Whada We Got?

[Harry]

We gotta a helluva young QB in Vizza and another one waiting in the wings (Riley).

We have a solid RB in Micah Moseley and in my opinion an electric one in Dunbar coming on board.

We have the most talented stable of receivers I have ever seen here.

We have an offensive line that is more experienced and deeper although surely not deep enough.

We have one defensive tackle that has proven he can play fairly consistently but needs to put on size (Joe Miller). That's it folks and that aint enough.

We have two talented defensive ends that are streaky (Gilmore) and unproven at this level (Horton). Very thin and unproven behind them.

We have one proven linebacker Craig Robertson that is a stud. Penson and Davis are waiting in the wings but not the proven group of the past couple of years.

We have a ton of young talented athletes that are fighting for the 4 DB spots of which probably 3 are wide open. Should be the best battle of two a days.

We have an amazing punter and a juco kicker that looks like the real deal.

We have a brilliant offensive mind and a very respected defensive mind in the coaching spots.

We have a pretty good amount of redshirt types that showed some promise in the Spring at all positions.

Should be a damn interesting season! Thoughts?

[NT80]

DL is a major concern. OL is still a work in progress. Skill players are young, talented, and learning. Special teams seem set and I'm real impressed with the transfer kick returner. The key addition of Coach DeLoach will show this season in defensive stats. I like the "potential" of this team, but it's a year away from major number of wins. I'll say the over/under is 5-7.

Edited June 17, 2008 by NT80

[meanrob]

i think Mosely can be solid in short yardage situations but we are nowhere near settled at RB.

[greenminer]

Don't forget Cam.

Who's Riley?

[Cerebus]

Linemen Linemen Linemen Linemen.

It always comes down to those guys with their hand on the ground.

I think we have potential on both sides of the line, our success will depend one how close they coming to reaching it.

[mad dog]

Don't forget Cam.

Yeah... given his spring play, I'm surprised more people aren't talking about Cam Montgomery. He was really good in spring ball, and let's not forget how highly touted he was coming in.

[GoMeanGreen1999]

DL is a major concern. OL is still a work in progress. Skill players are young, talented, and learning. Special teams seem set and I'm real impressed with the transfer kick returner. The key addition of Coach DeLoach will show this season in defensive stats. I like the "potential" of this team, but it's a year away from major number of wins. I'll say the over/under is 5-7.

Our defense is going to be better, but as you stated, our DL is very very thin this coming year. This is the biggest concern with the defensive coaches. Obviously I want to win a lot more than 5 or 6, but with the lack of talent on the defensive side of the ball I still believe we will have those games from from the defensive side of things that will frustrate us as fans. The main difference is that we have a leader over there that we all believe in to get it turned around. It just may take longer than what we are accustomed to with DeLoach.

[TIgreen01]

The one thing nobody on the board talks about is the special teams units even though it single handedly cost us at least a couple wins last season. Just curious as to what everyone's take is there this year---as far as who'll be playing and how we'll do. I bring this up b/c I picked up a copy of Phil Steele's mag yesterday and saw what our rankings for ST were during DD's years here....we were very often very good (in the top 50 every year but one(when we had unusually high player turnover) and in top 20 at least once?---don't have the mag in front of me now). Last year, though, we slipped down to 118 out of 119 teams. I realize our kicking situation was a big part of that, but we didn't cover kicks well and also had a few punts blocked. So in the offseason we signed a kicker and a return man. Is that going to be enough....what needs to happen for us to get back to top 50 as an overall ST unit?

Edited June 17, 2008 by TIgreen01

[DallasGreen]

The one thing nobody on the board talks about is the special teams units even though it single handedly cost us at least a couple wins last season. Just curious as to what everyone's take is there this year---as far as who'll be playing and how we'll do. I bring this up b/c I picked up a copy of Phil Steele's mag yesterday and saw what our rankings for ST were during DD's years here....we were very often very good (in the top 50 every year but one(when we had unusually high player turnover) and in top 20 at least once?---don't have the mag in front of me now). Last year, though, we slipped down to 118 out of 119 teams. I realize our kicking situation was a big part of that, but we didn't cover kicks well and also had a few punts blocked. So in the offseason we signed a kicker and a return man. Is that going to be enough....what needs to happen for us to get back to top 50 as an overall ST unit?

Not having Evan Roman back to attempt to field punts should improve that phase immensely. Still a 2 or 3 win team and the rebuild continues, on, and on, and on, and on. Anyone else want to WIN NOW!!! It never took Hayden Fry, Corky Nelson, or even Matt Simon this long!!!!!!!!!!!

[MeanGreen61]

Not having Evan Roman back to attempt to field punts should improve that phase immensely. Still a 2 or 3 win team and the rebuild continues, on, and on, and on, and on. Anyone else want to WIN NOW!!! It never took Hayden Fry, Corky Nelson, or even Matt Simon this long!!!!!!!!!!!

Time for a group cry ? Do we just surrender before the season even begins ?

[medpilot21]

Good one Harry... positive posts this time of year work for me. I have us 6-6, but the defense is greatly improved.

