North Texas 2009 College Football Predictions
The North Texas Mean Green faithful are losing their patience with head coach Todd Dodge and his four-wideout offense. Hiring the renowned Texas high school coach to replace four-time Sun Belt champion coach Darrell Dickey is starting to look like an experiment gone bad. Dodge has a 3-21 record and just one Sun Belt win in two seasons with North Texas. He’ll need to start showing more progress, in the win column, or he could be forced to start looking for another high school job. Bet on college football with BetUS this season.
Offense – Dodge’s four-wideout attack is in need of a breakout season, but it’s not going to come easy. Two-year starting signal caller Giovanni Vizza has transferred and the program lost all-time leading receiver Casey Fitzgerald to graduation. In fact, only one of last year’s top five wideouts return and Dodge’s son Riley, a redshirt freshman, is set to take over at quarterback. There’s always growing pains with young QB’s, but coaches son’s usually deliver. The two should have a chemistry and an understanding that few head coaches have with their quarterbacks. The Mean Green do have some nice depth on the offensive line and a strong tailback to help ease the young QB in. Running back Cam Montgomery rushed for 928 yards a season ago. Dodge’s offense has been able to rack up big yards, but it has not been able to convert them into points due to turnovers and lack of a vertical passing game. The Mean Green will hope and pray that the NCAA approves Oklahoma transfer wideout Tyler Stradford’s eligibility so that they can gain a big time weapon in the passing game.
Defense – This is the side of the ball that is really holding this program back right now. North Texas has tinkered with changing coordinators, changing schemes, and changing personnel, and they have still finished dead last in the country in scoring defense each of the past two seasons. They allowed 47.6 points per game in 2008. Gary DeLoach enters his second year as defensive coordinator and returns eight starters, but I’m not sure that’s a positive for a unit that allowed nearly 50 points per game. DeLoach is going to try a 4-2-5 defense at times this season with senior Kyle Hill playing a roaming linebacker/safety position. DeLoach wants to move Brandon Akpunku from linebacker to defensive end to take advantage of his speed as a pass rusher. The Mean Green are also counting on three junior college transfers to make an immediate impact on the defensive line. Linebackers Tobe Nwigwe and Craig Robertson return as the teams top two tacklers and will have to be even better this year. The secondary is very inexperienced and the Mean Green are hoping junior college transfer cornerback Ira Smith can help provide some stability.
Prediction: 8th Sun Belt – This program still has a ways to go under Dodge and I don’t see any scenario that would have the Mean Green playing .500 ball this season. Unfortunately most of their winnable games come at the end of season and you have to hope their confidence isn’t shot by then. Winning their home opener against Ohio may provide the early season boost this team needs.
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