Houston Christian was founded in 1960 about 70 years after UNT was founded. IT is a private university in Houston and is still affiliated with the Baptist General Convention. You might remember this school as HBU, as that was its name until September of 2022. They are part of the Southland Conference, compete in FCS and have competed in Football since 2013.
These teams have only competed once, in 2020, in which North Texas won 51-31. Jason Bean threw three scores, Austin Aune had one, and Bailey Zappe threw for 480 and 3 scores against NT.
This week Neal Brown praised the team, talked up the talent on the roster, and explained that the Mean Green should be prepared to play and they should respect their opponent.
This is all normal speak, and good. These cross-division matchups _should_ be blowouts, but they serve a purpose. HCU gets to test themselves against a higher division, get a check, and have an opportunity to pull an upset. North Texas gets a greater margin for error on Senior Day/Family Weekend, and a chance to heal up ahead of a big conference clash midweek next week.
RB Champ Dozier (TCU), CB Matthew Bess (Iowa State), LB Trent Zappe (brother of former HBU/HCU player and current NFLer Bailey Zappe - WKU), LB Jayven Anderson (UNT!), RB Corey Landers, JR (WKU), WR Brice Turner (Nebraska), QB Reilly Garcia (WSU), QB Maddox Kopp (Houston, Colorado, Miami (OH)), WR Jamarion Clark (Rice), RB Trey Morris (Army), LS Logan Frederic (TCU, UCONN), CB Zavier Lewis (Marshall), S Zion Jones (UTSA), OL Ramsey Qishta (SDSU), OL Cullen Montgomery (OU, Memphis), OL Briley Brown (UTSA), OL Daniel Ademisoye (Tulsa), TE Luka Matamoros (UTEP), TE Jett Runion (Houston) are all guys with FBS experience at some level.
They are coached by Jason Bachtel, a former Howard Payne QB who has come up in High School and lower level college ranks as an offensive coordinator. He spent time at Forney and Argyle, before joining Howard Payne as OC, coaching up some explosive offenses. He was the OC of HCU before getting the head coaching role three years ago. He has struggled, going 5-7 and then 2-10.
Thus far this season HCU has beaten FCS Southeastern 34-28, lost to Rice 3-31, destroyed NAIA Arkansas Baptist 88-0, and lost to UIW 23-30 in OT.
What can we say about this team? They destroyed a lower-level squad, lost to an FBS squad (American conference) and split conference matchups. If you believe in the transitive property of football, we can compare these teams as Texas State plays UIW in San Marcos today while NT is playing HCU.
North Texas is expected to win this game, big. The talent disparity should do the heavy lifting, but Neal Brown (and we fans) will want there to be some quality of play advantage as well. That is to say, we want to see good execution of the game plan and not just guys breaking tackles in the open field. We want to see good blocking, and not Tayven Jackson just escaping from on-coming pass rushers and saving the day.
NT is honoring the seniors so let’s take a quick second to list the men being honored.
Aaron Alexander, Kenton Allen, Zakye Barker, BJ Allen Jr, Keelene Bradley, Dalton Carnes, TJ Chukwurah, Nolan Clark, Mo Diawara, Udoka Ezeani, Graham Gillespie, Tayven Jackson, Brec Long, Christian Lorenzo, Grayson O’Bara, David Onuoha, Nick Osho, Colin Page, Max Reese, David Rhodes, Chandler Strong, Curlee Thomass IV, Neto Umeozulu, Connor Vaughn.
Last week the defense was embarrassed, allowing over 600 yards and a 200-yard rusher. Champ Dozier is capable, and should be respected. The NT defense has a chance to exact a little revenge this week. The HCU offensive line is not nearly as imposing as the Texas State one was, and we should see the defensive line be a little more “normal” causing disruption, and being effective.
For all the complaints about losing contain, I think that was more about NT not reacting well to getting beat along the line, and guys trying to do extra instead of simply doing their jobs. So it goes.
The baseline of expectation should be the Rice performance against this team. Rice held this squad to 3 points, and scored 31. North Texas was able to put up 500+ yards of offense last week against a more talented defense, so we should expect 450 yards and 50 points. Neal Brown called out wanting “50” last week, and so I imagine the level of execution is high enough to reach that number.
The staff wants to keep Jaheim White rested, but he is also the squad’s best player. This is an opportunity for Haygood, Osho, and Nettles to step up and make some noise. We want execution at a high level, and if that happens, we can expect some backups to come in and do the same.
Justin Stevenson was a standout last week, but one aspect of making a roster spot yours is to do it every week. We have called out blocking, and so did the head coach this week. He wants to see excellent blocking by his wideouts and that is something to watch during this game. Will long runs turn into touchdowns? Those happen because of downfield blocking.
Brown called out the opportunity in front of HCU. He respects it and was on the other side of it previously. He talked about how NT went to Indiana with a resource and talent disparity, and now HCU gets to do the same. Football (and life) is really about self-discipline. North Texas football has to have a standard of excellence beyond any opponent to allow. Preparation for this game should be like preparing for the national championship. For everyone.
MGN Prediction:
NT 50
HCU 10