UNT86

For some of you, it is ALL you do.

OMG, can we quit with this? Enjoy the season. Let the people that make this decision actually make this decision.

It is nice that this has become an expectation and not a goal. Now go win a conference championship. It won't be easy, but nobody expected it would be.

Got my first look at the 2022-2023 girls basketball team yesterday. Here are my thoughts. Starters: #0 Quincy - Same as before. Don't give her an open look and yesterday she made some really nice passes #1 Kendall - She has been in the weight room. Last year she looked like a high school kid. This year she has added more muscle and can still move. She is going to have a really nice year. #5 Davis - Did not look out of place as a freshman in her first college action. #20 Moore - Wow. She is going to be the best point we have had in a while. She looks like the real thing. #24 Lampkin - Seems to have slimmed down a bit. She moved well and looks like she can carry the minutes inside with Mallard getting healthy. Bench: #14 Cleary - Time for her to step up and play more minutes. She looks like she can. Her shot was off a little last night, but she has shown in the past that she can score. #22 Loudermill - got better as the game went along. She will help off the bench without a big drop-off from the starters. #35 Johnson - This one worries me a bit. She did not play well and did not seem to want to be coached. Lots of body language issues that made me wonder if she has attitude too. If that doesn't get fixed, she won't be coming off the bench for long. #12 Boles - My guess is that she continues to play more until Mallard gets back. She was fine on defense but she gets bounced around a little. I couldn't tell how much she can contribute on offense. It was a good start for the girls, but there are a lot of things to clean up on defense. This was a good one to get on film and I would think most of the mistakes are easily correctable.

Only the 4th Mean Green alumni to play for the Dolphins. The others are Abner Haynes (toward the end of his career), Patrick Cobbs, Nate Brooks, and now Jeffrey Wilson. Now I need a Dolphins throwback Jeffrey Wilson jersey under the Christmas tree.

The winner of Rice/UTEP will probably get bowl eligible. The loser probably won't. MTSU could win out and end up 8-4. UAB has a good defense. Can they score on SA? I say probably not enough and they end up without enough wins to be eligible.

My thoughts are that we go almost completely portal. We could use more talent everywhere, even RB. If we get a RB, is has to be someone that makes people miss. None of our backs do that much. Secondary has been a concern for a couple of years. We have to get another cover corner. We have to get a couple of safeties. Depth, depth, depth. We need another pass rusher, preferably interior. That being said, every other program in the country is looking for those same things. If kids can do those things, they likely are not in the portal. Still, that is the way I would go If and only If they can come in the spring. If they cannot be here for spring ball, then I would pass on them.

If we beat FIU and Rice, the game against UAB won't matter.

Most of you guys are exhausting. Enjoy the win. Root for the team.

From what I understand, the company that makes the jerseys said they could only do the numbers in apple green. I think we went with that even though back in the day we had the apple green pants too. There was a time back then that we wore white with apple green numbers as our home jersey. We could not get the tear away jersey in apple green so we went with white at home to wear them full time. After tear-aways were outlawed, we went back to green at home.

Last year they tried to get in the same defense that UAB used. We got in 2 TE and ran the ball down their throats. This year they committed 8 to the run from the beginning and were willing to live with the result. You just have to throw the ball against that and make them pay. We finally did and were inches away from winning that game. Our coaches know what to do and we have answers for this. Like Seth says, our players have to execute.

This is probably for homecoming. Don't be surprised to see us in the green flying worm helmets and white jerseys. We have not worn them this year and it would fit with homecoming. At this point, it doesn't hurt anything. I have degrees from both NTSU and UNT. I would welcome some throwback stuff.

Well, I would be one of them.

Are we still talking about this? and if yes, then why are we still talking about this? Wait for Saturday. Go to the game. Root for our team. It is really that simple.

I wouldn't try to redshirt anyone anymore. The days of developing a player and letting him grow up slowly are over. The odds are just too good that someone P5 will be shopping our roster and offering too much NIL money.

#99 Cam Robertson has been playing more and more. If we can keep him here, he will be the best of all of them. He continues to make plays. The only game our DL really got pushed around was UNLV. I was worried because if that is happening, nothing else matters. But since then, they have played well. And they are all underclassmen (if that matters anymore).

