2011 Season
Final Record: 7-6, (5-3)
3rd in the Sun Belt
New Mexico Bowl Winners
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SCHEDULE
[table="head;width=45em;color="white""]Week|Date|Opponent|Opp Record|Result
1|09/03|@ FIU|11-1|L, 16-20
2|09/10|vs #24 Houston|10-2|L, 24-28
3|09/17|@ #1 Alabama|9-3|W, 34-21
4|09/24|vs Indiana|4-8|L, 25-32
5|10/01|@ Tulsa|9-4|L, 17-34
6|10/08|vs FAU|4-8|W, 21-20
7|10/14|@ ULL|1-11|W, 22-7
8|10/22|vs ULM|5-7|L, 16-21
9|10/29|@ Arkansas State|5-7|W, 25-24
10|11/05|BYE||
11|11/12|@ Troy|7-5|L, 14-61
12|11/19|Western Kentucky|5-7|W, 26-21
13|11/26|BYE||
14|12/03|vs MTSU|4-8|W, 31-28
Champ||BYE||
Bowl|12/19|vs Utah|7-6|W, 48-42[/table]
Taking over as UNT's offensive coordinator, I knew I had a tough task ahead of me. The strengths of the offense were in HB Lance Dunbar. Our QB, Derek Thompson, is solid and so are the top 2 wideouts. It was easy to decide to use Dunbar to set up the pass. I took the TCU playbook and used it to great effect in 2011.
UNT improved from a terrible 3-9 campaign to go 7-6, with a bowl victory and two HUGE wins over top-flight FBS programs in Alabama and Utah. It was a rough start to the season, losing two close games to teams who ended up doing very well, but the upset against Alabama in Tuscaloosa was a big boost to the team. Dunbar went down for three weeks towards the end of the season, really making our offense difficult to run. After the blowout loss to Troy, we sat at 4-6 on the outside looking in. However, our team stepped up and we won our final three games of the season (including the bowl).
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PASSING
Derek Thompson, boom or bust.
[table="head;width=45em"]Class|Name|Rating|Comp|Att|Yards|YPG|YPC|TD|INT|Comp %|Sack
RS SO|Derek Thompson|145.1|213|401|3748|288.3|17.5|26|16|53|50
SO|Brent Osborn|56.2|2|7|23|5.7|11.5|0|0|28|1
[/table]
Derek Thompson was much better than expected, but he benefitted heavily from the punishing run-style of Lance Dunbar. Numerous times Dunbar would carry the ball 3-4 times in a row, which set up Thompson nicely on play-action over the top.
However, Thompson made some outstanding plays throughout the season, including three game-winning drives in the final two minutes. He still turns the ball over far too much, but we'll be depending on him in 2012 until we can find a consistent running threat.
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RUSHING
Lance Dunbar: All man, all machine. (What?)
[table="head;width=45em"]Class|Name|Att|Yards|Avg|YPG|TD|Fumbles
SR|Lance Dunbar|249|1069|4.2|97.1|6|1
SR|James Hamilton|139|437|3.1|33.6|3|2
SO|Brandin Byrd|26|113|4.3|16.1|0|0[/table]
Dunbar was our focal point heading into 2011 and we may have focused on him a little too much. Lance opened the season with three 100+ yard rushing games in our first 4 contests, but he probably took too many carries to get there. Dunbar missed 2 full games as well as a significant amount in 3 others during the season. The two games he missed were also our biggest losses of the season.
James Hamilton was a decent backup, but he had neither the strength nor the speed of Dunbar. His limited physicality decreased our offensive effectiveness, but he filled in admirably in Dunbar's absence.
Brandin Byrd looks to be the starter next season and there's a lot of hope that he can be better than Hamilton was. In spurts, he was very effective running off-tackle.
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RECEIVING
Tyler Stradford had a monster year running deep.
