Game notes
- Time and date: Saturday, November 14 at 9:00 p.m. ET
- Network: ESPNU
- Location: Alamodome — San Antonio, TX
- Spread: North Texas (-2.5)
- Over/under: 75.5
- All-time series: UTSA leads, 8-6
- Last meeting: North Texas 55, UTSA 17 — October 18, 2025
- Current streak: North Texas, 1 (2025)
Setting the scene
Apparently, replacing your head coach and every single starter is one way to get ahead in the American.
North Texas began the Neal Brown era with zero returning starters, 70 new players and a plethora of icebreakers. Nine games later, the Mean Green are 7-2, riding a six-game winning streak and sitting alone atop the conference at 5-0.
The reward? A late-night trip to the Alamodome, where Jeff Traylor has spent seven seasons making visiting teams regret their travel arrangements.
UTSA is also 7-2, but
its route here took a sharp detour through Boca Raton. A 60-29 loss at Florida Atlantic snapped a five-game winning streak and dropped the Roadrunners to 4-1 in conference play. Now they host the league leader with a chance to pull even in the loss column and secure a potentially valuable head-to-head result.
This is also UTSA’s homecoming. Traylor is 6-0 in those games.
Nothing says “welcome back, alumni” quite like inviting the nation’s No. 1 offense over and asking everyone to remain calm.
North Texas Mean Green outlook
The offseason departures in Denton could have justified a rebuilding year. Eric Morris left for Oklahoma State, and 20 former UNT players transferred there, including quarterback Drew Mestemaker and running back Caleb Hawkins.
Brown apparently skipped the part where everyone lowers expectations.
North Texas leads the FBS in total offense at 534.7 yards per game and ranks second in both scoring offense (44.7) and passing offense (343.8). During its six-game winning streak, UNT has averaged 51.2 points and never scored fewer than 40.
The most impressive part is how many ways this offense can do a defense dirty.
Quarterback Tayven Jackson has completed 70.8% of his passes for 2,880 yards, 23 touchdowns and five interceptions. Before arriving at UNT, he had never thrown for 300 yards in 27 career appearances. He has now done it in six of his last seven games.
That is a fairly aggressive change to the résumé.
Jackson’s efficiency matters as much as his volume. At 9.66 yards per attempt, UNT can generate explosive gains without living exclusively on low-percentage throws. And an offensive line that has allowed just eight sacks through nine games gives those opportunities time to develop.
Receiver Justin Stevenson has become the primary beneficiary, collecting 55 catches for 898 yards and eight touchdowns. He has four consecutive 100-yard receiving games, including a 209-yard outing at Navy. Tight end Max Reese adds 407 receiving yards, while Kyle Koch has six touchdown catches after entering the season with three career receptions.
Then there is Jahiem White, who presents the most uncomfortable matchup for UTSA.
The former West Virginia back has 1,186 rushing yards, 16 rushing touchdowns and a 7.28-yard average. He has reached 100 rushing yards in six consecutive games and scored on the ground in all nine games this season. His streak extends to 11 games dating back to his time with the Mountaineers.
White also has 33 catches for 308 yards and two touchdowns. Loading the box to stop him creates opportunities for Jackson and Stevenson. Sitting back to protect against the pass risks allowing White to turn manageable gains into much larger problems.
That dilemma is especially relevant against a UTSA defense allowing 200.9 rushing yards per game.
For the game-note enthusiasts among us, UNT is the only FBS program with a player in the national top 10 in passing, rushing and receiving yards. Jackson and White rank third in their respective categories; Stevenson is 10th.
The concern is what happens when North Texas has to play defense itself. The Mean Green allow 399.7 yards and 30.9 points per game, and their 172.3 rushing yards allowed per outing give UTSA a clear avenue to keep pace.
Defensive coordinator Matt Powledge’s group has compensated by producing 14 takeaways and two defensive touchdowns. Against Rice, UNT converted both takeaways into touchdowns during a game in which it scored 42 second-half points.
