DFW Football Follow-up: Vote doesn’t spur victory for UNT

by Todd E. Jones of College Football Top Ten

UNT

On a weekend in which the student body at the University of North Texas passed the Athletic Referendum allowing an athletic fee to help finance the Mean Green program, the UNT football team was unable to reward the vote on the field as they were beaten by the University of Louisiana Monroe Warhawks in Monroe, LA by the score of 35-23. The athletic fee is expected to help replace Fouts Field which was built in 1952 and has deteriorated over the years making the UNT facilities among of the worst in the Sun Belt Conference.

UNT fell into another early hole trailing 35-3 at halftime. For the rest of the game UNT tried playing catch-up as Giovanni Vizza had a career high for passing attempts going 37 for 61 for a 362 yards passing and two touchdowns. After three Jeremy Knott field goals, UNT managed to score two touchdowns in the second half to make the score look more respectable. The Mean Green dropped to 0-7 on the year and get another shot at a win as they host the Sun Belt Conference leaders Troy Trojans next week in Denton.

SMU

For third week in a row, the SMU Mustangs were close to getting its first Conference USA win of the year but watched it float away in the form of 21 fourth quarter points by the Houston Cougars to pull out the win 44-38 at Gerald J. Ford Stadium in Dallas. Mustang quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell was 29 of 39 for 365 yards and four touchdowns. Wide Receiver Aldrick Robinson caught eight passes for 186 yards and two touchdowns.

Offense is certainly not a problem for the Ponies as they rolled up 413 total yards while taking an early 14-0 lead and never trailing until Houston’s Case Keenum tossed a 26 yard touchdown pass to Tyron Carrier with 24 seconds left to win the game. While the offense was productive, the defense failed to hold the lead giving up 535 total yards including 404 yards passing by Keenum. Next week, the Mustangs step outside Conference USA play by traveling to Annapolis, MD to play the Naval Academy.

TCU

With both UNT and SMU struggling to stop anyone on defense, their coaches might want to make an appointment with their neighbors in Fort Worth whose TCU defense throttled one of the nation’s most explosive offenses on Thursday night to pick up the 32-7 upset over the eighth ranked BYU Cougars. Coach Gary Patterson has tremendous success using speed to fill important rolls such as defensive end. Defensive end Jerry Hughes, a Junior from Sugar Land, TX was a tailback in high school rushing for 1,412 yards and 19 touchdowns as a senior. So far, this year, Hughes leads the nation with 11 sacks and was named the Walter Camp Foundation Defensive Player of the Week for his play against BYU where he had four sacks helping the TCU defense hold the Cougars to just 297 total yards of offense and only 23 yards rushing. Hughes and his team's efforts have led to a number 15 ranking in both the Associated Press and the USA Today polls. The Frogs will host Wyoming Saturday at Fort Worth's Amon G. Carter Stadium.