[table="head;width=45em"]Class|Pos|Name|Rec|Yards|YPC|YPG|TD|Long|Drops
RS JR|WR|Tyler Stradford|42|1333|31.7|102.5|15|80|5
JR|TE|Andrew Power|36|378|10.5|29.0|2|28|6
SR|WR|Michael Outlaw|33|818|24.7|62.9|5|79|7
JR|TE|Daniel Prior|32|217|6.7|16.6|0|32|2
JR|WR|Ivan Delgado|28|500|17.8|41.6|3|57|5
[/table]
Our wideouts benefitted from a system in which we asked them to do very simple things. Most of the time - block. The rest of the time - run deep. Stradford was a huge deep threat for us and it showed. He managed to go over 1300 yards receiving on less than 50 receptions. Stradford and Outlaw were #1 and #2 in the nation in yards per catch.
Stradford and Delgado will hopefully return, giving us two legitimate outside threats to hopefully take the pressure off the running game.
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AWARDS
WR Tyler Stradford - Sun Belt Offensive Player of Week 14
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NCAA RECORDS
Longest Pass: QB Derek Thompson - 80 yards
Longest Run: HB Lance Dunbar - 80 yards
SCHOOL RECORDS
Passing Yards (Season): QB Derek Thompson - 3748 yards
Receiving Yards (Season): WR Tyler Stradford - 1333 yards
Receiving TDs (Season): WR Tyler Stradford - 15 TDs
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HEISMAN TROPHY WINNER
RS SR QB Brandon Weeden, Oklahoma State
155.3, 287-455, 3819 yards, 33 TD, 5 INT, 63.1%
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BCS BOWL RESULTS
Rose Bowl: Oregon 31, Florida State 24
Fiesta Bowl: Wisconsin 34, Boise State 27 (OT)
Orange Bowl: Miami 31, Alabama 24 (OT)
Sugar Bowl: Mississippi State 21, USF 14 (OT)
BCS National Championship: Michigan State 28, Oklahoma 21
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COACHING CAROUSEL
UNT OC Josh Miller declined:
HC Offers - Northwestern, Rice, FIU, New Mexico, NMSU, SJSU, and Tulane.
OC Offers - Oklahoma State, UCONN, Northwestern, Rutgers, UCF, Wake Forest, FIU, Washington State, WMU, UAB, EMU, Memphis, MTSU, SJSU, FAU, and Tulane.
Bill Snyder (HC) retires. FIU HC Mario Cristobal is taking over for 2012.
Pat Fitzgerald (HC) was fired from Northwestern. He was then hired as HC at Rice.
FIU replaced the departing Cristobal with their OC, Scott Satterfield.
DeWayne Walker was fired as HC of NMSU and hired as DC at Cal.
Todd Monken (OC) was fired from Oklahoma State and hired as OC at Washington State.
Mike Locksley punched his way out of the HC job at New Mexico and landed as the OC at Memphis.
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PLAYERS LEAVING
UNT
None
NOTABLE EARLY ENTRIES TO NFL
Wisconsin HB Montee Ball
USC QB Matt Barkley
Stanford LT Johnathan Martin
Pitt HB Ray Graham
Oregon QB Darron Thomas
Oregon HB LaMichael James
Oklahoma St. WR Justin Blackmon
Oklahoma QB Landry Jones
Michigan St. DT Jerel Worthy
Illinois DE Whitney Mercilus
Alabama HB Trent Richardson
Alabama CB Dre Kirkpatrick
Alabama LT Barrett Jones
NOTABLE TRANSFERS
USC HB George Farmer to UNLV
USC QB Jesse Scroggins to Utah State
Texas HB Joe Bergeron to ULM
Texas C Garrett Porter to Kansas State
Texas WR Darius White to North Texas
RECRUITING
UNT - #102 Recruiting Class
0 - *****
0 - ****
5 - ***
8 - **
4 - *
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Coach Josh Miller
[table="head;width=45em"]Year|Position|Team|Record|Bowl|Champ
2011|OC|North Texas|7-6|New Mexico Bowl (W, 48-42)|None
TOTAL|
-|
-|
7-6|
1-0|
-[/table]