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MeanGreenWithEnvy

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Everything posted by MeanGreenWithEnvy

  1. The tale of the tape won't show it, but the D played their asses off with no help from the offense. Last o-line configuration of the night looked like it finally clicked.
  2. I think Murray can be fantastic at his position, but he still has a lot of work to do with regards to the mechanics of playing on the end of the line at his size. In both the SMU game and BCU he was routinely getting beat around the edge. From my observation, his first step is slow and he sets his feet too early. Those are mechanical things that he can improve on, and I think he will. Go Mean Green!
  3. SMU looked very solid against Baylor in the first half. Some flukey plays going both ways, but they've been very solid overall; now let's see who makes adjustments for the second half!
  4. Howdy, Go Mean Greeners! Welcome to the first installment of Notes From Section 105 for the 2016 football season! I know my expectations were likely high going into the game, and like all of you I was disappointed with the outcome. I was most disappointed with SMU's ability to nail big gainers against the Mean Green defense, both on the ground (that Davis guy has some freakin' wheels!) and in the air (the forever-infamous 3rd-and-McKinney TD). Here are some notes I jotted down during the course of the game: 1. Jeff Wilson is tremendously fun to watch. He's got that rare combination of the burst of corner-turning speed while being able to instantaneously flip a switch and run downhill. He is rarely brought down by one guy and he looks like he holds up very well considering his very physical running style. He's a guy whom I'm not going to make up my mind about any players after one game, but my first impression of Anthony Wyche is that I hope he's a speed guy because he certainly didn't look like a tackle-breaker or a between-the-tackles runner against SMU. Here's hoping my first impressions are way off! Every time I heard Wyche's name on the PA, my mind tried to trick me into thinking former Bengals head coach Sam Wyche was running out of the backfield. 2. The offensive line is still gelling. Particularly when it comes to pass protection, I hope they will gel soon because neither Morris nor Fine are going to stay healthy and upright for long if they're going to get beat up the way they were on Saturday. I wasn't paying strict attention to each one of Morris' drop backs, but I bet I was paying attention to at least 90% of them, and in those drop backs, he was either sacked or knocked down on all but five of them. That might be a result of him holding the ball for too long. That might be the result of him being a pocket passer who doesn't roll out unless he's chased out. Even if both of these are true, pass protection is still an issue. Get to gellin', fellas! 3. The defensive secondary scares me, but we're going to enjoy watching Combs & Wheeler this year. 4. Goree & Thompson will be fantastic in this offense. If I'm a DB lining up in the slot against Kelvin Smith, I'm going to do my best to jump his route every time because my worst nightmare is Kelvin catching the ball and steamrolling me 10 yards downfield. 5. We've already discussed Morris & Fine. I hope Morris will develop on the job and will develop sooner rather than later. Fine looks like he's game ready right now, but I don't see Littrell making a switch one game into the season. I think it's fair to expect that Morris is going to be on a short hook against BCU this weekend. If he struggles, I wouldn't be surprised to see Fine come out as the starter in the 3rd quarter. 6. Saturday's crowd was one of the better ones I've seen at Apogee. There were a lot of people and most importantly even though the game was in no doubt by halftime, the majority of the crowd stayed until the beginning of the 4th quarter. I got the feeling that if the score had been closer than 20 points that most of the crowd would have stuck around until the end. See y'all next week with another edition of Notes From Section 105! Go Mean Green!
  5. I don't think Alec Morris is a bad QB. I do think that Mason Fine is a better fit for this offense at this point in time due to his experience running a spread in HS. Even considering that he wasn't seeing SMU's first string defense, three things jumped off the page in watching Fine: first and most importantly, he's got the internal clock for a spread QB playing behind a line that is still gelling. Second, he will move around to buy himself an additional couple of seconds. Third, he throws a really nice ball. When it needed zip, it had zip. When it needed touch, it had touch. Very small sample size on Fine and taking context into consideration, he looked very good. More on this tomorrow and other observations in Notes From Section 105. Go Mean Green!
