FRISCO, Texas – North Texas spent more than a decade in the football wilderness. The Mean Green were 41-104 from 2005-16, with only one winning season during that period.

North Texas finally broke through last season in its second year under coach Seth Littrell. The Denton, Texas, school went 9-3 during the regular season and won the Conference USA West Division title.

Losses by a combined 44 points to Florida Atlantic in the C-USA title game and Troy in the New Orleans Bowl put a sour end to that season. But the 9-5 campaign was still overwhelmingly positive for a program that struggled for so many years.

The Mean Green were announced Tuesday as favorites to repeat as C-USA West champs. North Texas received 18 of 26 first-place votes in the league’s preseason media poll.

Quarterback Mason Fine is a key reason the expectations remain high in Denton. He was named Conference USA Offensive Player of the Year in 2017 and beat out Western Kentucky QB Mike White for a first-team all-conference selection.

Fine returns this year as a junior. The 5-foot-11, 185-pound quarterback completed 63.4 percent of his passes last season for 4,052 yards with 31 touchdowns against 15 interceptions.

“Last year we were the hunters and now we’re the hunted,” Fine said Wednesday during C-USA Media Days at The Star. “We’ve got that big target on our backs and we’re going to use that to our advantage.

“We know we’re going to get the opposing team’s best effort and best shot at us that week harder than we ever have. We’ve got to be prepared because we know we’re going to get their best effort and we have to match it.”

Fine’s teammates include fellow preseason all-conference pick Jalen Guyton at wide receiver. He was named C-USA Co-Newcomer of the Year in 2017 after catching 49 passes for 775 yards and nine touchdowns.

Littrell, an up-and-coming coach in the college ranks, returns for his third season. His offense averaged 35.5 points per game last season, up from 24.8 his first season and 15.2 in 2016, former coach Dan McCarney’s last year with the program.

The Mean Green play in Apogee Stadium, a $78 million facility that opened in 2011. The campus sits in the talent-rich Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, making for a built-in recruiting advantage over other C-USA schools.

“The sky’s the limit for this program, especially with the talent we’re bringing in,” Fine said.

North Texas has viable competition for the West Division title from Louisiana Tech, Alabama-Birmingham, Southern Mississippi and Texas-San Antonio. Those teams were picked second through fifth, respectively, in the division preseason poll.

La Tech, which received four first-place votes, features all-conference picks O’Shea Dugas (offensive line), Teddy Veal (wide receiver), Jaylon Ferguson (defensive line) and Amik Robertson (defensive back).

Coach Skip Holtz’s Bulldogs won the West in 2014 and ’16. They slipped to 4-4 in the league last year but finished with a 51-10 rout of Southern Methodist in the Frisco Bowl.

Running back Spencer Brown leads a UAB squad that looks to build off a surprising 8-5 campaign in 2017. The Blazers made the Bahamas Bowl in their first year following a two-season program hiatus.

Southern Miss also went 8-5 last year in its second season under coach Jay Hopson. The Golden Eagles feature the league’s Preseason Special Teams Player of the Year, kicker Parker Shaunfield.

UTSA’s defense will be anchored by defensive lineman Kevin Strong and linebacker Josiah Tauaefa. The Roadrunners defense ranked third last season in Conference USA (4.98 yards per play allowed), best in the West Division.

“I look at the games with Louisiana Tech, with North Texas, with Southern Miss, with UAB – those four teams, they’re one-point games,” Holtz said. “I look at UTSA and the job (coach) Frank Wilson has done there. … I think in the West Division it’s anyone’s ballgame each and every year.”

Rice and Texas-El Paso were picked in a tie for sixth place after going a combined 1-23 last season. The Owls (Mike Bloomgren) and Miners (Dana Dimel) both hired new coaches this offseason.

WKU draws La Tech and UTEP out of the West Division this season. The Hilltoppers will host the Miners on Nov. 17 and play at the Bulldogs on Nov. 24.{&end}