University of North Texas
FIU
UNT Looking To Bounce Back At FIU
9/5/2023 2:07:00 PM | Football
DENTON – The UNT football team will look to bounce back from its season-opening loss on Saturday, as it travels to FIU for a 5:30 p.m. kickoff. The game can be seen on ESPN+ with the radio broadcast set for 97.1 The Freak/The Varsity Network.
Morris and selected players spoke to the media on Tuesday and discussed, among other things, bouncing back from a loss, cleaning up the small things, a new defensive starter and a big week for wide receiver Ja'Mori Maclin.
Flush it
While Saturday's season-opening loss to California stung, it was just one game out of many and one thing the team's leadership has preached since Saturday is moving and bouncing back mentally from the loss.
First-year head coach Eric Morris called upon his team leaders, as well as himself and fellow coaches, to get the team back on the right track mentally and make sure last week's loss doesn't snowball into Saturday in Miami.
"We have some leaders who have to step up when adversity and bad stuff hits," Morris said. "We have to have people step up and stop the bleeding for us and get things going in our favor. This week will tell us a lot about how mentally tough we are. Not just if we execute but the physicality of how we play and just taking care of our opponent."
One of those leaders is junior quarterback Stone Earle, who made his first start for the Mean Green on Saturday and passed for 174 yards and three touchdowns with a pair of interceptions.
"So what we've been telling the guys is just that we had that event that happened, and we can only control what we can control, and that's our response this weekend," Earle said. "Coach Kegans and the strength staff does a great job of kind of building that in us and know that we got to control our response, and that's just wiping away what happened last week and learning from it.
"We still have everything in front of us – all of our goals and what we want to accomplish this year," Earle added. "It's good to get a game underneath our belts, and now we can just go out there and play freely."
All the small things
After watching film of Saturday's loss to California, Morris and players came to a similar conclusion.
The effort was there, but lack of execution and blown assignments were too much for the Mean Green to overcome.
"All 11 guys have to do their job," Morris said. "There were a couple of third downs where our running back misses an assignment in pass protection and the play looks like an awful play. Holistically, on all three sides of the ball, there were too many times when we're playing with 10 and nine guys out there instead of 11. Those mistakes show up in a hurry."
Junior linebacker Jordan Brown said after watching film it was clear what needed to be fixed before the team heads to FIU.
"We just weren't wrapping up," Brown said. "You have to put a body on a body and not just arm tackle. You have to gang tackle. Missed assignments and missed tackles is what killed us in that game."
Smith drawing start
Redshirt freshman Patrick Smith will make his first collegiate start on Saturday after tallying seven tackles last week against California.
Smith will start at the "Star" spot in the secondary after a big performance on Saturday and a good few days of practice leading into the FIU game.
"This is ever changing," Morris said. "We want to give this team the best opportunity to win and from a body of work in that game, Patrick did some good stuff tackling. Was he perfect? Absolutely not. He had some busts and we have to get him dialed in. When he knows what he's doing he's very good and did some good stuff inside the box. He earned the right to do it. There's going to be other positions that people earn over the course of the week in practice."
Junior free safety Logan Wilson's eyes lit up when he was asked about Smith drawing his first start after last week's performance.
"That's a little pit bull right there," Wilson said of Smith. "He gets in there and does what he's supposed to do and he's gonna make plays."
Maclin shows out with huge quarter
Before things turned sour for the UNT offense on Saturday, sophomore wide receiver Ja'Mori Maclin looked like he was on pace for a record day.
Through less than 16 minutes of game time, Maclin had four catches for 122 yards and two touchdowns – all career highs. He set career-long marks for reception twice in the game with a 58-yard catch followed by a 59-yard touchdown reception. He's now averaging more than 24 yards per catch in his 13 career games and is 11th nationally in yards per catch this season.
Earle said he has a great connection with Maclin, who he came to UNT with after both transferred in prior to last season.
"He's a great receiver," Earle said. "We have a lot of guys who can go get the ball, but we came in together and a lot of work on that connection. Me knowing he'll be in the right spot and make plays. I trust all our guys to make plays, and I have to do a better job of getting them the ball in space."
Maclin is the first UNT receiver with 100+ receiving yards and two touchdowns in a season opener since Brelan Chancellor (114 yd, 2 TD) at LSU in 2012.
