UNT football deploys full roster during games
Brett Medeiros / Senior Staff Writer
During the last two years with Dan McCarney as the head coach of UNT’s football program, the team failed to fill the maximum number of 85 players allowed, by rule, under scholarships. This year, the team finally reached that number, giving the Mean Green a newfound level of depth on its roster.
“We’re playing more guys than we ever have since I took the job at the University at North Texas,” McCarney said. “It’s exactly what we want to do. It builds depth and builds competition.”
This is no more evident than at the wide receiver position, as the 40-6 victory against the University of Idaho to open the season demonstrated.
Between senior quarterback Derek Thompson and freshman quarterback Dajon Williams, the two connected with eight different receivers throughout the game.
“We have guys we know can roll in and not miss a beat, and that’s real good for us,” Thompson said. “We need to continue growing as an offense.”
It is clear the primary target for the UNT quarterbacks is senior receiver Brelan Chancellor, who caught six passes for 135 yards and a touchdown. But four other receivers corralled three or more catches during the course of the game.
“We [the receivers] were the doubted ones. We were the ones that everybody was talking about, that the receivers were probably going to be the downfall of this team,” Chancellor said. “We bowed our necks and took it as a personal challenge and we stepped up to the plate.”
On defense, the increased team size also made a significant impact against Idaho.
After giving up a touchdown on the first drive of the game, the defense settled down and shut out the Vandals for the rest of the night.
Part of the reason was because of the team’s ability to rotate players in and out throughout the course of the game so that there were fresh legs available up to the final whistle. The six points allowed were the fewest allowed by the Mean Green defense in a home game since 2006, when UNT beat SMU 24-6.
“With more depth, you have more guys that can help you win on game day and it really showed,” senior linebacker Zach Orr said. “You can see guys rotate in on offense, defense and special teams the whole night and everyone that went on the field contributed to the win [against Idaho] in some type of way.”
In the last three years, Chancellor, Orr and Thompson all missed significant time due to injuries.
With the team’s larger roster, their replacements would be better equipped to step in when needed.
Feature photo by Ryan Vance / Intern
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