The Southwest Conference kicks off this weekend with defending champion North Texas looking very solid.

UNT is coming off a win in the pre-season Texas Cup competition, defeating Texas Tech in the quarterfinals, a tough Baylor team in the semis, and then St. Edward’s in the final 40-36.

St. Edward’s pushed UNT hard and at one point the Mean Green was down to 12 players due to yellow cards. But they held on.

Coach Andrew Marshall said the Texas Cup was perfectly placed to give his squad a good preseason going into the SWC season, but it has also given the Mean Green a few injuries, so we’ll see how they get started.

“We want to play some tougher non-conference games,” said Marshall, “and we’ve got Oklahoma later in the season, which will be really good for us. We want to show better at the ACRC Bowl Series if we qualify.”

North Texas played in the ACRC Bowl Series last year and was summarily dismissed 46-0. It was a tough end to a fall in which the Mean Green had swept the SWC, going 5-0. They have resolved to finish better this year.

“We’ve been recruiting well and we return a lot of players from last year,” said Marshall. “We’ve got some high expectations.”

Inside center Cody Frye and No. 8 Cade Carter have been tough to stop on offense for UNT. And they might be small, but flanker Walter Sravia and scrumhalf Gregorio Chavez have proved hugely effective in stealing ball in contact.

This weekend the fall set of games kicks off with Rice (1-4 in 2014) v Texas State (3-2), Houston (1-4) v North Texas (5-0), and Texas Tech waiting two weeks until their conference season starts.