Second-Half Rally Falls Short in Loss to Tulane

DENTON – UNT outgained Tulane, and junior quarterback Chandler Morris became the program's all-time leader in 400-yard passing games with his second consecutive such day. But that performance wasn't enough to lead the Mean Green to victory, as the Green Wave rushed for nearly 300 yards and turned two key UNT turnovers into 15 points en route to a 45-37 victory at DATCU Stadium.

Tulane (6-2, 4-0 AAC) needed just three offensive snaps to score 15 points off two UNT turnovers inside the Mean Green 30-yard line, as the Green Wave rushed for 297 yards and averaged 6.3 yards per carry.

"The keys to victory for them was exactly what we thought coming in, and that's disappointing," UNT head coach Eric Morris said. "We knew they wanted to run the ball, and they were able to establish the rush attack. Then, we gave them two opportunities with two huge turnovers in red area to put our defense in bad position. To beat teams like this, you can't make those mistakes."

The Mean Green (5-3, 2-2) outscored Tulane over the final three quarters but fell into the quick 21-3 hole.

"We're just not quite there yet, and that's the most frustrating part, as the head coach, right now," Morris said, after seeing his team drop another one-score loss.

Aside from the aforementioned issues, the UNT offense was once again highly effective with more than 500 yards of total offense for the 13th time in Morris' 20 games leading the program and a season-high passing day from Chandler Morris.

The Mean Green also had two 100-yard receivers, as DT Sheffield had a career-high nine catches for 125 yards and a touchdown and Damon Ward Jr., had six grabs for 111 yards and two touchdowns, marking the first time since the 2023 season finale that the Mean Green have had two 100-yard receivers.

The Mean Green will now have two weeks to prepare for a home matchup against an Army team that entered the week ranked 23rd nationally.

"We just talked about the importance of stopping the run and they (Army) run it probably better than anyone in the nation, so that's where it'll start and end with what we need to work on before that," Morris said.

