Coach Andy Mac

The American Athletic Conference is on the cusp of expanding. The league will be examining expansion and is expecting applications from six schools this week: Florida Atlantic, Charlotte, North Texas, UTSA, Rice and UAB, sources told Yahoo Sports. The schools applying to the conference is a critical step in the formal process for new members, and the acceptance of the six schools is typically considered a formality in these situations. The process is expected to play out through the course of this week with applications sent as soon as Tuesday, sources told Yahoo Sports. These additions would boost the AAC to a 14-team conference in football and basketball. (Navy is a football-only member and Wichita State is a full member that plays basketball but lacks a football program.) It would radically reshape Conference USA, which is poised to lose six members in key markets. The additions come in the wake of the AAC losing three key schools to the Big 12 this fall – Cincinnati, UCF and Houston. UConn also departed following the 2019 season. One of the guiding philosophies of the AAC’s expansion was to grow through fertile recruiting areas. The AAC expansion committee included a prominent crew of athletic directors from the conference – USF’s Mike Kelly, Memphis’ Laird Veatch, SMU’s Rick Hart and Navy’s Chet Gladchuk. While the size of television markets is no longer as critical of a guiding principle in conference decisions, this move for the AAC allows the league’s ESPN television contract to grow promising programs through exposure. And it doesn’t hurt that they are all situated in major metropolitan areas that can rally around success. (UTSA, which is 7-0, just got ranked for the first time this week, for example.) It’s the similar formula that helped Cincinnati emerge into a College Football Playoff contender this season, and both Houston and UCF to reach New Year’s Six bowl games in the past decade. read more: https://sports.yahoo.com/sources-the-aac-close-to-massive-6-school-expansion-to-reshape-conference-014015069.html

https://www.actionnetwork.com/ncaaf/aac-to-add-six-schools-conference-usa-college-football-realignment-charlotte-fau-north-texas-rice-uab-utsa?utm_source=article&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=brettmcmurphy “We will be much better without those six schools,” a C-USA source said. “The AAC will see their College Football Playoff rankings drop in the Group of Five. We have a chance to leapfrog them. This is a good day for C-USA.”

DENTON, Texas -- — Grant Wells passed for 323 yards and two touchdowns, ran for three more and Marshall routed North Texas 49-21 on Friday night. Marshall (4-3, 2-1 Conference USA) scored touchdowns on six consecutive possessions in the first half with Wells, who completed 24 of 32 passes, connecting with eight receivers. The defense forced five punts and five turnovers on downs on 14 North Texas drives. Rasheen Ali, who gained 109 yards on 20 carries, burst up the middle, spun out of a tackle and finished an 8-yard scoring run for the Herd's first touchdown. Grant Wells scored all three rushing touchdowns on 3-yard keepers. An interception plus an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty gave Marshall possession at the 33 and Wells found Xavier Gaines over the middle at about the 24 for a touchdown. read more: https://www.espn.com/college-football/recap/_/gameId/401282231

GMG

Marshall vs North Texas How To Watch Date: Friday, October 15 Game Time: 7:00 ET Venue: Apogee Stadium, Denton, TX How To Watch: CBS Sports Network Record: Marshall (3-3), North Texas (1-4) What’s Going To Happen This is a strange North Texas team that could use a bit of a lucky break. It at least made the score look okay against Missouri, and it hung around against Louisiana Tech, but it couldn’t get a key third down stop. Read more: https://collegefootballnews.com/2021/10/marshall-vs-north-texas-prediction-game-preview-lines-how-to-watch/amp

One of the first calls Phil Bennett made after agreeing to take over as North Texas defensive coordinator a few months ago was to an old friend. If Bennett was going to get back into coaching, he wanted Jim Gush by his side. Bennett considers Gush one of the best football coaches he knows and a friend. Gush agreed and is now in his 19th season coaching with Bennett. UNT's linebackers coach helped Bennett through one of the toughest times in his life. Bennett lost his wife, Nancy, in 1999 when she was struck by lightning while jogging. Bennett and Gush were assistant coaches at Kansas State at the time. Their bond is as strong as ever as the Mean Green prepare for a rare Friday night game against Marshall this week. The story detailing their friendship is available exclusively to our newsletter subscribers.

Updated as of this morning: http://www.coacheshotseat.com/CoachesHotSeatRanking.htm https://coacheshotseat.com/

4. Can Mizzou’s offensive line recapture September success? Mizzou’s offensive line could use a mulligan. Tennessee’s defensive front terrorized the Tigers last week with continuous pressure on quarterback Connor Bazelak while yielding no running room for Badie. The line’s poor performance — 13 pressures allowed — surprised Drinkwitz and contributed to both of Bazelak’s interceptions. Pass protection had been a strength through the season’s first month, but whether the Tigers were out-schemed or just whipped at the point of attack, they couldn’t keep the orange out of the backfield. Bazelak doesn’t have the natural mobility to live life on the run, and without running alleys for Badie the Tigers don’t have a chance to sustain drives. Missouri tackles Javon Foster (left) and Hyrin White (right) face another challenge Saturday against North Texas identical twins Grayson and Gabriel Murphy, the Mean Green’s top edge rushers who, naturally, have posted the same number of pressures, a dozen each through four games. read more: https://www.stltoday.com/sports/college/mizzou/mizzou-vs-north-texas-five-things-to-watch/article_e79f0399-74a1-517b-823e-5e6c964d937d.html

