Three Takeaways from My North Texas 2025 Season Rewatch

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Drew Mestemaker and Caleb Hawkins both appear to be quite good at football, but I already knew that going into my 2025 North Texas rewatch.

So, instead of stating the obvious across my next 700 words or so, here are three slightly more minuscule things that I picked up on from watching all 14 of North Texas’ games across the past three weeks.

1. Hawkins Is a Menace in the Dump Off Game

I was already high on Caleb Hawkins’ ability, but this preseason exercise got me even more excited to watch Hawkins this fall.

He runs with no regard for himself or others. Tackling him (or attempting to tackle him) doesn’t look fun at all.

Although he’s more than capable of toting the rock between the tackles, what stuck out to me most was how much of a threat he is in the passing game.

There were plenty of times last season where nothing would be open down field, so after staying in to pass protect, Hawkins would swing out wide and catch a dump-off pass. That’s the most terrifying position for him to be in as a defense.

I say that because on those types of plays, he’ll get the ball with no one within five feet of him. The defensive linemen often aren’t quick enough to go laterally to catch him, leaving nothing by defensive backs and linebackers having to track Hawkins down in space. And when he gets that steam engine rolling, it felt rare that just one of those guys could bring him down.

No stopping @CalebHawk2025

📺 @ESPNCFB #GMG🦅 pic.twitter.com/iZlGKhbJzR

— UNT Football (@MeanGreenFB) December 27, 2025

Hawkins had 370 receiving yards and four receiving touchdowns last season on 32 catches. For reference, the last OSU running back to have at least 370 receiving yards in a season was Joseph Randle way back in 2010 (427 receiving yards). So, it’s not every day a running back is putting up those types of numbers in the passing game.

2. Skyler Cassity’s Defense Excelled in Creating Turnovers

Part of North Texas blowing teams out all 2025 was the high-powered offense, but the defense’s ability to get the ball back to that offense also played a large role.

UNT created 28 turnovers in 2025 (13 fumble recoveries and 15 INTs), which tied SMU for the fifth-most in the country — trailing only Texas Tech (32), Arizona (31), Indiana (29) and Southern Miss (29).

The Mean Green finished the year with a turnover margin of +9, which ranked 16th nationally.

Having seen his defense’s ability to create turnovers, I asked Cassity last week what about a defense makes it good at creating turnovers.

“Getting to the football,” he said. “It all starts there. The more hats you can get around the football, the more turnovers you’ll always force. It’s not something that you just emphasize in a five-minute period in practice. It’s something that you emphasize all the time. It’s getting around the football, getting multiple hats on the football, being violent at the point of attack and swarming ball carriers.

“The more time that you can get multiple people around the ball, even if the first guy misses, when there’s two and three guys that show up immediately following, you got chances to make big-time explosive plays.”

3. Morris Isn’t Afraid to Go For It

This is perhaps where Morris’ offensive roots show through the most.

North Texas went for it on fourth down 36 times last season, which is tied with Alabama and Arizona State for the sixth-most fourth-down attempts in FBS.

The Mean Green converted on 26 of those attempts, the fourth-most fourth-down conversions of any team in the country.

UNT’s fourth-down conversion percentage of .722 ranked seventh nationally.

So, not only was North Texas going for it a lot, they were converting on fourth down a lot. Only Duke had a higher fourth-down conversion percentage on more attempts than UNT.

The offensive weapons certainly help. Hawkins rarely loses ground. He gained 1,457 yards on the ground last season while losing only 23. So, if UNT needed a yard or two, he was almost certainly a lock. But the Mean Green also had some big chunk plays on fourth down, like in their bowl game when Mestemaker hit Cameron Dorner on a 4th-and-4 for a 31-yard touchdown.

Easy pitch and catch from @DrewMestemaker to @cameron_dorner

📺 @ESPNCFB #GMG🦅 https://t.co/MyR389rQPP pic.twitter.com/51vWYPwtWQ

— UNT Football (@MeanGreenFB) December 28, 2025