UNT Fresh Coming Off Bye Week Against LA Tech

DENTON – The UNT football team will look to score its eighth straight Conference USA win as it hosts Louisiana Tech at Apogee Stadium on Saturday, with kickoff set for 3 p.m. The game can be seen on ESPN+ with the radio broadcast on KHYI 95.3/KXXN 97.5 (Wichita Falls)/The Varsity Network.

Head coach Seth Littrell and selected players spoke to the media on Tuesday and discussed, among other things, their seven-game conference winning streak, what they got out of the bye week and a familiar face awaiting some of them across the field come Saturday.

Make it eight
Dating back to last season, the Mean Green have now won seven straight Conference USA games, including the first two of this season. That streak is the fourth-longest active conference winning streak in FBS.

Now, the third game awaits and the team will be looking to move to 3-0 in conference play with an eighth straight victory over a league foe.

When asked what has allowed the team to have this success against conference opponents, everyone pointed back to the week-to-week mentality that stresses focusing on a 1-0 performance each week – nothing more.

"Just taking it one week at a time is key," Littrell said. "I feel like in our conference there's a lot of great teams. Week in and week out, anybody can beat anybody. It comes down to execution and preparation. In this stretch, we've prepared the right way and kind of found our identity in these games and stuck to it and played complimentary football. We'll continue to work on that. It's not about the last seven, it's about the one this week."

Sophomore defensive back Logan Wilson redshirted last season but was still a part in the preparation of last year's team's five-game conference win streak. He said a big part of the success, specifically the defensive success in two conference wins this year over UTEP and FAU has been players making plays.

"Coaches are putting us in the right position to make plays," Wilson said. "We just have to go out there and make plays. We all know football. We just have to go out there and do it."

A big difference this year when compared to last year was the team was in a win-or-go-home mode for the second half of last season after stumbling out of the blocks at the beginning of the season with no wiggle room if it wanted a bowl appearance.

This year, the team is in a pack of contenders with sights set on the C-USA Championship Game.

"We're competing," Wilson said. "We know we have a chance to be in the championship game. We know we can do it. We know we can be in a bowl game. We just have to go play."

Senior defensive back Sean-Thomas Faulkner remembers the start of the streak well, as that game against Rice was the first start of his career, and it kicked off the run of success.

"We were in playoff mode that whole time," he said. "We battled and came together and came back. This year we're in a spot where we have a chip on our shoulder where we have something to prove. We'll always have that chip, but it's a different mindset because it feels like we're in the pack and not clawing from behind."

Recharged and ready
After playing a game in Week Zero and consequently starting fall workouts earlier than most of the country's programs, UNT has been grinding for six weeks with no breaks.

That changed last week, as the team had their first bye week and had a chance to not only get fresh and healthy but also to work on things.

"It was good," Littrell said. "Players responded well and had a good week of preparation on LA Tech and got our bodies back and got guys fresh. There's a fine line. We did a lot of self-scouting and maintenance work and got better but also stayed fresh. You have to be a mature football team to do it right, and we had a good week."

Aune cementing himself as one of the program greats at QB
Junior quarterback Austin Aune is climbing the list of the program's all-time great quarterbacks and is putting up some big numbers this season on a national scale.

Aune ranks ninth nationally in passing touchdowns (15) and third in passing yards per completion (15.11) this season, and he is seventh in program history in career passing yards, as well as several other categories.

After starting a handful of games in his first two years with the program, he entered this season as the no-doubt starter under center and has grown more comfortable in his role, as well as with his weapons outside after an injury-plagued 2021 season.

"The more you play and the more different looks you get, the more confidence you have and the slower the game becomes," Aune said. "I'm not trying to be Superman. I'm just trying to make the right reads and get the ball to our guys and execute.

"I'm just trying to execute each play. I hate to say that because I keep saying it over and over, but that's all I'm trying to do. The stats come when all 11 guys are doing their job. I get the praise when things are going good and stats are high. I don't worry about the stats. The stats will come with great play and great execution."

Coaches, Aune have ties with new La Tech coach
First-year Louisiana Tech head coach Sonny Cumbie will be a familiar face to a few people within the UNT program when they look across the sideline on Saturday at Apogee Stadium.

Cumbie was the starting quarterback at Texas Tech in 2004 when Littrell attended the Holiday Bowl that year after being hired by the Red Raiders and watched Cumbie defeat Aaron Rodgers and No. 4 Cal. Then, Cumbie was hired in 2009 by Texas Tech as an assistant coach in the hiring cycle that saw Littrell leave to go to Arizona.

Cumbie and UNT associate head coach/co-offensive coordinator Tommy Mainord were on staff in Lubbock together from 2010-2012 before Mainord left for Kentucky.

But the ties don't only lie with the coaches.

When Aune was in high school at Argyle, Cumbie was recruiting him to Texas Tech and formed a good relationship with him before he ultimately signed with TCU.

When Aune finished his baseball career and decided to give football another try, TCU was naturally at the top of his list, and Cumbie, who was then on staff in Fort Worth, offered him a spot to walk on.

Aune said he looks forward to playing against Cumbie's team on Saturday and will look forward to catching up after the game.

"I don't know him a lot personally but he recruited me and we had a good relationship," Aune said. "He's a great guy and a great coach. I'm excited to play against him."

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Players Mentioned

Austin Aune

Sean-Thomas Faulkner

Logan Wilson

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