North Texas Football Prediction: Game-By-Game Predictions for the Mean Green in 2020

North Texas was 57th in my preseason college football rankings last year. Even without several key players, the Mean Green were well equipped to flirt with a third straight nine-win season and send Seth Littrell's already high Power Five stock to the moon. One year later, North Texas is 107th in my preseason rankings. 

After reportedly rejecting Kansas State's advances, Littrell returned to Denton and replicated his predecessor Dan McCarney in plunging from nine to four wins in just one season. Now, after a disastrous season, the 41-year-old fifth-year head coach is entering his second challenging rebuild with the program. And he's doing so without an offensive coordinator—Bodie Reeder was fired and not replaced, leaving Littrell to call plays in 2020, not co-coordinator Tommy Mainford—and a new defensive coordinator in former Kansas colleague Clint Bowen, who was North Texas defensive coordinator in 2011.

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In calling plays for the first time in five years, Littrell won't have program legend Mason Fine to help fix an offense that couldn't find a consistent running game (83rd nationally in yards per carry), couldn't convert on third downs (92nd), and averaged fewer yards per play and points per play than 2018. 

After walking over Houston Baptist in Week 1, North Texas will face one of the most difficult three-game non-conference stretches in the FBS and will likely enter October with only one total win, leaving them in need of five wins over their final eight games to reach bowl eligibility.