Best Case/Worst Case for 2016: North Texas Mean Green

[caption id="attachment_23555" align="alignright" width="350"]DENTON, TX - OCTOBER 15: North Texas Mean Green football v Western Kentucky at Apogee Stadium on October 15, 2015 in Coppell, Texas. (Photo by Manny Flores for Rick Yeatts Photography) UNT RB Jeffrey Wilson (Photo by Manny Flores)[/caption] Will this season be a dream or a nightmare for your favorite FBS program in the state of Texas? In this series, we take a look at the best and worst case scenarios for all 12 teams. North Texas 2015 Record: 1-11Best Case North Texas was driven into the ground. Seth Littrell is tasked with turning around the football program in Denton after a 1-11 season and a mid-year firing of the former coach. Littrell is known for an up-tempo, high-flying offense and the Mean Green have pieces for offensive success. The first test comes in the opening week. North Texas hosts SMU, another local program trying to gain footing under a new regime, in a game that will answer a lot of questions about both programs. A win for North Texas accelerates the turnaround under Littrell. A win against SMU likely means a 2-0 start thanks to a Week 2 matchup against Bethune-Cookman. A money game on the road against Florida seems unrealistic, even in a best case scenario. The goal for North Texas is to reach a bowl game and four wins inside Conference USA isn’t out of the possibility. North Texas only needs three conference wins if it adds a non-conference victory over Army in the middle of the season to go along with wins over SMU and Bethune-Cookman to start. Conference USA struggled in 2015. Rice, UTEP and UTSA missed bowl games. North Texas’ lone win of 2015 came against UTSA. It might be a long shot, but winning the in-state games on the schedule, plus a win over Army and Bethune-Cookman means the Mean Green are bowling and building momentum on the recruiting trail much faster than anyone expected. Worst Case North Texas won one game in 2015 and the head coach was fired before the season ended. Good news, Mean Green, fresher pastures are ahead. It can’t get much worse. A blowout loss to SMU to start the season means the Mean Green shouldn’t be expected to do much this season except improve. The talent level, specifically on both lines of scrimmage, left a lot to be desired. It’ll take a few recruiting classes for Littrell to build the two-deep he needs on the offensive and defensive line to make a real run towards a conference championship. A loss against Bethune-Cookman would be disastrous on the recruiting trail, especially if other first-year coaches inside the state like Frank Wilson and Everett Withers have instant success within the same conference. The only other game on the schedule the Mean Green could be favored in moving forward would be a non-conference game against Army. A winless conference record isn’t a stretch and would be worse case for a coaching staff trying to build a different kind of buzz in Denton.

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