MeanGreenWithEnvy

I've said to my friend and fellow Mean Green Club member that Pegram doesn't have the burst he did pre-injury last season. Right now he's a between-the-tackles guy. I hope another offseason of rehab will help him regain some of that burst.

I eagerly await the coming Thompson vs. Vizza wars.

Agreed, ColoradoEagle. LibreOffice Calc is the tool I had at hand, and this was what I could do on a first pass. I'll be putting this data and other data into R, my comfort zone statistical & visualization tool, later this week. In R, I know how to do all the little things with format and presentation.

I wrangled these graphs up in a few minutes. I'll make some better graphs later this week, including some with more than basic information. Data source: ESPN box scores, 2013 and 2014. Graphs produced quick & dirty in LibreOffice Calc. Yikes. Double yikes.

No matter who is under center, as improbable as it would have sounded back in August, UTSA is our best chance for a win in our remaining games.

"At what point do you start trying to build for the future and forgive DaJon for his sins?" That would be two games ago.

I was looking at team defense #s for C-USA and wow, there are some French defenses in this conference. If you only read GMG, you'd think we're easily the worst defense in the entire FBS, let alone C-USA. On paper we should be competitive. This team's problem all season has been executing against FBS level competition. Is this the week they will resolve that problem? I think they'll improve, but I think it's too big of a problem to turn on a dime in a week's time. I do fervently hope they prove me wrong. Rice by 17.

It's going to come down to fire. If Mack's still got some fire in the belly to coach, then yes, he'd be dumb to pass this up. If he doesn't, he'd be dumb to accept the job. He's 63, has 2 Big 12 Championships and a BCS National Championship. I don't think he's got anything left to prove to anyone unless he's just righteously pissed about being pushed out at Texas. Mack has never seemed like the kind of guy who gets righteously pissed about anything. If I had that kind of resume, I'd spend my time deep sea fishing out of Port A, quail hunting in West Texas, and vacationing with the wife in Europe.

GMG is the only game in town when it comes to UNT football, but good god almighty this place has all the drama of high school prom every damned weekend of this season. The only thing that's missing are the ridiculous corsages.

The best thing we can do for our defense is to chew clock on offense. The defensive tackles aren't plugging the middle, so OL are consistently getting into our LBs on run blocking. The defensive ends aren't getting consistent pressure on the QB, so they have time for WRs to run free. CBs aren't fast enough to keep up with good receivers for longer than three seconds and they routinely play off their men by 10 yards, opening up lots of underneath and screen opportunities. It's whack-a-mole. If we blitz to bring pressure, we leave our CBs on islands where they're getting torched two to three times a game. If we drop our LBs back into coverage, the tackle-to-tackle running game eats us up. There are no good answers right now. We're not establishing the run when the game is still competitive. Without an established running game, we're having too many three-and-outs or turnovers that are putting the defense out on the field before they're rested. At this point in the season, there are no DTs or DEs or CBs that are going to emerge and save us. To channel the spirit of Donald Rumsfeld, we're going to be playing football with the defense we've got, not the defense we wish we had. The defense we've got needs our offense to keep them off the field as much as possible.

One thing that This cannot be emphasized enough. Yes, we are in a state with loads of high school football talent, but we're recruiting against the benches of UT, A&M, Tech, and competitive slots at UH, Rice, Texas State, UTSA, and UTEP. This isn't to say that we're in a hopeless situation, but it is no doubt a tough situation. DD had a great pipeline with HS coaches; I'd hoped that Mac would be able to establish an even better pipeline. I think we're seeing that, but it's not been as fast as many of us had hoped. This is where the bigger issues with UNT and its alumni come into play. A&M, Tech, and UT alums have a deep attachment to their schools, one that the schools cultivate from their time as students throughout their alumni years. UNT has not done that for what, decades? Unless you're a self-selector like most of us here, once you graudate you're done with UNT. You might...MIGHT...get contacted by the alumni association, but that's about it. Off the top of my head, I can name a venture capitalist, two nationally-recognized writers, and two accomplished lawyers among my alumni friends who have never been contacted by the university after their graduation. That glaring deficit has started to be addressed, but there's no overstating how much the lack of attention to cultivating alumni connection to the university has damaged our brand with our own alums, much less with the wider community. I believe that we can be like South Florida or Central Florida, but it's going to take some time. It's not going to happen with a steadily-increasing win total and one bowl game. That's the beginning. To shift perceptions with very little help from our disengaged alumni (see above), it's going to take 4-5 years of success and bowl games. It needs to be Mac or it needs to be someone who knows what they're getting into and who will give this job a five or six year commitment. Is Mac the right guy? I believe he is. I'm not convinced all of his assistants are, though.

