There rushing stats are definitely over-inflated from playing in a crappy conference, but they are still a talented tandem. Their young O-line should show though & I expect our Defense (and offense) to dominate them.
UNT returns 5 starters on offense and only 4 on defense. On the O-line, only 2 players return as starters (Soph. LT Joel Foster and Jr. RF Dylan Lineberry, the 2004 SBC Newcomer of the Year award winner). I doubt those new starters are going to be able to match our well-tested D-lineman that includes two Pre-Season All-SEC players (Wroten and Williams) along with Oliver on one end and either of the Pittman's, Kirston or Chase, manning the other. Throw in the fact that our subs, Dorsey, Favorite, along the line, gives us two players that could very well be starters, and I believe UNT is in for a rough day moving the ball on the ground. And if all of that "beef" on the line isn't enough to wear down the UNT O-line, we still have a talented and speedy group of LB's led by Vaughn, Kuale and Highsmith and enough strength in Hollis and Sanders to cut down and pursue sweeps.
Yes, having a "W" over another conference's eventual champion does sound nice, but I doubt UNT's RPI will help us a whole lot, reguardless of if they're SBC Champs again or not. But I'll never underestimate the value of a "W"--no matter who the opponent!
Funny how we open the season vs UNT and Texas opens up vs ULL.... I know we get the tougher of the two, but I want to put up more solid statistics on the Mean Green than what Texas puts up on ULL.
Yes they have really good RB's, but La Tech's Ryan Moats was a highly touted RB and we at least held him in check even though he put up some yards. But some of them were and will be against 2nd-3rd team. I wouldn't worry about it.
I think Moats scored the first rushing TD against our D in '03. Not that that has anything to do with anything, just one of those odd, insignificant facts that I sometimes have a propensity for remembering.
Jamario Thomas is no Ryan Moats... Moats put up big numbers against the big boys and little boys alike.. he was the real deal (as far as college runningbacks go, maybe not in the NFL) and if he had been at a better school he would have been considered for the heisman... THomas and Cobbs the year before were shutdown by just about every team outside of their SBC schedule...
