Scrimmage Notebook: Competition Saturday

DENTON - Saturday marked the first scrimmage of fall camp, presented by Rhino Steel Buildings, as the Mean Green were in action on a seasonably warm Saturday morning. The story of the day was the high-level of competition and energy on both sides of the ball inside of Apogee Stadium.

Play of the Day: Redshirt freshman running back Oscar Adaway III had a very strong performance in Saturday's scrimmage, showing off his bruising running style on several occasions. Aided by a very strong push up front by his offensive line, Adaway showcased his burst as well, on a nine-yard touchdown run towards the end of the scrimmage.

Defensive Standout: Senior defensive lineman Dion Novil (Abilene, Texas) had his imprint on the field Saturday during his group's snaps, recording a handful of tackles for loss, as well as disrupting other plays to set up his teammates to finish.

Key Moments:

Five quarterbacks saw action on Saturday - redshirt sophomores Jason Bean (Mansfield), Kason Martin (Manvel, Texas) and Austin Aune (Argyle), redshirt freshmen Amani Gilmore (Amite, Louisiana) and Will Kuehne (Owasso, Oklahoma).
Overall the quarterback group took care of the ball, avoiding any turnovers and finishing 18/30 collectively with three touchdown passes.
Junior linebacker KD Davis (Ennis, Texas) shot the gap on the first series and stood up the ball-carrier for a very minimal gain.
Senior defensive back Cam Johnson (Houston) won his individual battle on a deep ball down the sideline, with good awareness to knock the ball away.
On third down inside the red zone, Bean hit redshirt junior receiver Greg White (Riverdale, Georgia) on a short pass, and White evaded a tackler to pick up 14 yards and set up a first and goal inside the five.
Redshirt senior running back Nic Smith (Fort Worth) had a very strong opening drive, carrying three times and capped it off with a one-yard score up the middle, behind redshirt junior guard Anterrious Gray (Macon, Mississippi).
Redshirt junior linebacker Chris Thornton (Amarillo) got good pressure from the outside to force an incompletion.
Senior defensive lineman Asher Frow (Fullerton, California) and junior safety Alex Morris (Humble, Texas) combined on a tackle, holding the ball-carrier to a short gain and forcing a fourth down.
Aune connected with redshirt sophomore receiver Austin Ogunmakin (Alief, Texas) to pick up 12 yards and a first down across midfield.
Novil made an excellent play up the middle to cut down the ball-carrier for no gain inside the red zone.
Aune found redshirt freshman tight end Asher Alberding (Clear Lake, Texas), who got free in the end zone following Aune's play-fake, for a 10-yard scoring strike.
Adaway knifed through the first level and finished his run physically to pick up a nine-yard gain on a first down carry.
Redshirt freshman defensive back Dorian Morris (Mesquite, Texas) maintained solid coverage on a deep route down the sideline and located the ball well to break up a pass to force a third and long.
- Later on in the scrimmage, Morris again had good coverage, this time on a slant route, getting his hand in front to knock the ball away.
Redshirt freshman defensive end Kenneth Dotson (Houston) made a nice tackle in space to bring down the running back for a very short gain.
Sophomore linebacker Kevin Wood (Converse, Texas) recorded a tackle for loss, sending the ball-carrier backwards on a big hit in a short-yardage situation.
Bean and redshirt sophomore receiver Jyaire Shorter (Killeen, Texas) connected for a 19-yard pick-up on a skinny post.
Senior linebacker Tyreke Davis (Denton) shot the gap on the next play to stuff the run for no gain.
Bean showed excellent touch on a scoring toss over the top to senior receiver Jaelon Darden (Houston) for an 18-yard touchdown.
Thornton and freshman linebacker Jordan Brown (Huntsville, Texas) combined to stuff the run to force a fourth down and help get the defense off the field.
Novil powered his way into the backfield to disrupt a run play, slowing up the ball-carrier, before the running back was gang tackled and held to no gain.
On a third and seven play, Aune calmly picked out Adaway, who leaked out of the backfield and picked up nine yards and the first down to keep the drive alive.
KD Davis recorded a sack on a shot-play that was covered well by the back end.
Redshirt senior defensive lineman Justin Booker-Brown (Spring, Texas) and Thornton combined on another sack on third and eight to get the defense off the field.
Redshirt freshman defensive back Jevin Murray (Pearland, Texas) came up big with a run stop, exhibiting good strength to bring the ball-carrier down for a very short gain.
Redshirt freshman linebacker Grayson Murphy (Dallas) showed very good discipline on a designed quarterback run, stopping it for no gain.
Bean on back-to-back plays got the offense out of the shadow of its own goal posts. Starting at the two, Bean picked out Shorter for a 19-yard gain, and then threw a dart to Darden over the middle on the next play for a 26-yard pick-up.
Redshirt sophomore linebacker Larry Nixon III (North Richland Hills, Texas) burst through for a sack, forcing a loss of seven.
Nic Smith got the call on fourth and four, powering his way forward for a five-yard gain to pick up the first down after an excellent block by Gray opened up some space.
Bean hit freshman tight end Jake Roberts (Norman, Oklahoma) in stride for a 30-yard gain down to the one yard-line.
Redshirt sophomore defensive back Javier Neal (Whitehouse, Texas) stayed with his assignment on the next play, getting to the quarterback on a quarterback run play, bringing him down for an eight yard loss.
Adaway then busted through the first level and got into the end zone for the nine-yard score.
Redshirt sophomore defensive back Jahvon Millard (Atlanta) made a big-time hit on the running back to drive him back for a loss.
Kuehne fired a strike to freshman receiver Loronzo Thompson (Friendswood, Texas), who snared the 25-yard scoring toss at the end of Saturday's scrimmage.

The Mean Green finish Saturday with film breakdown from the scrimmage and position meetings, before Sunday's off day. UNT will be back on the practice field again on Monday morning for practice No. 9, which will be a practice in shells. Keep an eye on MeanGreenSports.com as well as on our social channels @MeanGreenFB (Twitter, Instagram and Facebook) for the latest camp content throughout the duration of fall camp.

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Players Mentioned

Oscar Adaway III

Asher Alberding

Austin Aune

Jason Bean

Justin Booker-Brown

Jordan Brown

Jaelon Darden

KD Davis

Tyreke Davis

Kenneth Dotson

Asher Frow

Amani Gilmore

Anterrious Gray

Cam Johnson

Will Kuehne

Kason Martin

Jahvon Millard

Alex Morris

Dorian Morris

Grayson Murphy

Jevin Murray

Javier Neal

Larry Nixon III

Dion Novil

Austin Ogunmakin

Jake Roberts

Jyaire Shorter

Nic Smith

Loronzo Thompson

Chris Thornton

Greg White

Kevin Wood

Upcoming Events

University of North Texas Athletics