North Texas Football Defensive Preview

A Smorgasbord of new faces

UNT fall camp via @meangreenfb on twitter

The Basics:

• 3-3-5 base defense

• led by first year DC Matt Caponi

  • Matt Caponi spent the last four seasons as the cornerbacks coach at Iowa State

  • Caponi was safeties coach at Arizona during the Hill Mary between Cal and Arizona in Tucson

• Cal has faced the 3-3-5 defense against North Texas in 2019 (23-17 Cal win) , ASU in 2019 (24-17 Cal loss) TCU in 2021 (34-32 Cal loss)

• UNT lost four of their top five tacklers from last season to graduation/the transfer portal

  • LB KD Davis to the pros, LB Larry Nixon III to Auburn, LB Sean Thomas-Faulkner to graduation, and DB Quinn Whitlock to graduation

  • DB DeShawn Gaddie who led the 2022 team in PBU’s also transferred to Ole Miss

• took in two transfers on defense with Damon Youngblood (ULL) and Phil Hill (UNLV) joining the Mean Green

2022 Defense in review

Yards/play: 6.1 yards/play, 113th in the country, 8th in conference USA
SP+ ranking: 115th in the country
FEI ratings: 113th in the country
All conference honorees: five (two first team, one second team, two honorable mention)

2022 was a weird year that saw North Texas go to the CUSA title game and also finish 7-7 overall because they didn’t beat a single non-conference FBS team. But their in-conference success was much more driven by the other side of the ball, as offensive minded head coach Seth Littrell never could get his defense going. Regardless, it was a down year for everybody in the CUSA over than UTSA, though that didn’t stop the AAC from pillaging new members.

Three of North Texas’ five CUSA all-conference honorees are back, highlighted by CB Ridge Texada, so this isn’t a defense completely devoid of talent and experience. But there is little in last year’s resume that would indicate that the Mean Green have the talent to keep up with power conference level offenses.

Depth Chart

The Provisional Starters

Edge Mazin Richards, NG Roderick Brown, Edge Fatafehi Vailea

LB Jaylen Smith, LB Jordan Brown, LB Kevin Wood (questionable to play)

FS Logan Wilson, SS Phil Hill, Star Nick Nakwaasah, CB Ridge Texada, CB John Davis

Players to Watch

The only player to return from North Texas’s leading tacklers was Mazin Richards, who will assume the reins as the Mean Green defensive leader. Richards led the team in sacks last season with 7.5 and had 55 solo tackles. No other Mean Green defender had more than 4 sacks last season.

Roderick Brown, a 5’11 300 pound nose guard will be another force along the defensive front, taking up space in a battle with Matthew Cindric. Brown had 4 sacks last season, and like Richards is one of the few returners with production.

Both Brown and Richards were named to PFF's preseason All AAC first and second team defense.

The aforementioned Ridge Texada helps lead a UNT secondary that has a respectable level of experience. Texada led the team with 3 interceptions last season and will be alongside John Davis, who has 21 career starts between Texas Tech and UNT but had his 2022 season cut short after an injury in week 1. Similarly, Phil Hill suffered an injury at UNLV that kept him out for 2022, so to see both Hill and Davis starting keeps me curious as to Cal’s wide receiver play this weekend.

Experience matters and there’s no windup for this secondary.

For a look at the UNT returning defenders and Matt Caponi’s style with his corners, take a look at the games below. There will be lots of plastering on receivers, so expect some jump balls for the likes of Jeremiah Hunter and Trond Grizzell.

How Cal can win this game

Cal needs to sustain balance to have success against this UNT defense. As you can see, the results against a 3-3-5 defense in the Justin Wilcox era have been a mixed bag. The defensive line can certainly get in the backfield if the offensive line is not up to task so its crucial to get Jaydn Ott going. Once that happens, the field will open up for Sam Jackson V, as the wide receiver group should have a productive day against a secondary that’s mostly returning to action for the first time in a while.

If Jake Spavital can keep an inexperienced linebacker unit on its toes, that will bode well for the Golden Bears. You may have noticed there’s nothing on the linebacker core of Jaylen Smith, Jordan Brown, and Kevin Wood because there’s just not much out there. The discipline in any zone read action can make or break Cal drives on offense and likewise North Texas on defense. I expect Cal to move the ball relatively effectively, but the name of the game is balance.

The bottom line is that this is probably the weakest FBS defense Cal will face this season. First games can be weird, particularly under a new coordinator, but if Cal can’t confidently move the ball and score against North Texas, it will be a concerning indicator for the rest of the season.