Texada, Running Game Carry UNT To 2-0 In C-USA

DENTON – Sophomore defensive back Ridge Texada had a career game, and the Mean Green rushing attack rolled up 300 yards on the ground as North Texas won its seventh consecutive Conference USA game, dating back to last season, with a 45-28 home win on Saturday night against FAU at Apogee Stadium.

Texada had four pass breakups, which was the most for a UNT player since Royce Hill had five in a game in 2011, including one to break up a pass in the end zone, and added a 58-yard interception return to put the Mean Green up 21-7. He was one yard shy of a second interception return touchdown, but his second 58-yard interception return midway through the third quarter set up a 1-yard Isaiah Johnson touchdown plunge to put UNT up 42-21.

"What an awesome game by Ridge," UNT head coach Seth Littrell said. "I'm so proud of him and our entire defense the last two weeks. They've put it together and played good ball. They're confidence is rolling right now."

Junior quarterback Austin Aune threw for 180 yards and three touchdowns – all to junior wide receiver Jyaire Shorter, who had his second career game of three catches, all for touchdowns. But the Mean Green rushing attack stole the spotlight on Saturday, running for 300 yards with some new wrinkles added to the usual three-headed running monster.

Sophomore running back Ikaika Ragsdale worked as a Wildcat quarterback taking direct snaps on a handful of plays and finished the day with 16 carries for a team-high 119 yards and a touchdown and sophomore quarterback Stone Earle entered in a goal line package and had a pair of carries for 10 yards.

"Weekly, we're just trying to find different ways to be creative and get them to remove extra hats from the box," Littrell said. "Stone came in and did a great job running the ball in the red zone areas, too. We have to create different ways to force teams to match us up and play 11-on-11."

After jumping out to a 28-7 lead with five minutes to play in the first half, FAU closed the deficit to 28-21 at halftime after a pick-six and an 80-yard scoring drive that took just 1:05 off the clock.

Littrell said he was happy with how his team regrouped in the locker room at halftime and didn't let the adversity overcome them.

"Biggest thing was we had a couple of mistakes that caught us," Littrell said. "That turnover pick-six, we can't do that. That's a huge mistake, but we had dominated the game the entire day. At half, it wasn't, 'here we go again,' it's, 'make the right adjustments and we'll be fine.'"

The Mean Green (3-3, 2-0 C-USA) will now have a bye week before returning to action on Oct. 15, at home against Louisiana Tech with kickoff at 3 p.m.

"We have a good football team if we can just get out of our own way, and that's what we have to keep working on," Littrell said. "We still weren't clean enough today and that can get you beat down the road. The effort and focus is there, we just have to clean up some little stuff."

