University of North Texas Athletics
Green Gang: Era Of Domination
12/21/2010 12:00:00 AM | Return to Play
By Steven Bartolotta, December 21, 2010, 10:59 a.m.
The news of Patrick Cobbs and Brandon Kennedy winning both the Offensive and Defensive Players of the decade in the SBC's 10th anniversary team wasn't the least bit surprising if you ask me.
For a football program that hasn't done "diddly pooh" as Jim Mora would say in the last six years, how on earth did they sweep the two most prestigious awards in this exercise?
Total domination. Cut and dry, the North Texas run from 2001-04 was just that. Cobbs and Kennedy personified that run better than anyone else.
The 26-game conference winning streak from 2001-04, plus game one of 05, is unmatched, and in this era of parity, I dare say never will.
Cobbs led the nation in rushing in 2003 and was next to impossible to bring down that season. Kennedy in 2002 had the best defensive season by a lineman at North Texas since Joe Greene.
What was so special about each was during that time when opposing teams played North Texas, they knew one thing. We have to stop Cobbs and Kennedy. Sun Belt opponents didn't even come close.
Kennedy left his mark on this league in just three seasons. In 2000, the 5-10 stout lineman, who claimed he could dunk a basketball, tore through the Big West as a freshman. Once North Texas entered the SBC in 2001, it was even more impressive. As a lineman, you always hear that the low man wins, well at 5-10 he was low, but he was strong, fast, and for three years in the SBC, unblockable.
Ask Andrico Hines of MTSU. Kennedy made to this day the most amazing play I've still ever seen by a d-lineman in 2002. Down 30-20, MTSU was trying to mount a late rally. Hines had the Blue Raiders inside North Texas territory. It was a fourth-down.
Kennedy bust through the Blue Raider line, sacks Hines, forces a fumble, recovers the fumble, does a flip over Hines and pops up with the ball all in one fell swoop. Domination.
There have been other players in this league more talented, had better NFL careers, had bigger stats than Kennedy or Cobbs. Troy has put countless players into the NFL, Demarcus Ware to name just one. But in the Sun Belt, he didn't measure up to Kennedy's play.
Tyrell Fenroy of Louisiana-don't call us Lafayette, is the Sun Belt's all-time leading rusher and is only a few years out of the league. Cobbs hasn't run the ball in the Sun Belt since 2005. So why didn't voters give the nod to Fenroy, fresh on their minds, and to a guy who hasn't been in the league half a decade?
Winning counts. Cobbs left with four rings, Fenroy ringless. But Cobbs was so strong for so long, it was impossible to vote otherwise.
Their legacy, and that of the Mean Green from 2001-04 was total domination, and sweeping these awards validates just that.
