The 2018 North Texas Mean Green football team represented the

University of North Texas The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public research university in Denton, Texas. It was founded as a nonsectarian, coeducational, private teachers college in 1890 and was formally adopted by the state 11 years later."Denton Normal School," ...

in the

2018 NCAA Division I FBS football season The 2018 NCAA Division I FBS football season was the highest level college football competition in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in 2018. The regular season began on August 25, 2018, and ended ...

. The Mean Green played their home games at the

Apogee Stadium Apogee Stadium is a college football stadium located at the junction of Interstate 35 East and West in Denton, Texas. Opened in 2011, it is home to the University of North Texas (UNT) Mean Green football team, which competes in Conference USA. ...

Denton, Texas Denton is a city in and the county seat of Denton County, Texas, United States. With a population of 139,869 as of 2020, it is the 27th-most populous city in Texas, the 197th-most populous city in the United States, and the 12th-most populous ...

, and competed in the West Division of

Conference USA Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are l ...

(C–USA). They were led by third-year head coach

Seth Littrell James Seth Littrell (born July 24, 1978) is an American football coach and former player. He was the head coach of the North Texas Mean Green football team from 2016–2022. Early life Littrell was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and attended Musko ...

. They finished the season 9–4, 5–3 in C-USA play to finish in a three-way tie for second place in the West Division. They were invited to the

New Mexico Bowl The New Mexico Bowl is an NCAA-sanctioned post-season college football bowl game that has been played annually since 2006 at University Stadium, on the campus of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Owned and operated by ESPN ...

where they lost to

Utah State Utah State University (USU or Utah State) is a public land-grant research university in Logan, Utah. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. With nearly 20,000 students living on or near campus, USU is Utah's ...

. Following a 44–17 victory over

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

and a 3–0 record, the Mean Green received votes in both the

AP Poll The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broadca ...

(4 votes) and

Coaches Poll The Coaches Poll is a weekly ranking of the top 25 NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football, Division I college basketball, and Division I college baseball teams. The football version of the poll has been known officially ...

(5 votes), the first time since 2013 that North Texas received votes in a poll.

Previous season

The Mean Green finished the 2017 season 9–5, 7–1 in C-USA play to win the West Division. They lost the C-USA Championship Game to

Florida Atlantic Florida Atlantic University (Florida Atlantic or FAU) is a public research university with its main campus in Boca Raton, Florida, and satellite campuses in Dania Beach, Davie, Fort Lauderdale, Jupiter, and Fort Pierce. FAU belongs to the 12-cam ...

. They received an invite to the

New Orleans Bowl The New Orleans Bowl is an NCAA-sanctioned post-season college football bowl game that has been played annually since 2001. It is normally held at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans; when the Superdome and the rest of the city suffered damage due to ...

where they lost to

Troy Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in prese ...

Preseason

Award watch lists

Listed in the order that they were released

Preseason All-CUSA team

Conference USA released their preseason all-CUSA team on July 16, 2018, with the Mean Green having two players selected. Offense

Mason Fine Mason Fine (born April 19, 1997) is an American football quarterback for the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He played college football at North Texas. Early years Fine, who is one-quarter Cherokee, grew up in P ...

– QB

Jalen Guyton Jalen Guyton (born June 7, 1997) is an American football wide receiver for the Los Angeles Chargers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at North Texas. High school Guyton attended Allen High School in Allen, Tex ...

– WR

Preseason media poll

Conference USA released their preseason media poll on July 17, 2018, with the Mean Green predicted to finish as champions of the West Division.

Schedule

North Texas announced its 2018 football schedule on January 23, 2018. The 2018 schedule consists of six home and six away games in the regular season. The Mean Green will host C–USA opponents

Louisiana Tech Louisiana Tech University (Louisiana Tech, La. Tech, or simply Tech) is a public research university in Ruston, Louisiana. It is part of the University of Louisiana System and classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activi ...

Rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...

, and

Southern Miss The University of Southern Mississippi (Southern Miss or USM) is a public research university with its main campus located in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award bachelor's, ma ...

, and will travel to

Old Dominion Old Dominion most commonly refers to: *The Old Dominion, a nickname for the U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia ** Colony of Virginia *Old Dominion University, a public university in Norfolk, Virginia **Old Dominion Monarchs, the athletic teams represe ...

, UAB,

UTEP The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public research university in El Paso, Texas. It is a member of the University of Texas System. UTEP is the second-largest university in the United States to have a majority Mexican American stude ...

, and UTSA. The Mean Green hosted two of their four non-conference opponents, SMU from the

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (The American or AAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference, featuring 11 member universities and five affiliate member universities that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) ...

and Incarnate Word from the FCS

Southland Conference The Southland Conference, abbreviated as SLC, is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the South Central United States (specifically Texas and Louisiana). It participates in the NCAA's Division I for all sports; for football, it pa ...

, and traveled to

from the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

and

Liberty Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...

which is a FBS Independent. North Texas won all four non-conference games to begin the season. :Schedule Source:

Game summaries

SMU

The Mean Green's offense went off with 529 total yards, including 444 passing yards from junior quarterback Mason Fine. North Texas's defense held SMU's offense to only 256 yards, forced a turnover, and held the Mustangs scoreless through the first three quarters. 29,519 people attended the game, setting an attendance record at

. This record would be broken 4 weeks later against Louisiana Tech.

Incarnate Word

At Arkansas

At Liberty

Kickoff was delayed until 6:48 p.m. due to rain and lightning. With the victory, the Mean Green started a season 4–0 for the first time since 1966.

Louisiana Tech

At UTEP

Southern Miss

At UAB

Rice

At Old Dominion

Florida Atlantic

At UTSA

Vs. Utah State (New Mexico Bowl)

Statistics

Scoring

;Scores against non-conference opponents ;Scores against C-USA ;Scores against all opponents

Awards

* Head coach Seth Littrell has been selected to join the American Football Coaches Association board of trustees along with Stanford head coach David Shaw and North Dakota State University head coach

Chris Klieman Christopher Paul Klieman ( ; born September 27, 1967) is an American football coach and former player, and is currently the head coach for Kansas State University in the Big 12 Conference. He took over from the retiring Bill Snyder after leading ...

Coaching changes

* Tashard Choice Named Mean Green Running Backs Coach

References

{{North Texas Mean Green football navbox

North Texas North Texas (also commonly called North Central Texas) is a term used primarily by residents of Dallas, Fort Worth, and surrounding areas to describe much of the north central portion of the U.S. state of Texas. Residents of the Dallas–Fort Wor ...

North Texas Mean Green football seasons

North Texas Mean Green football The North Texas Mean Green football program is the intercollegiate team that represents the University of North Texas in the sport of American football. The Mean Green compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athl ...