Saturday, November 18
Tulsa, Okla.
2 PM
University of North Texas
at
Tulsa
Football Gearing Up For Tulsa
11/14/2023 1:23:00 PM | Football
DENTON – The UNT football team will look to bounce back from a tough four-game stretch as the Mean Green travel to face Tulsa at H.A. Chapman Stadium on Saturday at 2 p.m. The game can be seen on ESPN+ with the radio broadcast set for 97.1 The Freak/The Varsity Network.
Head coach Eric Morris and selected players spoke to the media on Tuesday and discussed, among other things, the rise of some freshmen players, playing for the program's seniors over the last two weeks and the ongoing search for consistency.
Freshmen contributing in key roles
Though the Mean Green will not be playing in a bowl game this season, there are still plenty of storylines to follow over the remaining two games on the schedule, and one that has been evident in recent weeks is the play of some freshmen who are seeing a lot of playing time and making the most of it.
The last two games have seen true freshmen lead the team in tackles – Evan Jackson had 11 against UTSA and Jayven Anderson finished with nine against SMU.
True freshman wide receiver Landon Sides has seen his role increase in recent weeks and several redshirt freshmen have also played prominent roles, led by safety Patrick Smith and linebacker Ethan Wesloski, who are first and second among AAC freshman in tackles per game.
When asked if his approach to the final two games of the season would be different now that the team isn't playing for bowl eligibility, Morris had a quick answer.
"We're always going to play to win," Morris said. "There's some young guys playing right now. As coaches, you keep evaluating tape and when you start making decisions, like if it's close at all, you make the decision to go with the young guy only if it's not going to make a difference in production. We owe it to way too many people around here to just go cancel the season and just play young guys for next year.
"This is big for a bunch of young guys to continue to show they're capable of doing big things in this program," Morris added. "Any time you can get game reps, it's huge. We have a lot of puppies playing a significant amount of snaps. Are they perfect? Absolutely not. But to see these freshmen out there making plays, I'm really excited about the future of this program and where we can take this thing."
Aside from playing for pride and to win every game left on the schedule, several players and Morris talked about playing hard for the seniors on the roster who will see their UNT careers end in a couple of weeks.
"There's a bunch of bright spots from these last four weeks and we have to continue to draw from those and fight for this group of seniors that's put blood, sweat and tears into this program," Morris said. "I'm grateful to them. They didn't pick me to be their coach and they've been awesome, so we're gonna keep fighting and try to have a strong finish to the season."
Junior corner Loronzo Thompson praised his freshman teammates in the secondary for their recent play and also mentioned the seniors being a big motivation heading into the final two games.
"We have to finish for these seniors," Thompson said. "We have a lot on this defense and we just want to make sure we finish for them. If I was in that position, I'd want them to finish for me, so we just have to finish and make it right for them."
Team still looking for consistency
For much of the season, UNT has dug itself in a first-half hole and then outplayed opponents in second halves before ultimately falling just short in the end.
On Saturday at SMU, just when Morris thought his team was going to put a full four-quarter game together, the script was flipped.
UNT trailed by three at halftime before being outscored 28-7 in the second half after a disastrous third quarter.
"Consistency is a huge piece of it," Morris said. "We added that to our four core values. In your life and how you prepare and go to study hall and take care of your body and nutrition and sleep - successful people in life learn how to do all these small things consistently and they show up in big ways. This group was not a consistent group over the course of the year when you take the sample size we have right now. That will be a huge thing in our offseason, and hopefully we can get it corrected in these last two games. It's been a bunch of highs and a bunch of lows. That's what stinks about it. We couldn't pull one of those out – these one-score games."
Morris said the consistency issue is the main takeaway he has from this four-game stretch that began with a one-score loss to a ranked Tulane team and ended with Saturday's loss at SMU – four losses to the top four teams in the conference and all but one coming by just one score.