  6. I don't think I'm alone in my cynicism about how UNT handles situations like this one, so I'll go on record as saying that this is going to go sideways on us because that's the most UNT thing that could happen. UNC beats Clemson on the strength of a just-good-enough defensive showing combined with a pitch-perfect offensive attack and then Littrell moves to another gig.
  7. Maybe this is life's way of telling me I'll be better off not watching the game, but I'll admit to being pretty disappointed that, at the ass end of a disheartening season, I can't watch this game. It feels...insulting. "Insulting" in the way that it's one more insult to be heaped onto the pile. All of us deserve better.
  8. I can look at our current squad and see the contributors our next bowl-competitive Mean Green football team. I think Wilson, Ivery, Goree, Bradley, McClain, and Dillman will all be dudes on that next team, whether that is 2017 or 2018. I think with another offseason of first team reps and work that Smith and Johnson will be better next season than they have been this season, but I don't expect we're going to be bowl-competitive next season. Better? I hope so. Bowl-better? No. 110% agree with BillySee58. Offensively-minded HC, defensively-minded HC, wishbone, spread, 46, Tampa 2, whatever the hell else, our next HC has got to either be a recruiting boss or bring in assistants who can be recruiting bosses.
  9. Not on campus today, but I've fielded five text messages from five different people all basically asking "who is Rick Villarreal and why should he be fired?" Great opportunity for some educational outreach about the state of Mean Green athletics.
  10. Rayzor Ranch will do better than most here think because of the next 10 years, not because of today. RR is right in the bullseye of where most of the residential development in and approximate to the current city limits will take place. RR isn't for people like me who live close by right now; it's for the thousands of likely future residents who will be settling in that area. I would have preferred for the convention center to have been at Apogee because that would be a superior location for university-hosted conferences. I think it could have happened in its original incarnation if UNT's leadership had been a vocal proponent of it instead of going radio silent on the matter. An area close to downtown, especially one close to the A-Train Station would have been amazing. The simple reality is that there's no single or adjacent parcels of land for sale in or near downtown to build a facility of this size.
  11. I suspect that, in a word, context. The AD who hired Strong is gone after a brief but public feud with the new President. Strong won't be the new AD's guy and he isn't the new President's guy. Combine that context with the unrealistic expectations the fan base has of whomever is head coach of the Horns, and I'd probably want out, too.
  12. When the offensive line is opening up holes and when he's running north and south, he's tremendously effective. When the offensive line isn't opening up holes and when he's running east and west to try to get to the edge, he's tremendously ineffective. Had the offensive situation been different, Antoinne could have been in the conversation with the other great backs we've had in recent years. I'd love to see him hit 2000 yards this season, but I don't see it happening. I noticed him walking to the locker room, too, Green59. I feel for the guy, but I also appreciate that this is not a time for the coaches to indulge in sentimentality. I understand why he'd be upset and unhappy, and I wouldn't expect him to be excited over being sidelined in his senior year. As the great philosopher Tony Romo would likely tell us, "it is what it is."
