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EDITORS NOTE: This is the sixth story in a series of stories counting down the best games in the Jeff Traylor era at UTSA

Previously in the Series: HONORABLE MENTION GAMES | GAME 10 | GAME 9 | GAME 8 | GAME 7

The sixth-best game in the Traylor era came when UTSA visited North Texas on the first Saturday of November 2023. The Roadrunners had lost four straight in Denton since winning the first game between the two schools in November 2013. UTSA followed the formula of the 2013 team by never trailing against North Texas and beating the Mean Green by eight, 37-29.

In four trips to Denton between the win in 2013 and the visit in 2023, the Roadrunners had been outscored 149-75 by the Mean Green. North Texas beat UTSA 45-3 in 2019 and spoiled the Roadrunners undefeated season in 2021 by winning 45-23. Before the visit in 2023, UTSA had not had a lead in Denton since the 2017 season when North Texas scored a winning touchdown in the final seconds to beat UTSA.

North Texas was hoping to keep their Denton dominance of the Roadrunners intact in 2023 but it was not going to be easy. The Mean Green entered the game with a 3-5 record overall and 1-3 in American Conference play. North Texas had changed coaches since the last time they faced the Roadrunners. Eric Morris was brought in to replace Seth Littrell after the 2022 season.

UTSA had bounced back from a 1-3 start to the 2023 season by opening conference play 4-0 to improve the record to 5-3.

The Roadrunners weren't just looking to improve on their 4-0 conference start. UTSA was riding a 12-game winning streak in conference games and a 14-game winning streak when the two Conference USA championship games in 2021 and 2022 were added.

Before UTSA visited Denton in 2023, the most recent game between UTSA and North Texas had been in the 2022 Conference USA championship game. UTSA had won that game 48-27 to complete the season sweep of North Texas after beating the Mean Green 31-27 in October of 2022.

UTSA got its first win of the day by winning the opening coin toss and deferring their choice to the second half. North Texas started with the ball but was quickly off the field with a three-and-out.

Frank Harris and the Roadrunner offense got their first drive going with 13:17 left in the opening quarter. The Roadrunners established the run with Kevorian Barnes and Barnes paid off the drive with a three-yard touchdown run at the 11:08 mark.

North Texas was driving toward a tying score on their next drive before fumbling the ball at the UTSA five. Rashad Wisdom recovered the ball for UTSA. The Roadrunners offense took advantage of the takeaway by driving to the Mean Green 20 before having to settle for a 40-yard field goal from Chase Allen. Allen's field goal gave UTSA a 10-0 lead with 4:15 left in the first quarter.

The Mean Green finally got on the board with their next drive. North Texas cut UTSA's lead to 10-3 with 14:56 left in the second quarter with a 25-yard field goal.

That field goal kicked off a high-scoring second quarter. UTSA pushed the lead up to 17-3 on its next drive when Robert Henry scored from 11 yards out with 12:09 left in the second quarter. North Texas cut the lead to 17-10 on their next drive with a 32-yard scoring run from Oscar Adaway III with 8:07 left in the quarter.

UTSA pushed its lead up to 24-10 on the next drive with a seven-yard scoring run from Rocko Griffin with 3:38 left in the second quarter. After that, the two teams traded field goals in the final minute to give UTSA a 27-13 lead going into halftime.

A WIN 10 YEARS IN THE MAKING

With 27 points in the first half, UTSA had reached a point total none of the other Roadrunner teams had done in five previous trips to Denton. The Roadrunners would add to that total in the second half.

It wasn't until the third drive of the third quarter that UTSA added to its lead. The Roadrunners got a short field after Trey Moore intercepted a North Texas pass at the Mean Green 25 and returned it to the Mean Green 22. The Roadrunners turned that interception into a 28-yard field goal from Allen and led 30-13 with 4:03 left in the third quarter.

Allen's field goal was the only points of the third quarter. The fourth quarter saw the teams put more points on the board. North Texas cut the Roadrunners lead to 30-21 at the 14:01 mark of the final quarter with a 20-yard pass from Chandler Rogers to Blair Conwright followed by a successful two-point conversion pass from Rogers to Trey Cleveland.

Later in the fourth quarter, UNT looked like it was heading for a scoring opportunity, but Donyai Taylor put a stop to that by intercepting a Rogers pass at the UTSA 13 and returning it to the North Texas nine before being stopped short of the end zone.

Two plays later Kevorian Barnes scored on a three-yard run with 9:32 left in regulation to give UTSA a 37-21 lead.

North Texas cut the Roadrunner lead to eight on their next possession when Rogers and Cleveland connected on a 19-yard touchdown pass with 5:50 left in the fourth quarter. Rogers converted the two-point conversion with a run to cut UTSA's lead to 37-29.

That ended up being the last time North Texas touched the ball. The Mean Green opted for the long kickoff instead of the onside and UTSA took over with 5:50 to play at its own 25. The Roadrunners used up all of that time on the clock to ice away their first win in Denton since 2013.

In addition to being the first win over the Mean Green on their home field for UTSA, it was also the third-straight win for UTSA over their rivals from Denton and allowed the Roadrunners to push their conference winning streak to 13 in a row.

The win over North Texas also kept UTSA's streak of never losing in November under Jeff Traylor intact. That streak as well as the conference streak would continue for another two games until UTSA lost the regular season finale of 2023 at Tulane, a loss that also kept UTSA from making a third straight conference championship game.

All of that was in the future. In the moment on the early afternoon of November 4, 2023 there was just the joy of having won in Denton for the first time in 10 years. It was the sixth-best game of the Jeff Traylor era.

Next Week: Top Traylor Game Number 5

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