"This is the first time I've been through a four-game stretch like this," Morris said. "Do I have every right answer? No, but I love coaching this group of young men. My whole life I've been told I couldn't do certain things, so this hasn't even come close to getting me in bad spirits. Seeing these guys compete the last four weeks with teams we're gonna watch compete for a conference championship and you can look back and know you were right there. We'll continue to look and grow from these situations."
Head coach Eric Morris and selected players spoke to the media on Tuesday and discussed, among other things, the rise of some freshmen players, playing for the program's seniors over the last two weeks and the ongoing search for consistency.
Freshmen contributing in key roles
Though the Mean Green will not be playing in a bowl game this season, there are still plenty of storylines to follow over the remaining two games on the schedule, and one that has been evident in recent weeks is the play of some freshmen who are seeing a lot of playing time and making the most of it.
The last two games have seen true freshmen lead the team in tackles – Evan Jackson had 11 against UTSA and Jayven Anderson finished with nine against SMU.
True freshman wide receiver Landon Sides has seen his role increase in recent weeks and several redshirt freshmen have also played prominent roles, led by safety Patrick Smith and linebacker Ethan Wesloski, who are first and second among AAC freshman in tackles per game.
When asked if his approach to the final two games of the season would be different now that the team isn't playing for bowl eligibility, Morris had a quick answer.
"We're always going to play to win," Morris said. "There's some young guys playing right now. As coaches, you keep evaluating tape and when you start making decisions, like if it's close at all, you make the decision to go with the young guy only if it's not going to make a difference in production. We owe it to way too many people around here to just go cancel the season and just play young guys for next year.
"This is big for a bunch of young guys to continue to show they're capable of doing big things in this program," Morris added. "Any time you can get game reps, it's huge. We have a lot of puppies playing a significant amount of snaps. Are they perfect? Absolutely not. But to see these freshmen out there making plays, I'm really excited about the future of this program and where we can take this thing."
Aside from playing for pride and to win every game left on the schedule, several players and Morris talked about playing hard for the seniors on the roster who will see their UNT careers end in a couple of weeks.
"There's a bunch of bright spots from these last four weeks and we have to continue to draw from those and fight for this group of seniors that's put blood, sweat and tears into this program," Morris said. "I'm grateful to them. They didn't pick me to be their coach and they've been awesome, so we're gonna keep fighting and try to have a strong finish to the season."
Junior corner Loronzo Thompson praised his freshman teammates in the secondary for their recent play and also mentioned the seniors being a big motivation heading into the final two games.
"We have to finish for these seniors," Thompson said. "We have a lot on this defense and we just want to make sure we finish for them. If I was in that position, I'd want them to finish for me, so we just have to finish and make it right for them."
Team still looking for consistency
For much of the season, UNT has dug itself in a first-half hole and then outplayed opponents in second halves before ultimately falling just short in the end.
On Saturday at SMU, just when Morris thought his team was going to put a full four-quarter game together, the script was flipped.
UNT trailed by three at halftime before being outscored 28-7 in the second half after a disastrous third quarter.
"Consistency is a huge piece of it," Morris said. "We added that to our four core values. In your life and how you prepare and go to study hall and take care of your body and nutrition and sleep - successful people in life learn how to do all these small things consistently and they show up in big ways. This group was not a consistent group over the course of the year when you take the sample size we have right now. That will be a huge thing in our offseason, and hopefully we can get it corrected in these last two games. It's been a bunch of highs and a bunch of lows. That's what stinks about it. We couldn't pull one of those out – these one-score games."
Morris said the consistency issue is the main takeaway he has from this four-game stretch that began with a one-score loss to a ranked Tulane team and ended with Saturday's loss at SMU – four losses to the top four teams in the conference and all but one coming by just one score.
"This is the first time I've been through a four-game stretch like this," Morris said. "Do I have every right answer? No, but I love coaching this group of young men. My whole life I've been told I couldn't do certain things, so this hasn't even come close to getting me in bad spirits. Seeing these guys compete the last four weeks with teams we're gonna watch compete for a conference championship and you can look back and know you were right there. We'll continue to look and grow from these situations."
Players Mentioned
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