Coach Andy Mac

Harry gets a follow-up visit with the Executive Director of the North Texas Light The Tower NIL Collective Rick Villarreal. Rick discusses the latest updates and emphasizes the importance of continuing to build momentum with the collective heading into the American Conference. Direct audio link: https://traffic.libsyn.com/gomeangreen/RV_NIL_Pt_2_mixdown.mp3 Direct link to Light The Tower Collective Site: https://www.lightthetowercollective.com/

Gary Patterson was busy. After leading TCU to back-to-back top-10 seasons, the head coach was constructing his masterpiece. It featured a 47-7 win at No. 6 Utah. It concluded with a Rose Bowl victory over Big Ten champion Wisconsin. It ended with the Horned Frogs ranked second in the nation, having gone undefeated for the first time in 72 years. In the midst of the coach’s magnum opus, Austin Aune caught his eye. The star quarterback at Texas’ Argyle High School — roughly 30 miles north of Fort Worth — committed to the rising program. In June 2012, as an incoming freshman, he moved into Moncrief Hall to begin summer conditioning with the team. “I had been there a day, and I went through an awful workout where they just ran us in the dirt and I was throwing up everywhere,” Aune recalled. “I was like, ‘College football is gonna be tough.’” Aune awoke the next morning, ready for Round 2. The next workout began at 10 a.m. Around 9, his phone rang. Brian Cashman waited for him to pick up. When Aune’s name wasn’t announced in the first round of the 2012 MLB Draft, he assumed his future was at TCU. One day later, the Yankees selected the standout shortstop in the second round (89th overall). The slot money for his draft position was $548,000. The Yankees offered Aune a signing bonus of $1 million. read more: https://nypost.com/2022/09/29/how-ex-yankees-prospect-became-college-footballs-oldest-qb/

Read more: https://www.oklahoman.com/story/sports/columns/berry-tramel/2017/12/15/seth-littrell-ignites-north-texas-football/60555155007/

The Florida Atlantic University Owls (2-3, 1-0 C-USA) will take on the University of North Texas Mean Green (2-3, 1-0 C-USA) in Denton, Texas, on Saturday, Oct. 1. FAU looks to bounce back after dropping the first of their two-game road trip last week against Purdue. FAU is currently 0-2 in road games this season with losses to Ohio and Purdue. As the team resumes conference play, the hope is that the familiarity with their opponents eases the team’s road woes going forward. “We just have to go win the game,” head coach Willie Taggart said. “It’s football, no matter if it’s here in Boca or on the road, it’s a 100-yard field with hash marks and numbers and a goal-post. That’s all it comes down to. There’s no secret or anything like that, we just have to go and play winning football.” High-scoring offenses and lackluster defenses characterize both teams. Sophomore running backs Oscar Adaway III and Ayo Adeyi lead the way for North Texas, combining for 704 rushing yards and five rushing touchdowns on 123 carries this season. “[Adaway and Adeyi] are big backs that can run. They’re going to commit to the run offensively… They don’t have to change up what they do because of the back that’s in the game, they continue to run their offense,” Taggart said. “You see who and what their identity is as a football team, and they’re going to try to run the football. We have to do a great job of trying to stop the run in this ball game.” read more: https://www.upressonline.com/2022/09/fau-football-owls-take-on-north-texas-as-conference-play-resumes/

