Tulsa 56, OSM{North Texas} 26

North Texas welcomed Tulsa to Denton and as good hosts they allowed Tulsa to go 57 yards in 12 plays on their opening drive culminating in a 13 yard touchdown run. Their second drive was only three plays, though, but also resulted in a touchdown.

The Mean Green was able to counter quickly on their next drive, however. QB Giovanni Vizza threw three 12-yard passes, two to freshman running back Lance Dunbar, playing in his first game. This was followed by a 27-yard run from freshman Riley Dodge, son of head coach Mike Dodge, also playing in his first game. This set up a 2-yard TD run by Dunbar. On the day, Dunbar carried the ball 10 times for 72 yards, caught 3 passes for 25 yards, and returned 4 kick offs. Dodge, a high school quarterback, played wide receiver and had 5 catches for 25 yards in addition to his two runs for 31 yards. Vizza completed 30 of 45 passes for 247 yards and 2 TDs.

But, Tulsa proved too strong. Midway through the second quarter, the Golden Hurricane scored a touchdown to take a 28-7 lead, only to see North Texas fumble the ensuing kickoff. Tulsa recovered at the seven and scored three plays later. North Texas did kick a 47-yard field goal as the first half ended, but this only cut the halftime lead to 42-10.

Senior QB David Johnson carved up the Mean Green secondary, completing 25 of 33 pass for 418 yards and threw a touchdown to six different receivers in addition to running one in himself. Thanks in part to this day, he now leads the nation in QB rating, is tied for the lead in touchdowns, and is second in yards per attempt (but has three times the yardage of the leader).

Next week, North Texas heads to Baton Rouge to take on LSU. Good luck.