The University of North Texas faced off against Army earlier this year with North Texas picking up a 35-18 victory at West Point. Unfortunately the Mean Green couldn’t pull off a second victory in overtime losing 38-31 against Army in the Zaxby’s Heart of Dallas Bowl.
UNT completed a turnaround season where they finished the season 5-7, 3-5 C-USA. An outstanding record considering it went 1-11 a year ago and started from scratch going into this season with a new coaching staff and athletic director. It received a bowl invitation, its 9th in school history, because of the team's strong Academic Progress Rate.
In its first scoring drive UNT only took 6 plays and 66 yards for Jeffery Wilson to score on the 22 yard run. In the following quarter he would score UNT’s second touchdown on another 22 yard run; pass completed by Alec Morris. With 10 seconds left in the first half Rico Bussey scored a 27 yard touchdown, pulling the Mean Green within 3 points of Army at halftime, 24-21.
Wilson scored UNT’s lone touchdown in the third quarter after a punt return fumble recovery by Kenny Buyers at Army’s 18. Trevor Moore kicked the game tying field goal to send the game into overtime at 31-31 with 28 seconds left in the game.
Jordan Asberry took a toss and scored Army's sixth rushing touchdown sealing UNT's fate 38-31.
Wilson finished with 2 touchdowns and 127 total yards for the Mean Green.
Army’s quarterback Ahmad Bradshaw was named game MVP. He finished with one rushing touchdown and 182 total yards.
''We may not have accomplished our mission of winning our bowl game, but these men set a solid foundation of brotherhood,'' UNT first-year coach Seth Littrell said.
Game Notes:
North Texas was 10th in Academic Progress Rate and second among teams that did not qualify for a bowl game among the 128 FBS schools. APR involves academic progress through a team-based metric that accounts for the eligibility and retention of each student-athlete for each academic term. Those selections were based on APR scores, the measure used to track student-athletes chances of graduating.
The Mean Green is the first school ever to participate in the Zaxby’s Heart of Dallas Bowl twice. North Texas defeated UNLV, 36-14, in the game following the 2013 season.
In November UNT celebrated its 70th anniversary of earning its first bowl invitation. On Nov. 23, 1946, NT, under first-year head coach Odus Mitchell, defeated East Texas State, 47-7, to capture the Lone Star Conference championship and send the Eagles to the first bowl game in school history.
- Army finished with 480 yards rushing, including 119 yards and two TDs by Darnell Woolfolk. Asberry's score was the 46th rushing touchdown this season, breaking the school record held by the 1945 national championship team that had two Heisman Trophy winners in the backfield.