Mean Green trounce Nicholls State
Akshay Mirchandani / Sports Editor
It only took five plays for the Mean Green to score their first touchdown of the game, and they never took their foot off the throttle in their 77-3 rout of Nicholls State University.
“We sure showed some improvement from the last time in all three phases,” head coach Dan McCarney said. “We challenged our team. We’re probably not as bad as we played against Lousiana Tech, and we’re probably not as good as we played today. We’re probably somewhere in between, but clearly we got better as a football team today.”
North Texas’ first possession of the game ended in with a five-yard touchdown rush by redshirt freshman quarterback Dajon Williams. Their next possession ended with a 41-yard touchdown pass from Williams to junior wide receiver Carlos Harris. By the end of the first quarter, the Mean Green had a 28-3 lead.
“We’ve seen how they played on defense and how they’re corners ere far off,” Williams said. “We knew if we roll out and throw it to the right and to the left every time the first couple of times, that they would bring their corners up, so that would open up more for us over the top.”
It was Williams’ first start of his career and he didn’t disappoint. The redshirt freshman completed 11 of 14 passes for 176 yards and three touchdowns, and also had four rushes for 68 yards and two touchdowns.
“When I went out there I was just neutral,” Williams said. “I just went out there just to go out there and do my job on the field and I just got to stay humble and keep pushing towards excellence every day.”
The second quarter wasn’t much different as the Mean Green scored four more touchdowns , including a pick-six by senior defensive back James Jones, to take a 49-3 lead into halftime. The Mean Green didn’t let up when the third quarter started and put up 21 points, including a 75-punt return for a touchdown by junior wide receiver Darvin Kidsy. The special teams unit also blocked two punts.
“Finally we made a difference,” McCarney said. “So hopefully we won’t disappear now for the next six weeks on that unit. There should be consistency there.”
When the fourth quarter started, junior defensive back Zac Whitfield came up with a 98-yard interception return for a touchdown to extend the Mean Green lead to 77-3. The Mean Green had three interceptions in the game overall and registered 10 sacks, which broke a school record.
“It’s a big confidence booster,” junior defensive end Chad Polk said. “But as our coach says we can’t be too high or too low. Next game we have to go out there and produce more. That’s all we can do on the D-line is just get better every week.”
The Mean Green will have their bye-week next week, but will return to action when they play Indiana University on the road on Oct. 3.
Junior defensive end Chad Polk and junior linebacker A.J. Smith wrap up the Nicholls State University quarterback on Saturday afternoon.
Featured Image: Redshirt freshman Dajon Williams runs in his first career touchdown within the first two minutes of the game on Saturday. Photos by Ryan Vance – Staff Photographer
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