Friday, November 15
San Antonio, TX
7 PM CT
University of North Texas
at
UTSA
Photo by: Zach Del Bello / Mean Green Sports
UNT Hits Road on Short Week to Face UTSA
11/12/2024 12:48:00 PM | Football
DENTON – The UNT football team hits the road on a short week and will look to break a three-game skid against rival UTSA at the Alamodome on Friday night at 7 p.m. The game can be seen on ESPN2 with the radio broadcast set for 97.1 The Eagle/The Varsity Network/Sirius XM Channel 384.
Head coach Eric Morris and selected players spoke to the media on Tuesday and discussed, among other things, continuing the rivalry with the Roadrunners with both teams having a lot to play for and the play of redshirt freshman cornerback Brian Nelson II.
Mean Green looking to bounce back against rival
If being in the throws of a three-game losing streak wasn't enough to motivate UNT heading into its Friday night affair, the fact the Mean Green are set to go to a personal house of horrors to take on an intrastate rival fighting for life in terms of bowl eligibility should do the trick.
The teams have met every year since 2013, and UTSA has won the last three meetings, including once in the 2022 Conference USA Championship game. UNT's last win in the series came in 2021, when UNT ended the then-15th ranked Roadrunners' bid at a perfect season and became bowl eligible at the same time in the regular season finale. The Mean Green's last win in the Alamodome came in 2018 en route to a 9-4 record.
UTSA (4-5, 2-3 AAC), which is coming off its bye week with an extra week to prepare, must win two of its last three games to earn bowl eligibility, while UNT (5-4, 2-3) can punch its ticket to a bowl bid with one more win.
"We're dying for a win," Morris said. "I don't care who it comes against this week or next week, or ever. This stretch is eerily close to last year and coming off a short week and playing a team that's really good at home and has found their identity as the season has gone on, for our sake, we need a win and I don't care who it's against."
Though he played off the rivalry aspect of the game, he did admit it's big any time a team plays a team from its same state, just for recruiting purposes.
"Any time you're playing an instate team that's been as good as they've been for the last five years, it's different," Morris said. "Any time you can go down the road on I-35 and play a team like this that you're recruiting against, it is fun for our kids to play in these type of games. The atmosphere in that place is really unique, too.
"They play great there. It's loud in there. They've established a home field advantage and it's built in the culture. Now, they're used to protecting their house and they've done it this year being 4-0 at home.
"There's been ups and downs for both teams this year, that's easy to see when you look at the last 5-6 games for both teams. They had some late losses and responded extremely well and they had a week off to prepare and we're on a short week. That's not going to be monumental but it just kind of is what it is."
Senior wide receiver Damon Ward Jr., said he remembers that 2021 game that ended UTSA's storybook season, but said he's stressing to his younger teammates the importance of just seeing the matchup as another game, especially if the Mean Green want to take care of business and get bowl eligibility out of the way with a couple of games still to play.
"It's another game," he said. "It is a rivalry but we don't need to get too worked up over it. It's not about them. At the end of the day, we're focused on ourselves.
"We want to get that (bowl eligibility)," Ward added. "We missed it last year so we want to get it out of the way early and finish our season out"
Nelson emerging as defensive leader
Redshirt freshman cornerback Brian Nelson II made the most of his brief coming out party in 2023, making six tackles and breaking up three passes in four games played while preserving his redshirt.
Now, he's quickly become one of the leaders in the back end of UNT's defense, ranking sixth on the team in tackles (36.0) to go with two pass breakups and two interceptions, which ties for the team lead.
"He'll continue to emerge as one of the leaders back there," Morris said. "He's just a redshirt freshman right now and is a young kid who played really well at the back end of last year, and he picked up where he left off."
Senior safety Jayden Hill said Nelson showed early on he could be a key contributor and he hasn't disappointed.
"He's definitely grown a ton," Hill said. "From Game 1, Rep 1, we've seen a lot out of him. The experience he's gotten has been huge. He's one of our key players and will be down the line."
Head coach Eric Morris and selected players spoke to the media on Tuesday and discussed, among other things, continuing the rivalry with the Roadrunners with both teams having a lot to play for and the play of redshirt freshman cornerback Brian Nelson II.
Mean Green looking to bounce back against rival
If being in the throws of a three-game losing streak wasn't enough to motivate UNT heading into its Friday night affair, the fact the Mean Green are set to go to a personal house of horrors to take on an intrastate rival fighting for life in terms of bowl eligibility should do the trick.
The teams have met every year since 2013, and UTSA has won the last three meetings, including once in the 2022 Conference USA Championship game. UNT's last win in the series came in 2021, when UNT ended the then-15th ranked Roadrunners' bid at a perfect season and became bowl eligible at the same time in the regular season finale. The Mean Green's last win in the Alamodome came in 2018 en route to a 9-4 record.
UTSA (4-5, 2-3 AAC), which is coming off its bye week with an extra week to prepare, must win two of its last three games to earn bowl eligibility, while UNT (5-4, 2-3) can punch its ticket to a bowl bid with one more win.
"We're dying for a win," Morris said. "I don't care who it comes against this week or next week, or ever. This stretch is eerily close to last year and coming off a short week and playing a team that's really good at home and has found their identity as the season has gone on, for our sake, we need a win and I don't care who it's against."
Though he played off the rivalry aspect of the game, he did admit it's big any time a team plays a team from its same state, just for recruiting purposes.
"Any time you're playing an instate team that's been as good as they've been for the last five years, it's different," Morris said. "Any time you can go down the road on I-35 and play a team like this that you're recruiting against, it is fun for our kids to play in these type of games. The atmosphere in that place is really unique, too.
"They play great there. It's loud in there. They've established a home field advantage and it's built in the culture. Now, they're used to protecting their house and they've done it this year being 4-0 at home.
"There's been ups and downs for both teams this year, that's easy to see when you look at the last 5-6 games for both teams. They had some late losses and responded extremely well and they had a week off to prepare and we're on a short week. That's not going to be monumental but it just kind of is what it is."
Senior wide receiver Damon Ward Jr., said he remembers that 2021 game that ended UTSA's storybook season, but said he's stressing to his younger teammates the importance of just seeing the matchup as another game, especially if the Mean Green want to take care of business and get bowl eligibility out of the way with a couple of games still to play.
"It's another game," he said. "It is a rivalry but we don't need to get too worked up over it. It's not about them. At the end of the day, we're focused on ourselves.
"We want to get that (bowl eligibility)," Ward added. "We missed it last year so we want to get it out of the way early and finish our season out"
Nelson emerging as defensive leader
Redshirt freshman cornerback Brian Nelson II made the most of his brief coming out party in 2023, making six tackles and breaking up three passes in four games played while preserving his redshirt.
Now, he's quickly become one of the leaders in the back end of UNT's defense, ranking sixth on the team in tackles (36.0) to go with two pass breakups and two interceptions, which ties for the team lead.
"He'll continue to emerge as one of the leaders back there," Morris said. "He's just a redshirt freshman right now and is a young kid who played really well at the back end of last year, and he picked up where he left off."
Senior safety Jayden Hill said Nelson showed early on he could be a key contributor and he hasn't disappointed.
"He's definitely grown a ton," Hill said. "From Game 1, Rep 1, we've seen a lot out of him. The experience he's gotten has been huge. He's one of our key players and will be down the line."
Players Mentioned
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Eric Morris Weekly Press Conference vs. Washington State | Mean Green FB
Tuesday, September 09
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Recap vs Western Michigan | Mean Green FB '25
Monday, September 08