North Texas 2025 Season Rewatch: Mean Green Bounces Back with 55-17 Win Against UTSA, Young Has Big Day

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GAME 1 | GAME 2 | GAME 3 | GAME 4 | GAME 5 | GAME 6

Coming off its first loss of the season, North Texas bounced back in a big way against an in-state rival.

UNT routed UTSA 55-17 to move to 6-1 on the 2025 season in a game where the Mean Green imposed their will on the Road Runners.

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 UTSA.

Wyatt Young Doesn’t Run Like a Receiver (in a Good Way)

Wyatt Young played quarterback in high school, so he’s relatively new to the wide receiver position. And in the best way possible, you can tell.

Young  is unlike many receivers I’ve seen with the ball in his hands, looking more like a running back with how physical he can be. The biggest example I can provide from this game came in the third quarter, as Young fought to the goal line after a catch, breaking one tackle and carrying another inside the 5-yard line.

Young had his best game of the season in this one, catching six passes for 102 yards and three touchdowns in just three quarters of action. The numbers could’ve been even more gaudy, but Drew Mestemaker missed him on two post route where Young got behind the defense.

They finally connected on one of those for Young’s final reception of the game: a 42-yard touchdown that pushed UNT’s lead to 45-17.

His other TDs came on a slant route that Mestemaker ripped to the middle of the field for a 20-yard TD. Then Young caught a ball in the flats for an 11-yard score.

Speaking of Tough Runners

This is not a sentence I ever thought I would type, but: Caleb Hawkins sort of has Chuba Hubbard’s hips.

What I mean by that is Hubbard always seemed to have his hips pointed toward the end zone he was running to. Hawkins is that same way. They obviously have different running styles (Hawkins seeks people to truck while Hubbard jetted away from people), but both were always looking to go north and south (or east and west in Boone Pickens Stadium).

Hawkins brings the boom to would be tacklers. According to PFF, he had 105 yards after contact in this one. One of the most brutal examples for the UTSA defense came on this play. Hawkins gained 11 yards from this moment, somehow:

He finished with 133 rushing yards on 18 carries.

Hawkins is also a demon in the check-down game. Often times when Mestemaker doesn’t have anyone downfield, he’ll dump it off to Hawkins. That puts Hawkins in space usually with just defensive backs in front of him, and there aren’t a ton of single defensive backs who are able to bring him down. He caught eight balls in this game and had 90 receiving yards.

Other Notes

• I learned that this in-state rivalry is called the “Battle of the Birds,” and it was North Texas’ homecoming.

• UTSA had a 72-yard rush on its first play from scrimmage, but after that, the yards were tough to come by. Taking that 72-yard run out, UTSA averaged 4.6 yards per play to UNT’s 7.2 yards per play.

• With a man coming free on his blindside, Drew Mestemaker spun out of this would-be sack, another example of his underappreciated athleticism:

• Eric Morris is a bit of a river-boat gambler. He went for it on fourth down in the first half from inside his 35-yard line. Hawkins put his head down and got the yard required.

• Some borderline psycho stuff late in the first half. With no timeouts and 21 seconds left in the half, Morris called a run play. It worked. Kiefer Sibley ran in from 18 yards out to give UNT a 24-14 lead at the half. It was awesome because it worked but would’ve been significantly less awesome had it not.

• Mestemaker threw a 15-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter in which he was rolling to his left. He was able to flip his hips and deliver a perfect pass to Cameron Dorner.

• Now an OSU receiver, Terrence Lewis got behind the defense late and caught a touchdown on a 37-yard go-ball from the UNT backup QB.

• This marked North Texas’ third time over 50 points this season.