Davion Rhodes, with five sacks and four forced fumbles, is a player UTSA must account for. North Texas does not need to erase receptions and the Roadrunners’ rushing attack. It needs enough negative plays and empty possessions to let its own offense create separation.
UTSA Roadrunners outlook
Before anyone takes that FAU score and starts writing the obituary, a reminder: UTSA is 37-5 at the Alamodome under Traylor.
Against conference opponents at home, it is 27-1, including two Conference USA championship games..
North Texas is 1-6 all-time in San Antonio, with its only victory coming in 2018. Last season’s 55-17 win happened in Denton, and the players responsible for much of that performance have since moved on.
The venue deserves respect. So does the quarterback.
Owen McCown has thrown for 2,016 yards and 13 touchdowns while completing 68% of his passes. He has started UTSA’s last 36 games, giving the Roadrunners an experienced operator for a matchup that could demand both patience and fourth-quarter urgency.
Here is your McCown family rabbit hole: Traylor coached Owen’s father, Josh, and uncles Luke and Randy while serving as an assistant at Jacksonville High School in the 1990s.
McCown’s best path Saturday is to keep UTSA balanced and exploit a UNT defense that ranks 129th nationally in opposing passing efficiency. If the Mean Green have to commit extra defenders to the run, he needs to punish those decisions.
There are enough backfield options to force that conversation. Will Henderson III has 682 rushing yards and five touchdowns. Brandon High Jr., back at UTSA after spending 2025 at California, adds 309 yards and three scores.
A’Marion Peterson supplies the finishing touches with 11 rushing touchdowns and another receiving score. He has already delivered late game-winning touchdowns against South Florida and Navy, so a close finish is familiar territory.
UTSA’s run game can attack UNT’s vulnerable front while reducing the number of possessions Jackson receives. The trick is finishing those drives with touchdowns. Long possessions lose much of their value if North Texas answers a field goal with seven points in a fraction of the time.
Mekhi Anderson is another potential equalizer. He caught six passes for 117 yards and two touchdowns at FAU and leads UTSA with five receiving scores. He also returned a kickoff 100 yards against Colorado State, the longest play in program history.
In a game where one stolen possession could matter, a return threat deserves more than a passing mention.
But UTSA’s defense has the biggest repair job.
FAU amassed 563 yards, including 339 rushing, against the Roadrunners. That is a particularly unpleasant result to carry into a meeting with White. UTSA cannot consistently lose at the point of attack and expect its secondary to survive Jackson throwing from favorable down-and-distance situations.
Linebacker Owen Pewee, who has four sacks and seven tackles for loss, offers some disruptive potential. He recorded three sacks at Tulane. Getting Jackson off schedule would help prevent UNT from accessing its entire playbook, although that requires beating an offensive line that has protected him exceptionally well.
Discipline also bears watching. Both teams average more than eight penalties per game, and UTSA’s 80.4 penalty yards per outing rank 135th nationally. Neither defense needs to make this assignment harder by handing out free first downs.
Prediction
The Alamodome makes this a much tougher pick than the teams’ most recent results suggest. UTSA has the quarterback experience, rushing depth and home history to push North Texas into the fourth quarter.
But White against this run defense is the matchup I keep returning to.
UNT can lean on him without sacrificing explosiveness, and his receiving ability gives Jackson another answer when UTSA brings pressure. Add Stevenson outside, Reese working the middle and an offensive line that rarely allows sacks, and the Mean Green have more dependable ways to sustain drives.
Expect UTSA to find points against a defense that has allowed plenty of them. Expect the home crowd to make this uncomfortable. But North Texas has scored at least 40 points in six straight games, and the Roadrunners’ latest defensive performance offers little reason to predict that streak ends Saturday.
White supplies the difference, Jackson makes UTSA pay for overcommitting to stop him, and Brown gets the eighth victory that would give him the most wins by a first-year head coach in program history.
UTSA picked a hell of a weekend to invite everyone back.
Prediction: North Texas 45, UTSA 38
