Allowing a UTSA record 683 yards in a road loss on Friday night was the last straw as North Texas head coach Eric Morris fired defensive coordinator Matt Caponi, sources confirmed to Dave Campbell’s Texas Football.
The Mean Green entered Week 12 allowing 34.3 points per game, which is 119th out of 134 FBS programs. The unit ranked 131st in scoring defense last year while allowing 37.1 points per game. The run defense was the main culprit with North Texas allowing 201.4 yards per game in 2024 – 119th nationally. It was the worst run defense in America in 2023 when the Mean Green allowed 255.17 rushing yards per game.
North Texas went 5-7 in Morris’ first year in Denton despite an offense that averaged 34.5 points per game. The unit is allowing 35.6 points per game in 2024, but the team is on a four-game losing streak and is 5-5 with two games remaining.
Potential names for North Texas include current defensive coordinators Brian Knorr (Air Force), Clay Bignell (Southern Miss), Skyler Cassity (Sam Houston), and Lyle Hemphill (James Madison).
The news was first reported by the Denton Record-Chronicle.
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