[QB sacks Fine vs Sturm]

How big will sacks be in the UTSA game?

Fine is the second most sacked QB in the FBS with 25.

Sturm is the fifth most sacked with 23.

Sturm can be had.

If Fine can stay vertical (2 sacks at Army) things should work out Saturday.

[Point comparison 2015 to 2016]

How much improved is this team?

                                                                            2016                       2015              improvement

After 7 games                    Points scored             190                         115                    75 points

                                          Points given up           190                        331                   141 points

                                                                        Total point differential improvement of 216 points. 

Littrell pulled one very large rabbit out of his hat.  Very impressive.

[Best in Texas]

8 hours ago, Ben Gooding said:

First of all, Texas would beat the piss out of smug. No way for them to be ahead of UT and I also wish nothing but bad things for UT. Also, we handily win while playing on the other side of the country and we don't budge? Not just that, but the idiots involved in this poll have us grouped together with teams that were dominated by the team we just handily beat on the road. The putz' running this poll want 8-12 to stay at any variation of 8-12 as long as they don't break into the top 7 and God forbid into the top 5. 

Totally agree.

The putz' running the poll is probably the same putz' that gave 3-4 smu 1 vote in the AP top 25 poll.  Unbelievable.

[5 to go]

Western Kentucky is the least important game left.

If UNT beats UTEP, UTSA, LT, and S Miss, it would mean a division championship and a title game plus a bowl game.

Crazy talk at the first of the season, but not totally out of the realm of possibility now.  

 

[Best win in years]

2-1 on the road is a big deal.

Question:  When was the last time UNT won 2 road games back to back?

Answer:  Who cares about past failures.  It's now the Seth Littrell era!!!

 

[SMU is beating Houston. What a day!?!]

Tennessee State is up on Vanderbilt 17-14.

When Erick Evans was here he rushed 24 times for 204 yards as a freshman. He's having a nice Jr year for Tennessee State,

So far tonight he's had runs of 18, 23, and 21.

 

[SMU is beating Houston. What a day!?!]

Tennessee State is up 14-7 playing Vanderbilt on ESPNU now.  

Former UNT running back Eick Evans just had a nice 18 yard run for TS.

 

 

t

[Complaints About Alabama's Home Schedule]

5 hours ago, Rudy said:

They're bitching about having 7 home games?

They aren't upset about having 7 home games.

They have 8 home games and they're still complaining bitching.

 

[Why this Army Game is so important]

It's a big game no doubt and a win could set up the rest of the season.

However, UNT has their CUSA destiny in their own hands by virtue of a 4 way tie for the division lead.

Even with a loss to WK, winning against UTSA, LT, S Miss, and UTEP would mean a division championship and a title game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[MGB: What does the addition of Devlin Isadore tell us?]

Without Isadore, Shanbourn (sr), O'hara (sr), and Cason (soph) would back up Fine with with another freshman arriving in the fall.

It takes all the pressure off the incoming freshman and gives Littrell 2 viable QBs for the next 3 years.

So what does it tell us?  

It tells us that Littrell wants to be able to sleep soundly at night rather than pace the floor.

[One year ago today...]

It's a game Brett Vito will bring up in every article he ever writes about UNT football, like fingernails on a chalkboard.

If he became a beat writer for smu, he would still bring up their 1987 death penalty in every article.

[Do we hit 6?]

2 hours ago, Ben Gooding said:

I know this may sound crazy, but if we can recruit some dudes out of JUCO to fill in on LB and a quality OL this team can be special next year. Special as in we probably will not have to play MTSU, WKU, AND Marshall. We will probably get 1 (if not both) F_U's and a Charlotte or ODU. With that, we may be a 10-win team next year. With Iowa kind of backsliding I can't say for sure that is not a winnable game. So, technically we have 4 OOC "winnable" games. We will have 3 opposite division winnable games. And Rice, UTEP, nutsack all 3 have to fall in the 'winnable' category as well. I believe Nick Mullens is a senior so unless they have someone waiting in the wings then that game too has to be looked at as 'winnable' as well. Higgins at La Tech is also a senior and this time I don't think they have anyone waiting in the wings. In other words, the entire schedule is winnable and a lot of the premiere teams in our conference are starting to lose their star players so they will be reeling a little bit while we grow stronger. A 10 win season next year is not out of the realm of possibility by any means. Future looks pretty bright right now. 

