Even after the 21-17 win at Florida Atlantic University, North Texas Head Coach Todd Dodge was looking forward to getting back to Denton, not to enjoy the victory but to “get back to work.”  While the team was enjoying a hard earned win in the locker room the coaches had their minds on the next opponent.

Going into the FAU game Dodge stated two of the team’s goals was to win the third down battle not only on offense but also on defense. Both those goals were accomplished and the coach recognized the fact when he said “we didn’t get ourselves in a whole lot of situations offensively on a bunch of third and long.” Most of the game, the North Texas offense was in a third and short situation, which allowed them to use either the running or passing game. Normally, North Texas has been in third and long situations which resulted in them being forced to go to the pass which played into the hands of the defense.

After the first FAU drive for a touchdown, defensively the team was able to pull together to do the right things to control the offense. They were able to put FAU into third and long situations forcing them to go to the air. This allowed Defensive Coordinator Gary DeLoach’s defense to put in the defensive packages to shut the offense down and they did.

Dodge said he was “proud of them” and told them so in the locker room. He said he told the team they had to fight adversity to get to their goals and they fought adversity in the FAU game and as a result they came away with the win.

He told the kids “they finished” and it “was something we needed to do” in order to achieve their team goals.

The coach stated Riley Dodge is “getting back to playing quarterback” everyday and is getting back into the swing of things. Coach Mike Canales got him ready to play this week and his hat was off to him. Riley and Canales both worked their tales off getting ready for the game.

“It was a physical game” and North Texas stayed right there with FAU and “proved to ourselves we can do it.”  Holding off FAU's late charge in the fourth quarter to preserve the win proved to the team “we are not snake bit” like what had happen to the team last year. “We were in one of those games” where last year North Texas would have lost but this win proves to the team they can finish games to get the win and “it feels so good.” 

During this game the team “believed in themselves…had confidence in themselves” and as a result took the first conference win and the first win of the season.The goal now is to keep the winning attitude going and to apply what the team learned in this win to each remaining game.