North Texas Rolls Over UTEP
DENTON, TX – A dominant Mean Green defense registered a pair of blocked kicks, tied the school-record for quarterback sacks and allowed a season-low 184 yards total offense as North Texas extended its winning streak to five with a 41-7 homecoming victory over Texas-El Paso Saturday night.
“We wanted to collapse the pocket,” North Texas coach Dan McCarney said. “They had a new quarterback and he has talent. We wanted to keep him pinned in and keep him contained, try to heat him up. But it started with controlling the running game. They’ve been going for 200 yards. They didn’t get near that today.”
The North Texas offense, meanwhile, continued to pick up the slack left by the loss of running back Reggie Pegram to season-ending injury two weeks ago. Against Rice, it was Antoinne Jimmerson going to 62 yards and two touchdowns. Saturday, it was senior Brandin Byrd turning in a career-best 202 yards and two touchdowns, including an 82-yard scoring run in the second half, as North Texas piled up 317 yards on the ground and 471 total yards for the game.
“You love to see the consistency from Brandin Byrd,” McCarney said. “He’s one of the most unselfish guys we
got. He’s one of the toughest players, one of the most respected players we have in this program.”
The win keeps North Texas (7-3, 5-1) atop the Conference USA West-Division standings, half a game up on Rice. The Mean Green, by virtue of last week’s 28-16 victory over Rice, holds the tie-breaker advantage over the Owls.
The North Texas defense battered UTEP and its freshman quarterback, Mack Leftwich, who was sacked eight times, the most by the Mean Green since North Texas sacked Texas’ Chris Simms eight times in 2002. Marcus Trice, Aaron Bellazin, Brandon McCoy, Richard Abbe and Zach Orr had sacks, and Orr had a game-high 12 tackles, moving him into sixth place on the North Texas all-time career tackles list.
North Texas was up 7-0 when the Mean Green got its third punt block of the season. Redshirt freshman Rex Rollins blocked a UTEP kick and freshman Darvin Kidsy recovered for touchdown and a 14-0 lead. UTEP never threatened the rest of the way, held to 56 yards rushing (1.3 yards per rush) and 184 yards of total offense.
