Saturday, October 23
Denton, TX
3:00 p.m.
University of North Texas
1-6 , 0-3
26
vs
35
Liberty
6-2 , 0-0
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
F
Liberty
0
14
14
7
35
North Texas
7
13
6
0
26
Photo by: Manny Flores
UNT Falls To Liberty
10/23/2021 7:42:00 PM | Football
DENTON – The North Texas football team led until midway through the third quarter against one of the nation's best quarterbacks but in the end was unable to keep Malik Willis and Liberty at bay in a 35-26 loss to Liberty on Saturday at Apogee Stadium.
Willis, who's a projected first-round pick in next year's NFL Draft, left the game in the second quarter with a foot injury and was taken for imaging before returning midway through the third quarter and finishing the game with 222 passing yards and three touchdowns while making a couple of highlight-reel escapes on a key drive when Liberty led the game 28-26. The first of those plays was when Willis appeared to be wrapped up in the end zone for a game-tying safety but he threw the ball over his head while facing out of the end zone to get rid of the ball for an incompletion. Later on the drive he was being pressured and flung the ball backhanded for a first-down completion.
"He made a couple of unbelievable plays and dug himself out of getting that safety," UNT head coach Seth Littrell said. "That would have changed the momentum. He had a nice play to, I guess, get rid of the ball. He made another one on a scramble. We didn't make enough plays to win a game. I'm proud of our energy and I thought we had a great week of prep. We just have to keep building on what we're doing well and find a way to make some plays."
The Mean Green defense did manage to get good pressure on Liberty throughout the game, finishing with a season-high six sacks, which also matched the season-high sacks allowed for the Flames (6-2). North Texas (1-6, 0-3 C-USA) was led in that department by Grayson Murphy, who had a career-high 2.5 sacks.
With just under two minutes to play in the first half, North Texas took a 20-7 lead after the second of two straight short field goals from Aaron Beckham, who had the first attempts of his career in the absence of starting kicker Ethan Mooney. The Mean Green took a 7-0 lead on their second possession of the game after an interception at the Liberty 1-yard line ended their opening drive of the day.
"It started much better," Littrell said, referring to recent bad starts. "We got a drive together but we didn't finish it off down there. We got some good field position after our defense stepped up for a three-and-out. It was nice to get on the board first and get on the board early."
But Liberty was able to find the end zone before the end of the half by going 90 yards in 35 seconds to pull within six points at the half. With 3:03 left in the third quarter, the Flames grabbed their first lead after a 72-yard punt return for a touchdown from Demario Douglas on UNT's first punt of the day.
Liberty never trailed again despite a nice rushing day from the Mean Green, who ran for 242 yards while out-gaining Liberty 454-351. UNT was led on the ground by freshman Ayo Adeyi, who had a career-high 99 yards. Senior DeAndre Torrey finished with 73 yards, and sophomore quarterback Austin Aune tied a career-high with 56 rushing yards.
"The work we've put in – we challenged our guys and told them we'd have to run the ball to have success and they did a great job and have been working extremely hard at it," Littrell said. "I thought we had a decent game rushing the ball overall."
North Texas will hit the road next week to play Rice at 1 p.m., Saturday, at Rice Stadium.
QUICK HITS
Willis, who's a projected first-round pick in next year's NFL Draft, left the game in the second quarter with a foot injury and was taken for imaging before returning midway through the third quarter and finishing the game with 222 passing yards and three touchdowns while making a couple of highlight-reel escapes on a key drive when Liberty led the game 28-26. The first of those plays was when Willis appeared to be wrapped up in the end zone for a game-tying safety but he threw the ball over his head while facing out of the end zone to get rid of the ball for an incompletion. Later on the drive he was being pressured and flung the ball backhanded for a first-down completion.
"He made a couple of unbelievable plays and dug himself out of getting that safety," UNT head coach Seth Littrell said. "That would have changed the momentum. He had a nice play to, I guess, get rid of the ball. He made another one on a scramble. We didn't make enough plays to win a game. I'm proud of our energy and I thought we had a great week of prep. We just have to keep building on what we're doing well and find a way to make some plays."
The Mean Green defense did manage to get good pressure on Liberty throughout the game, finishing with a season-high six sacks, which also matched the season-high sacks allowed for the Flames (6-2). North Texas (1-6, 0-3 C-USA) was led in that department by Grayson Murphy, who had a career-high 2.5 sacks.
With just under two minutes to play in the first half, North Texas took a 20-7 lead after the second of two straight short field goals from Aaron Beckham, who had the first attempts of his career in the absence of starting kicker Ethan Mooney. The Mean Green took a 7-0 lead on their second possession of the game after an interception at the Liberty 1-yard line ended their opening drive of the day.
"It started much better," Littrell said, referring to recent bad starts. "We got a drive together but we didn't finish it off down there. We got some good field position after our defense stepped up for a three-and-out. It was nice to get on the board first and get on the board early."
But Liberty was able to find the end zone before the end of the half by going 90 yards in 35 seconds to pull within six points at the half. With 3:03 left in the third quarter, the Flames grabbed their first lead after a 72-yard punt return for a touchdown from Demario Douglas on UNT's first punt of the day.
Liberty never trailed again despite a nice rushing day from the Mean Green, who ran for 242 yards while out-gaining Liberty 454-351. UNT was led on the ground by freshman Ayo Adeyi, who had a career-high 99 yards. Senior DeAndre Torrey finished with 73 yards, and sophomore quarterback Austin Aune tied a career-high with 56 rushing yards.
"The work we've put in – we challenged our guys and told them we'd have to run the ball to have success and they did a great job and have been working extremely hard at it," Littrell said. "I thought we had a decent game rushing the ball overall."
