but Mason couldn’t see him. Sometimes having a short QB does hurt you. When Mason rolled out the Mustangs attacked him hard. Our offensive coaches were schooled tonight by the SMU defensive staff.

Name the last big game that Seth won. I'll wait.

Vermouth gone. Found a 20 year old unopened bottle of Kahula. Do you think it's safe?