Sat, Oct 18 vs Southern Miss --Win Sat, Oct 25 @ Rice --Loss Sat, Nov 8 vs Florida Atl -- Win Sat, Nov 15 @ UTEP -- Loss* Sat, Nov 22 vs FIU -- Loss* Sat, Nov 29 @ UTSA -- Loss* * These games will be losses if the O doesn't improve. If they respond to adversity and come together, I think some or all of these games could flip to wins. The two areas where we can make realistic improvements are both on the offensive side of the ball: reduce turnovers and reduce 3-and-outs. This will take a group effort on the part of the OC, Dajon, and the whole unit coming together as a group. A tremendous amount of this improvement hinges on Dajon. The thing that worried me the most in the UAB game was how dejected he looked and how dejected his body language looked. He wasn't the only one, though; it didn't look to me like his guys had much to say to him either in the huddle or on the sideline in his last two series. I know he had an epically bad game and I'd be even more worried if he looked happy or looked like he didn't care. Body language doesn't tell the whole story, but I'm still concerned. This young man has the weight of this team and this season on his shoulders right now all while he is looking overwhelmed out on the field. I feel for him, that's a crap position to be in, but I hope that he will rise to the occasion. The biggest thing that can be done for the defense is for the offense to keep them off the field. We don't have any magic defensive tackle beans nor magic corner beans. Maybe...MAYBE...we can at least get Lee back at one of the safety spots for the remaining games.

My hunch is twofold: first, a good defensive tackle is all about size and strength, and if you're not consistently recruiting three star or above DTs, then you're recruiting guys that have to bulk up and get stronger. That takes time, often times two or more years. Second, because impact DTs are such a scarce commodity, the contending Top 25 programs stockpile them. If half of them prove to be busts, they still have enough quality recruits to consistently have good enough or great interior defensive line play. I think Mac has a great network, but at a scarce position, a great network likely isn't a deal breaker when a 300 lb. three star DT gets a chance to play for A&M or UT or OU versus coming here. If we post some consistent winning seasons and go to and win some bowl games, especially HoD or other Texas bowls, maybe that will change. For now, though, my feeling is that the best we can hope for regarding an impact DT is an offer falling through or some other measure of fate that lands someone here.

We're not close.

Top 5 Signs Fall Has Arrived, Denton Editon: 1) Three weeks in late August/early September of wrong ways drivers on Oak and Hickory. 2) Having to time your driving in the vicinity of campus between the times when classes get out. 3) Lots of curb furniture to be had in the vicinity of campus. 4) The annual "Denton Sucks" reductionist pearl-clutching on GMG. 5) Mean Green football returns!

My impressions of the QBs are: McNulty: The least toolsy but pretty clearly the most comfortable in the system. There's not any more potential there; we're looking at what we're going to get from him. Greer: The biggest arm of the four but still not acclimated to the system. He even throws ducks with authority. Means: I was most impressed with him out of the four I saw yesterday. Played with more poise and confidence than I would have expected from a young guy. Cousins: Looked solid. Didn't pay a whole lot of attention to him because I was watching his o-line and the green defense while he was taking his snaps. While I was most impressed with Means, I thought Greer looked the best of the bunch. He's who I would want under center on August 30th, assuming he can get more comfortable in the system. Anyone else think that Akunne looks like he's added some size this Spring? Really wish we could have seen Dajon. That dude is the Jurickson Profar of Mean Green football. My prediction: We'll see McNulty under center on August 30th in Austin, Texas. Dajon could take a step forward but I don't expect it. Greer could become more comfortable in the system, but I don't expect that, either. McNulty can drive the hell out of Mac's bus, and that's what Mac wants from his QB.

