MIZ-417

The game this year is a separate contract from the series that is starting in 2030. However, after some additional research, I believe there are only two matchups after tomorrow: 2030 in Denton and 2031 in Columbia. The initial Mizzou release in the spring of 2020 shows that as does the UNT announcement. North Texas is listed on the Mizzou website under future schedules as an opponent in 2032 but it looks to me like they made a mistake and it should actually be Northern Illinois. We did a 2 for 1 with NIU and are supposed to play them at home that year per the release but the schedule doesn't show that and instead has UNT. I think that is a mistake. Looks like a home and home in 2030/2031 and this one in 2021 is a guarantee game with no return game.

Mizzou is scheduled to travel to Denton in 2030. In 2031 and 2032, North Texas will again travel to CoMo.

Yep. He's an entertaining guy and a big departure from the generally dull Barry Odom and Gary Pinkel. I believe Eli talks to Gus like 3 times a week, which seems like a ton. Maybe that is during the offseason but he said it at a press conference right on the eve of the start of the season. He went 5-5 against an SEC only schedule last year and people were getting scared that Auburn or perhaps even an NFL team would come calling in the near future. People were honestly suggesting that we should tear up his 6 year, $24 million contract and offer him something better. After the last couple of weeks, people have not talked like that. I still think he is a great coach who we will be lucky to keep for an extended period. We'll see.

I think the actual allotment is the bottom few rows in like 103 and 104 but if the visitors bring a lot of people then it would extend to 101 and go up higher. If you buy tickets in 101, and go down to your seat, i would anticipate with the crowd (or lack thereof unfortunately) that you will be able to move over a few sections into the allotment area without much trouble.

I am almost positive that this game was scheduled separately from the 2 for 1 series that starts in 2030. In the Covid era it all kind of runs together in my mind but I think we signed that deal in the spring of 2020 after this game was already scheduled. I could be wrong. It's hard to say how Mizzou will respond. Our defense is absolutely our big weakness right now and our best cover corner, Ennis Rakestraw, who played HS ball at Duncanville, tore his ACL yesterday in practice so now we have to replace him. I know UNT has had a ton of injuries this year too but it's another obstacle for the Tigers to try and overcome.

I don't think it is necessarily a bad comparison, it's just humbling from a Mizzou perspective that we have looked a lot worse as a team in the span of just a couple weeks. I get it. I don't feel all that qualified to comment on the struggles of UNT the last few years under Littrell. Obviously you all have a lot more knowledge on that than I do. From where I sit, Apogee Stadium looks pretty nice and I think you all have the location/facilities/fan base to expect better results. After this week, I will be rooting for UNT to beat Marshall, win a lot of games in CUSA, and wishing you all well in the world of conference realignment.

I don't think he is saying that. I think you could take out North Texas and insert any opponent in that space and it makes sense regardless if we are facing Denton Ryan or the Dallas Cowboys this week. Here's the transcription of his answer to that particular question in full: “Yeah, they’ve got an aggressive, multiple front defense. Phil Bennett has been a defensive coordinator and a head coach, and he does a really good job of mixing in pressure with zone, and he's got both odd and even fronts, drop eight, zeroes. So it's always a difficult challenge to have an answer for all of it. Offensively, they run a similar style to Tennessee. Not as much tempo, but after what happened last week, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't pick it up. RPOs, run pass options. And so it's a challenge. Every week is a challenge, but for us the biggest challenges is not going to be North Texas, it's going to be us, and making sure that we have the right frame of mind and play at a high level.” And here is another response to a question where he was asked about being a 20 point favorite in the game: “I don’t ever worry about the spread. I'll worry about what I see on tape, and it's gonna be a difficult matchup. So it's gonna be exactly what our weaknesses are versus their strengths. That’s what good coaches do. So we’ll find out early.” I suppose he could have more eloquently made his point but I think you are really parsing things to interpret them as being disrespectful of UNT. Maybe they are overconfident and not taking this week seriously (they aren't for the record) but I don't think anything Eli said today would be indicative of that attitude. Just my opinion though.

We're just happy it isn't another 11 AM game. Honestly if it wasn't our Homecoming game (we take it serious in CoMo because we invented the thing) it probably would be another 11 AM kickoff. Our atmosphere probably won't be too great, but again with it being Homecoming we will probably have a larger turnout than the Tennessee game weirdly enough. The Homecoming parade is generally pretty long so there will be a pretty large crowd in downtown CoMo that morning. I don't know if that is something you would like to experience or avoid but for a 2-3 team and a crowd of ~50,000 at the game, it is something to factor in with your pregame plans.

Mizzou fan here. Not really sure what to expect on Saturday. We've had a pretty frustrating season thus far: two losses by a TD to Kentucky and Boston College and then we were trounced (as you all noted) by a Tennessee team when we were a 2.5 point favorite. I obviously remember the game in 2018 I believe when you all took it to Arkansas and the punt return. Fun stuff. I have seen some references (here and on social media) to that game and honestly that really stings as a comparison. We beat that Arkansas team 38-0 and it is humbling to think our 2021 squad is being compared to 2-10 2018 Arkansas. Remains to be seen if that is a valid comp. I have to admit that I do not know at ton about the 2021 North Texas team. Or really the program in general unfortunately. That 2018 UNT team seemed pretty good. Dominated Arkansas, beat SMU. I don't know a ton about the apparent fall off since then. From afar, I really liked the Seth Littrell hire. We had a coaching change at the end of 2015 and a lot of folks were hoping that Barry Odom would bring him in as our offensive coordinator. Also I am a huge fan of Wren Baker. Definitely wouldn't have minded it if he would have been named our AD. I am cool with the hire we made though. Switching back to Saturday, we fired our DL coach on Sunday and just had the first press conference since then with our HC Eli Drinkwitz. He sounded like a 2-3 coach with a team that more was expected from. No depth chart this week because those spots need to be earned at practice today and tomorrow. That kind of thing. The media was looking back at the Tennessee game more than asking a ton of questions about North Texas but Eli mentioned some similarities between Tennessee and the Mean Green on offense. We struggled mightily with the Vols tempo on Saturday and he mentioned that you all hadn't played at a really fast pace this year but after our film from Saturday that we are preparing for North Texas to attack us similarly. Anyhow, I was thinking we were playing down in Denton soon but I got this game confused with the series we are playing in like 2029 or something. I believe we travel down there in 2030 so if I am alive and functioning well and stuff I certainly would anticipate being down there for that. See you all then.