This game is less of contest against the Rice Owls and more of a test of wil and self-discipline. We are often told that football teaches sacrifice, discipline, and some of the hard lessons that best prepare you for life. This is a knowledge check.
It is much easier to prepare for games where everything is on the line. It is easy to work hard when you are up for promotion, or a raise, or a bonus. What about when you are told in no uncertain terms that there is no greater reward coming?
What about when the absolute best job you can do from this point on will be compared to the job you could have done, forever? These questions will be asked and answered in this game and in the games to come for the rest of the season.
North Texas football is the same team it was on September 28th, and October 19th that it is today. That is to say that the two tough losses on the resume took the Mean Green out of the division title race but do not reveal a bad or awful team. They simply reflect a good team with some bad luck. Or a good team that met up with another good team. Or a good team that was not as good on one or two plays.
That is, in case you were unaware, football. To paraphrase Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own: “The hard is what makes it great.”
Depending on the team that makes its way out of the tunnel on Homecoming, this should be a blowout.