Part of the fiscal problems, possibly unrelated to any of this recent turnover, arose from issues in forecasting enrollment. To my knowledge, those issues have been addressed, but there is a gap between budgets based on the forecasts before those issues were addressed and budgets based on contemporary forecasts.

There's a documentary titled "When We Were All Broncos" that's screening tonight at 7pm at the Fine Arts (the church/theater on The Square). It's about the segregated history of Denton, desegregation, and integration as told around the story of the 1972 Denton High School football team. I wanted to plug this here on GMG because the story of North Texas football's integration with Abner Haynes figures prominently into the movie. Bill Carrico, an offensive lineman on that team and later a coach at DHS and AD for DISD, also figures prominently in the film. I know many of you aren't local, but you can check out more about the film at this address: http://www.broncodocumentary.com/home . They will produce DVDs of the doc later this year. The producer, a DHS football alum, has a goal of not only paying for the film's production but also making enough money to provide the Denton Schools Foundation with a $10,000 scholarship.

There will always be a few of these types around. I know a UNT grad from the early Oughts who has never set foot on the campus of any SEC school, yet claims whichever one of them is doing best each season like he was a die-hard alum, all the while crapping on anything positive coming out of UNT football. He's not the first person with this kind of attitude I've known around here. D/FW is rife with sports front runners, and they exist even in our current student population and our alumni. Best thing to do is just ignore them. They're miserable.

Voertman's is a dead stick. It's been all downhill since Paul Voertman sold it back in the early 90s. Even for a few years after the sale, it was hands-down the best store in Denton. Best book selection, great range of art supplies, awesome and eclectic gifts. I live a couple of blocks from it and I only go in there any more when I want to make myself sad. Lots of bare shelves, still a good-but-not-great range of art supplies, some UNT swag, a minimal amount of textbooks, and not much else. I wasn't aware they were rolling their own designs for UNT gear. Might have to venture back in there and check it out.

This story makes me sad. Baker's obviously got some talent, but his brain hasn't caught up to his talent at this point in his life. Baker wanted OU to ask him to college football prom, but TCU beat them to it, but then they made plans with someone else the week before the big dance. He had Tech as a backup date, so went with them at the last minute. Before the first hour of prom was up, he got mad at Tech because they danced with other QBs. His solution to the problem is to go chasing after OU, who, along with their date Trevor Knight, is already headed to the after party. I don't think John Hughes himself could find a silver lining in this story.

I remarked to my friends halfway through the third quarter about how gassed the UNLV D line and LBs were. Dudes had their hands on their hips sucking air after every play. That's been the M.O. for this squad, though: wear opponents down with the run. Someone who deserves big props on this point is Coach Wintrich. He's done an outstanding job in working with the guys on conditioning and performance. Loved seeing Chico go after UNLV late, too. The deep post to Darnell and the double reverse to BC capped off a great game.

Having a lot of QBs to sort through is the baseball equivalent of having lots of live bullpen arms heading into Spring Training. It's a good problem.

Yeah, there's something in the fan water in West Virginia. I've heard lots of horror stories from trusted sources about going to Marshall home games and going to Mountaineer home games.

I am as unconvinced this year that Chico-as-OC is the problem with the offensive play calling as I was unconvinced of it last year. I remember watching McCarney's Iowa State teams and the offense is, minus a few tweaks, the same. One back sets, pistol, occasional I formation, and some three back sets. Philosophy-wise, there's a clear pattern to what Mac does: establish the run, mix in some play action, screens, and wheel routes. Take a shot down field every now and then, but mostly eat them up with the run. That's Mac Ball. No matter who the OC is, we'll see the same offense as long as Mac is here. Yesterday, we never established the run. The passing game didn't get going until late in the 2nd half. It's not a bad offense. It needs better execution from players and coaches.