It's Been A Minute

DENTON – It's been a minute. Well, several minutes actually. When the Mean Green run out onto the field at Apogee Stadium on Saturday, 35 days will have come and gone since the last game for the Mean Green. That's more than the length of an entire fall camp, exceeding a full calendar month – and it will be wonderful for UNT to be back out on the field.

How did we get here? North Texas left Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on Saturday, October 17, with its first road win since November of 2018. A monster offensive performance that saw a new school record (768 yards of total offense) was matched by an impressive second half showing by the defense (holding the Blue Raiders of Middle Tennessee to just seven points). A scheduled bye week paved the way for a scheduled road date on Halloween in El Paso. Unfortunately, the game was postponed to Saturday, Dec. 12, due to the CoVID-19 situation in the city of El Paso. Then, North Texas' homecoming date had to be postponed as well the following week (to Thursday, Dec. 3), due to issues surrounding CoVID-19 and subsequent contact tracing. Last week, North Texas' trip to Birmingham was canceled due to issues with CoVID-19 within the UAB program.

On deck Saturday is a home contest against the Rice Owls in a C-USA West division battle in Denton at 1 p.m.

MeanGreenSports.com spent some time speaking with a few members of the Mean Green to find out how the past several weeks have been, and their range of feelings on getting back to business on Saturday. See what senior running back DeAndre Torrey, senior defensive lineman Dion Novil, redshirt junior offensive lineman Manase Mose and junior linebacker KD Davis had to say about the 35-day hiatus.

MeanGreenSports.com (MGS): What has this process been like? Going so long between games?

DeAndre Torrey (DT): "As far as game weeks go, building up those practices and getting to the end of the week and having the game canceled has been disappointing for us. But overall, I think it has helped us heal a couple of guys who were hurt and it is helping us not take the game for granted, if anyone did.

Dion Novil (DN): "It's been 35 days since we've played? Jeez. I think it gave us more time for guys to come back and recover, so I guess that's a little bit of a blessing in disguise. It's been kind of different, not necessarily challenging, but different."

Manase Mose (MM): "It's given us a lot of time to continue to work and focus on getting better with every day we get. We watch film every week and scheme up against each opponent to better ourselves and just do what we can control in order to be prepared and be ready for a game."

KD Davis (KD): "Just having to face this kind of adversity has been really hard. We're coming in every week and working hard, but we haven't been able to play on Saturdays. All we can do is stay positive and continue to come in every week and keep getting better as a team, whether we play or not. Once we play, we all have to stay together and keep working hard."

MGS: How frustrating is it to go through that preparation time and time again, only to reach the end of the week and have a game postponed?

DT: "It's very frustrating for a lot of guys and kind of diminishes your hope a little bit to play again, happening three times in a row. We're just showing up every week and just controlling what we can control."

DN: "It's an annoying process to deal with, but there are certain things that you have to understand are outside of your control. There are just certain things that happen with everyone, and you can't do anything about it – so you have to continue to push forward."

MM: "It's kind of heartbreaking – you prepare and put in all the work all week and then the last day it's canceled or postponed. Your mind is set on that day to go out and perform and it sucks to not be able to go out there on the weekend and play.

KD: "It's pretty difficult because every week we come in, we face different offenses and different formations and things like that, so we have to change up the defense. Then we change it up, and not being able to play, and then change it again, it makes it tough to have to just switch to something new so quickly without getting to do it on the field on Saturday. Now we've got to remember all those things for whenever we go back and have to play them later on. It's been tough, but it will all work out and be good in the end."

MGS: How difficult is it to immediately flip the switch and change gears into another opponent in the same week when you have a postponement or cancellation?

DT: "It's very tough because we gameplan for specific defenses and try to exploit their weaknesses, so everything we just spent all week working on, we have to throw that out and basically have to just start from scratch. We don't like it as players because we worked so hard this week and we're ready to play and now we've got to reset again. But, all we can do is control what we can control."

