[Bowl Eligible]

This is great! Next Saturday is going to take FOREVER to get here

[What a great win!]

This is great! Longtime UNT fans who've suffered all these years, you deserve this

[Win Tomorrow and Loss By Tulane Saturday = Tied for 1st]

FAU can beat Tulane. FAU plays good at home (they got a new stadium when Apogee opened too) and they've played everyone tough this year. They've only had two home games this year but they lost to MUTS by a touchdown and in their last home game they lost to Marshall by just one point.

They've also played Rice to a 4 point game, hung in it with ECU, and beaten USF and UAB both by double digits. All on the road.

FAU's defense will keep them in it, they just need their offense to capitalize and score enough points. Much like Tulsa wasn't able to do last week.

Of course, let's take care of our business first.

[Rice's Secret Weapon]

This just in.... There is no secrets to UNTs offense that Rice doesn't know from watching film.

If UNT executes and wins the battle up front there will be nothing Rice can do to stop us.

This. Jimmies and Joes, not so much the X's and the O's. And we've got the Jimmies and the Joes.

Speaking of Jimmies, we need to keep from turning the ball over and that means Jimmerson being able to have big plays while holding onto the ball and DT being able to throw consistently downfield without being intercepted. 2 turnovers or less and I think we roll at home. Anything more and it starts becoming a dangerous proposition.

[Latest Bowl Projection- North Texas vs. Maryland]

How soon do they announce officialy which bowl you will be in for sure?

The day after all of the conference championship games (so that Sunday) all of the bowl matchup a will be announced. Some teams publicly accept their bowl invites before that day so we might know before. We'll at least know by then

[UTEP QB Jameill Showers might not play again this season]

Sucks for them, he was their best weapon.

We should really roll in this game.

Exactly. You feel for those guys, except when they have to play us.

[Southlake Coach Hal Wasson letting UNT use their indoor facility]

If we ever get an indoor practice facility we better make sure we have all the funds necessary to have a nice one built.

Or else we might end up getting a joke of an indoor practice facility field like this one. Is this better than not having an indoor facility at all?

http://www.chantrant.com/2011/07/maybe-its-better-not-to-have-an-indoor-practice-facility-than-to-have-the-one-uga-recently-dedicated.html

[...and we won't be throwing anymore]

I'll remind you of this thread if we repeat this second quarter performance against Rice, because there won't be a win to show for it!

Hate to say it, but I think you're right. We can't afford these picks, especially not a pick 6. Good thing we have rice at home.

[Past opponents]

Another great performance by our guys! We're kicking ourselves that we could be 7-1 or at least 6-2 right now, but we've played great nonetheless and still have a great shot at a bowl.

Speaking of kicking themselves, Ball St improved to 8-1 and would be 9-0 with a legitimate shot at a BCS bowl had it not been for our amazing second half where we dominated them in every phase. Ohio is also bowl eligible at 6-2 now.

[Berglund time?]

It would be a good time to see what Berglund could do, but we'll see mcnulty

[MGB: UNT-Southern Miss running blog]

This is what a bowl team/conference title contending team does to a bottom 10 team.

This may be the easiest game we get against USM as long as we're conference mates.

[Tulsa @ Tulane]

I need to go back and find where I found the tiebreakers...its head to head, then record against the division, etc...eventually it works down to whoever had the best win against a team in the other division regardless of whether or not it was a common opponent...I believe BCS standings is after that...I hope I'm wrong.

Oh okay. Thanks. See what you meant by the win over ECU, Matt

[Tulsa @ Tulane]

Tulane wins that tiebreaker because of their win over East Carolina...unless MTSU manages to pass them in the east standings, Tulane would be the champion of the west division.

What is the first tiebreaker?

[Tulsa @ Tulane]

Tulsa has no offense either. Another team we can hold to two touchdowns or less. At least 20 or less.

We might be needing a Rice win vs Tulane and a win by us against rice to set up a 3-way tie

[MGB: Q&A with Jason Munz from the Hattiesburg American]

I don't think he was slighting us as much as he was sounding like a major homer.

[Tomorrow is such a huge game]

So with a 4-8 record (3-5 in Suckbelt Conf) in 2012, you think we "deserve to demand" a bowl appearance, having moved up to a more difficult conference, a year later? Save me some of what you're drinking because it's gotta be illegal.

No. Because I've seen us play 7 games already THIS year. I've also watched a lot of CUSA games this year, including at least parts of a game from every team left on our schedule.

Our defense may very well be the best in CUSA and it will keep us in every road game for the rest of the year. Couple that with Apogee and we should expect 3 more wins from this team at the least.

This is a 7 win team. Not because of preseason expectations, but because this is a team that has shown through 7 games that they are capable of being different than teams of UNT past and can make a bowl game.