QUICK HITS

The Mean Green loss extends Tulane's series advantage to 3-0 all-time, and it was the first matchup in Denton.
UNT's captains for the game were Landon Peterson, Chandler Morris, Jaylen Smith and Ridge Texada.
The Mean Green entered the season with 77 newcomers, which is the most in all of FBS. Thirty-six of the 77 newcomers are transfers.
Redshirt freshman DB Kollin Lewis (Gladewater, Texas), freshman DB Quinton Hammonds (Allen, Texas) and freshman RB Kiefer Sibley (Waco, Texas) made their first career starts.
UNT is now 3-9 under Eric Morris when trailing at the half and 2-10 when trailing after three quarters.
UNT eclipsed 500 total yards of offense for the 13th time in 20 games under Eric Morris.
UNT's 19-play, 80-yard scoring drive in the fourth quarter took 7:20 off the clock, making it the longest scoring drive of the season and Eric Morris era, in terms of both plays and time.
UNT forced a punt on Tulane's opening drive of the game – just the second time in the last 15 games the Mean Green have gotten a stop on the opponent's opening possession, with the first coming on Sept. 28, against Tulsa.
With two turnovers on the day leading to two Tulane touchdowns, UNT now has 12 turnovers on the season and opponents have scored eight touchdowns and a field goal off of them.
Junior QB Chandler Morris (Dallas, Texas) finished 38 for 57 for a season-high 449 yards passing and three touchdowns through the air and added 20 yards rushing on six carries with a touchdown on the ground.
- Morris made the eighth start of his UNT career and the 17th of his collegiate career.
- With 449 passing yards, Morris has four games with over 400 yards and is the all-time program leader in career 400-yard games, breaking the mark of Mason Fine (2016-19).
- Morris' 449 passing yards is a new career high.
- Morris' 57 pass attempts are tied for the eighth-most in program history, last accomplished on Oct. 6, 2007, by Giovanni Vizza at Louisiana.
- Morris eclipsed the 300-yard passing mark for the seventh time in his past eight games for UNT and the ninth time in his collegiate career.
- The performance marked Morris' fifth straight 300-yard passing game, which broke the previous record of four straight, held by Mason Fine in 2017. It also tied Fine's 2017 record for most 300-yard passing games in a season with seven.
- Morris eclipsed 5,000 yards passing in his career on his touchdown pass to DT Sheffield at end of first half.
- Morris' 26-yard touchdown pass to Damon Ward Jr., with 10:01 left in the second quarter was his 24th of the season and 40th of his career.
- Morris' 30-yard touchdown pass to DT Sheffield with 1:22 left in the second quarter was his 25th of the season and 41st of his career.
- Morris' 10-yard touchdown pass to Damon Ward Jr., with 0:41 left in the game, was his 26th of the season and 42nd of his career.
- Morris' 20-yard touchdown run with 5:55 to play in the third quarter was his fourth of the season and 10th of his career; it also tied him for third on the program's single-season list for most rushing TDs in a season by a quarterback with Chandler Rogers (2023) and Scott Hall (2001).
- Morris now has 2,873 yards passing this season, putting him in eighth on the single-season list behind Derek Thompson, who threw for 2,896 in 2013.
- Morris' 2,873 yards puts him in 14th on the program's all-time career list behind Ken Washington (1974-77), who threw for 3,040.
Redshirt freshman RB Makenzie McGill II (Mount Vernon, Texas) finished the day with four carries for 16 yards and a touchdown.
- His 2-yard touchdown run with 4:23 to play was his sixth of the season.
Junior WR DT Sheffield (Corinth, Miss.) finished with a career-high nine catches for 125 yards and a receiving touchdown.
- Sheffield's 125 yards gives him three straight 100-yard receiving games – the first UNT player to accomplish the feat since Jaelon Darden in 2020 – and four on the season.
- The game marked five straight in which Sheffield has at least one touchdown.
- Sheffield's 30-yard touchdown reception with 1:22 left in the second quarter was his 10th of the season and of his career.
Senior WR Damon Ward Jr. (Beaumont, Texas), finished with six catches for 111 yards and two touchdowns.
- Ward's 26-yard touchdown reception with 10:01 left in the second quarter was his third of the season and 13th of his career.
- Ward's 10-yard touchdown reception with 0:41 left in the game was his fourth of the season and 14th of his career.
- Ward's 111 yards gives him 1,575 in his career, which puts him in 18th on the program's all-time list and just five yards short of 17th, which belongs to Jalen Guyton (2017-18).
- Ward's six catches puts him at 108 in his career, which moves him into 19th place on the program's all-time list and three back of Marcus Camper (1985-88).
Freshman RB Kiefer Sibley (Waco, Texas) finished the day with 11 carries for 26 yards and added a career-high eight catches for 45 yards.
Senior LB Jaylen Smith (Hamilton, Ontario) finished the day with 10 tackles, including three solo stops, a tackle for-loss and an interception.
- His interception with 2:05 left in the first half was his first of the season and second of his career.
- His 10 tackles was a new career high.
Freshman DB Quinton Hammonds (Allen, Texas) finished the day with 10 tackles, including three solo stops.
- His 10 tackles was a new career high.
Redshirt freshman DB Brian Nelson II (Pearland, Texas) finished the day with nine tackles, including six solo stops.
- His nine tackles was a new career high.
Sophomore LB Ethan Wesloski (McKinney, Texas) finished the day with nine tackles including four solo stops, and a tackle for-loss.
- His nine tackles tied his career high.
Senior LB Jordan Brown (Huntsville, Texas) finished the day with nine tackles, including a solo stop.
- His nine tackles tied his season high.
Junior LB Shane Whitter (Burlington, N.C.) finished the day with six tackles including two solo stops.
- Whitter's six tackles was a new career high.
Redshirt freshman K Kali Nguma (Mission, Texas) finished 4 for 4 on extra points and was 1 for 1 on field goal attempts.
- His 43-yard field goal in the first quarter opened UNT's scoring and gave him eight straight made field goals, which is the longest such streak since Ethan Mooney made 14 consecutive field goals in 2022.

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Team Stats

Chandler Morris

Players Mentioned

Jordan Brown

Quinton Hammonds

Kollin Lewis

Makenzie McGill II

Chandler Morris

Brian Nelson II

Kali Nguma

Landon Peterson

Chandler Rogers

DT Sheffield

Kiefer Sibley

Jaylen Smith

Ridge Texada

Damon Ward Jr.

Ethan Wesloski

Shane Whitter

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