Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\nThe Mean Green had suffered a series of disheartening losses against UTSA since, including one in the 2022 Conference USA title game.<\/p>\n
UNT (6-1, 2-1 American Conference) used one of most complete performances in recent memory to snap that skid in front of a crowd of 25,053.<\/p>\n
Drew Mestemaker threw for 277 yards and four touchdowns in a bounce-back performance after throwing his first three interceptions of the season last week in a 63-36 loss to South Florida.<\/p>\n
UNT came into the day ranked sixth nationally with an average of 43.3 points per game. The Mean Green weren\u2019t far off that total last week against USF.<\/p>\n
UNT zoomed past that total and had more than enough firepower to roll past UTSA.<\/p>\n
The turnaround by UNT\u2019s defense was even more impressive. The Mean Green gave up 580 yards against USF. UNT looked like a completely different team against UTSA (3-4, 1-2).<\/p>\n
The Mean Green held the Roadrunners in check after they needed just three plays to score on their opening possession.<\/p>\n
UTSA lost four fumbles and struggled to keep pace after UNT found a groove offensively.<\/p>\n
The combination was just what the Mean Green needed to break through and become bowl eligible for the second time under Morris. The Mean Green also kept their hopes of earning a spot in the American title game alive. Four teams in the league came into the weekend unbeaten in league play \u2014 USF Navy, Tulane and Memphis, which dropped its first game of the season at UAB.<\/p>\n
UNT has little room for error if it wants to grab one of the two spots in the game that will go to the teams that finish in the top two spots in the conference standings. The Mean Green moved a little closer, thanks largely to the way it responded after a tough start.<\/p>\n
Robert Henry Jr. broke off a 72-yard run on UTSA\u2019s first play from scrimmage to help the Roadrunners grab an early 7-0 lead.<\/p>\n
The Mean Green controlled the rest of the half and capitalized after taking a series of gambles. UNT went for the touchdown on fourth-and-goal from the UTSA 3 and scored when Mestemaker found Wyatt Young wide open over the middle to give UNT a 10-7 lead.<\/p>\n
The Mean Green went for it on fourth down again from its 33-yard line late in the first half and converted on a 2-yard run by Caleb Hawkins. The Mean Green gambled again when it handed the ball to Kiefer Sibley with 17 seconds left.<\/p>\n
UNT didn\u2019t have any timeouts left and bet on Sibley either scoring or getting out of bounds to give it time to run its field goal team on the field. Sibley cashed with an 18-yard touchdown run that turned a three-point edge into a 24-14 halftime lead.<\/p>\n
UNT put the game away with a 21-point third quarter. Mestemaker hit Cameron Dorner for a 15-yard touchdown, scored on a 1-yard run and then found Wyatt Young open for a 42-yard touchdown.<\/p>\n
UNT\u2019s performance was all the more impressive considering the Mean Green played without their top wide receiver Miles Coleman.<\/p>\n
Coleman was one of three UNT receivers who were questionable coming into the game. Dorner and Young were also coming back from injuries they suffered late against USF.<\/p>\n
Dorner and Young were both ready to go and played key roles and caught touchdown passes for UNT.<\/p>\n
The pair helped the Mean Green secure their future on a day they became bowl eligible by hammering their longtime rival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"North Texas has accomplished quite a bit in three seasons under Eric Morris. The Mean Green have built…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3688,430,27,29,28,9365],"class_list":{"0":"post-10421","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-colleges","9":"tag-north-texas","10":"tag-texas","11":"tag-texas-headlines","12":"tag-texas-news","13":"tag-unt-mean-green"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}