2007 North Texas Mean Green football team

The 2007 North Texas Mean Green football team represented the University of North Texas as a member of the Sun Belt Conference during the 2007 NCAA Division I FBS football season. Led first-year head coach, the Mean Green compiled an overall record of 2–10 with a mark 1–6 in conference play, tying for seventh place the bottom of the Sun Belt standings. The team played home games at the Fouts Field in Denton, Texas.

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Todd Dodge was hired as head coach replacing Darrell Dickey, who was fired after going 3–9 in 2006. Dodge was regarded as one of the nation’s most successful high school football coaches amassing a 98–11 record overall at Carroll High School in Southlake, Texas. He was named National Coach of the Year by Schutt Sports in 2004 and by USA Today in 2005. His Southlake program produced five consecutive offensive players of the year in Texas. Dodge is also regarded by many FBS coaches as one of the nation's premiere offensive minds in developing a unique and effective scheme in his variation of the spread offense, in the much the same vein as Steve Spurrier and Mouse Davis. While at Southlake, Dodge helped the University of Missouri to implement his scheme.

After being named as head coach, Dodge announced in early January the hiring of nine new assistant coaches. The new staff's combined resumes included 26 bowl game appearances, 14 bowl victories, 18 high school state titles, a Super Bowl title and a Bowl Championship Series (BCS) national title. New defensive coordinator Ron Mendoza, new offensive coordinator Todd Ford, and new special teams Robert Drake all came with Dodge from Carroll High School, where they coached the Dragons to five state titles. After a coaching in the National Football League (NFL) with the Pittsburgh Steelers and at University of Houston, Butch LaCroix, former North Texas assistant from 1987 to 1993, rejoined the Mean Green staff for a second stint as cornerbacks coach. After four seasons at the University of Tulsa, Spencer Leftwich returned as offensive line coach, a position he held at North Texas from 1994 to 2002. Former North Texas leading receiver, new receivers coach Clayton George, also served under Dodge until becoming head coach at Hillcrest High School. 2003 NCAA Division I-A assistant coach of the year, Chuck Petersen was hired as safeties coach after spending 17 years with at the United States Air Force Academy. Former Texas Longhorns and St. Louis Rams player and later Texas graduate assistant, Derek Lewis, was appointed defensive ends coach. After spending the previous two seasons at Louisiana Tech, Shelton Gandy was hired as running backs coach.^[16]

Prior to the first home game, Fouts Field received several improvements. With paint donated by local Pittsburgh Paints, the student spirit organization, Talons, repainted the entire stadium. Other changes included renovated bathrooms, signage, asphalt in and around the entry gates. This is the largest improvement to Fouts since replacement of the field's Astroturf prior to the 2005 season.

On August 4, 2007, North Texas unveiled changes to their uniforms during the Kickoff Cookout at the Mean Green Athletic Center.^[17] For away games, instead of all green jerseys, the team wore white shirts with white pants. Home games featured the university's new kelly green on top and the same white pants. The numbers and letters were green for away games and white for home with a black outline. The most notable change was the reintroduction of a white helmet not worn since Joe Greene played for North Texas in the late 1960s.

The Mean Green traveled to Norman, Oklahoma, for the season opener against the Oklahoma Sooners. Within :32 seconds of the first quarter, the Sooners scored on their opening drive. The Sooners put up 49 unanswered points until North Texas kicker Thomas Moreland completed the first field goal of the season late in the third quarter. After the Sooners racked up two more touchdowns, freshman (QB) Giovanni Vizza threw the Mean Green's only touchdown of the game to wide receiver (WR) Casey Fitzgerald early in the fourth quarter.

The game ended with a final score of 79–10. The Mean Green finished with 15 yards rushing and 232 yards passing.^[1] Both starting quarterback junior Daniel Meager and freshman Giovanni Vizza saw game time with Meager being replaced by Vizza during the third quarter. Micah Mosley (RB) led the Mean Green in rushing 5 carries and 15 yards.^[1] Contradicting the final score, Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops admitted being worried about running up the score criticizing the Mean Green's no huddle offense.^[18] Coach Dodge handled the loss well and was quoted he held no ill-feelings towards to Sooners for the lopsided win.^[19]

North Texas set a new record of most points given up in a single game. It also marked the second-largest margin of loss in a single game for the Mean Green.

With 136 total points, the game set the NCAA Division I-FBS record for most total points scored in a regulation-length game. The previous record for college football's top division (previously called Division I-A) was 133 points during San Jose State's 70 63 win over Rice in 2004. In addition to the Division I-FBS total points record set by Navy vs. North Texas, the 94 first-half points and the 63 combined points in the second quarter, both set college records.^[20]

Navy came into the game with the best rushing offense, statistically, of any team in the nation. They set a school record by running for 572 yards with eight rushing touchdowns in the game. The Midshipmen tied another school record by scoring at least 30 points for the eighth consecutive game.^[20]

Todd Dodge said, "I have never been a part of a game quite like this. I knew that we would have to score on nearly every possession and maybe steal a possession or two with turnovers."^[20]