DN: "It's a little difficult because you don't have that Saturday film to look at and correct our mistakes. But once Saturday passes, I think we still flip the switch just like any other week. We've just been doing it earlier now."

MM: "I think it's kind of normal for me. It's just getting your body right and getting healthy to prepare for the next week and the next team."

KD: "The immediate change is tough, but having that happen on a Thursday just gives us more time to prepare and learn the new team we're playing's offense. That lets us know what we're going to do defensively to try to stop them."

MGS: Has this time away from the games on Saturdays allowed you to be a little fresher physically than you normally would be entering Week 12 of a season?

DT: "I've never felt like this so late in a season. In a lot of ways it's almost like the beginning of the season and I feel new. We try not to bang a lot in practice and I know some other teams have been getting banged up and nicked, and those add up towards the end of a season. Our team is pretty fresh and ready to go."

DN: "This is probably the best I've felt in any Week 12 I've ever experienced, which I guess it's a good thing, but it stinks we haven't been able to play."

MM: "Oh yeah, the coaches and everyone have been taking good care of us and giving us less reps to make sure we stay fresh and more mentally focused on our opponent's scheme and our own technique – especially as an O-lineman, our footwork."

KD: "It's a pretty good advantage because with teams playing every week, typically the further you get in a season, you keep getting more and more banged up. With us not playing in weeks, I just feel like our bodies still feel pretty good because we haven't played a lot of games yet."

MGS: It seemed like things really started to click for the team in Murfreesboro against Middle Tennessee, and though there was a scheduled bye week, it's now been four weeks since that day. Do you feel you can carry that positive momentum out there with you this week?

DT: "I do. I think that game was very big for us as a team because we all fought on all phases of the ball and we dug ourselves out of a hole – which is something we've struggled with this year. I think that guys' mentality will be different for the rest of the season because of it."

MM: "Most definitely. I feel like during Middle Tennessee week, we came together more as a team and were feeding off each other's energy. That's what really allowed us to start rolling and has really helped us throughout these past few weeks to lean on each other and keep on going."

MGS: What is it going to feel like for you when you (finally) step on that field at home this week and get those juices flowing?

DT: "Man, I'm just thinking I'm ready to hit somebody and get hit. I'm just ready to go fast. It's going to just be a relief that we are going to play again."

DN: "It's going to be a feeling of relief. As soon as we get off the bus and have the okay that we're playing, we will all be able to take that deep breath and have that feeling of excitement."

MM: "It's going to feel amazing to me really. I put a lot of work in and want to show my ability and go out there and try to dominate. I'm just really excited."

KD: "I'm going to be the most excited person out there. I've been ready. I've been preparing every week and have been down [with the cancellations and postponements]. I'm just ready to hit somebody."

MGS: The CoVID-19 pandemic has affected so much and so many outside of football within your community, the campus community and throughout the world. What kind of challenges has this provided for you either within the game of football or outside of it?

DT: "From a mental standpoint, it's been all over the place. At the beginning of this I would have never thought that school would be shut down and that they would have shut down football. My life completely changed when I couldn't come back and finish the spring. There was a lot of doubt in my head that we weren't going to play the season and that affects my life a lot. I was just trying to keep my head high even though it was really hard, but we are trying to just make it through."

DN: "It's been kind of hard in the football sense because when you're out there playing, you're not really thinking about it. For school and outside life, it's now the new normal to make sure you're wearing a mask and hand sanitizing any second you can, so it's just unique when you have to combine those two things."

MM: "It's a challenge to just make sure you're doing everything you can to prevent or slow down the spread of the virus to protect your loved ones and those around you."

KD: "It shows you how everybody views things and how much people care about other people. There are a lot of people that aren't wearing masks and not thinking about everyone else's health, just their own and thinking everything is fine. Everyone should be wearing masks to protect each other, and I feel like everybody should just do what's right, so things could start to get back to normal."

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Players Mentioned

KD Davis

Manase Mose

Dion Novil

DeAndre Torrey