{"id":1312,"date":"2017-10-20T16:39:06","date_gmt":"2017-10-20T21:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ntsportsstats.com\/site\/?p=1312"},"modified":"2017-10-20T16:39:06","modified_gmt":"2017-10-20T21:39:06","slug":"fb-north-texas-vs-fau-2017-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ntsportsstats.com\/site\/2017\/10\/20\/fb-north-texas-vs-fau-2017-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"FB: North Texas vs FAU 2017 Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Views: 223<\/p>

North Texas (4-2 3-0) is coming off of a come-from-behind win against in-state non-rival UTSA. The Mean Green will be looking to continue their winning ways with the conference’s leading offensive unit. North Texas sits atop the West Division<\/p>\n

FAU (3-3 2-0) welcomes the Mean Green in an East-vs-West Conference USA match-up.\u00a0 Lane Kiffin is in his first year at FAU and has the owls off to a hot start. FAU features the second hottest offensive unit in Conference USA, so this game could become a shootout. FAU does sport the top rushing unit at 258.7 rushing yards per game.<\/p>\n

Both teams are undefeated in conference action but only team will walk away with perfect conference record.<\/p>\n

FAU Vitals (3-3 2-0)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
First season<\/th>\n2001<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Athletic director<\/th>\nPatrick Chun<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Head coach<\/th>\nLane Kiffin<\/a>
\n1st season, 3\u20133\u00a0(.500)<\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Stadium<\/th>\nFAU Stadium<\/a>
\n(Capacity: 29,419)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Year built<\/th>\n2011<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Field surface<\/th>\nGrass<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Location<\/th>\nBoca Raton, Florida<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Conference<\/th>\nConference USA<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Division<\/th>\nEast<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
All-time record<\/th>\n77\u2013117\u00a0(.397)<\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bowl record<\/th>\n2\u20130\u00a0(1.000)<\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Conference titles<\/th>\n1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

University of North Texas Vitals (4-2 3-0)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
First season<\/th>\n1913<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Head coach<\/th>\nSeth Littrell<\/a>
\n2nd season, 9\u201310\u00a0(.474)<\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Location<\/th>\nDenton, Texas<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Conference<\/th>\nConference USA<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Division<\/th>\nWest<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
All-time record<\/th>\n493\u2013490\u201333\u00a0(.501)<\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bowl record<\/th>\n3\u20136\u00a0(.333)<\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Conference titles<\/th>\n24<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Offense<\/h3>\n

Advantage: North Texas<\/strong>. North Texas brings the top offense, top passing offense, top scoring offense, and First Downs per Game. Mason Fine is the leading passer and Jeffery Wilson is the leading rusher for Conference USA. FAU is near the bottom in Rushing Defense so look for North Texas to take advantage of that, especially of the passing game isn’t firing on all cylinders early in the game.<\/p>\n

FAU has the conference’s top rushing unit but it might be a little suspect. Middle Tennessee and ODU don’t have strong run defenses and so the Owls were able to rack up above average yardage. FAU is in the bottom half for pass offense so the question comes down to whether the Owls can take advantage of a weaker North Texas pass defense. While to many this is a useless stat but FAU is last in the conference in Time of Possession whereas North Texas is comes in at #3 (31:05\/game).<\/p>\n

Defense<\/h3>\n

Advantage: North Texas<\/strong>. While FAU may have the conference’s leading rushing unit, North Texas brings a good rush defensive unit (136.0 YPG\/3.5 AVG). The Mean Green will be looking to contain\u00a0Devin Singletary<\/a>,\u00a0who is third in the conference in yards per game.<\/p>\n

FAU’s defense, while stronger against the pass, doesn’t appear to be as good as what North Texas puts on the field as a whole unit. FAU is weak against the run, which means for Jeffery Wilson and Nic Smith. If North Texas chooses to go its rushing attack, the Mean Green could try to play keep away with long, sustained drives.<\/p>\n

Special Teams<\/h3>\n

Advantage: FAU<\/strong>. Neither team sports what could be considered a game changing Special Teams unit.<\/p>\n

North Texas’ Trevor Moore has never missed a PAT kick that he has attempted and is reliable on kicking field goals.\u00a0FAU is 25 of 26 on PAT kicks whereas North Texas is 23 of 26. North Texas has shown a tendency to make errors on special teams so FAU could potentially capitalize on these errors to edge out the Mean Green.<\/p>\n

Media<\/h3>\n

TV:\u00a0\"ESPN3<\/a><\/p>\n

Radio:\u00a0KNTU 88.1<\/a>, KHYI 95.3 FM, KGAF 1580 AM, and\u00a0TuneIn Radio
\n<\/a>Stats:\u00a0Mean Green Sports<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Views: 223North Texas (4-2 3-0) is coming off of a come-from-behind win against in-state non-rival UTSA. The Mean Green will be looking to continue their winning ways with the conference’s leading offensive unit. North Texas sits atop the West Division FAU (3-3 2-0) welcomes the Mean Green in an East-vs-West Conference USA match-up.\u00a0 Lane Kiffin…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ntsportsstats.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Stats-Article-Header.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9ebqr-la","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ntsportsstats.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ntsportsstats.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ntsportsstats.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntsportsstats.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntsportsstats.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntsportsstats.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntsportsstats.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ntsportsstats.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntsportsstats.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntsportsstats.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}