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North Texas is coming off a thrilling win against the UAB Blazers for the Conference USA opener for both teams. The offense for North Texas continued to put both yards and points on the board. North Texas sits atop the conference rankings in the following offensive categories — #1 Points Scored (37.8 PPG), #1 Total Offense (503.5 YPG), #2 Rushing (226.0 YPG), #2 Passing (277.5 YPG), and #1 1st Downs (24.5 PG).
Unfortunately the pass defense had a very poor showing and gave up 321 yards and four touchdowns for an average of 18.9 yards per completion to the run-first Blazers of UAB. I’m sure the Mean Green secondary will be looking for some redemption after getting torched.
Special Teams played much better with four field goals and a blocked punt but had an extra point snafu where the ball was snapped the ball through the hands of the holder. That missed extra point could have forced UAB to convert one of those late touchdown PAT tries as a 2-point play rather than an easy 1-point PAT kick.
University of North Texas Vitals (2-2 1-0)
| First season | 1913 |
|---|---|
| Head coach | Seth Littrell 2nd season, 7–10 (.412) |
| Location | Denton, Texas |
| Conference | Conference USA |
| Division | West |
| All-time record | 493–490–33 (.501) |
| Bowl record | 3–6 (.333) |
| Conference titles | 24 |
Southern Miss Vitals (2-1 0-0)
| First season | 1912 |
|---|---|
| Athletic director | Jon Gilbert |
| Head coach | Jay Hopson 2nd season, 9–7 (.563) |
| Stadium | M. M. Roberts Stadium (Capacity: 36,000) |
| Year built | 1932 |
| Field surface | Sports Exe Momentum Turf |
| Location | Hattiesburg, Mississippi |
| NCAA division | Division I FBS |
| Conference | Conference USA |
| Division | West |
| All-time record | 577–410–27 (.582) |
| Bowl record | 11–11 (.500) |
| Conference titles | 8 |
Offense
Advantage: North Texas. As previously mentioned, North Texas sits at or near the top of every offensive category. Jeffery Wilson leads the conference in Rushing Yards per Game (129.5), Rushing Touchdowns (6), Total Rushing Yards (518), and is second in Rushing Attempts (63). Mason Fine leads the conference in Average Passing Yards/Play (269.0), Passing Touchdowns (9), Passing Yards (1076), and second in Pass Completions (78) and Passing Efficiency (156.2).
Southern Miss ranks in the top half of most offensive categories but doesn’t seem to be a team that creates tons of big plays. Ito Smith is a solid offensive player currently putting out 154.7 total YPG.
One thing that seem to stick out with the Golden Eagles offense is they appear to fade as the game progresses. If the Mean Green defense can stiffen up and try to hold to its ‘bend don’t break’ mantra it might give the offense a chance to pull away in the second half of the contest. The USM defense has so far held all of its opponents scoreless in the 4th quarter.
| Score by Quarter | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | OT | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southern Miss | 35 | 24 | 24 | 7 | – | 90 |
| Opponents | 0 | 24 | 17 | 0 | – | 41 |
North Texas is very much a first half team and will be looking to get the offense moving as quickly as possible. Of course, the Mean Green defense has given up a lot of points itself so shutting down the USM offense will be a large task to undertake.
| Scores by Quarter | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | OT | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North Texas | 44 | 48 | 28 | 31 | – | 151 |
| Opponent | 31 | 31 | 38 | 42 | – | 142 |
Defense
Advantage: Southern Miss. Southern Miss is fielding a pretty tough looking defense however if you look over their schedule you have to question whether they are as billed or perhaps a bit of a paper dragon. Kentucky has a Passing/Rushing Offense ranked in the 90s/80s (respectively); and UL Monroe is ranked in the 60s/40s for the same Passing/Rushing offense and North Texas is ranked in the 30s/20s in the same Passing/Rushing Offensive categories.
The Mean Green Defensive Line has been a strength even without RS Sophomore Bryce English, who is currently injured with a broken foot. The Secondary got torched with Nate Brooks getting beat on a double move twice with both breakdowns leading to long touchdown passes. Hopefully the defense can clamp things down and help improve things in the Points Against category (#12 in C-USA at 35.5 PPG).
Special Teams
Advantage: Push. North Texas played much better against the Blazers but is still prone to making mistakes (bad snap or hold on a PAT against UAB). Nothing jumps off the Southern Miss stat sheet for the Golden Eagles as to how good or bad their Special Teams unit performs.
North Texas and Southern Miss trade places on stats like Kick Returns (NT – 6/USM – 9), Punt Return Average (USM – 5/NT 10), Kickoff Coverage (NT -5/USM – 7), Field Goals (NT – 5/USM – 13), and Punting (USM – 11/NT – 13).
Like North Texas, USM is breaking in a new freshmen punter. North Texas has settled on Alvin Kenworthy.
Parker Shaunfield of USM is just two of three from mid-range (20-29) while Trevor Moore is six of seven with a long of 46 yards for the 2017 season.
Media
TV: 
Radio: KNTU 88.1, KHYI 95.3 FM, KGAF 1580 AM, and TuneIn Radio
Stats: Mean Green Sports