North Texas Mean Green

2005 Season Summary

The North Texas Mean Green had emerged as the first "power," if you will, of the Sun Belt Conference as they had captured the first four conference titles in the league's young existence. Entering 2005 the Mean Green had captured twenty-five consecutive Sun Belt games straight up. Head coach Darrell Dickey's team was coming off four consecutive New Orleans Bowl appearances as a result of these titles, winning one of those post season games in 2002 against Cincinnati.

A simple strong trend

The "book" on North Texas was fairly simple for college football gamblers heading into 2005 as a simple and strong trend showed that North Texas was just 1-9 against the spread in their early season non-conference games against the "Big Boys" but was a very strong 13-3 against the spread at home against mostly Sun Belt competition.

Depleted by graduation

North Texas and Dickey would face their greatest challenge entering the 2005 season, however, as they were youthful, inexperienced and depleted by graduation. Beyond that, the rest of the Sun Belt conference was catching up and improving with other teams touted as the chalks to take the conference crown away from the Mean Green entering 2005.

Masses led right off the cliff…again!

North Texas would face one of those touted Sun Belt favorites in their very first game of 2005 at Middle Tennessee. The Blue Raiders had circled this game on their calendars months in advance as they were pointing towards this, their home opener, as they game that would define their season and likely send them on the way to a league title and bowl berth with a win. Middle Tennessee was far more experienced, coupled with their openness about the importance of this matchup became an inflated 8-point chalk. Middle Tennessee became one of the more popular plays amongst the mainstream gambling public, which of course meant that North Texas won and covered 14-7 as the masses were led right off the cliff…AGAIN!

Promising start transformed into a new painful reality

North Texas' win at MTSU had many gamblers re-assessing their chances as more favorable to repeat as the Sun Belt champs. But that promising start would be transformed into a new painful reality.

North Texas was a 3-point chalk in their home opener against Tulsa, where they were blown out 2-54 in shocking fashion. This was followed by an embarrassing 7-54 loss at Kansas State as 27.5-point dogs to the Wildcats.

Rebuilding Troy next visited North Texas. Like the Mean Green, the Trojans were coming off a bowl season in which they were hit hard by graduation afterwards. Troy took the game and cash 10-13 as North Texas was suddenly 1-3 both straight up and against the spread while no longer providing gamblers any value in their home games.

The last win of the season

North Texas faced their next three games on the road starting at Florida International, where they were a 1-point dog to the "expansion" Panthers. The Mean Green, as it turned out, got their last win of the season 13-10. This was followed by demoralizing back-to-back losses. The first one was a 14-40 affair at Louisiana Tech as 20-point dogs followed by a 3-56 bombardment at LSU as whopping 43.5-point dogs.

The blowout losses restored Mean Green's value

Battered North Texas returned home to face Louisiana Lafayette as 3.5-point dogs, covering the number in a 389-31 loss. This was followed by another heartbreaking loss/cover at Florida Atlantic, 23-26 as 4-point dogs. The blowout losses restored the Mean Green's value as they covered back-to-back games.

Back in the tank

North Texas was back home and, as it turned out, back in the tank for their final two games of the season. They lost to Louisiana Monroe 19-24 as 4.5-point pups and Arkansas State 24-31 as 2-point pups to go from first to worst in the Sun Belt Conference.