UNT will host Hugh Freeze and the Liberty Flames Saturday afternoon in Apogee Stadium. The Mean Green accepted an invitation on Thursday to join the American Athletic Conference which has generated plenty of excitement on campus. North Texas hopes this excitement and energy translates to the football field come 3pm, October 23rd.
Liberty limps into Denton as they were stunned by the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks 31-28 last week on a late 53 yard field goal after going into the game as a 32 point favorite. The Flames are 5-2 with their other defeat coming against the Orangemen on Sept 24th, on a 35 yard field goal as time expired. The Flames' two losses have come away from Williams Stadium, they're 2-2 on the road this season including their loss to Syracuse in the Carrier Dome.
The Mean Green (1-5) have their lone win of the season at home in the opener against Northwestern State. They're coming off a loss to the Thundering Herd last Saturday, 49-21. UNT moved the ball well against Marshall, totaling 411 yards of offense including 277 yards on the ground but fell into an early 35-0 hole and were penalized 17 times for 161 yards. There's no question the Mean Green will have to clean that up if they want to stay in the game with Liberty, who are 21.5 point favorites.
Junior QB Austin Aune and Senior RB Deandre Torrey lead the way for the Mean Green offense. Torrey has run the ball well all season long. He's averaging almost 6 yards a carry on 135 attempts and is up to 780 yards rushing on the season adding 6 touchdowns. Aune has had an up and down season and has split time under center with Jace Ruder. Aune is much improved in his last two games but has haunted UNT with costly turnovers.
His counterpart on the opposite sideline is of course the Heisman hopeful and Auburn transfer Malik Willis who's thrown for 1,462 yards with 23 total touchdowns on 655 yards rushing. He's a dynamic playmaker and will pose a huge challenge for the Mean Green defense who are allowing an average of 35 points a game and 433 yards.
UNT looks to snap their 5 game skid and eliminate the mental mistakes that plagued them last week versus Marshall and stay alive for bowl eligibility.
Coach Seth Littrell stresses that UNT must play well in all three phases and play complimentary football to have an opportunity to compete with Liberty.
"We got to be a lot more disciplined, play smarter...and eliminate pre-snap penalties." "We got to throw and catch better." Littrell said when asked about 3rd and 4th down short yardage situations and their struggles this season.
My prediction is that UNT stays close with their big play ability on the ground
and may even have a lead at the half, but Liberty and their defense force turnovers late and ultimately pull away in the second half, 45-27.