2018 MGN Season Preview

By Adam Martinez

The 2018 North Texas Football preview is written for the fan who likes to sit down and think about life beyond embracing debate and top-five lists. The internet has opened the doors to new ideas and perspectives but with little or no filter.

North Texas fans spend their money and their time on their favorite team and those resources are just as valuable as fans of bigger schools. It is time we had a preview worthy of ourselves.

This is an attempt at ameliorating the situation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Adam Martinez
• Release date: Aug 11, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463129029

Adam Martinez

Adam Martinez is the founder and publisher of MeanGreenNation.com, a labor of love that follows the UNT football and basketball program (mostly). He has been on the internet for as long as he can remember and this is probably a bad thing.

Book preview

OVERVIEW

Just two years ago a version of this preview¹ said that North Texas was in a precarious place. Last year, we said this program had shown progress but had yet to deliver on the offensive that Seth Littrell and Graham Harrell’s named promised.

Now? Well the 2017 team was record breaking in a handful of categories. Even by the standard of little old North Texas — never a school with a reputation for ridiculous offense — the previous season was impressive. If Florida Atlantic were not the run-away (Lane) train that so thoroughly dominated the league, North Texas likely wins the CUSA championship.

Sure, the team enjoyed a little more than their fair share of fortune on the way to going perfect at home, but no other Conference USA West team came close to the offensive output that North Texas managed. Of course, the reality was that Florida Atlantic were a runaway train and Kiffin and his Owls took apart this Mean Green team twice in Boca Raton.

It is important to remember that a small amount of luck in either direction means we feel a lot differently about this team. That should inform our expectations a bit, and remind us that results do not always tell the true story.

In some alternate timeline this preview is discussing the importance of managing expectations, pointing out how close North Texas was to losing to Southern Miss, UTSA, ODU, La Tech, and Army. The team was quite literally the bounce of a ball away from dropping four of those above. The Southern Miss game required an incredible comeback.

The team was that close to telling itself the same tale that Louisiana Tech’s head coach Skip Holtz is telling: We were so close to being a contender.

It is possible that reminding you of all this is unnecessary as the two beat-downs to end the year — to FAU in the CUSA Championship game and to Troy in the New Orleans Bowl — no doubt have sobered any fan drunk on the win-loss record after the end of November of 2017. Florida Atlantic’s serving NT a double dose of humble pie is the perfect kind of motivator for the offseason.

There is much work to do for this program to reach the oft-discussed next level. What does that look like? To the optimist, it looks something like the University of Central Florida, or perhaps looking back 10 years, something like Boise St.

Looking at this particular team, those lofty heights are quite a ways away. This year’s offense brings back nearly everyone that was a major part of the record setting team, with the glaring exception of NFL-bound Jeff Wilson. Replacing a singular talent will not be as easy as slotting in a shifty back with a penchant for similar shifty moves. No, one obvious stat from the end of the year was the number of sacks allowed — sacks that Jeff Wilson would have helped prevent.

Beyond the obvious production, Jeff Wilson had a gift for turning nothing plays into something plays, and those are hidden somewhere in the brilliant offensive production. Jeff Wilson made this offense really good instead of simply pretty good.

In his place — not in the lineup but in importance — is presumably reigning Conference USA Player of the Year Mason Fine. Turning negative plays into positive plays is something that only a handful can do. Thus far, Mason Fine has done a great job distributing, but has been forced into some bad throws that change the game.

Hopefully, those instances will be gone. Now in his third year as starter, the Junior will be asked to make more of the plays we saw at the end of the UTSA game — finding playmakers under extreme distress. Honestly, it is not the ideal scenario and the Harrell-Littrell braintrust will do all they can to make sure that Fine is not under constant pressure all season. Right now the book on Mason is to bring heavy pressure up the middle and live with the consequences.

Troy and FAU had the defensive line and the defensive backs to overcome the offensive talent outside and forced Mason Fine to deal with the rush more than look at his options. Beyond that, the receiving corps, while talented, was relatively shallow. Jalen Guyton was the newcomer of the year, but when he took a vicious hit in Boca Raton in October, he was never quite the same. Turner Smiley stepped up and showed the game everyone thought he had. Still, NT seemed limited. The injuries took their toll, and while that is part of football, the roster depth was not quite where the head coach would want.

A solid set of recruiting classes over the three years of Littrell’s tenure have improved that. Some of the names that had an intriguing number of stars beside them will now be counted on to produce. Jaelon Darden was explosive and exciting and should get more touches as he continues to grow in the offense. Greg White, a redshirt