It helps that MTSU has a pretty good track record in those games, too. The Blue Raiders are 9-5 all-time in their annual Blackout game, including a 34-28, rain-soaked win over Marshall in 2021. "Every day, you get accustomed to the silver helmets, the blue jerseys, the silver pants, the white pants," said wide receivers coach Shane Tucker, who won four Blackout games during his playing days as a Blue Raider. "But black, it just kind of moves you a little different." All three position coaches that played in Blackout games as players on MTSU's staff (Gilstrap, Tucker and quarterbacks coach Brent Stockstill) all pointed to how, for whatever reason, the black uniforms the team has worn over the years have often brought out the best in the players. Whether that was from just the novelty of wearing new kicks, the fact the Blackout game is always a prime-time contest, or the fact that it's usually scheduled against a pretty tough opponent. The quality of the games itself, whether it be Beyah's Hail Mary catch, Ed Batties 2015 walk-off, triple overtime touchdown against WKU (a favorite of Tucker's) or last year's six-takeaway game in the Monsoon in Murfreesboro against the Thundering Herd, certainly helps keep the game in the front of the program's eyes. "2016, we were down 27-7 on a really good LA Tech team with some NFL teams," Brent Stockstill recalled, remembering the 34-31 comeback win he helped engineer over the Bulldogs. "In 2018 (a 25-24 win over Lane Kiffin's FAU), we had a two-point conversion to win it at the buzzer. It's just a cool atmosphere to create with everybody involved." Gilstrap, who made his collegiate debut in 2009's Blackout game against Memphis, forcing and recovering a fumble on a second quarter kickoff that led to MTSU's second touchdown in the Blue Raiders 31-14 win, noted that the Blackout games also serve as one of the longest running institutional memories from players in his era to the ones currently on the roster. "I was here when Coach Stock surprised us with black socks," Gilstrap said. "I remember when we played North Texas at home Coach Stock pulled out a black helmet. The game's changed! It comes from the foundation that Coach Stock laid and the guys that I played with, the foundation that they laid here." This week, that foundation is laid just a little bit thicker, as the defending C-USA Champion, UTSA, heads into Murfreesboro for a Friday night kickoff as MTSU returns home after, perhaps, the biggest win in program history over then-No. 25 Miami. The coaches, Gilstrap notes, don't need to hype up their guys any further about the importance of this game. They fully understand not only the in-season meaning of the game, but the meaning it has for the campus and the program. Read more: https://goblueraiders.com/news/2022/9/28/football-it-comes-from-the-foundation-former-mtsu-players-turned-coaches-take-pride-in-annual-blackout

1 UNT_FB_Game_Notes 2022 6_FAU MON.pdf

https://www.coacheshotseat.com/CoachesHotSeatRanking.htm

New Mexico Bowl Air Force vs. North Texas LendingTree Bowl Middle Tennessee State vs. Appalachian State Frisco Bowl Wyoming vs. SMU Hawaii Bowl San Jose State vs. UTSA Bahamas Bowl UTEP vs. Kent State Read more: https://www.on3.com/news/cbs-sports-updated-college-football-playoff-bowl-projections-after-week-4-national-championship-georgia-ohio-state-alabama-clemson-cfp/

UNT 2022 Football Roster LINK Memphis 2022 Football Roster LINK ESPN Matchup Predictor

Memphis FAN BOARD LINK HERE

1 UNT_FB_Game_Notes 2022 5_Memphis MON.pdf

The UNT football team will look to get back above .500 on Saturday in its final non-conference game of the season as it hits the road to take on Memphis with kickoff set for 2:30 p.m. The game can be seen on ESPN+ with the radio broadcast on KHYI 95.3/KXXN 97.5 (Wichita Falls)/The Varsity Network. Head coach Seth Littrell and selected players spoke to the media on Tuesday and discussed, among other things, some positives to take from last week's game at UNLV, particularly in the passing game, the issues for both sides of the ball on third down in that loss and playing a future conference foe as the Mean Green are set to jump to The American next season. Aune, passing game put up numbers Despite a loss on Saturday in Las Vegas, the Mean Green had some bright spots to take from the game, particularly in the way junior quarterback Austin Aune was able to throw the ball and put up some big passing numbers. Aune passed for 305 yards against UNLV on 17 of 29 passing and spread the ball around to seven different receivers. His two touchdown passes gave him nine on the season, and he's had scoring connections with eight different receivers on the season. read more: https://www.bcsnn.com/football/1971-north-texas-looks-to-climb-back-above-500-with-a-test-on-the-road-at-memphis