North Texas 2025 Season Rewatch: All that Can Go Wrong, Does Go Wrong for Mean Green in American Title Game

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GAME 1 | GAME 2 | GAME 3 | GAME 4 | GAME 5 | GAME 6 | GAME 7 | GAME 8 | GAME 9 | GAME 10 | GAME 11 | GAME 12

The American Championship game was a College Football Playoff play-in game, but just about nothing went North Texas’ way in Louisiana.

UNT lost to Tulane 34-21 in what would be the last game Eric Morris coached at North Texas.

In preparation for Oklahoma State’s 2026 season, we’re going back and watching North Texas’ 2025 season. Here are some takeaways from this game against Tulane.

I Don’t Put that on Mestemaker

One of the few knocks people have had on Drew Mestemaker this offseason was his play in “big games.” Well, though he wasn’t excellent in this one, I have a hard time putting this result on him.

Caleb Hawkins was shaken up after his first handoff. Flashforward to modern day, and Morris pointed to this game as reason they need to lighten Hawkins’ load this season.

UNT would finish that opening drive with a touchdown to go up 7-0 before Tulane responded with a long touchdown drive of its own to tie it at 7.

Then on UNT’s second drive, Hawkins got hit after a catch and fumbled, ending his day right there. Tulane would score two plays later, and then it started raining.

So, Mestemaker was already without a ground game on the road in the rain, but the bad luck didn’t stop there.

Tulane punted up 17-7, but the punt hit a UNT player (and the officials missed a fairly obvious kick-catch interference). So, Tulane got the ball right back and scored as time expired in the half to take a 24-7 lead into the locker room.

Then Tulane got the ball out of the half and were able to drain some more clock. So, Mestemaker last had the ball with 2:09 to play in the first half. He didn’t get the ball back until there was 8:47 to play in the third quarter. That’s a lot of game time not to mention the fact that a whole halftime took place.

When the Mean Green finally did get the all back, Mestemaker scrambled down the sideline. He was shoved out of bounds by a Tulane defender. It was a clean shove, but it was close enough to make offensive lineman Johnny Dickson feel the need to stand up for his QB. Dickson was flagged for a 15-yard penalty, giving UNT a 2nd-and-24.

UNT got that down to a 4th-and-9 and went for it when a Mestemaker pass went through Wyatt Young’s hands and into the waiting arms of a defender, who housed it for a pick-six. Mestemaker probably forced a fumble as the defender crossed the goal line, but there wasn’t enough evidence to overturn the call.

Then UNT got the ball back and drove the length of the field just for Mestemaker to be picked off in the end zone. This one also hit Young’s hands, but in fairness, it was quite a ways behind him.

With no run game to protect him, Mestemaker was also sacked five times in this game.

All that is to say, that’s a lot that went wrong that wasn’t necessarily in Mestemaker’s control, and I leave this rewatch feeling like the “he didn’t play well in big games” argument to have a rather large caveat.

He finished with 294 passing yards, two touchdowns and three picks. The final pick came with a minute to play when he was just forcing a ball into the end zone.

Other Notes

• Former BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff led Tulane last season. If you want to know how not great the conditions were, he went 13-for-22 with 145 yards and no touchdowns.

• It felt like Mestemaker was pressured more in this game than any previous game, and the PFF numbers back that up. He was pressured 17 times — three more than any other game in 2025. The five sacks were also a season-high.

• Tulane was pumping the Mean Green on the ground. Tulane rushed 52 times to North Texas’ 34 times. The Green wave finished with 199 rushing yards and three rushing scores.

• Up next: UNT’s New Mexico Bowl appearance against San Diego State.