I hope your right.

In the meantime, give your horse frequent breaks and plenty of green Kool-Aid, as it's hard to push a cart.

 

[Who Thought We Would Be 3-3]

UNT is also tied at the top of CUSA West with S Miss and LT.

Half way though the season and still in control of our own future!!!

Who would have thunk it.

[Do we hit 6?]

We could definitely finish the season with 3 to 9 wins.  Make that 3 to 11 wins (conference championship + bowl)

Seriously, it's just fun being able to talk about 6 wins at this point in the season with a new coach and a freshman QB.

At any rate, already 2 more wins than last year.  More gravy please.

[Excuses]

On 10/6/2016 at 3:19 PM, Caw Caw said:

I just wanted to mention that this staff has made very few excuses. There is no "well we're undersized", "the cupboard was pretty bare when we got here", etc. Usually the focus is on what they failed at as a team, what could be improved upon, execution of the plan etc. I wanted to say it's a nice change. Maybe i'm missing it but that's how I have felt so far.

Littrell seems to live in and concentrate on the present.

Mac lived in and dwelled on the past.

That's a huge difference.  

Littrell is showing that he can think outside the box.  Mac couldn't or wouldn't as it was just not in his DNA.

[Guess who leads CUSA in sacks]

To put things into perspective, the NCAA team record for having a QB sacked the most times in a 12 game season is Rutgers with 61 (5.08 per game) in 2010.

UNT with 5.2 sacks per game is on pace to end up with 62 sacks.

Mason Fine is for sure a tough kid, but please get him some protection.

[Guess who leads CUSA in sacks]

Mason Fine has been sacked 17 times which leads CUSA by 2.  Thats's also 2nd in the FBS.  Ouch!

The fact that he has thrown only 1 interception says something about keeping his head in the game.

Blocking please.

[GAME DAY CROWD]

I  noticed that the Locus Grove Pirates were well represented.  Even with OU hats on it was still pretty cool to see them show up.

[Bold 2016 Sleepers]

On 3/23/2016 at 2:47 PM, casual fan said:

Mason Fine will become the starter during the season and put up some good numbers.

I posted that back in March.  Those that gave that prediction a -1 might want to reconsider.

[No hating on Fine]

A true freshman passing for 303 yards with the pocket constantly collapsing and no running game is pretty impressive.

At a certain point it became like a Forest Gump moment...........RUN MASON!!!

[MGB: UNT threw it a historic amount in loss to MTSU]

Vito failed to mention that under Dodge, Daniel Meager threw it 64 times vs smu and 61 times against FAU,  Also, Giovanni Vizza threw it 61 times vs ULM, 57 times vs LL, and 54 times vs FIU.  Going back a ways, Rusty Hill, Phil Shotland, Joe Milton, and Mitch Maher all had games with more attempts.  Vidal Carlin threw 54 times twice.

Vito was trying to make it sound more historic than it really was.  

[Albino Squirrel]

Albino squirrel taste a lot like albino chicken.

[GAME DAY CROWD]

It looked pretty sparse over there on the student side.  

If the student side had been close to full, it would have been a pretty large crowd.

[No hating on Fine]

Question:  How do you put unrelenting pressure on the shoulders a freshman QB???

Answer:  Rush for 5 total yards on 22 carries for an average of 0.2 yards per carry.

Mason was Fine the running game wasn't.

[What if we beat Portland?]

If we do what ifs.....what if back in the 70s we had been accepted into the SWC.

We went 7-4, 7-4, 10-1 (ranked 16th), and 9-2 with Haden Fry.  Apparently one team blocked us from acceptance.

With UT, A&M, TCU. Baylor, Arkansas, etc coming here each year, attendance would have been really good, recruiting would have been much easier, Fry would have had bowls to go to, and the SWC might have lasted years longer.

Instead, UNT spirals downward and out of Division 1, smu gets their football program shut down, Arkansas leaves, and the SWC breaks up.