Mean Green Football Dominates Temple For First AAC Win

DENTON – UNT got another big game from junior quarterback Chandler Rogers and junior wide receiver Ja'Mori Maclin and saw its defense pitch a second-half shutout as the Mean Green earned their first-ever win as a member of the American Athletic Conference with a 45-14 win over Temple.

Rogers passed for 307 yards and tied his career-high mark with four touchdown passes while running his streak of pass attempts without an interception up to 165.

"He just has good eyes," UNT head coach Eric Morris said of his junior signal-caller. "This is a team that mixes it up coverage-wise, and he did a great job figuring out what they were doing. I got a little stale in the third quarter as a play caller, and I told myself in the fourth I was gonna take some shots and go back to what we were doing in the fourth."

Maclin had a career-high 163 yards on six grabs to go with two more touchdowns to bring his season total to eight in six games.

"He continues to make plays for us," Morris said. "He found him in some one-on-one matchups that we liked. He's super twitchy and the chemistry continues to build between him and Chandler, which is a huge deal."

The defense had its best performance of the year, as UNT (3-3, 1-1 AAC) had three interceptions and held Temple scoreless in the second half. The three interceptions was the most for a UNT defense since the Mean Green had four in a win over UTEP on Dec. 11, 2020.

"That's people doing their job in the right spot at the right time," Morris said. "Also, the defensive line getting some pressure to make them get rid of it. It was good to see them have success and you see that start to snowball and then everyone has success."

As happy as Morris was to get his first conference win and see his team bounce back from last year's heartbreaker at Navy, he said there's still room for improvement, especially when it comes to playing complementary football.

"We've talked about how we need to play complementary football and that's the one thing I didn't like so much today," Morris said. "The offense started off real hot and the defense not so much, and in the second half, it just flipped. I like how they were resilient and had each other's back, but as we move forward and grow more that's something we're gonna have to work on is complementary football."

