North Texas Mean Green 2016 NCAA Football Preview
NORTH TEXAS MEAN GREEN
Conference USA
2015 Record – 1-11
ATS – 4-8
2016 MEGALOCKS Opening Power Rating Rank
West Division #6
Conference #13
2015 Recap
It truly is amazing how time flies. At the beginning of this century (not that long ago) the Mean Green were a consistent winning program, but sadly, the past decade has been very tough for everyone involved. They enjoyed a fine 9-4 season in 2013 which was capped off by a bowl win, but last season, it was back to the losing ways as they struggled wire-to-wire in a disappointing one-win campaign. Seth Littrell is the new HC and he has a tall task ahead of him.
2016 Preview
OFFENSE
New OC Graham Harrell is going to implement a high-octane passing attack in Denton. At least that is the long-term plan. This season there are going to be some growing pains with one of the most inexperienced QB units in all of college football trying to learn the new fast-paced system. WR Turner Smiley is last year’s leading receiver back for the 2016 campaign (just 255 yards LY). It is reasonable to assume that it is going to take some work to get this offense going the way Harrell and HC Littrell want to see it operate.
The best offensive player on the team is probably RB Jeffrey Wilson who had over 800 yards rushing last year while averaging 5.4 yards per carry. The running game should work fine this season with Wilson running behind a decent OL that returns three starters including an impossibly-large and talented LT Jordan Murray (6-9 360).
DEFENSE
It is another one of those good news and bad news deals when it comes to talking about the Mean Green defense. The good news is that eight starters return to the unit including several upperclassmen. The bad news is that they gave up over 40 points per game last season while allowing 240 rushing yards per contest and 69% completions. Just two seasons ago North Texas allowed only 17.8 points per game.
Our view is that the defense will be noticeably better this season. Of course, if the offense is “fast-paced” but cannot “move the ball” the North Texas defense will be on the field “a lot”. That would not be good.
They do return their two leading tacklers and DE Jarrian Roberts had 10 TFL last season. The secondary has 4/4 starters back in 2016 but the Mean Green only picked off four passes all of last season.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Punter Eric Keena did a fine job last year but PK Trevor Moore was a disappointing 0/4 from 40+ yards. The Mean Green will miss PR Tre Johnson but KR/RB Jeffrey Wilson did a good job on kickoff returns last year. Feels like an average group to us.
MEGALOCKS ATS Value Rating (10) 1.0
MEGALOCKS says:
Mean Green fans are probably in for a long season, but that does not mean they will not have their moments, and they should find a way to eclipse last year’s one-win total. There are 3-4 games on the docket that North Texas should have a shot of winning. Then again, they did lose to Portland St 66-7 in 2015.
Overall, we give the MEAN GREEN a 1.0 ATS Value Rating (Avoid) this season. We need to give this team a bit of time. Implementing a high-tempo passing attack without the necessary high-tempo components means that tough times are likely ahead. Even though the Mean Green will be big underdogs in more than a handful of games, we will probably steer clear of backing this squad unless they show signs of significant improvement.
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News
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http://sportsday.dallasnews.com/college-sports/unt-mean-green
http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/teams/north-texas-eagles
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