Rumors are swirling. This will be the last dominoes before the AAC likely expands next week. Three teams are AAC bound: AFA, CSU and UAB. The fourth team will end up being...Charlotte. Yes, Charlotte. According to one of our more reliable sources (Matt Brown), they are getting more play than UTSA, Rice, UNT, or FAU. West: Air Force, CSU, Tulsa, Navy, SMU, Memphis East: UAB, Charlotte, ECU, USF, Temple, Tulane The Mountain West is up next. They decide it's time to get into Texas, and it makes more sense to grab four for travel: Rice, UTEP, UTSA, and North Texas. West: SDSU, Boise State, SJSU, Fresno State, UNLV, Nevada, Hawaii Mountain: USU, Wyoming, UNM, Rice, UTEP, UTSA, North Texas The MAC looks around and stays put. The Sun Belt then adds 2: Southern Miss and Marshall West: Louisiana, USM, Texas State, UL Monroe, Ark St, USA East: Marshall, CCU, App St, Georgia St, Troy, Georgia So This leaves C-USA with 6 schools. Their options include adding NMSU, Liberty, UMass, and digging into FCS. They choose to add Liberty, NMSU, and JMU, and UMass as a football-only. North: UMass, JMU, ODU, Liberty, WKU South: LaTech, NMSU, MTSU, FAU, FIU LINK: https://csnbbs.com/showthread.php?mode=linear&tid=930871&pid=17685452

Texas A&M University-Commerce will make a special announcement today that some sources are reporting will be that the Lions are leaving the Lone Star Conference in athletics to join the Southland Conference. A&M-Commerce, which is a charter member of the LSC, announced two public events on Tuesday related to a special announcement which will have significant impact on the institution and its intercollegiate athletics program. A&M-Commerce, then called East Texas State, was one of five universities to found the LSC on April 25, 1931 at a meeting in Denton. The other four universities, North Texas State, Sam Houston State, Southwest Texas State and Stephen F. Austin have since left the conference. read more: https://www.heraldbanner.com/news/local_news/sources-say-a-m-commerce-leaving-lone-star-conference/article_86dd9f4c-1fe3-11ec-8ea0-7fc2c36924ad.html

It’s over guys.

North Texas’ offense has shown a bit more change since last season than expected. North Carolina transfer Jace Ruder stepped in and won the starting quarterback job over incumbent Austin Aune, while injuries at the running back position caused DeAndre Torrey to step into the feature back role after lining up at slot receiver to start fall camp. Unfortunately for the Mean Green, Torrey is questionable for this Saturday. Jace Ruder may need to win this game with his arm given the injury streak at the running back position. Look for Roderic Burns and Deonte Simpson to be targeted often throughout the evening. read more: https://www.underdogdynasty.com/conference-usa/2021/9/17/22678700/uab-blazers-unt-mean-green-north-texas-preview-watch-live-stats-betting-line-spread-listen-online

Another possibility: The Mountain West binds together and remains intact, banking that Alabama-Birmingham, Coastal Carolina, Appalachian State or whoever the AAC might add won’t give it enough juice to maintain its foothold as the best conference outside the Power 5. Except you’re still getting only $3 million a year from your conference in television payouts while some power conferences are north of $50 million, further widening the gap between the haves and have-nots. And so another back-of-the-napkin scheme emerges, perhaps not immediately but somewhere over the horizon: A national, breakaway conference with the best of the rest. SDSU, Boise State, Colorado State, Air Force and UNLV (because of its football facilities, not its history) from the Mountain West. SMU, Memphis, South Florida and Navy from the AAC. North Texas, which is pouring money into facilities, from Conference USA. Maybe Army, currently an independent in football, so you have all three service academies. The geography works in football because teams all charter to games, and there’s little difference in time or expense to fly for another hour or so to Dallas instead of Albuquerque. In basketball and Olympic sports, you could focus schedules within your region and add one or two trips east or west — not ideal but not unreasonable. It wouldn’t draw $40 million per school from the TV networks. But it might get you $10 million, which is better than $3 million. It also raises your national profile and better positions you if or when the tectonic plates of collegiate athletics shift again. read more: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/aztecs/story/2021-09-10/san-diego-state-aztecs-conference-realignment-big-12-conference-usa

On what is different about UNT this year… "Offensively they are high tempo and they run a lot of tempo plays. Their biggest improvement already is their defense. They've had some times that they were good on defense and probably weren't quite as good as maybe they wanted to be the last few years. I see them coming back. You know they made a change at their defensive coordinator spot, I know him. They're going to be better there and they're always tough." On preparing for UNT high tempo offense… "I think one of the things we do and we have been doing for years is we put two huddles going at us just as fast as we can go. I think that is the only way you can simulate them is just practice. You got those two huddles coming at you. Your guys are just waiting for it. It is tough, and I don't care how much you do it. They move fast, and they are going to spread you horizontally. If you look at their splits with their receivers, they are at the bottom of the numbers. So, that really opens up running lanes and you have a quarterback who can make those throws. They have a transfer from North Carolina with a big arm. He can run so it is going to be a big challenge. Last year statistically, they were one of the top teams in the country in the numbers categories." read more: https://uabsports.com/news/2021/9/13/uab-football-week-3-transcript-at-north-texas.aspx