North Texas Mean Green Preview 2022: Season Prediction, Breakdown, Key Games, Players
North Texas Mean Green Preview 2022: Previewing, predicting, and looking ahead to the North Texas season with what you need to know and keys to the season.
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North Texas Mean Green Preview
Seth Littrell: 37-38, 7th year at North Texas,
2021 Preview: Overall: 6-7, Conference: 5-3
Keys To The Season
Season Prediction, What Will Happen
North Texas Top 10 Players | North Texas Schedule
North Texas Mean Green Preview 2022
Is Seth Littrell ready to take North Texas into a new era?
He’s a young head coach who was a hot name in the overall mix after two straight nine win seasons in 2017 and 2018, but three straight losing seasons and a 14-21 record since then changed the perception.
His teams can crank up the offense, improved a bit on defense, and at least got to bowl games in five of his six seasons at the helm. Granted, the Mean Green lost all five of the bowls, but he got there.
Now North Texas is gearing up for live in the American Athletic Conference next year. The league might be a shadow of its former self with the stars taking off, but it’s still a big step for the program and the university.
This year, with a few schools taking off early for the Sun Belt, and with a loaded offense coming back, this is when the team and program should rise back up again.
The tough schedule might have something to say about that, but in Year Seven, this is when North Texas needs to be the team everyone else fears. And it will be because of the …
North Texas Mean Green Preview 2022: Offense
The scoring punch might have been hit or miss, but it geared it back up after a tough start to win five straight games to close out the regular season, it finished with the fifth-best rushing game in the country, and the passing game was consistent as the season went on.
With eight starters expected to be back, and help on the way from the transfer portal, the attack should be even better.
The quarterback situation just got more interesting. Austin Aune wasn’t all that accurate, but he ran well and turned up the downfield passing game over the second half of the campaign.
Former North Carolina transfer Jace Ruder got his chances, but now he and Aune have try holding off former Arizona Wildcat and Memphis Tiger Grant Gunnell.
The quarterbacks have a loaded receiving corps to throw to. Roderic Burns, Damon Ward, and the return of deep threat Jyaire Shorter from missing most of last year will crank things up.
The great running game has to replace 1,215-yard, 13 TD star DeAndre Toney. However, Ikaika Ragsdale and the next three top backs return, and Aune is a good runner – if he grabs the gig as the starter.
The offensive line loses tackle Jacob Brammer to Vanderbilt, but the other four starters are back including all-star center Manase Mose.
North Texas Mean Green Preview 2022: Defense
The defense was a hot mess in 2020. It closed out allowing 500 rushing yards to Appalachian State, gave up close to seven yards per play, and it finished the season dead last in college football allowing 522 yards per game.
The 2021 defense improved by leaps and bounds, allowing 382 yards per game and just 5.7 yards per play.
There’s a lot of turnover and the depth is lacking, but at least North Texas knows it can play some D.
Step One is replacing the Murphys. Grayson and Gabriel Murphy combined for 15.5 sacks and 26.5 tackles for loss, and now they’re living the life out a UCLA.
The Mean Green don’t have the star defensive ends to replace those two. That’s going to be a fall camp work in progress, and finding two new tackles to replace Dion Novel and Caleb Colvin won’t be easy either. There’s not a ton of size, but 6-0, 288-pound Enoch Johnson has the upside to be a factor.
The linebackers should take over. KD Nixon was an all-around star, earning First Team All-C-USA honors with a team-high 121 yards – and he got into the backfield – and Larry Nixon, Sean-Thomas Faulkner, and Kevin Wood are all veteran tacklers.
The defensive backs have to make more big plays after coming up with just three of the team’s six interceptions, but three of the four starters are expected back – DeShawn Gaddie will once again be one of the team’s top tacklers and big on breaking up passes.
Keys To The Season
Season Prediction, What Will Happen
North Texas Top 10 Players | North Texas Schedule
North Texas Mean Green: Keys To The Season, Top Game, Top Transfer, Fun Stats NEXT
North Texas Mean Green: Keys To The Season, Top Game, Top Transfer, Fun Stats
North Texas Mean Green: Key To The 2022 Offense
The passing game has to be more accurate and efficient.
