Snowy

Littrell deserves credit for how the team performed in the back half of the season. We were 1-6 without much more hope then to beat FIU and Southern Miss to end the season 3-9. Some were even predicting double digit losses. Credit him for not letting the team quit, and getting better every week. Both on offense and defense the team has executed better and better over this winning streak and has played with more discipline. I do hope that Littrell is back for the sake of continuity on defense especially. That and quite frankly I think he deserves it. Most on this board predicted 4-8 or 5-7. The early losses were very painful, but it seems as though we’ve been able to learn from the losses as the season has progressed, and that is a sign of good coaching.

Alec Morris was decent. I would say Dan McCarneys staff was equally as bad though.

Why are our guys always injured? This reflects poorly on the strength and conditioning program/coach.

Well he did mention the offense was the worst he’s seen since he’s been here. Otherwise it was typical post game loss interview.

It was definitely on the radio. 95.3 FM in DFW

I’m sure there is a stated mask policy, but it is certainly not enforced.

If the cherry picking between conferences starts for backfill, I don’t see it ending well for us. (Yeah, we might be in a better position that MTSU or FIU, but it’s not a good enough position.) Likewise, if the Sun Belt and AAC crest some sort of scheduling alliance, that’s just as bad for us. The only way out of this that I see is an 3 way agreement between the conferences either to create regionalization, or agreements for end-of-season dynamic scheduling between the conferences.

Apogee is a better stadium but Ford is decent for what it is. There are far worse college stadiums. I appreciate that Ford has seatbacks for all.

Maybe Sun Belt, definitely not CUSA

Yes

Some impressions from the game (also re-watched the ESPN 3 broadcast): Defense is definitely improved, in every aspect. Tackling, speed, pressure, etc. Yes, we gave up a lot of yards, but ultimately, only gave up 14 points... It's been a LONG time since we've given up that few points to any level of competition. As someone else mentioned, "bend don't break". (As apposed to the "shatter don't break" from several former defensive coordinators.) Additionally, the defense seemed to look very comfortable... Not a lot of confusion, no defensive time outs because they didn't have the right personnel, and overall played very disciplined. Our run game remains TBD in my opinion. After our pre-season injury, Torrey stepped up and had a great game, however, the trenches is one area that really separates FCS from FBS. If he has a decent game against SMU, we will be fine, and I think he'll have a career year. This is stating the obvious, but the receivers have to come down with the ball. One or two drops total per game is to be expected, but this was one or two drops per receiver. As far as QB play, Ruder looks to me, like an improved Derek Thompson. I say that for a few reasons... 1) Ruder seemed to "lock on" to his targets... I didn't seem much in the way of looking his receivers open, pump fakes, etc. Perhaps it was the DB coverage, but he seemed to throw to his guy. Additionally, some of the throws were a bit soft. I assume its timing issues that will be worked out, but Derek Thompson never really did a great job of hitting anyone in stride, and I saw the same thing from Ruder. Now note, this isn't a huge criticism, as Derek Thompson was a pretty serviceable CUSA quarterback. But, truth be told, I was expecting a little more. I thought Aune's passes looked better, but he was also hurt by the dropped passes, and we only saw limited action late in the game. For next week, we are really going to have to execute well. We won't be able to get away with any missed tackles, blown coverage, etc. That's not to say there won't be big plays, I'm sure there will be, but we can't allow for big plays and touchdowns. We'll need to find ways to limit the damage. On offense, we will need to methodically control the clock and rely on the play action pass for big gains. I liked what I saw in the 2nd half a lot more than what I saw in the 1st half against Northwestern State. If we can improve our play, I don't see us getting blown out.

I thought Ruder looked okay, and so did the group of friends sitting with me. Thought there were some timing issues between receivers, and, maybe it was just the DB protection, but he definitely seemed to "lock in" on his targets like Darek Thompson did so many years ago.... Aune on the other hand, I thought looked more comfortable throwing to his receivers, but he was also hamstrung by receivers with brick hands. I wish we had seen more than one series with Aune, but it is what it is. I can definitely see why the QB competition lasted until the final week... Both QBs seem good. I thought Aune looked a bit better, but I'm not willing to say he IS the better QB, since we only saw limited action, late in the game. I trust our coaches to put the best guy out there.

I'd like to add, in addition to the "Mean Greeeeeen FIRST DOWN" that should be brought back.... The band should ONLY and ALWAYS play "North Texas Fight" on 3rd Downs. Under the previous band director, this was always played on 3rd downs and everyone knew exactly what to do... Now, sometimes it's played on 3rd downs, and sometimes on 2nd, and sometimes just whenever. Additionally, it was great knowing that whenever you are in the stadium, if you heard "North Texas Fight", you KNEW it was a 3rd down.

Roughly 16k is my guess

I definitely agree w/ the flex scheduling option. Create a larger conference, maybe have your first 6 or 8 games be hard-scheduled, then go with a soft-schedule that allows the top teams to play each other and improve their strength of schedule. Unfortunately, I haven't heard of this actually being considered in our conference or any G5 conference for that matter.... It would be great to create an alliance between the remaining G5 conferences to have this flex/soft scheduling.