Green with envy

North Texas defensive back Nate Brooks (9) celebrates after his interception against Incarnate Word during an NCAA college football game Saturday, Sept. 8, 2018, in Denton, Texas. (Jake King/The Denton Record-Chronicle via AP)

FAYETTEVILLE -- Chad Morris spent the past three years in his home state of Texas trying to build the best midmajor program in the state at SMU.

Now as the head coach at the University of Arkansas, Morris is trying to blunt the momentum of the man who has taken his former task and run with it.

Seth Littrell, a former fullback at Oklahoma, is seeing his hard-nosed approach take shape at North Texas in his third season. The Mean Green, 2-0 for the first time since 1994, take their high-flying attack into Reynolds Razorback Stadium today at 3 p.m. for a nonconference game that has Arkansas (1-1) on upset alert.

The Razorbacks, 9-0 all time against North Texas, are a 7-point favorite.

The Mean Green are giddy for a shot at toppling an SEC team in the Razorbacks who are trying to regain their footing after stumbling with an 18-point lead and falling 34-27 at Colorado State last week.

"They kind of have their backs up against a wall, and there's no doubt it's going to be a great challenge for us," Littrell said. "All we can focus on is our execution and making sure that we're prepared the right way in order to play our best possible game."

Morris said he's accountable for last week's late-game flop.

"Our inability to finish, that's something we've been preaching since I walked in the door here," Morris said. "It's all about the finish. We'll continue to preach that."

Arkansas safety Santos Ramirez said the players couldn't help but be reminded of blown leads from the past after Colorado State rallied.

"It did shock us because, hey, it reminded us," Ramirez said. "It did. But we can't have that type of mentality. Regardless, we've got to make sure we keep our foot on people's necks when they're down. That's the name of the game."

North Texas has the No. 1 passing offense in the country, with third-year starting quarterback Mason Fine directing an attack that has racked up 457.5 passing yards per game and seven touchdowns in victories over SMU and Incarnate Word.

Littrell (Muskogee) and Fine (Locust Grove High School) are both from northeastern Oklahoma, roughly an hour from Fayetteville.

"We both grew up in that neck of the woods, so we definitely know all about the University of Arkansas and their tradition," Littrell said. "It's a great stadium, great team, great school."

The parallels between Morris and Littrell are strong.

They are both advocates for Spread offenses with heavy run-pass option tendencies, which like to dictate tempo. They both refined their chops as offensive coordinators in the ACC -- Morris at Clemson (2011-14) and Littrell at North Carolina (2014-15).

"Seth and I go way back to his time being coordinator at North Carolina and our interaction there," Morris said. "Just a great young offensive mind. He's very bright. He does a great job of preparing his players.

"He came into North Texas and basically built that program from the ground floor up and has done a fabulous job of recruiting and also just evaluating talent."

Another similarity is that both men took over 1-11 programs in the Metroplex area in successive seasons. Morris directed SMU to records of 2-10, 5-7 and 7-5 before landing the job with the Razorbacks.

Littrell took over a 1-11 North Texas program in 2016 and cycled up quickly with records of 5-8 and 9-5.

Morris has a 2-0 head-to-head record against Littrell as head coaches. The Mustangs beat North Texas 34-21 in Denton, Texas, on Sept. 13, 2016, in Littrell's head coaching debut. Last year's game in Dallas was a shootout, with the Mustangs taking a 54-32 victory. Fine passed for 424 yards and 3 touchdowns in that game, but he also threw 2 interceptions.

"Chad does a great job," Littrell said. "He's a great offensive mind and a great head coach. He's sharp. He knows what it's all about, and he does a great job of recruiting and motivating his guys and putting them in the right situations to be successful.

"There's no doubt in my mind he'll do a great job there at Arkansas, and he'll do a great job this Saturday getting his guys ready to play."

Both teams are looking to establish more offensive balance.

The Mean Green have been pass heavy, their yards-gobbling passing game countered by the nation's No. 112 rushing offense, which has produced 110.5 yards per game.

"If we need to be able to throw the football in order to have success, that's what we'll do," Littrell said. "But we also in the past couple years have been really good running the ball as well and taking pressure off some of the offensive linemen and the quarterback.

"We've got to get that going as well. So we want to be as balanced as possible, but the first couple games the defense has given us the passing plays, and Mason and the receivers have done a great job of throwing and catching."

Arkansas' production was pass heavy in Week 1 -- with 353 passing yards and 80 rushing yards in a 55-20 victory over Eastern Illinois -- and ground hugging last week -- with 138 passing yards and 299 rushing yards at Colorado State.

The Razorbacks' dual quarterback scenario with sophomore Cole Kelley and junior Ty Storey sharing time behind center is likely to continue today.

"We'll keep doing what we're doing," offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Joe Craddock said. "I think it's kind of been the same since we got here. Every practice has been different.

"One guy will have a good practice and the net guy will the next day. We hope to eventually get to where we can settle on one guy and just run with it."

The Razorbacks are determined to not let the vibe of last week's blown lead, which closely resembled the style of losses that marked the past few years of the Bret Bielema era at Arkansas, leech into the rest of the season.

"We've got something to prove," receiver La'Michael Pettway said.

"We're just trying to get all that bad energy out," defensive lineman McTelvin Agim said. "We made that bed, we had to lay in it, and now we've got it out the way and we're trying to move on to the next step."

Ramirez said Morris and his staff did a great job of helping the team move past last week's disappointment.

"We can't sit here and be sad or be like, 'How could that happen?' or worry about the outside noise," Ramirez said. "We've just got to continue to press forward now and focus on winning this game on Saturday."

Said linebacker De'Jon Harris: "It's about to be the third game. We can't let that define our season. We can't let that hold us back because we have a lot of opportunities in front of us."

Senior center Hjalte Froholdt said the players did well in applying the 24-hour rule after the loss at Colorado State.

"I know it was a very disappointing loss, I'm not going to lie, but we're going to come back out," Froholdt said. "The whole team has a 24-hour rule. We have 24 hours to be pissed about it, to be petty about it, and we can cuss and do whatever we want, but after those 24 hours, after Sunday meetings, it's gone."

Agim said he expects a rowdy crowd for the Razorbacks' second game in newly expanded Razorback Stadium.

"I feel like it's going to be a great atmosphere," Agim said. "I feel like the fans are still behind us like always, and I feel they're hungry for wins just like we are."

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Sports on 09/15/2018