By Craig Fields
I had no idea that a demolition derby was going to take place at the same time and place of the North Texas vs. Nicholls State game. If I had known I might have been prepared for the complete and total annihilation of Nicholls State that took place Saturday afternoon. The Mean Green destroy the Colonels 77-3, in what can only be called a non-contest.
There are so many headlines to get into in this one game. So let’s start with one of the more important ones. Dajon Williams made his debut start as a college quarterback for the Mean Green, what a debut it was. Even though Williams played pretty much only the first half of the game, he posted the type of numbers that a quarterback would be proud of if they had played the entire game.
Williams was 11-of-14 for 176 yards and three touchdowns for a quarterback rating of 254.9. He also ran four times for 68 yards and two more touchdowns. He was efficient and made the right reads on the read option plays. He completed his first five passes of the game. The first touchdown he threw was the first of his career but also the first of the season for the Mean Green.
He just gives the opposing defensive coordinators more to think about. They can not sit back in a zone and wait for him to pass because he is more than capable and comfortable with using his athleticism and speed to run for yards. If you spy him and use a couple of linebackers close to the line of scrimmage, he is more than capable and comfortable with making the pass to the right guy.
Nicholls State is not the University of Texas. They are not Louisiana Tech. However, Dajon is not Josh Greer either. If Williams had played those games, sure North Texas might have still lost, but I’d be willing to bet the laptop that I’m typing on right now that those games would have been more competitive. At the very least they would have been less painful to watch.
Now, on to more headlines. The defense was outstanding, dominant, overpowering, enter any adjective to describe complete domination here. They broke the school record for number of sacks in a game with 10. They also helped to give North Texas their largest margin of victory since 1948 when they beat Randolph Field by a score of 86-0.
The lone bright spot in a masterpiece of dimness for the Colonels was the decent play of Michael Henry. He ran the ball 19 times for a total of 97 yards and also caught a pass for 29 yards. He was the only guy who could really do anything against a stingy Mean Green defense.
Now, after a win like this, it is important to put everything into perspective. Leave it to Coach McCarney to make sure his guys do not get too high or low after a loss or a big win like this one.
“We challenged our team. We’re probably not as bad as we played against Louisiana Tech. We’re probably not as good as we played today. We’re probably somewhere in between.” McCarney said. “But clearly we got better as a football team and that’s what you want to see as a head coach.”
I could not have said it better myself coach. One thing is that we do not really know much about this team to this point. All of their games have been blowouts, wins and losses. One thing that is certain is that there record stands at 2-2 for the second straight year. That’s something that this program has not done in back to back seasons since 1993 and 1994.
Maybe next week’s game against the Hoosiers of Indiana University will give us some clue as to what kind of team this is. Whether it does or does not, Dajon Williams looks to be the guy who will man the helm for the remainder of the season. With a performance like he had on Saturday, I’d say he’s the man for the job.
