After letting everyone vent their frustrations over what has transpired these last two Saturdays, the best medicine for the Hogs now is to quickly play another game. Fortunately, the chance to get that bad taste out of their mouth is closely approaching as the North Texas Mean Green roll into town.
Sporting a 0-3 record on the season, UNT should be just what the doctor ordered. Led by former Texas Longhorn starting quarterback Todd Dodge (1981-85), the boys from Denton, Texas are very similar to Arkansas’ week 1 foe Troy…except their defense is much worse.
Dodge made headlines earlier in the year when he jumped from a very successful stint at Carroll High School and accepted the North Texas job. His record at Carroll over the last five years was an amazing 79-1 with four state championships. (That kind of success makes one wonder if Coach Herring will slip and refer to him as ‘high school’ at some point this week.)
For North Texas, it’s all about the offense. UNT enters the game ranked 5th in the nation in passing (378 yards/game). Junior quarterback Daniel Meager leads the way and is flanked by two of the top receivers in college football in Casey Fitzgerald and Brandon Jackson. Against SMU a few weeks ago, Meager threw for 601 yards, with 327 of those yards on 18 passes to Fitzgerald.
On defense…well…let’s just say they’re still trying to find their way. The Mean Green are dead last…yes…119th in the nation (51.3 points/game) in scoring defense. That’s largely due to the 79 points Oklahoma hung on them in Week 1. Of course, the Hogs aren’t ranked much better at 104th (36.3 points/game).
The North Texas special teams have also struggled. Florida Atlantic blocked two UNT punts last week and The Green are 117th nationally in punt returns, averaging 1.7 yards per return. Any guesses on who is last in the nation in punt returns? Yep…Arkansas, averaging just 0.2 yards per return.
The Hogs have never lost to North Texas in eight tries and don’t look for that trend to end on Saturday. The ‘weak sister’ has arrived. Now can the Hogs take care of business while working on their own weaknesses? The early line has Arkansas as a 35-point favorite but, for now, hang on to your score predictions. We’ll be making those with you tomorrow.
I may have to pick UNT tomorrow. It would be the final irony to have Herring beaten by a high school coach running the spread.
Blind, That would finish the coffin. The hole is already dug. All we would have to wait on then would be for the coach to die (IE: season to end).
It's very doubtful this team could lose to N.Texas, but I've seen some strange things happen before. If the Hogs win easily though, be prepared for the Nutt to confidently proclaim "we have turned a corner, but there's still some improvment we can make", " so lets just continue to get better". Casey will probably have 200 yards or more in passing, against inferior talent, and Nutt will be over-joyed. "I knew all along he could do it" "I feel good about Casey Dick". Get ready for the BS boys!
I'll be there to enjoy watching the final year of two of the greatest backs to ever put on a Razorback uniform.
I don't care if they win by "100", I say HDN is burnt toast at years end!!!