Fresh Off Bye, Mean Green Hitting the Road

Saturday, November 15

Birmingham, AL

1 PM CT

University of North Texas

UAB

Tickets

Photo by: Zach Del Bello / Mean Green Sports

11/11/2025 12:39:00 PM | Football

UAB Game Notes vs. North Texas UNT Game Notes

DENTON – The UNT football team is fresh off a bye week and hitting the road to face UAB, while looking to move to nine wins on the season for the first time since 2018. The Mean Green will face the Blazers on Saturday on ESPN+ with kickoff set for 1 p.m. The radio broadcast can be found on 1190 AM/The Varsity Network.

Head coach Eric Morris and select players spoke to the media on Tuesday and discussed, among other things, coming off a bye week and what happened last time UNT was coming off a bye, a tight conference race with a College Football Playoff spot possibly up for grabs, the team's road struggles despite being unbeaten on the road and the dominance that has come from continuity on the offensive line.

UNT hoping for positive result after second bye
Not all bye weeks are treated equally. And they don't always have the same result on the back end.

The Mean Green will hope for a different result following a bye than they got earlier in the season when their one loss on the year to South Florida came following a 5-0 start and a bye week.

Now 8-1, UNT will come off a later-season bye week with a different set of goals and will look for a different result in Birmingham.

"The one hiccup we had this year was coming off a bye week," Morris said. "So getting the guys back and refocused is huge for us. We've handled adversity well this week and really over the course of the whole year for the most part. We have a lot of older mature guys on this team, so I was happy with how we came back out and got to work."

Morris said this time around, the goal was to recharge and not push the team too much physically in the off week before getting back to work on Tuesday.

"This bye week was a little different than the last one, just getting this deep in the season and getting some reps off the guys and give them a little more time off last week," Morris said. "It's been a bunch of walk-throughs with a ton of light reps and seeing what we'll face against UAB."

Redshirt freshman quarterback Drew Mestemaker said it was nice to have some time off physically and mentally but now he and his teammates are locked in for the homestretch of the season with everything to play for.

"I think it was good to get a little physical break," Mestemaker said. "I felt like we really didn't come out of these last couple of games too banged up, but just to physically and mentally reset and get back on track was nice."

Mean Green in thick of packed American race
With three conference games remaining for the Mean Green, they are one of five teams currently with one conference loss and are in the national conversation regarding the College Football Playoff spot reserved for the best Group of Five team.

Win out, and UNT will have as good a shot as anyone to earn that spot, but Morris continues to stress the importance of not looking ahead to that, as hard as it can be.

"I try to stay away from it as much as I can," Morris said. "Any time you start looking in the future, that's when things go haywire. It's easier said than done. Human nature creeps in and you start looking and wondering about what could happen down the road. Our team has put themselves in this position and we have to come out one week at a time and control our destiny one week at a time. That's UAB this week."

UNT looking for complete game on the road
Though UNT is a perfect 3-0 on the road this season, the Mean Green have yet to play a complete game away from DATCU Stadium.

They overcame a 14-point deficit to pull out an overtime win at Western Michigan, held off a furious Army second-half rally to win in overtime at Army and were tied at the half at Charlotte before exploding for a 54-20 win behind a school-record passing day for Mestemaker.

"We just can't shoot ourselves in the foot or go backwards like we have sometimes on the road," Mestemaker said. "All the games we've struggled in offensively, and on those drives where we have, I think we've stopped ourselves. We've busted routes or been careless with the football. We just can't shoot ourselves in the foot. A 3-yard gain is better than going backward and throwing it away is better than taking a sack."

Morris referenced the team's history on the road this season, which has consistently seen them play one good half – the second half against Western Michigan and Charlotte, and the first half against Army – and making key plays when necessary otherwise to hold on for wins. He's still waiting for that complete game on the road like the ones at home against Washington State and UTSA. And if it comes this week, it will have to come against a UAB squad that is tough at home with a 3-1 record, including a win over previously ranked Memphis.

"We haven't been great but we're undefeated on the road. It's been different types of games. We've played really complete games at home. We've gone in spurts of playing really well on the road in different phases. … I'd like us to put together four quarters on the road."

"We have to get out on the road and play a complete game. UAB has been really good at home this year and the more reminders we can give our kids in a game like this will help. They got after a really good Memphis team at home a couple of weeks ago."

OL continuity has led to offensive success
After a nightmarish run of injuries on the offensive line last season that saw the Mean Green start 10 different combinations up front in 13 games, the big guys up front have been solidified this season with the unit of Braydon Nelson, Gabe Blair, Tay Yanta II, Johnny Dickson III and Jimto Obidegwu, from left to right, starting six of the nine games this season.

That continuity, led by Blair and Dickson, has helped the Mean Green offense be one of the nation's best and the second-best scoring offense in FBS.

"We've stayed healthy for the majority of the season," Morris said. "You think back to a year ago and we started something like 10 different lineups in 13 games. Any time you get the continuity is great. O-line groups everywhere I've been are a little goofy in that room and have their own little clique. It's a mix of us having really good players with a good mix of younger and older guys and coach Crill doing a great job of forming those bonds and relationships so they want to play for each other."

Aside from Mestemaker's gaudy passing numbers, the line has paved the way for a deadly rushing attack, paced by freshman Caleb Hawkins, who is the only player in the nation to have more than 1,000 scrimmage yards while having played just eight games.

"It makes the complete offense run," Mestemaker said of the rushing attack. "In years past, we've had to lean more toward the passing side. To have the balanced attack makes it that much harder for the defense to stop us or key in on what we're doing."