Scouting the High-Flying Mean Green of North Texas
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This Friday, the American Conference championship game will be contested in Yulman Stadium in Uptown New Orleans, featuring the Tulane Green Wave and North Texas Mean Green. The winner is likely representing the Group of 6 in the College Football Playoffs, which begin the weekend of December 11-13. The way the bracket is drawn right now, if the American champion is chosen in the CFP, they would travel to Eugene to take on the University of Oregon or to Oxford to battle Ole Miss.
UNT Will be a Challenge to Stop
North Texas is no joke. Its offense is the best in the country, averaging 510-yards per game. Second in the nation is another American team, South Florida at just under 502-yards a contest. The Mean Green isn't just moving the ball, they're putting it into the end zone. UNT leads the nation in scoring, also, putting up 46.8-points each time they take the field.
We asked safety Jack Tchienchou how you defend against a yardage and scoring machine like this.
"We've been in this position before," Tchienchou shared. "Ole Miss, they had a good offense. They said they'd put up a150 (points) on us. FAU (Florida Atlantic) had a good offense. The said they'd blow us out of the water." For the record, the Rebels of Ole Miss scored 45 on the TU defense in a 35-point loss for Tulane, while the Owls of FAU scored 24 (over half of which was late in the game) in a Tulane 11-point victory.
"We have to just play our game," the sophomore DB continued. "When there's third down, we have to get off the field. We have to get them uncomfortable (with a) great pass rush. They like to sit back there, find open spots. A lot of their routes are 5-to-10 yards deeper than what regular concepts would look like. They'll (the defensive line) have time to get back there, and when they do, they'll have to make them (UNT) pay for it."
North Texas is known for getting short completions, then making the defense work to make the tackle. Tchienchou said it's important to keep the UNT receivers close by.
"Keep everything in front," he explained, "nothing over the top. When their plays come to you, you've got to make them."
The last half of the season, the Mean Green started to become a more efficient rushing team as well, averaging close to the two-century mark on the ground, something the young safety acknowledged, saying making UNT one-dimensional is the key.
"We've got to stop the run, (first)," Tchienchou said. "It'll be key to make sure they know the run is not going to work, forcing them into passing situations."
North Texas' Offensive Pacing is Frenetic
The Mean Green have a face-paced offense, much like what the Green Wave have seen already this year. Linebacker Chris Rogers believes that will help the Tulane D be more prepared.
"I think that (playing other up tempo offenses) has helped a lot," the junior backer said. "Ole Miss, FAU, East Carolina they did go fast. I do feel like that helped us a lot in practice, to line up fast, get our keys, see what we see, and do our assignments."
The forecast for Friday night has fluctuated between an expectation of heavy rain and just a slight chance of precipitation, depending on when you check it. Rogers is hoping for the same thing his head coach is: a monsoon, something he says will make him happy.
"It does," the linebacker said with a grin, "have them run the ball more. It would make me feel a lot better."
Tulane and North Texas square of Friday night at 7:00 p.m. in Yulman Stadium for the championship of the American Conference. A win by the Green Wave will send them into the College Football Playoffs for the first time in school history.
Doug has covered a gamut of sporting events in his fifty-plus years in the field. He started doing sideline reporting for Louisiana Tech football games for the student radio station. Doug was Sports Director for KNOE-AM/FM in Monroe in the mid-80s, winning numerous awards from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association for Best Sportscast and Best Play-by-Play. High school play-by-play for teams in Monroe, Natchitoches, New Orleans, and Thibodaux, LA dot his resume. He did college play-by-play for Northwestern State University in Natchitoches for nine years. Then, moving to the Crescent City, Doug did television PBP of Tulane games and even filled in for legendary Tulane broadcaster, Ken Berthelot in the only game Kenny ever missed while doing the Green Wave games. His father was an alumnus of Tulane in the 1940s, so Doug has attended Tulane football games in old Tulane Stadium, the Superdome, and Yulman. He was one of the 86,000 plus on December 1, 1973, sitting in the North End Zone to seeTulane shutout the LSU Tigers, 14-0. He was there when the Posse ruled Fogelman and in Turchin when the Wave made it to the World Series. He currently is the public address voice of the Tulane baseball team.