Greendylan

Rice has been pretty competitive in their home games but just hasn't quite come up with a win, which is partially due to the level of competition. They've lost at home to Baylor by 8, Louisiana Tech by 3 (in OT), Southern Miss by 14, and Marshall by 13. They also lost at home to Texas and Wake Forest by larger margins way back in September, but I don't think those games are particularly relevant to this discussion. I would imagine that Rice feels like they've played fairly well against teams that are WAY better than North Texas and that this is a prime opportunity to finally break through with a win, as it is their last home game. Meanwhile, we are winless on the road and seem to be headed the wrong direction. Other than Cal, in every other road game we've significantly underperformed vs. the point spread. I want to be optimistic, but I'm really having a hard time viewing this as anything other than a tossup--at best. I tend to think the team that comes out more fired up and desperate to end their season on a high note will win, and I'm not so sure that's going to be North Texas.

The way things are looking, we may not reach 30 points against Utah State.

Regardless, this is embarrassing and we may need to recognize that we are pretty helpless outside of Fine. Without him, we may just be a bottom ten team.

He's looked pretty checked out today.

For those who believe we will be just fine next year with a new QB, here's a preview. This is a Todd Dodge team with Mason Fine. Without Fine, well . . . exhibit A. 3 wins should be the expectation next year, and realistically it could be worse.

One truth that I have had confirmed again and again is that Littrell's UNT simply does not convert 4th and short and does not stop teams from converting on 4th and short. It's pretty much a guarantee every time.

We aren't playing well, and deserve to be behind, but the number of holding/block in the back calls that Louisiana Tech blatantly gets away with is absolutely mind blowing.

Seems optimistic. To put it in perspective, those are about the same odds that they gave Charlotte against us.

Woah, woah, woah... I think Holtz is a class act and a credit to the conference. I didn't mean in any way to imply that he, or any other coaches, were being "disrespectful" in an offensive, personal sense. I meant "respect" in an athletic competition context--as in "the safeties were creeping up since they didn't respect the QB's deep ball." It's not an inappropriate, hateful remark but rather an observation of one's competitive advantage in some area against an opponent.

"Prison GMG is no fairy-tale world.”

Here's a simple (and fairly obvious) way of putting it: Our offense is good, but it isn't as consistently good as our defense is consistently bad. Thus, pick whatever score total you think we are capable of reaching against a strong, complete team like Louisiana Tech (maybe mid-30s to low-40s at best), and then keep in mind that even if we get to that amount, LT will be able to pretty much name whatever point total they need to reach against us to comfortably coast to a 3-4 score win.

There's a certain degree of gamesmanship in those preseason picks. But, it also does speak to just how highly they think of Fine. Also, there's this: https://athlonsports.com/college-football/conference-usa-coaches-talk-anonymously-about-conference-foes-2019

Yeah, honestly over the course of the past couple seasons, the theme that I have picked up on over and over from CUSA coaches (when you look beyond the obligatory "coach speak") is that they do not respect North Texas. They respect Mason Fine, but they do not think the rest of the team has any talent that they need to worry about. Even last year, I kind of got that impression, and I suspect that they're seeing this year as confirmation of their talent assessment. I don't agree with that sentiment, and I hope our players are noticing.

That's exactly what I thought. I had been waiting all season to see play calling that actually complemented our passing game rather than trying to force it to overcome its own weaknesses.