Mean Green

It's tough to judge a spring game performance most of the time. And, after the last couple of years, it's hard not to be a glass-half-empty guy, but I was a bit surprised with how it all unfolded for UNT today at Fouts Field.

Riley Dodge came out on fire and completed his first six passes. He led the Mean Green to a touchdown on the first-team offense's first drive.

And then that was pretty much it.

UNT was flat offensively the rest of the day.

Dodge finished 19 of 24, but only had 94 passing yards. That's an average of 4.9 yards a completion, which is not really good. For comparison sake, Levi Brown of Troy averaged 10.1 yards a completion last season.

To be fair, UNT was missing wide receiver Mike Outlaw and Dodge was playing in his first spring game. He will get better.

If UNT is to reach its goal of being more explosive, it is going to have to take more shots in the mid- to deep-range, though. I am sure that will be the case.

UNT did make a lot of plays in the zone-read, but I wouldn't be real anxious to be running Riley all over the field at his size. I know a lot of people disagree with me, but that's my take.

It looks like Kylie Hill is going to move to outside linebacker for good. UNT ran a bunch of guys through that spot, but might be best off with Hill in a move that will make UNT faster, but smaller. Dodge named Hill as one of the bright spots of the spring game.

Dodge was also pleased with wide receivers Des Brigham, Tyler Stradford and Willie Taylor. UNT will be deeper at wide receiver next year no matter what happens, but will be a lot better off if Stradford is granted immediate eligibility by the NCAA after transferring from Oklahoma. He might be the best wide receiver out there and has good speed.

It should be interesting to see if UNT's defensive improvement today is a flash in the pan or a sign that the unit really is turning the corner. There will be no way to tell for sure until the Mean Green takes on Ball State.

All in all, it probably wasn't the best of spring games for the Mean Green. Yea, the defense looked better, but most people were hoping for offensive fireworks that never materialized. And I don't particularly care if UNT was running just its base stuff. If UNT can't run its base stuff and make it work against a defense that was really bad last year, it's tough to buy that it is suddenly going to break out and be great next year against Alabama and Troy and Ball State.

I still think this team is going to go as its offense goes.

And in a final note, UNT seems to have gotten a bit of a break when its schedule was switched around.

UNT's bye will come after its Sun Belt opener against Middle Tennessee on Sept. 26, which will give the Mean Green a week to prepare for what looks like it could be one of its shots for a win next season in a game at UL-Lafayette on Oct. 10.

UNT's bye was later in the season originally. It would be nice to get a break late in the year, but looking at it realistically, UNT needs to get it going early in the season to avoid a downward spiral that would be tough to overcome after the last two seasons.