DENTON – Coming off a crushing road loss to California, in which a comeback effort fell just short, North Texas head coach Seth Littrell mentioned a chip on the shoulder of his team entering Saturday's game against Conference USA rival UT San Antonio.
 
With the all-around effort the Mean Green displayed in a 45-3 win over the Roadrunners at Apogee Stadium, it was clear his players were aware of that motivation, as well.
 
"I'm really excited about the effort our guys came out with," Littrell said. "In all three phases, this is far and away their most complete game. They had a chip on their shoulder all week to clean up mistakes from the last few weeks and put it all together."
 
The end result? A complete domination of UT San Antonio that featured the Mean Green outgaining their opponent by 206 yards, racking up nearly as many rushing yards (290) as they allowed total yards (295), and holding the Roadrunners to the lowest point total by an FBS team against North Texas since the Mean Green shut out Troy in 2003. The Mean Green defense has now gone seven quarters without allowing a touchdown, after holding Cal out of the end zone after the first quarter in last week's loss.
 
"They worked extremely hard in practice with their corrections," Littrell said of his defensive unit. "They want to be special. They want to be the reason we win football games. Some of the early-season stuff, you have to come together, especially with all the new faces. They've improved and come together. They've shown flashes of being really solid and good. It's just one guy here at times that gets you hurt, but we've been stressing to them to just do their job. Sometimes we try to do too much. When everyone settles in and does what they're coached to do, you can play at a high level."
 
The defense forced four turnovers – two fumbles and two interceptions – after entering the game with a minus-2 turnover ratio, and their teammates converted all four of those into touchdowns.
 
The UNT offense racked up 501 total yards, and did most of its damage on the ground. Record-setting quarterback Mason Fine threw for an efficient 195 yards and two touchdowns to bring his program record for career touchdown passes to 73.
 
Running back Tre Siggers, in just his third collegiate game at the position, had his second 100-yard rushing day – totaling 143 yards on 14 carries to go with two rushing scores. Deandre Torrey, who had 15 rushing touchdowns a year ago, found the end zone for the first time on Saturday and had 62 rushing yards to go with 60 receiving yards and a touchdown through the air.
 
"Tre is just tough. He's a tough kid and runs extremely hard with yards after contact," Littrell said. "You don't have to be perfect. He's just passionate. I enjoy watching him play and calling plays for him.
 
"Deandre also stepped in and had some really nice runs and was huge on that minute drive before the half (that led to a field goal as time expired) with that screen pass," Littrell added. "He did well on that. We have some weapons at that position."
 
Littrell also heaped praise upon his offensive line, which helped Siggers average 10.2 yards per carry and the team average 6.6 yards per carry, while the game plan trended toward the ground game.
 
"Our run game has been clicking and our running backs are running physical and our line has gotten a lot better," he said. "That's something we're going to lean on, but at the same time, that pass game will come along when need be, and we're going to try to take what people give us."
 
QUICK HITS

• With the win, North Texas takes a 4-3 all-time series lead over UT San Antonio, and the Mean Green have now won four of the last five meetings in the series.
  • The win was the 25th for Seth Littrell as the head coach at North Texas.
  • The 42-point margin of victory is the largest against an FBS opponent since Dec. 3, 2011, when North Texas beat Middle Tennessee by 59-7. The previous mark in the Seth Littrell era was 35 points when the Mean Green beat UTEP 45-10 on Nov. 11, 2017.
  • From 2002 to 2015, North Texas scored 40 points 16 times. Since Littrell's arrival in 2016, the Mean Green are now 16-0 when scoring 40 points or more.
• North Texas has now won 14 of its last 15 games at Apogee Stadium dating back to 2016 and is 16-4 under head coach Seth Littrell at home.
• Junior WR Jaelon Darden (Houston) caught a 3-yard touchdown pass from redshirt freshman QB Jason Bean (Mansfield) with 10:48 to play. The score was Darden's 10th career touchdown reception.
• Sophomore linebacker KD Davis (Ennis, Texas) had a team-high nine tackles. He now has the team lead on the season with 41 stops.
• Grad transfer DB Nick Harvey got UNT's first interception of the year a minute into the game, and it was also the first of Harvey's career at North Texas.
• Senior LB Jamie King recovered a fumble, forced by teammate LaDarius Hamilton, to set up a 25-yard touchdown run by Tre Siggers, giving the Mean Green a 21-0 lead early in the second quarter.
• Junior DL Dion Novil (Abilene, Texas) tied his career-high with eight tackles – a mark he set in last week's loss at California.

Head coach Seth Littrell Postgame Press Conference


 
RB Tre Siggers, LB KD Davis and DL Dion Novil Postgame Press Conference