North Texas will hit the road next week to play Rice at 1 p.m., Saturday, at Rice Stadium.
QUICK HITS
- The Mean Green loss extends evens up the all-time series with Liberty at 1-1, with the Mean Green's win in the series coming at Liberty in 2018.
- The loss puts head coach Seth Littrell at 32-37 in his Mean Green tenure, and he is in sixth place on the program's all-time wins list – behind fifth-place Hayden Fry (40). He falls to 1-1 in his career against Liberty.
- The Mean Green loss puts the program record at 22-13 in Apogee Stadium under head coach Seth Littrell. The Mean Green are 1-3 at home this season. One of Littrell's 22 wins at Apogee was technically a road game when UTEP traveled to Denton last season for a Miner home game due to COVID-19 restrictions in El Paso.
- Sophomore QB Austin Aune (Argyle, Texas) made his third start of the season and finished 22-for-35 for 212 yards. He also had 11 carries for 56 yards.
- Aune completed passes to seven different receivers.
- Aune's completions (22) and attempts (35) both set new season highs.
- Aune's 6-yard touchdown pass to Jason Pirtle with 7:27 left in the third quarter was 20th touchdown pass of his career.
- Aune's 56 rushing yards tied a career high.
- Senior RB DeAndre Torrey (Gautier, Mississippi) had 73 rushing yards on 29 carries and two catches for 24 yards to give him 97 all-purpose yards.
- Torrey's 2-yard touchdown run with 6:04 left in the first quarter was the 30th rushing touchdown of his career, putting him alone in fourth place on the program's all-time list.
- Freshman RB Ayo Adeyi (Mansfield, Texas) had 16 carries for 99 yards.
- Adeyi's 99 yards on the ground set a new career high.
- Adeyi's 42-yard touchdown run with 10:25 remaining in the first half was the second touchdown of his career and the longest rush of his career.
- Senior TE Jason Pirtle (Locust Grove, Okla.) caught five balls for 38 yards and a touchdown.
- His 6-yard touchdown reception with 7:27 left in the third quarter was his second of the season and the eighth of his career.
- Redshirt freshman WR Damon Ward, Jr., had four catches for 57 yards.
- Ward's four catches set a new career high for a single game.
- The Mean Green defense tallied six sacks, which topped the previous season high of four in the season-opening win over Northwestern State. The season-high for sacks allowed for Liberty entering Saturday's game was six.
- Junior LB KD Davis (Ennis, Texas) finished the day tying for a team-high five tackles, including a solo stop, a half-sack, a half-tackle for-loss and a QB hurry.
- Senior LB Tyreke Davis (Denton) finished the day tying for a team-high five tackles, including two solo stops.
- Redshirt freshman DE Grayson Murphy (Dallas) finished the day tying for a team-high five tackles, including a solo stop, 2.5 sacks, 3.0 tackles for-loss and two QB hurries.
- Murphy set new career-highs for sacks and tackles for-loss in a single game.
- Sophomore LB Larry Nixon III (North Richland Hills, Texas) finished the day tying for a team-high five tackles, including two solo stops, a sack, a tackle for-loss and a QB hurry.
- Senior DL Dion Novil (Abilene, Texas) finished the day tying for a team-high five tackles, including a team-high three solo stops, 1.5 tackles for-loss and 1.5 sacks - his first of the season.
- Freshman kicker Aaron Beckham (Van Alstyne, Texas) went 2-for-3 on field goal attempts and 2-for-2 on extra points.
- His 35-yard field goal with 6:14 left in the first half was his first career field goal.
Team Stats
LIB
UNT
Total Yards
350
454
Pass Yards
305
212
Rushing Yards
45
242
Penalty Yards
97
90
1st Downs
21
30
3rd Downs
7
8
4th Downs
1
3
TOP
23:35
35:50
1st Quarter
LIB 0, UNT 7
UNT - Torrey,DeAndre 2 yd run (Beckham,Aaron kick), 6 plays, 37 yards, TOP 02:10
2nd Quarter
LIB 7, UNT 7
LIB - Shaa,Kevin 27 yd pass from Willis,Malik (Beck,Brayden kick) 6 plays, 93 yards, TOP 02:02
LIB 7, UNT 14
UNT - Adeyi,Ayo 42 yd run (Beckham,Aaron kick), 3 plays, 65 yards, TOP 00:50
LIB 7, UNT 17
UNT - Beckham,Aaron 35 yd field goal 4 plays, 6 yards, TOP 01:33
LIB 7, UNT 20
UNT - Beckham,Aaron 27 yd field goal 11 plays, 35 yards, TOP 03:09
LIB 14, UNT 20
LIB - Daniels,CJ 39 yd pass from Bennett,Johnathan (Beck,Brayden kick) 5 plays, 90 yards, TOP 00:35
3rd Quarter
LIB 14, UNT 26
UNT - Pirtle,Jason 6 yd pass from Aune,Austin () 14 plays, 89 yards, TOP 06:06
LIB 21, UNT 26
LIB - Daniels,CJ 15 yd pass from Willis,Malik (Beck,Brayden kick) 10 plays, 75 yards, TOP 02:11
LIB 28, UNT 26
LIB - Douglas,Demario 72 yd punt return (Beck,Brayden kick)
4th Quarter
LIB 35, UNT 26
LIB - Louis,Shedro 37 yd pass from Willis,Malik (Beck,Brayden kick) 10 plays, 97 yards, TOP 03:35
Game Leaders
Passing Leaders
CMP
22
TD
1
YDS
212
INT
2
Players Mentioned
QB
/ Football
K
/ Football
LB
/ Football
K
/ Football
DE
/ Football
LB
/ Football
DL
/ Football
TE
/ Football
RB
/ Football
WR
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