It’s time for the weekly Sun Belt/DFW stock report, where we look at who’s on the rise and who’s tanking in college football when it comes to UNT’s peers. Here goes:
DFW
Stock up:
TCU — The Frogs hammered Virginia 27-7 to improve to 3-0 on the year. TCU is right on schedule to get to where it wants to go and has won 11 FBS straight games.
Holding steady
SMU — The Ponies were off this week and picked up some extra prep time for their showdown with TCU.
Stock down
UNT — The Mean Green was in position to really help itself and build some enthusiasm in the program with 21,823 in the stands and blew it in a 14-7 loss to Troy. UNT missed three field goals, failed to convert on fourth down twice deep in Troy’s end and fell to 1-3 with a two-game road trip coming up. Sound bad? It was.
Sun Belt
Stock up
Western Kentucky — The Hilltoppers hammered Southern Miss 42-17 to improve to improve to 3-1. The Tops are sitting pretty when it comes to making a run at a bowl game now. All those highly regarded recruits are starting to produce just like they nearly always do.
Troy — The Trojans pretty much had to win their game at UNT to get on track to get to a bowl game. They did just that. At 2-2 with South Alabama and Florida Atlantic on the schedule, six wins is not out of the question.
Arkansas State — The Red Wolves wacked Alcorn State 56-0 and head into a huge game against WKU this week at 2-2. The winner will have an inside track on the Sun Belt title.
Louisiana-Monroe — ULM couldn’t quite finish off Baylor and fell 47-42. Still, the Warhawks continued to be a national story and had a crowd of 31,175 on hand for a TV game. That’s more than UNT has ever had for a home game — ever — even back to the days when it was winning the Sun Belt every year. The first game in Apogee Stadium didn’t draw that big of a crowd. The exposure should help ULM In recruiting.
Stock down
UNT — Don’t ever read too much into playing Top 25 teams close.
Florida International — When one looked at FIU’s schedule at the beginning of the year, it wasn’t hard to imagine the Golden Panthers picking up a couple big wins in nonconference play. FIU had Duke, Central Florida, Akron and a tough game against nationally ranked Louisville. UNT beat Akron, but needed overtime to do it and lost each of the other three games, including a 28-21 loss to the Cardinals last week.
South Alabama — USA was hammered by Mississippi State 30-10 and is now 1-3 on the year. The one? A 9-3 squeaker over Nicholls State. USA ranks No. 120 in the FBS with an average of 14.3 points a game, a total inflated by the 31 points it scored in a game against another FCS move-up UTSA. The zinger? USA lost that game 33-31.
Florida Atlantic — Note to FAU and defensive end Corey Henry: Don’t give a team like Alabama a reason to want to beat the hell out of you. Henry said before FAU’s game against the Tide that Alabama is beatable. True. Just not bad a basement-of-the-Sun-Belt team. Alabama hammered FAU to send the Owls to 1-3 with its one win being a thrilling 7-3 triumph over Wagner (no, not the power painter). It’s going to be a long year for the Owls.