It is real. I have heard it used in conversations with high school recruits. It goes something like "You know the coach there is on the last year of his contract? The school is not happy with him and is sending a message. If you go there, you are probably going to have a coaching change in the first two years. You have to ask yourself how many coaches and systems to you want to play in? It may be a rough season there. Even if it is good, you will probably have a change after that year. Then you are looking at the transfer portal and trying to get somewhere that you have a better chance to play and win championships. I'm not telling you not to go there. I have friends on the staff there. But, we have it going here at Whatever University. You can come here and avoid all that." It will kill us recruiting out of the portal, JUCO, or high school.

Any time a coach is on the last year of his contract, it is used heavily against the school in recruiting. I cannot thing the portal would change that. Players want to think they will get to play immediately and over multiple years. It would hurt us a lot more than whatever the payout/buyout is for any coach you might want to let go early to have him on the last year of his contract. I was having deep thoughts during our game last week too watching special teams and the number of guys that only play there. IF it were my team now, I would make sure every player burns a year of eligibility. No more redshirts. If they transfer, they do it with one less year. If they are planning on transferring and keeping their year, they have to let me know before I play them in a 5th game.

It also looked like we put #25 Thomas-Faulkner in as the Mike last week and ran a version of Tampa 2 where the Mike has some deep middle responsibility. He didn't really get as deep as most do when they run that, so I may be mistaken, but it sure looked like it. That was a first for us too.

My issue isn't their success. It is that they are insufferable when they win. They have not learned how to win with class. And the fact that The Drive nearly tanked their season and we kept them from being undefeated last year only relieves the pain a little that they kept us from winning the conference the first year they came to Denton.

When our LBs stunt, it is almost always a B gap stunt. We rarely, if ever, stunt an outside LB. I don't remember the last time we brought the Eagle on an edge stunt. We don't cross our DL either. Even when we make a 4 man front with the Devil, we don't cross our DL. They just try to whip the guy in front of them. My thoughts are that the pressure by the LB is intended to occupy a guard so he cannot help on the nose or end. Mostly however, the QB sees the pressure and dumps the ball where the LB voided. Anyway, those are my observations.

This is something that I have noticed this year and especially the last couple of weeks. The timing of our wrinkles, changeups, and key breakers has been really good. Also glad that we didn't just run the reverse one time. Keep running it until they stop it.

1) We started using a nickel package vs Florida Atlantic two weeks ago. We take out a DL and move the Devil, usually #44 Richards, to DE. We move #25 Thomas-Faulkner to the Devil spot and put in another safety. This week the safety was #22 Crosby who has been out for about a month. This was our best defense for locking down La Tech and creating pass rush. 2) When we rush 3, we also have a spy on the QB. This lets our rush pick the best lane without worrying about contain. We only get in trouble when the QB is a better athlete than our LB. 3) Since #26 Texada has become a starter, we have tried several things to cover for him. SMU exposed his height. He was not out of position, but when he had to play jump ball against a taller WR, he usually lost. Against Texas Southern we tried to run some cover 2 and give him safety help over the top. Southern ran a lot of trips into the boundary which put him back 1 on 1 as the field corner. We tried to replace him against UNLV and another injury put him right back on the field. However, you can see the results of film and coaching since then. He has gotten much better. He still gets picked on, but the only TD Tech got in the second half was when he missed a tackle. 4) Our LB’s stunt poorly. Our LB stunts seem to just run into the fat guys and get wasted. Maybe it is because we don’t stunt much. Maybe we don’t stunt much because we do it poorly. It might just be an example of priority during practice time. You tend to get better at what you work on. I suspect we don’t spend a lot of practice time on it. 5) Our defense got a lot better when #25 Thomas-Faulkner went to safety. He plays the short side safety that has to run support more often. Apparently other teams watch film because a lot of time and effort seems to go into matching him up in coverage. He does a lot for us that does not show up on the stat sheet. Many times he makes the play without being the guy that makes the tackle.

How about just don't be a jerk to a kid that is playing his butt off for us?

Yes. Aune is better than Bean. Bean can run, but that is all. He cant hit a bull in the butt throwing. I would take Aune over Bean every time.