Sam Dibrell, one of North Texas' top offensive players, has left the program, head coach Todd Dodge confirmed on Wednesday.
The sophomore from San Antonio had caught 24 passes for 233 yards on the season. Both totals rank second among UNT players behind preseason All-Sun Belt Conference selection Casey Fitzgerald.
Dibrell started at outside receiver in each of the Mean Green's first four games. UNT will open Sun Belt play on Saturday with home game against Florida International looking to break out of a four-game losing streak to start the season.
That task will become a little tougher without Dibrell, who had been the Mean Green's most consistent receiver this season when opposing defenses have focused in on shutting down Fitzgerald.
Dibrell caught at least five passes for 35 yards in each of UNT's game this season, and had his best outing of the year last week when he caught seven passes for 89 yards. He came into the week ranked third in the Sun Belt with an average of 6.0 catches per game and sixth in receiving at 58.2 yards per game.
UNT has developed a deep corps of wide receivers under head coach Todd Dodge and will have several options to turn to in order to fill the void left by Dibrell.
Senior Roderick Johnson is listed as Dibrell's backup on UNT's depth chart and has five catches for 24 yards on the season. Seven different wide receivers have started at one point for UNT this season.
UNT could look to a combination of its backups to fill the void left by Dibrell, a former high school teammate of starting quarterback Giovanni Vizza. Dibrell caught 28 passes for 377 yards and two touchdowns as a freshman last season.
His best game at UNT came in 2007, when he set career highs in both catches and yards with eight for 121 in a loss to Middle Tennessee.