4 days Ago By By Brett Vito Staff Writer
Basketball season is here. Subscribe to the DRC for $1 a month over the next six months to follow all that transpires with North Texas and area high schools. North Texas’ dreams of reaching a bowl game in Eric Morris’ debut season as the Mean Green’s coach were torpedoed a year ago by a four-game losing streak.
That slide against some of the elite teams in the American Athletic Conference was without a doubt low point of Morris’ tenure, at least until the Mean Green fell to UTSA on Friday at the Alamodome. UNT is again in the midst of a four-game slide that is very much in the running for rock bottom when it comes to the Morris era. The Mean Green’s loss to UTSA was their fourth straight in their series with the Roadrunners, who are now UNT’s biggest rival with SMU out of the picture.
The Mustangs left the Mean Green behind after jumping from the AAC to the Atlantic Coast Conference and the ranks of power conference programs. UNT fell to 5-5 on the season and 2-4 in AAC play and fired defensive coordinator Matt Caponi on Saturday. The Mean Green are still very much in the race for a bowl berth, thanks to the work they did early in the season.
UNT needs one more win to reach the postseason and will get its first chance on Saturday when it hosts a surging East Carolina team that has won three straight games to become bowl eligible at 6-4. Before we turn our attention to that game, it’s time for this week’s edition of What We Learned, a look back at UNT’s last game and what it tells us about where the Mean Green stand. Morris’ decision to fire Caponi ushered in what is going to be a significant revamp for UNT defensively.
“We believe a change on defense is needed at this point to help the team make a strong push toward earning a bowl game berth,” Morris said in a statement. UNT turned to linebackers coach Brian Odom to guide its defense on an interim basis. Morris will now have to hire a new coordinator, a decision that will determine what kind of system the Mean Green run.
Morris hired Caponi largely because of his experience as an assistant coach at Iowa State, which runs the 3-3-5. Morris wanted to install the scheme at UNT. The Mean Green will have to revamp their roster if they dramatically change the scheme.
UNT will have a host of key players to replace no matter which direction it decides to go. The Mean Green had eight seniors listed as starters heading into its loss to UTSA. UNT could use an influx of transfer talent.
The Mean Green have an impressive group of 13 high school players committed to join their 2025 recruiting class but have yet to land any of the host of junior college prospects they have offered. The Mean Green are tied with Tulsa for No. 124 nationally in total defense with an average of 458.
1 yards allowed per game. UNT has a ton of work to do defensively. Morris decision to move on from Caponi made it clear the Mean Green are focused on tackling that task.
UNT’s struggles defensively against UTSA overshadowed the Mean Green’s issues on the offensive side that have cropped up in their last two games. UNT managed just three points against Army, one of the elite defensive teams in the country. The Mean Green rebounded to a certain extent against UTSA, but didn’t play well enough to win.
Chandler Morris threw for 241 yards and a touchdown but also tossed two interceptions. UNT scored just seven points in the first half. “It was a collection of things,” Eric Morris said of what caused UNT to flounder offensively after the game.
“Chandler did some bad stuff in the RPO [run-pass option] game early. He didn’t take what the defense gave him. We were not good enough on third and fourth downs.
” UNT went just 2-for-11 on third down and converted just one of its five fourth-down attempts. Expectations are certainly higher for a program that prides itself on a high-powered offense. There isn’t a more important game on UNT’s schedule each season at this point than its annual showdown with UTSA.
Failing to beat the Roadrunners again this year was a blow for the program. UNT had a chance to paint UTSA into a corner. The Roadrunners came into the night at 4-5 and needed to win two of their last three games to become bowl eligible.
That task would have looked awfully tall had UTSA lost to UNT considering the Roadrunners still have a game to play at Army. UNT missed out on the opportunity to deal what would have been a huge blow to UTSA and will now have to answer for a fourth straight loss to the Roadrunners as it looks to build its program in recruiting and fundraising. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
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