Football: Mean Green releases 2009 schedule

Football: Mean Green releases 2009 schedule

09:25 AM CDT on Thursday, March 26, 2009

By Brett Vito / Staff Writer

Fouts Field will be a little busier this fall, thanks to a friendlier schedule in 2009 for North Texas.

The Mean Green has traditionally been forced to be road warriors while playing the majority of its games away from its home turf. The 2009 season will be a different.

UNT will play six home games for the first time since 1993.

“The fact that we have six home games and three home games in the early part of the season shows a commitment to helping us get off to a good start and get this program back to its winning ways,” UNT head coach Todd Dodge said.

UNT hasn’t had a winning season since 2004 and has finished 2-10 and 1-11 the last two seasons. Two of UNT’s three wins the last two years have come at Fouts Field.

The Mean Green will open the season with a Thursday game at Ball State, but will then play three of its next four games at home, including its Sun Belt Conference opener against Florida Atlantic on Sept. 26.

UNT will head into league play off three straight tough nonconference games against Ball State, Ohio and Alabama. Ball State and Alabama won their first 12 games last season before finishing 12-2, while Ohio won its last two games to finish 4-8.

The Mean Green was scheduled to have a bye following its nonconference slate on Sept. 26, but a switch in the league slate left UNT opening Sun Belt play with a home game against Florida Atlantic on that date.

The Owls are a perfect 5-0 against UNT and hammered the Mean Green 46-13 last season.

Middle Tennessee will visit Denton the next week when the Blue Raiders will try to extend their winning streak over the Mean Green to four straight.

UNT’s schedule becomes more manageable late in the season when the Mean Green hosts a Western Kentucky team it has beaten in each of the last two seasons for two of the three wins in the Dodge era on Oct. 31.

The Mean Green is off the following week and will then close with games against Florida International and Arkansas State on Nov. 14 and 28, sandwiched around a game against Army that highlights its nonconference slate.

UNT lost a shootout with Navy, 74-62, at Fouts Field in the 2007 season in front of one of a crowd of 26,012 that ranks as one of the largest for a Mean Green game in the history of the facility.

UNT’s homecoming game will be on Oct. 17, when the Mean Green hosts Louisiana-Monroe.

BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870. His e-mail address is bvito@dentonrc.com .

NORTH TEXAS 2009 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

SEPTEMBER

3	at Ball State
12	Ohio
19	at Alabama
26	Florida Atlantic

OCTOBER

3	Middle Tennessee
10	at Louisiana-Lafayette
17	Louisiana-Monroe
24	at Troy
31	Western Kentucky

NOVEMBER

7	open
14	at Florida International
21	Army
28	at Arkansas State

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