QUICK HITS

The Mean Green win in the teams' first-ever meeting puts the all-time series at 1-0 in UNT's favor.
The game marked the first American Athletic Conference home game for UNT and the first conference win as a member of the AAC.
UNT's captains for the season are Stone Earle, Febechi Nwaiwu, Mazin Richards, Logan Wilson and JP Hadley.
For the sixth straight game, UNT had the same starting five on the offensive line: Kaci Moreka, Gabe Blair, Ethan Miner, Febechi Nwaiwu and Jett Duncan.
UNT's 527 total yards marked the fourth time the Mean Green have had over 500 yards of total offense this season.
Twelve different receivers caught passes for the Mean Green for the second time in three games.
Junior quarterback Chandler Rogers (Mansfield, Texas) made his fourth start for the Mean Green and finished the day with 307 yards and four touchdown passes on 25-of-39 passing.
- Rogers entered the game with 126 straight pass attempts without throwing an interception and has now run the number up to 165. His streak is the longest for a UNT player since Mason Fine had 300 straight attempts without an interception in 2018.
- Rogers' 307 yards passing gave him his third 300-yard passing effort with the Mean Green and his four touchdown passes ties his career high and is a season high.
- Rogers started the game 13-for-14 and at one point had 11 consecutive completions.
- Rogers' 64-yard touchdown pass to Ja'Mori Maclin with 8:17 remaining was the 36th of his career and 12th this season.
- Rogers' 11-yard touchdown pass to Kaylon Horton with 12:51 left in the second quarter was the 35th of his career and 11th this season.
- Rogers' 41-yard touchdown pass to Ja'Mori Maclin with 2:17 left in the first quarter was the 34th of his career and 10th this season.
- Rogers' 19-yard touchdown pass to Roderic Burns with 9:08 left in the first quarter was the 33rd of his career and ninth this season.
Junior running back Oscar Adaway III (North Little Rock, Arkansas) finished with 94 yards on seven carries and a touchdown.
- Adaway's 43-yard touchdown run with 11:45 left in the third quarter was his longest rush of the season and his second touchdown of the season (10th of his career).
Junior running back Isaiah Johnson (Lubbock, Texas) finished with 79 yards and 10 carries and a touchdown.
- His 23-yard touchdown with 1:52 to play was his third of the season and 12th rushing touchdown of his career (15th overall touchdown).
Junior RB Ayo Adeyi (Mansfield, Texas) finished with eight carries for 64 yards.
- With his 64 yards, Adeyi moved into 16th on the program's all-time career rushing list with 1,784 yards.
Sophomore WR Ja'Mori Maclin (Kirkwood, Missouri) finished with six catches for 163 yards and two touchdowns.
- His 163 yards marked the third 100-yard game of Maclin's career and third this season.
- Maclin's 64-yard touchdown reception with 8:17 remaining was the 10th of his career and eighth this season.
- Maclin's 41-yard touchdown reception with 2:17 left in the first quarter was the ninth of his career and seventh this season.
Junior WR Trey Cleveland (Arlington, Texas) finished with three catches for 37 yards.
- Cleveland's three receptions tied his season high, and it was the third time this season he's had three catches.
Senior WR Roderic Burns (Houston, Texas) finished with two catches for 21 yards and a touchdown.
- Burns now has at least one reception in 35 of UNT's last 36 games.
- His two catches give him 139 in his career, moving him alone into 11th on the program's all-time list – just one back of Barry Moore (1968-69) for 10th.
- His 21 yards move him to 1,933 for his career into 12th on the program's all-time list.
- Burns' 19-yard touchdown reception with 9:08 left in the first quarter was the sixth of his career and first of the season – first since Sept. 10, 2022 against Texas Southern.
Junior WR Jordan Smart (Round Rock, Texas) finished with three catches for 18 yards.
- Smart made his first start of the season.
Senior WR/KR Kaylon Horton (Houston, Texas) finished with one for 11 yards and a touchdown.
- Horton's 11-yard touchdown reception with 12:51 left in the second quarter was the eighth touchdown of his career and third receiving touchdown. He also has two kick return TDs, two rushing TDs and a punt return TD.
Junior LB Jordan Brown (Huntsville, Texas) finished with a team-high 10 tackles, including five solo stops, a half-sack and a QB hurry.
- Brown's half-sack was his first of the season.
Junior DB Logan Wilson (Dallas) finished with seven tackles, including five solo stops.
Redshirt freshman DB Patrick Smith (Sugar Land, Texas) finished with seven tackles, including four solo stops.
Junior DB Nick Nakwaasah (Dallas) finished with two tackles - both solo stops – and an interception.
- Nakwaasah's third-quarter interception was the third of his career and first at UNT.
Senior LB Kevin Wood (Converse, Texas) finished the day with seven tackles, including four solo stops, and a QB hurry.
Senior LB Carson Kropp (Owasso, Oklahoma) finished with two tackles – both solo stops – and an interception.
- Kropp's interception was the first of his career.
Senior DL Mazin Richards (Burleson, Texas) finished with four tackles, including three solo stops, and two QB hurries.
Junior DB Ridge Texada (Frisco, Texas) finished with six tackles, including five solo stops, a tackle for-loss and an interception.
- Texada's fourth-quarter interception gave him 23 passes defended (PBUs + INTs) in his career, which puts him alone in seventh place on the program's all-time list.
Redshirt freshman LB Ethan Wesloski (McKinney, Texas) finished with two tackles and a half-sack.
- Wesloski's half-sack was the first of his career.
Senior kicker Noah Rauschenberg (Tulsa, Oklahoma) went 6-for-6 on extra points and was 1-for-1 on field goals.
- His 25-yard field goal with 3:56 left in the second quarter was the ninth made field goal of the season and of his collegiate career.

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Team Stats

Chandler Rogers

Players Mentioned

Oscar Adaway III

Ayo Adeyi

Gabe Blair

Jordan Brown

Roderic Burns

Trey Cleveland

Jett Duncan

Stone Earle

JP Hadley

Kaylon Horton

Isaiah Johnson

Carson Kropp

Ja'Mori Maclin

Ethan Miner

Kaci Moreka

Nick Nakwaasah

Febechi Nwaiwu

Noah Rauschenberg

Mazin Richards

Chandler Rogers

Jordan Smart

Patrick Smith-Young

Ridge Texada

Ethan Wesloski

Logan Wilson

Kevin Wood

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