QUICK HITS

The Mean Green win closes the gap in FAU's lead in the all-time series with to 8-6, and it was the teams' first meeting since 2018 at Apogee Stadium when UNT won 41-38. The Mean Green have now won six of the last eight matchups dating back to 2010.
The loss puts head coach Seth Littrell at 40-41 in his Mean Green tenure and moves into a tie for fifth on the program's all-time wins list with Hayden Fry.
In the Littrell era, the Mean Green are now 25-0 when scoring at least 40 points.
UNT's captains for the game were Manase Mose, KD Davis, Damon Ward, Jr., and Ethan Mooney.
The win was the seventh straight against a Conference USA foe, dating back to last season, which is the longest for the Mean Green in the C-USA era and longest since they won 26 straight Sun Belt games from Oct. 13, 2001-Sept. 10, 2005.
The seven straight conference wins puts UNT in a tie for fourth nationally for longest active conference winning streak.
The Mean Green's 300 rushing yards are the most against an FBS team this season.
The four touchdown-scoring drives of more than 70 yards marked the second time this season UNT has accomplished that feat and first against an FBS team.
- The Mean Green had scoring drives that resulted in touchdowns of 77, 80, 97 and 71 yards.
Junior QB Austin Aune (Argyle, Texas) finished 14 for 20 for 180 yards and three touchdowns.
- Aune's 180 passing yards gives him 5,509 in his career and he is in seventh place on the program's all-time passing yardage list.
- Aune completed passes to eight different receivers.
- Aune's 25-yard touchdown pass to Jyaire Shorter with 5:36 left in the second quarter was the 38th touchdown pass of his career.
- Aune's 2-yard touchdown pass to Shorter with 14:56 left in the second quarter was the 37th touchdown pass of his career.
- Aune's 25-yard touchdown pass to Shorter with 11:17 to play in the first quarter was the 36th touchdown pass of his career.
Sophomore RB Ikaika Ragsdale (Las Vegas) had 16 carries for 119 yards and a touchdown to lead the team in all rushing categories.
- His 1-yard touchdown run with 9:56 left in the third quarter was his first of the season and sixth of his career.
- Ragsdale eclipsed the 100-yard rushing mark for the first time this season and fourth time in his career.
- Ragsdale's fourth career 100-yard game matches the most on the active roster, tying Oscar Adaway's four.
Sophomore RB Ayo Adeyi (Mansfield, Texas) had six carries for 75 yards, including a 53-yard run.
Sophomore RB Oscar Adaway (North Little Rock, Ark.) had 16 carries for 71 yards.
Junior WR Jyaire Shorter (Killeen, Texas) finished with three catches for 52 yards and three touchdowns.
- Shorter's three touchdown receptions marked the second multi-touchdown game of his career and first since Oct. 26, 2019, against Charlotte, when he had three – also on only three catches. It is also the first multi-touchdown reception game for a UNT player this season.
- His 25-yard touchdown reception with 5:36 to play in the second quarter was the 14th of his career and fifth of the season.
- His 2-yard touchdown reception with 14:56 to play in the second quarter was the 13th of his career and fourth of the season.
- His 25-yard touchdown reception with 11:17 to play in the first quarter was the 12th of his career and third of the season.
Junior WR Roderic Burns (Houston) had three catches for a team-high 69 yards.
- He has now gone 22 consecutive games with at least one reception.
- Burns' three catches puts him at 94 catches in his career to tie him with Erric Pegram (1988-90) for 20th all time.
Senior OL Manase Mose (Euless, Texas) made his 54th straight start and is the program's all-time leader for most career starts at North Texas. The center has started every game of his career and is in his fifth season with the Mean Green.
Senior LB KD Davis (Ennis, Texas) finished the day with 10 tackles, including four solo stops.
- Davis' 10 tackles ties his season high, which he had done twice previously this year.
- Davis now has 342 career tackles to move him into seventh on the program's all-time list past Kishawn McClain (1983-86).
- Davis now has 160 career solo tackles – nine back of Zach Orr (2010-13), who finished his career with 169, for fifth place on the all-time list.
Sophomore DB Ridge Texada (Frisco, Texas) finished the day with four tackles (all solo), four pass breakups, a tackle for-loss, two interceptions and an interception return for a touchdown.
- Texada's 58-yard interception return for a touchdown with 9:22 left in the first half marked the first career interception for Texada and the first interception return for a touchdown for UNT since Kemon Hall's against Arkansas on Sept. 15, 2018.
- Texada's 58-yard interception return to the FAU 1-yard line set up a Mean Green touchdown to take a 42-21 lead with 8:23 left in the third quarter.
- Texada is the first UNT player with two interceptions in a game since DeShawn Gaddie had two against UTEP on Dec. 20, 2020.
- Texada is only the 13th UNT player since 2000 with two interceptions in a game.
- Texada's 116 interception return yards are believed to be the most for a UNT player since Ret Little had 128 on two interceptions against Louisville in 1967.
- His 116 interception return yards are the most in a season for a UNT player since at least 2001.
- The last time a UNT player had more than four pass breakups was in 2011, when Royce Hill had five in a game.
Junior LB Larry Nixon III (North Richland Hills, Texas) finished with 10 tackles, including four solo stops.
Senior DB Quinn Whitlock (Pinola, Miss.) finished the day with four tackles, including two solo stops, a tackle for-loss and two pass breakups.
Senior DB Sean-Thomas Faulkner (Easley, S.C.) finished the day with six tackles, including four solo stops and a pass breakup.

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Team Stats

Austin Aune

Stone Earle

Players Mentioned

Ayo Adeyi

Austin Aune

Roderic Burns

KD Davis

Stone Earle

Sean-Thomas Faulkner

DeShawn Gaddie

Isaiah Johnson

Ethan Mooney

Manase Mose

Larry Nixon III

Ikaika Ragsdale

Jyaire Shorter

Ridge Texada

Damon Ward Jr.

Quinn Whitlock

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