Paws Up Preview – FIU Football vs North Texas

MIAMI, FL – The FIU Panthers are looking to cap off their two-game homestand with their second victory of the season, but it won’t come easy against an all-too-familiar opponent: The North Texas Mean Green.

While the Panthers are off the high of their first victory of the season against the Maine Black Bears, some massive takeaways play into what we can expect from FIU.

What We Learned From Maine

It was the Keyone Jenkins show for the Panthers against Maine, as he was given the nod to start at quarterback not long before showtime.

And for the most part, Jenkins was solid. In the first half, a solid passing game complimented led to FIU moving the ball down the field. It was in the second half that the offense began to falter with their play-calling and execution.

In any event, the stats look good. Jenkins recorded 292 yards off of 15 completions – the most passing yards by a freshman QB in FIU history.

Another star in the making was wide receiver Kris Mitchell, who caught both touchdown passes on the night and racked up 201 yards – tying him for the most in a single game by an FIU WR, along with Tyrese Chambers and TY Hilton.

“He played in a lot of big games in Miami Central,” said MacIntyre. “He’s won every award you can win in the state of Florida. He handles it humbly. Every day, he has a smile on his face that lifts you.”

On the defensive side of the ball, FIU’s linebacker core continues to impress, led by Donovan Manuel, who recorded 14 tackles and two forced fumbles. And at the end of the day, the defense only allowed 12 points in the game.

The negatives that we saw were the three failed fourth-down conversions on the Maine side of the field, which kept the game closer than it could have been. Those could have resulted in field goals but instead were nothing.

On top of that, the rushing game at times felt like a shell of its former self when compared to what we saw against LA Tech the week prior. It was decent, but not what we expected, especially against a brand-new Maine defensive line.

Overall, a win is a win, and there were some great takeaways in favor of FIU, but I felt like the Panthers should have won by double digits at the very least, not a down-to-the-wire affair that came down to the Panthers defense making a stop.

It is worth mentioning that head coach Mike MacIntyre did say that Jenkins would be reprising his role as the starting quarterback against the North Texas Mean Green.

On to the Mean Green

Hailing from Denton, Texas (40 miles north of Dallas) are the North Texas Mean Green. They’re a former member of Conference USA but made the move last year to join the AAC. Their new conference features schools such as Memphis, Tulane, South Florida, and Temple.

“We’ve been preparing hard. They’re running a wide-open spread type of offense and an Iowa State type of defense,” said MacIntyre. “They’re completely different from last year. They have good talent, and there’s a lot of players in the state of Texas.”

Dating back to 2005, both UNT and FIU have met in football seven times. The Mean Green have won five times in the matchup, which includes the last three games such as 2022 in which they blew out the Panthers by a score of 52-14 in Denton. FIU’s last win in the series was in 2011.

Last season, North Texas finished with a 7-7 record. After going 7-6 in the regular season, they faced the UTSA Roadrunners in the Conference USA Championship game and lost. They then went to the Frisco Bowl and, once again, lost to Boise State.

This also prompted the firing of their previous coach, Seth Littrell. Now, Eric Morris will take over the position. Previously a head coach at Incarnate Word and offensive coordinator at Washington State, we’ll see if he’s an improvement or not.

Last week, the Mean Green fell to the Cal Bears by a score of 58-21. Their junior quarterback, Stone Earle, threw for 174 yards and three touchdowns, but the defense could not stop Cal the entire game.

Earle, by the way, was the Mean Green’s backup last season. Before that, he was the starter at Abilene Christian in which he threw for over 1200 yards and 13 touchdowns in seven games before an injury.

He has shown talent both then and even in the Cal loss, but he’ll have a tough challenge against the FIU secondary. However, he’ll have a lot of returning weapons on offense this season.

North Texas has a very balanced running game with not just one star. Ayo Adeyi, Ikaika Ragsdale, and Oscar Adaway III, all recorded 807, 755, and 583 yards along with 16 combined touchdowns in 2022, and are all returning this season.

While they didn’t put up impressive numbers against Cal, expect the offense to rely on them heavily against the Panthers in the trenches.

Regarding wide receivers, both Ja-Mori Maclin and Roderic Burns are also returning. Two of UNT’s biggest weapons of offense last season, Maclin has already recorded 122 yards against Cal.

In general, the Mean Green’s offensive weapons are all back and potentially better than ever. It’ll be a massive test for all aspects of the Panthers defense.

Their defense, however, took a bigger hit to the transfer portal than the offense, so they’re a bit harder to preview. They did give up 58 points to Cal, so there’s that.

Still, junior linebacker Jaylen Smith had a solid game with nine tackles and a forced fumble. While he was mainly a special teams defender in 2022, expect to see his snaps on defense increase as the season goes on.

One of UNT’s anchors of defense might be John Davis, who recorded an interception against Cal. In 2021, he recorded 19 tackles and four pass breakups and was poised to have a career year in 2022 before a season-ending knee injury in week one. He’ll look to rebound in 2023 and might be some trouble for Keyone.

Jake’s Prediction

We’ll see how Keyone Jenkins progresses into his second start, but if the offense continues to struggle in the second half as they have been doing, then it might turn into a long night.

If FIU’s running game can elevate back to what we saw against the Bulldogs, combined with the long-ball connections from Jenkins to Kris Mitchell, then this could turn into an absolute shootout.

I do feel that UNT’s offense is even more balanced and dangerous than LA Tech, so the FIU defense has a lot on its plate going up against the Mean Green. This feels like it could be another even, down-to-the-wire game…something the Panthers know all too well now.

UNT – 30

FIU – 24

After the game, the Panthers will travel to Hartford, Connecticut to take on the UConn Huskies on Saturday, September 16th at 3:30pm.