NEW ORLEANS — North Texas linebacker Trey Fields gestured towards head coach Eric Morris before he spoke his first words in front of an American Conference backdrop Friday night.
“First off,” Fields said, “I want to say thank you to our coaches and everybody involved. We put ourselves in a position to play for a championship.”
The coach in reference has already signed paperwork to work elsewhere. The infrastructure he built in three seasons goes with it. The foundational players that spearheaded the program’s historic season may not be long for Denton, either.
That position to play for a championship — like the one that the Mean Green found themselves in Friday night — has been few and far between in the team’s history.
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Its ability to do so again will now be tested.
The Mean Green fell short of its first-ever American Conference championship and potential College Football Playoff berth in a 34-21 loss to Tulane at Yulman Stadium on Friday night. No. 24 North Texas (11-2, 7-2) outgained No. 20 Tulane (11-2, 8-1) but turned the ball over five times and couldn’t overcome an early injury.
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The Mean Green “got a little off track,” Morris said, when freshman running back Caleb Hawkins exited the game with an injury after he was banged up on a second-quarter fumble that led to a Tulane touchdown and a 14-7 deficit with 12:29 left in the quarter. They punted on their final two second-quarter drives and struggled to resemble the offensive juggernaut that they were in the regular season or even the unit that drove 80 yards on 15 plays to score the game’s first touchdown in the first quarter.
His fumble was the first of five turnovers that Tulane turned into 21 points. The second was a special teams miscue that cost North Texas a shot at momentum before halftime.
The Mean Green trailed by 10 points with just more than two minutes left in the second quarter but had an opportunity to cut the deficit to single digits before halftime. Tulane punted the ball away with 2:09 left in the second quarter. North Texas returner Landon Sides was unable to field the kick — and may have been the victim of an uncalled kick catch interference penalty after he was chipped by a Tulane special teamer before the ball landed — and watched the ball bounce away from him.
It ricocheted off of wide receiver Baron Tipton’s leg and into the hands of Tulane special teamer Omari Hayes. The Green Wave scored six plays later on a keeper from quarterback Jake Retzlaff that gave them a 24-7 halftime lead.
“[Sides] got hit at some point and wasn’t able to advance to the ball,” Morris said. “Our gunner was way too far down there. Those are mistakes that can’t afford to happen and give them the ball in that position at that time of the game after the defense had just gotten them off of the field. I thought that was a catastrophic play for our football program.”
Hawkins, the conference’s rookie of the year, did not return because the team didn’t think it was “in his best interest” after consultation from the medical staff. It allowed the Green Wave to amplify their pass rush as Mestemaker and company became more predictable without a reliable run game.
Mestemaker was sacked five times in the final three quarters. He threw three interceptions — two of which were tipped by his own receivers — in the second half. The first, with 7:32 left in the third, was tipped by wide receiver Wyatt Young, intercepted by Tulane linebacker Chris Rodgers and returned for a touchdown and a 31-7 lead.
Rodgers appeared to have lost possession of the ball before he crossed into the end zone. The score was upheld after a review, nonetheless. Mestemaker’s second interception was tipped in the end zone with 3:58 left in the third quarter and his third was overthrown in the end zone with 1:00 left in the fourth.
Morris chalked Mestemaker’s interceptions up as “uncanny throws.” The redshirt freshman, who developed from a walk-on to a superstar this season, has a body of work that suggests as much. He passed for a nation-best 3,835 yards and threw 29 touchdowns this season. He is a semifinalist for the Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year award. He will undoubtedly be valued as a top quarterback target in the transfer portal if he chooses to enter.
Mestemaker said last week that he hadn’t yet considered his future after his head coach’s exit. It may behoove the Austin Vandegrift alum to follow Morris, a prodigious quarterback whisperer, to Stillwater, Okla. It may also behoove him to seek a significant payday from any and all teams in need of a high-level passer this winter. Ditto for Hawkins, a true freshman, after his 26-touchdown campaign.
That’s the nature of college football in the portal and name, image and likeness era. That’s the nature of college football when a head coach bolts for greener pastures. That’s what newly-minted head coach Neal Brown and his soon-to-be-assembled staff might need to replace when the transfer portal opens Jan. 2.
It may have as much impact on the program’s immediate future as any outcome Friday could’ve. Morris, in his third season at North Texas, has, in no uncertain terms, acknowledged that his exit can be viewed as a distraction at the most inconvenient time.
He was officially named Oklahoma State’s head coach two days prior to the Mean Green’s final regular-season game. He will be formally introduced Monday afternoon. He coached a conference championship game and oversaw early national signing day for two different programs in between. The Cowboys signed six players who had been previously committed to North Texas Wednesday afternoon. The Mean Green did not sign any.
The college football calendar, Morris said Wednesday, “is totally jacked up.”
Friday’s loss, he said, was “sad just because of how much this place has meant to me, and my family.”
“I’ve been committed to this team and these players every step of the way,” Morris said. “I owe that to everybody. I think that’s the world of college football right now. There’s so much movement and it’s a new team everywhere you go each and every year.”
Morris has previously been pledged to the Mean Green for the “remainder of the season,” North Texas athletic director Jared Mosley said in a statement released last week, and said Friday night that “we need to go find a way to win” whichever bowl game the program lands in.
The Mean Green have not won a bowl game since their Heart of Dallas Bowl win against UNLV a dozen years ago. They could land in a postseason game close to home again this season.
It won’t be a playoff game.
They’ll have work to do to come close again.
Twitter/X: @McFarland_Shawn
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Find more North Texas coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.