One of the better things about North Texas Football’s rise to decent the last two seasons has been the freedom from expectation. Aside from Head Coach Seth Littrell declaring NT was going bowling in his first year, no one really expected much (this blog was bullish, however). With wins come expectations, however, and now the beat writers that cover the league have spoken: They think NT is good.
I touched on this on CUSA Report, but let me put it here for you who are too lazy to click:
This is how I see the league based on my gut reaction. NT has some holes to fill, and the West division is the toughest of the two in the conference. Tech is more talented throughout their roster, by reason of being a good team and having decent classes for so long. They had rough season last year that can be explained by the inevitable difficulties a team going through transition experiences.
UAB was tough last year and should be just as tough this year. They have NT at home in Birmingham and North Texas still doesn’t play well on the road. Yes, NT handled UAB for a good portion of the game but the Blazers also looked really good in exploiting huge issues in the NT secondary. It will not be easy in Birmingham, and the Blazers have the kind of team composition that NT has struggled with.
East:
FAU
MTSU
ODU
FIU
Marshall
WKU
Charlotte
West:
La Tech
UAB
North Texas
Southern Miss
Rice
UTSA
UTEP
