The North Texas coaching staff broke from its regular routine this week to spend some extra time on special teams. I wrote about what Dan McCarney had to say at the top of my notebook in today’s paper.
UNT has an experienced special teams coach in Kent Riddle and two good kickers in Will Atterberry and Zach Olen.’
A lot of UNT’s problems probably had to do with facing Kansas State. McCarney said some of UNT’s issues were personnel problems (coachspeak for the other team having better athletes).
UNT will be fine once conference play starts.
I do have to wonder if this isn’t where UNT might miss all those veteran defensive backs and linebackers who graduated last year. UNT lost seven of its top 10 tacklers from a year ago and Mike Stojkovic is redshirting this year, pushing the total to eight. A lot of those guys played on special teams.
UNT ranks ninth in the Sun Belt in kickoff coverage.
And in non-football news, UNT swept Baylor in volleyball last night.strong>
Great win for UNT, which looks like it has the team to contend in the Sun Belt this year.