  13. If this is what it takes to finally get some decent husky-sized UNT gear, I'm on board with him.
  14. We need to hire Terry Tate to be an Assistant AD and keep RV in line.
  15. Last night was definitely the best showing of the season; I know, I know, low bars and low hanging fruit and all. When Mac was fired last week, I remarked to a couple of Mean Green friends that I hoped to see a lot more Smith & Wilson from here on out and less McNulty & Jimmerson. As a person who loves this university and who respects the hard work that these guys put in to get on the field, I do not mean anything personal in writing that about McNulty & Jimmerson; by every account that I've read and heard, both are hard workers. We all saw the difference last night between hard workers and the best players to be on the field at this point in time. Smith is rough around the edges, but he's electric; Wilson is so much fun to watch run and given the line difficulties, he's a guy who doesn't depend solely on the line to create opportunities for him. DaMarcus Smith can be a great QB; only first team practice reps and game time will tell if he will live up to his potential. He's raw, as evidenced by his dismal completion percentage last night. He reminds me a bit of a guy I watched QB A&M my sophomore year there back in the early 90s: Jeff Granger. Cannon of an arm but no touch on throws of 15 yards or less. Unlike Granger, a guy who was always more of a pitcher than a QB, I think DaMarcus can improve enough on those short passes to get his completion percentage up to a respectable level. Jeffrey Wilson is the kind of back this offense needs right now, a guy who can create on his own without a lot of help from his line. He's also one hell of a north/south runner; he hits the hole with purpose and authority; even when he's stuffed for no gain or a short gain, defenders are getting walloped when they hit him. I loved seeing Smith work with Goree. That could be one heck of a special pair. Defense...well...I don't know that there's much that can be done at this point in the season. The only substantive thing I'd like to see changed is how far off the line the corners play on almost all downs. Several times last night the corners were 8-10 yards off the line in 3rd and short situations. Doughty ate us up on those plays, as should any decent or better QB. I understand the fear is getting beat down the field, but given the grievous problems the defense has with putting pressure on the QB, I'd rather see them at least press a little and try to disrupt the easy plays than to sit back and get converted on at will. Hated seeing Willie Ivery get injured. Did he come out of the locker room for the 2nd half? I was looking for him but did not see him. He was very frustrated and demonstrative on the trainers' table after coming out of the game; when you see a guy that frustrated and upset, it's usually bad news. Finally, a tip of the Mean Green cap to Chico. I loved seeing him call a time out and gather all the guys around him late in the game and tell them to get off their asses (his words, not mine) and get up on the sidelines and support the team. ADDENDUM: A final comment on DaMarcus Smith: on that final TD throw to Carlos Harris, he stepped into pressure to make that throw and got lit up. That's the kind of play that ought to earn him some good will from his teammates.
  16. He has a better arm than Mini Mac. Whether or not he has the game judgement to make it count is another issue. I'm so bummed with the state of things that I'm ready to give the guy who has the better arm a couple of games wire-to-wire to see what happens. And that leads me to your final statement; it's depressing as hell that this is how I want to see QB playing time divvied up: "Which one of you has the most unproven talent? Congrats, take your first team reps."
  17. Count me on the team that thinks you have to deal with the AD before you're going to get a successful football coach in Denton. We have a stink on us thanks to being sprayed by the failure skunk for so many years. It increasingly looks like we lucked our way into one memorable season before crashing back down to our under .500 ways. If this season heads south, that stink is going to be back on us and it'll be like 2013 and the Heart of Dallas Bowl never happened. We've got some evidence the players are demoralized, the head coach sounds like he's veering into dangerous territory, and 2013's hard-won fans are tuning out. That's not going to change as long as the guy who has presided over two distinct chapters of it is making the hiring decisions. We have a good bit of talent on this team. What we don't have is an offensive system where that talent is utilized and we don't have the coaches (or a coach?) with the mentality needed to make that change. Iceberg warnings be damned, Mac is full steam ahead.
  18. Bring whomever makes the magic happen for Arkansas State as their AD to UNT.
  19. Folks, RV will be here and Mac will be here through the end of the season. The only thing that might change is the QB, but not until after McNulty gets to play in front of the home folks next Saturday.
  20. I suspect that we're going to roll into Homecoming 0-4. I've not been this sad about the state of UNT football since the Dodgeball Era. It's dispiriting.
  21. If we lose to Portland State at Apogee, Dan McCarney will be fired before he leaves the stadium.
  22. Stabilized Rex on sideline in the early 4th, rolled him onto a back board, then took him off the field. I hate so much to see him go out with another injury. Anyone know more about what happened?
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