Nothing like a power conference win to turn the season around quickly! Army’s win over Kansas State represents Jeff Monken’s first victory over a Big 12 team. After Duke and Wake Forest in the ACC, Missouri and Florida in the SEC, and a multitude of schools in the American, C-USA, Sun Belt, MAC, and Mountain West, Monken only has the Big Ten and Pac-12 left to conquer.
This week though, Army gets into conference play as the defending American Champions. Their opponent, North Texas, will be a familiar foe though not necessarily as conference-mates. Army split a pair of games with the Mean Green in 2016, winning the Heart of Dallas Bowl in an overtime classic. The next year, the Black Knights made the return trip to Denton, losing an insane 101-point shootout by a field goal. After that, North Texas canceled a few future games just to end up as Army’s conference-mate less than a decade later.
Last year, QB Bryson Daily led a 21 play, 14 minute, touchdown drive en route to a 14-3 victory. The biggest question going into that game was how Daily would perform coming back from injury. However, that game’s biggest takeaway soon became the Army defense’s performance against a potent Mean Green’s air attack led by then-QB Chandler Morris.
Well friends, the Mean Green once again come into this game with a good-looking air-attack offense. Can the Black Knights do it again?
Offense
Chandler Morris has gone, but redshirt freshman QB Drew Mestemaker hasn’t missed a beat filling Morris’s shoes. Mestemaker boasts a 70% completion percentage and has 9 touchdowns without an interception. He’s taken just 4 sacks all season! He’s also added a touchdown on the ground, but we shouldn’t necessarily take him as a rushing threat given that he’s tucked the ball just 12 times in 3 games.
Last year’s top trio of receivers are gone. They’ve been replaced with Wyatt Young, Cameron Dorner, and Miles Coleman. Moreover, unlike many of Army’s opponents, there’s no primary threat. So the Black Knights secondary will have its hands full guarding everyone.
The Mean Green have thrown the ball 101 times and rushed it 100 times so far this season, almost a dead even split. That’s a far cry from last year’s team, who favored the pass 60% of the time. Some of that discrepancy may be by design. But some of it may also be due to having played in two blowouts resulting in more rushing than expected. RB Makenzie McGill II has become UNT’s primary rushing threat, averaging 5.5 yards over 31 carries with 3 touchdowns.
Week 3 Honorable Mention: @MeanGreenFB QB Drew Mestemaker (Vandegrift HS, TX) #GMG@DrewMestemaker pic.twitter.com/r122n9M1VV
— Earl Campbell Award (@CampbellAward) September 16, 2025
Defense
North Texas allows just 2.78 yards per carry, 25th best in FBS. That seems scary. But this number is less representative of how good its run defense can be and more representative of their early season schedule. So far, the Mean Green have played two of the worst FBS rushing offenses plus a mediocre FCS rushing offense. Army will be the first real test for this UNT defensive front.
A trio of linebackers lead this defense — Shane Witter, Trey Fields, and Ethan Wesloski. No defensive lineman has more than 9 non-sack tackles, and as a position group, the defensive line accounts for less than a quarter of the team’s overall tackles. They’ve notched 7 sacks in the early going this year, but mostly the linebackers make the tackles.
As a group, this defense has performed mostly very well against the opponents they’ve faced, though they did give up 216 rushing yards to Western Michigan. Regardless, this defense looks a good bit better than they did last season, and they played pretty well against Army’s offense in last year’s match-up. But then again, UNT also came off a bye heading into last year’s match-up. So their performance this weekend remains a big question mark.
Turnover Tuesday 🔄#GMG🦅 pic.twitter.com/ex16EFzvYy
— UNT Football (@MeanGreenFB) September 16, 2025
Special Teams
PK Kali Nguma has been perfect on points-after and field goals this year, though the longest kick he’s hit went just 28 yards. He hit a 46-yarder last year, though, so he does have some range.
P Sawyer Evans averages around 40 yards a punt and has put 3/9 inside the 20 this year without a single touchback.
Key Questions
1. What does the Mean Green run defense look like?
It should be news to all of us, perhaps even their own coaching staff.
2. Can Army thwart the passing attack again this year?
Theoretically, the Black Knights should do well with all of their returning defensive talent. But if Army’s offense doesn’t control the ball for nearly 42 minutes this year, how will that affect the defenses’ efficiency?
3. Is QB Cale Hellums a flash in the pan or a long-term solution?
Hellums replaced injured starting QB Dewayne Coleman in Week 1. Army then had to overcome its worst loss in years and put together a winning gameplan against a Big 12 school in just a week’s time. They did that. Now, they’ve had two weeks to tailor the playbook to Hellums.
How much option do they trust him to run? What type of passing will they let him attempt? Does the offensive line change their blocking at all?
These are all questions that will get answered this Saturday.
Our game vs. Charlotte on Oct. 11 is officially SOLD OUT!
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) September 16, 2025
Tickets are still available for our remaining home games.
Follow the Game
This home game kicks off at noon on Saturday with the full Corps of Cadets in attendance and CBS Sports on the call. Strangely, it’s the first normal Michie Saturday — with all of that as described above — since UAB visited Michie Stadium way back on October 12th last year.
Your Need to Know heading into Saturday's noon kick at Michie Stadium. pic.twitter.com/3cxxhJUDH1
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) September 17, 2025
You can find the radio call on the Varsity Network app. You’ll find the best gameday chat in As For Football’s Firstie Club. It’s open to all of our top-level Firstie patrons, so come join us!
Go Army! Beat North Texas!!!
Cover image via Flickr: West Point – The U.S. Military Academy.