Impact players:

Offense - Giovanni Vizza/ Casey Fitgerald/ Sam Roberson

Defense - Eddie Gilmore/ Craig Robertson/ Kylie Hill

Special team - Truman Spencer (likely a pro prospect punter)

I still have questions about the DL, but we will know soon enough.

GMG!!!

[UNTLifer]

Not having Evan Roman back to attempt to field punts should improve that phase immensely. Still a 2 or 3 win team and the rebuild continues, on, and on, and on, and on. Anyone else want to WIN NOW!!! It never took Hayden Fry, Corky Nelson, or even Matt Simon this long!!!!!!!!!!!

We all want to win now, but most of us understand that Dickey left the cupboard almost bare and that Dodge is/has instituted an offensive system that was the polar opposite of Dickey's. Thus, we also understand that the recruits DD signed didn't necessarily fit the system TD runs and the change may take a season or two.

[Green Crazy]

Not having Evan Roman back to attempt to field punts should improve that phase immensely. Still a 2 or 3 win team and the rebuild continues, on, and on, and on, and on. Anyone else want to WIN NOW!!! It never took Hayden Fry, Corky Nelson, or even Matt Simon this long!!!!!!!!!!!

No Roman will help, but I don't remember our punt returns team doing that great of a job either.

[greenjoe]

Did Evan Roman transfer to another school ?

[Mean Green 93-98]

Did Evan Roman transfer to another school ?

He left UNT--I assume he transferred.

[chrisfisher]

I'm telling you that we go AT LEAST 6-6. If we had any semblance of a defense last season we could have easily had that record. And that was with a run based offense that Dodge acquired - not to mentioned a true freshman QB. This season Dodge will have recruits specifically brought in for his spread offense, an excellent D.C. in Deloach, a sophomore QB (or a freshman QB that know the system inside and out). I think we will be pleasantly surprised with our play and record this season.

[MCMLXXX]

If only we had kept Eric Russell.

[GoMeanGreen1999]

If only we had kept Eric Russell.

He was very close to coming back for this season, but he wasn't ready.

[MeanGreen61]

Well this year we've got Gary DeLoach. You can bet your bippy if he'd been here last year we wouldn't be moaning & groaning about a 2-12 season.

As bad as the defense was last year, we lost 5 game by 2 TDs or less

Arkansas State 4 points

Navy 8 points

UL Lafayette 9 points

Florida Atlantic 10 points

smu 14 points

DeLoach is a savy DC and will fit the defense to the player talent that he has available.

[Charlie NT 73]

If I remember correctly, North Texas had the lead one or more times in

every one of these games.

Up 20-10 on FAU going into the 4th, then, boom, 2 blocked punts result in 2 TD's

Aky State scores with 2 seconds left in the game.

Navy- you know that story-could not stop the run or the deep pass, score 62

and lose!

$MU- last minute int return for a TD, 600yds + offense!!

LLU-their QB has long TD run

Sounds bad, but, all of these games just slipped out of our grasp. One or

two plays here and there, and all of these games are wins, and a good

opening season of Dodge Ball. The offense clicked, moved the ball,

(more 1st downs than I have ever seen), suprises like Vizza, Fitz, Mosley,

and Craig Roberson to name a few of many players that IMHO played

very well under the circumstances- true freshmen, new offense/defense,

only a few practices to hone their skills, position changes, to name just

a few obstacles to overcome. Even though I was disappointed, I saw real

hope and promise, especially with the offense, then the 2 recruiting classes,

and Gary DeLoach is back! I am really looking forward to the 2008

season!

[drex]

Evan Roman transferred to North Central Texas College...they don't have football.

[Danish42]

Evan Roman transferred to North Central Texas College...they don't have football.

That is in Killeen,Tx.

[EagleMBA]

Working on an AHT degree?

(Abundant Hair Technology)

Probably was a good athlete; seems like he never recovered from being thrown to the wolves against Malcolm Kelley in Norman. Made some very scary decisions on returns and showed what appeared to be indecisiveness when fielding (not fielding) the ball. We'll never know how he might have developed under our new DC. To his credit, he had lots of heart.

Best of luck to him in the biggest game of all...LIFE.

Edited June 18, 2008 by EagleMBA

[H-towngreen]

Special teams will be a key. Hopefully Knott can kick a fg longer than 30 yds. That killed us last year. If we had a 4th and 4 on the opponents 20 yd line we had to go for it, because of our poor kicking. This happened time and time again.

[GrandGreen]

I am definitely a homer, but trying to somehow elevate last season's performance because of a few close games is more than a stretch. First, the two victories could have been more easily defeats than any of the games that NT lost that could have been wins. NT had a nail biter in beating out essentially a 1-AA team, WKU. The 10 point victory over ULM was primarily due to two interceptions returned for td's.

The only really close lost NT had was by four points to ASU. While not on the order of 69 and 59 loses to OU and Arkansas respectively, loses to MTSU by 20 and Troy by 38 were hardly stellar performances. Add to that the fact that NT was the only team to lose to both SMU (by 14) and FIU (by 19) should definitely quite any "so close to winning" talk.