If we can avoid pick sixes and giving up special teams (big if) than I don't see how we lose to Southern miss, UTSA, or UTEP.

[Tomorrow is such a huge game]

I think everyone is thinking a little too highly of our team this year. I'll be the first to say that I'm enjoying our season, but I wouldn't be a bit surprised if we lose to SoMiss. My suggestion is to lower the expectations a bit and just be happy happy happy if we continue to win this season. Lets not start licking our chops about bowl talk just yet.

No offense to you personally, but HELL NO!

Don't lower your expectations. As a fairly new UNT fan who has suffered through losing seasons, you guys deserve to demand a winning season from a team that is more than capable of achieving one.

If we lose to Southern Miss and/or don't make a bowl this year we should be upset. This team has shown that not achieving either of those two would be a vast disappointment for everyone involved. Coaches, players, fans, everyone.

[Tomorrow is such a huge game]

Everyone thinks their team has a chance, which is how it should be.

http://www.rowdytalk.com/showthread.php/3839-How-We-Win-The-West

I was making a dumb and dumber reference. Don't think I gave a verbatim quote though.

[Tomorrow is such a huge game]

Not a chance to play for first in the West, Tulane would be first in the West if we beat Rice assuming that both teams win this weekend. If we are to win the West, we need to keep winning and Tulane to lose a couple of games. If Tulsa beats Tulane this weekend, then we would be playing for a tie for the best record in the West.

So you're saying, there's a chance?

[Christian Beard Midway (Waco) OL]

Received his 7th offer from Nevada today.

[North Texas (4-3) at Southern Miss (0-6)]

For some strange reason, this game doesn't worry me. It should, as every game should, but it just doesn't.

I just don't think their offense will be able to do one thing against our defense. Unless we give up 2 or 3 turnovers/blocked kicks that are returned for TDs, I just don't think USM can score enough points to win.

I really think we win going away.

Last week's game was my worry game. Plus, I said I would be happy with a split on the road, so there is that.

I hate to say it for jinxing purposes (yes I semi-believe in that stuff when it comes to sports) but I agree with you.

I just have too much confidence in our defense. As long as we aren't throwing pick sixes or giving up TDs on special teams we will be fine. That freshman qb has potential, but he has thrown a couple picks in his short time and I believe we will force multiple.

That being said we can't, and the players won't, look past USM.

[Desmon White]

I'm not sold on the Connor Means pick up. This season he is 65 for 123, 52%, 928 yds, 8 TD and 7 INTs. Not a stellar season to this point.

I don't think the coaches are either. They've brought in some qbs on visits. NT03 posted who those guys were in the thread about visitors for the MUTS game

[MGB: Desmon White talks about commitment to UNT]

With the talent that is located here in Texas I just don't think it's worth it to venture that far out of state. We tried to recruit Louisiana for a couple years, we ended up with way more defeats than victories. In the end it wasn't worth the time, effort, budget to go there. Let's focus on DFW, Houston, and East Texas first.

I agree, but I'm not talking about putting all our resources there. Just recruiting a few guys a class like Cathey, who I really think could be a good Brelan replacement like we thought White might be.

[MGB: Desmon White talks about commitment to UNT]

Here's a plan B. Nikia Cathey, a kid out of Memphis.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/footballrecruiting/football/recruiting/player-Nikia-Cathey-139705

I really wish Mac would go after him. I really think we could out recruit Austin Peay (FCS), MUTS, South Alabama, and Northern Illinois for him.

I've said it a couple times before, but I wish we would push Memphis more. It's closer than many realize and there are some good players who either don't quite get offered by SEC schools or do but get the offered pulled after the school fills up on recruits. Cathey was a former Miss St commit, not exactly sure what happened there.

For reference, the schools Cathey is considering are 209 miles (Austin Peay), 245 (MUTS), 387 (USA), and 564 (NIU). Denton is only 489 but is also the fastest drive. I've made the drive in 7 hours by going about 5 over the whole ride. We also play a lot of schools that are pretty close to Memphis, so his family and friends could watch him play plenty.

Whether you think recruiting Memphis is a good idea or not, do yourself a favor and watch Cathey's highlights.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e1CR14OlhpE&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3De1CR14OlhpE

[Southern Miss to start true freshman at QB vs North Texas]

most of those yards (after the first drive) UNT was fine giving up... they were in third and long situations, so NT covered the receivers, but gave him 8 yards or so of running room, which would leave him 2 or 3 yards short of the first down... they weren't giving him free reign to run where he wanted to...

UNT was playing smart D that night, they knew Grammar wasn't going to beat them with his legs

I thought I remembered more than a few first downs and I thought the touchdown came on a scramble. It didn't matter and it wasn't catastrophic, but we can do better than that. Our defense is stout.