Talking North Texas QB Situation

North Texas has become a wasteland for QB play. However, the current head football coach continues to tell who will ever listen to him that the play from his starter is solid. I’m not sure how anyone in their right mind could call the play of his starting QB solid. No other coach in college football would do it. So why does Head Coach McCarney continue to tell everyone that? Does he know he is wrong? McCarney is beyond wrong, its borderline ludicrous. Coach the numbers don’t lie.

• Andrew McNulty has a QB Rating of 95.73 which ranks him 122 out of 124 QBs nationally.
• McNulty’s completions percentage is 47.6 which ranks him 119 out of 124 QBs nationally.
• The Mean Green QBs completion percentage of 45.8% ranks 115
• The Mean Green QBs rating of 93.6 ranks 118
• The Mean Green QBs throw 19.5 incompletions per game which ranks 125
• UNT ranks 89 in passing yards per game.

BUT WE HAVE PLAYED SOME TOUGH OPPONENTS

Oh Really?

• Average QB rating given up by North Texas opponents – 157.4 which would rank 113
• Average completion percentage given up by North Texas opponents – 59.6% which would rank 70
• Average yards per game given up by North Texas opponents – 262 which would rank 94

The facts are that these numbers aren’t as bad as they should be. Do you want to know why? Well that’s because these averages were taken after these teams played North Texas. North Texas has played some really bad pass defenses ( SMU, Rice, Southern Miss), and they’ve made those teams look good. The fact is that not one QB on the North Texas roster is worthy of the words “gives us the best chance to win” statement.

DaMarcus Smith

Now we get into the curious case of DaMarcus Smith. The JUCO transfer QB that many North Texas fans were hoping to be the guy. The guy that just got thrown under the bus by Dan McCarney.

“I was really disappointed in the consistency of DaMarcus Smith when we did give him an opportunity.”

“He(DaMarcus Smith) made far too many mistakes. What you saw in the game is what we see in practice. He is inconsistent and makes too many mistakes.”

Coach your starter is just as inconsistent and makes mistakes too. Just letting you know

Ouch those comments hurt Coach. Especially when you set DaMarcus up for failure. First off if he was inconsistent in practice why would you play him? It goes against everything McCarney stands for. McCarney consistently puts a strong on emphasis on how a player practices. So if Smith proved to McCarney in practice that he wasn’t ready, why put him in the game? Was McCarney that desperate? Was McCarney just trying to appease the fan base? It just doesn’t make sense for a coach to say what Mac says, and then do what he did with Smith. McCarney is making the Cleveland Browns look smart when it comes to handling QB situations.

DaMarcus was given 10 plays in his playbook for this game. Canales was going to stay within those 10 plays. The full playbook was not available for use when Smith was on the field. So when DaMarcus changed a play on the field that was not in that 10 McCarney become hot. Smith was benched and McNulty was inserted back into the line-up. McCarney will likely continue to throw the “dirt” on Smith throughout the season now. Smith will most likely be confined to the ball cap and hand signals for a long time now.

The cherry on top is that North Texas will continue to march a 5th year senior out at QB in a season where there isn’t much hope instead of preparing for the future. North Texas might have 1 win going into November with no bowl hope and this staff wouldn’t change the QB. Proving that they have NO IDEA what they are doing when it comes to managing the QB.

 

I want to also say this befuddlement at the QB position isnt on McNulty, Smith, or Greer. They are out there doing what they can do. McNulty prepares well and dude is a tough competitor. Smith came in and tried to make plays. I’m not blaming them for anything. These kids are being set up for failure by the coaching staff. Its a shame they have to endure a situation like this.

Proof Dan McCarney doesnt know what solid QB play looks like:

In McCarney’s career as a Head Coach he has had

• Only one top QB throw for over 3000 yards
• Only one top QB throw 20 TDs in a season

Average numbers of top QBs through the years

55% completion percentage, 2093 yards, 6.9 yards per attempt, 12 TDs, 11 Ints, 118.86

That doesn’t exactly scream solid or good to me. Maybe solid for teams in the 70’s or 80’s.

Before the last game McNulty was on pace to throw more passes than Derek Thompson ever threw in one season. It would’ve been more passes attempted than Bret Meyer, and Sage Rosenfels too. So essentially McCarney trust McNulty more than those guys. He has to trust him more because he is willing to let his offense put the ball in the air more.  To me that is huge red flag.

Now DaMarcus Smith came in and took away some of McNulty’s passes so that lowered McNulty’s attempts per game from 35 to 31.5.

 

 

We all must be looking at different stats and film than Coach Mac. Its the only way to describe what is going on in Denton.