The goal will be to keep the fun going with the high-powered running game, but the receivers are way too good to not be used more.
The North Texas quarterbacks were okay – Austin Aune stepped up late – but they combined to hit just 52% of their passes with 12 touchdowns and 14 interceptions.
The yards should be there again, but if the passing attack can get to around 60% and if the interceptions can slow down, the offense will go to another level.
North Texas Mean Green: Key To The 2022 Defense
The pass rush has to come from the defensive front.
North Texas got a slew of plays in the backfield from LB KD Nixon, and a few sacks trickled in from other spots, but Grayson and Gabriel Murphy accounted for most of the sacks from their end spots, and Dion Norvell and Kameron Hill each added four to the mix.
22.5 of the 38 sacks are gone from those four linemen, and now the Mean Green need to find production from somewhere up front. And that’s why …
North Texas Mean Green: Key Player To The 2022 Season
DT Roderick Brown, Soph.
It’s going to take a while to find the right ends who can do anything close to what Grayson and Gabriel Murphy were able to do on the outside – there’s no sure-thing depth to form any sort of a rotation.
The top returning production for the line comes from a 6-1, 285-pound sophomore. Brown made three sacks and four tackles for loss with 20 tackles. Combining with fellow sophomore Enoch Jackson, the experience is in the interior.
Now the ends have to rise up.
North Texas Mean Green: Key Transfer
QB Grant Gunnell, Soph.
Is he finally home?
The Texas native was great at Arizona in his freshman year – throwing for 1,239 yards and nine touchdowns with pick – but he got hurt as a sophomore and only played four games, left for Memphis, didn’t play, and now he’s here in Denton.
He’s got the 6-6, 228-pound size, the accuracy that was missing from last year’s passing game, and he can run just enough to get around.
North Texas Key Game To The 2022 Season
at UTSA, Oct. 22
The Mean Green have a rough run in the second half of the season with three road games in four dates. They’ll likely be underdogs at WKU and UAB, and it might take a win in San Antonio to make a push for a bowl game.
The 45-23 win last year was a big moment in the season and for the program, but it was also the game before UTSA was off to the Conference USA Championship – it didn’t exactly bring the A game.
North Texas has won four of the last five in the series. It needs to add one to the pile.
North Texas Mean Green: 2021 Fun Stats
– Sacks: North Texas 38 for 264 yards – Opponents 17 for 96 yards
– 1st Quarter Scoring: Opponents 86 – North Texas 51
– Fumbles: Opponents 26 (lost 12) – North Texas 13 (lost 4)
Offense, Defense Breakdown
Season Prediction, What Will Happen
North Texas Top 10 Players | North Texas Schedule
North Texas Mean Green Season Prediction, What Will Happen NEXT
North Texas Mean Green Season Prediction, What Will Happen
The 2021 season was over.
North Texas was an ugly 1-6, it had to run the table to get to a bowl game, and for all of the team’s problems – to the credit of Seth Littrell and the fight of the team – it ripped off five straight wins to earn a bowl appearance.
This team has a way of surprising when there aren’t any expectations, but this year there should be reasons to get excited with a loaded offense that should overcome the issues on the other side.
However, the schedule …
Set The North Texas Mean Green Regular Season Win Total At … 6
There aren’t any games against Power Five programs, but it’s still a tough slate with just about every tough Conference USA possible on the road.
At UTSA, at WKU, at UAB – and that’s all in a four-week stretch over the second half of the season.
SMU isn’t an easy home game, at Memphis is a tough road date, and going to UTEP and UNLV are both going to be problems.
The Mean Green should be able to win one of those tough road games, and they should come up with one big home performance against a Louisiana Tech or Florida Atlantic.
It’s going to be a grind to get to six wins, but as last year’s team showed, that’s nothing new.
Offense, Defense Breakdown | Keys To The Season
North Texas Top 10 Players | North Texas Schedule
