Carlos Hill's Story|A North Texas Dynasty

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North Texas Fires Seth Littrell After 5-8 Year, Carlos Hill Brought In As Replacement

The North Texas Mean Green fired Head Coach Seth Littrell today. They claimed that he was brought in to bring success to a struggling North Texas football program and he just wasn't getting the job done.

Seth Littrell had a record of 5-8 in his one year as head coach.

The Mean Green brought in new head coach Carlos Hill to bring the Mean Green back to the spotlight. He is fairly new to the coaching world (his only job was at the high school level for 4 years). His success at the high school level catapulted him into the ranks of college football. The current assistant coaches will also be let go. They will be replaced with Offensive Coordinator Nathan Barley and Defensive Coordinator Braylen Cooper.

North Texas is only expected to get three wins at most. Even Arkansas State they aren't expected to beat. Hopefully, the Mean Green can show some life under Coach Hill this year.

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2017 North Texas Preview

The North Texas Mean Green have several strengths and weaknesses albeit more weaknesses than strengths coming into 2017. This North Texas team is not expected to do much. They are led by WR Michael Rubin and WR Jacob Marin on offense. Their defense features CB Jesse Love and CB Cruz Brooks.

The defense should be able to defend the pass as long as they avoid any elite passing teams. The run defense may struggle however as the best lineman is John McClain. He is the anchor of the defensive line, if he goes down hurt so does the defensive line. The biggest weakness for this defense is at linebacker. The best LB is Jesus Harrell, a great tackler and pass rusher but too slow to keep up with most wide receivers and running backs. None of the linebackers are great at coverage, and besides Harrell, none of the linebackers can consistently get inside the pocket.

The offense will be WR Michael Rubin and LT Frank Whitney with everyone else will be getting in line behind them. Michael Rubin, Jacob Marin, and James Roy will be asked to shoulder the load for the entire offense. QB Snowden will need to connect with his receivers consistently, otherwise this offense won't be putting up a lot of offense.

All in all, this team is far from great. They don't have a running game,
the linebacker group is weak, and there are only two or three good linemen on offense and defense combined, but this team is led by a new, young coach, the freshman on the team could turn into good players one day down the line, and the team does have a few playmakers on the team.

You've gotta love Texas football.

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Around The League Week 1

Results

#9 Ohio State Defeats Texas Tech 34-16

#6 LSU Escapes Southern Miss 20-16

#3 Alabama Edges Central Florida 31-24

Troy's Comeback Falls Just Short Against #16 Michigan State 42-39

Air Force Upsets #18 Baylor 23-18

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A Great Way To Start:
North Texas Slaughters Appalachian State 31-13

The Mean Green rolled over Appalachian State 31-13.

Jacob Marin showed that he is more than capable of having a huge game. He went off on a weak Appalachian State defense for 139 yards and a touchdown. ASU has a horrendous pass coverage unit outside of linebacker James Davis. He had 9 tackles and an interception on the day. He is a beast on the defensive side of the ball, but unfortunately he is a senior so there isn't any time for ASU to build around him.

North Texas dominated this game from the get go. They led only 3-0 after the first quarter, but Appalachian State hadn't even crossed the North Texas 40 after one quarter of play. ASU turned the ball over twice, both times in the first quarter.

After NTU went up 3-0, ASU responded with a promising drive of their own before RB Samuel Austin had the ball knocked loose at the North Texas 45. After a three-and-out by North Texas, Appalachian State responded with another drive that drove all the way to the 42 of North Texas before a deep throw over the middle was picked off by SS John Fortier. The teams traded punts until 18 seconds into the second quarter when North Texas kicker Arthur Mason drilled a 33-yard field goal to make the lead 6-0.

ASU then had a three-and-out before NTU went on a 2:37, 6-play, 76-yard drive that ended with Timothy Wood punching in a touchdown from the seven. Appalachian State finally put together a respectable drive that was capped off with QB Jerome Maldonado threading the needle between three defenders to WR Danny Drake for a 39-yard score to cut the lead to 9 at the half.

The second half was more of the same as North Texas scored early and Michael Rubin caught the pass for the two-point conversion to make the lead 24-7. Jacob Marin caught another pass early in the fourth to extend the lead to 31-10. If Jacob Marin plays like this on a consistent basis, suddenly the duo of Michael Rubin and Jacob Marin is very dangerous.

Jacob Marin is a great player. Albeit, I never thought he would finally go off on a team like that. I mean, I saw it in 'em during practice, that he could have a 100+ yard game, but I don't think he believed that he could do it. Jacob Marin is a great player and Michael Rubin is a great teacher and inspiration for Marin. I hope that this type of play continues for this special young man.
--- Coach Carlos Hollins Of North Texas

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Around The League Week 2
#1 USC Obliterates Wake Forest 75-0
Kansas Topples #11 Ole Miss 35-19
#25 Penn State Escapes #23 Oklahoma 21-20
#21 Missouri Shows Off Defense in 17-3 Domination of #19 Michigan State
#17 Stanford Beats Virginia Tech 16-10

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Also on a side note, I decided to move backup QB Roger Bloom into the starting role before the ASU game. He had 292 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 3 interceptions.

Around The League Week 3
#1 USC hits last-second field goal in 22-20 win against Kansas
#3 Alabama Holds Off Northwestern 39-35
Illinois Overcomes 14-point Deficit to beat #15 Arkansas 34-27
#10 Mississippi State Scores 31 Unanswered To Beat South Florida 59-20
#25 Penn State Edges East Carolina 22-15

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Conference Opener Win: North Texas Takes Down Southern Mississippi 23-3

RB Timothy Woody fights for extra yards.

The Mean Green put up another stifling defensive performance in the game against Southern Miss. The defensive line spent most of the game in the Golden Eagles' backfield. The defense had seven sacks on the day including two by Dean Escobar. Both QBs had off days as they threw a combined 24/65 or 37%. In fact, the QBs only seemed to be on target on long passes, as both had multiple 20+ yard passes. Unfortunately for the Golden Eagles, they could not seem to turn their possessions into points. Southern Mississippi punted on most possessions, and the only drive that made it inside of the red zone was picked off by CB Jesse Love.

The North Texas passing attack ended up carving up the Southern Miss pass defense. In only 11 completions, North Texas racked up 254 yards. The other receiver in the dynamic duo had a ball in this game. Michael Rubin had three catches for 111 yards in the game. WR John Parish also had 71 yards, and Jacob Marin had 57 yards for the Mean Green.

This receiving group is way better than most people give them credit for. Jacob Marin, Michael Rubin, John Parish, they're all great players. They can score against anyone, they can beat any defender in the conference. If they keep playing like they are right now, they would have to be on the All-Conference team. They could all go extremely far in their respective careers. I only wish that I could have (Jacob) Marin for another year. He is a senior this year.

Hats off to Southern Miss, they played a great game. Unfortunately, one team had to lose today and that team was them. Let's go Mean Green!
--- Coach Carlos Hollins of North Texas

RB Timothy Woody ran for 87 yards against Southern Mississippi.

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Around The League Week 4
#19 Michigan State Tops Rival Michigan 28-17
#23 Texas Knocks Off In-State Rival #17 Baylor 24-20
#16 Texas A&M Holds Off #24 Missouri 30-28
#25 South Carolina Upsets #14 Mississippi State 17-7
#11 Wisconsin Slaughters #20 Tennessee 48-0