Washington State Football: Keys to Victory at North Texas

Washington State is off to a 2-0 start but now faces its first road test of the 2025 season as it travels to Denton, TX for a date with a North Texas bunch that is similarly undefeated. Fresh in off a decisive victory over San Diego State, it seems as though the Cougars are really building something in the early going with a roster that is coming together after a turbulent offseason. The Mean Green, though, are coming off a big win themselves and, with homefield advantage, will prove to be tough to thwart. How can WSU navigate this trip to return home 3-0 before the Apple Cup?

Shut Down Young and Dorner

Through the first two games of the season it's been clear who the top pass-catching targets are on UNT's offense. Receivers Wyatt Young and Andrew Dorner each have well over 100 yards and two touchdowns. Young is averaging 19.5 yards per reception while Dorner checks in with 13. The passing game with Drew Mestemaker clearly runs heavily through these two and that means that if WSU is to slow down the Mean Green passing attack (which is putting up 276.5 yards per contest) stopping Young and Dorner need to be top priority.

Safety Matt Durrance and cornerback Colby Humphry will have their hands full for Washington State's defense in this one. Both Young and Dorner are great wideouts that know how to shake defenders off, meaning that route running for the WSU secondary will be very important. Last week against San Diego State, the Cougars back end was stellar, though, allowing just 133 passing yards and keeping all of the Aztecs receivers to under 70 yards individually. They'll need a repeat performance of that again this Saturday.

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Keep UNT in 3rd and Long

If there's one area North Texas has shown some weakness, it's their ability to convert third downs when the to-go distance is at least seven yards. If Washington State's defense can keep UNT's offense behind schedule and behind the chains going into the critical downs, getting off the field becomes quite a bit easier and getting off the field is something that Western Michigan showed can be done against this group last week. The Broncos won their time of possession battle handedly and took the Mean Green to OT largely because of it.

For the Cougars this means explosive plays off the snap and first and second down will be huge. If guys like Raam Stevenson and Isaac Terrell can wreak havoc off the edge and cause negative plays, that will play in well to what WSU wants to do defensively here. Honing in on North Texas running backs Makenzie McGill and Kiefer Sibley, especially on those early downs, will set the defense up nicely to make those much-needed stops on third. A sack or two against Mestemaker won't hurt either.

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Pressure Mestemaker Into Mistakes

One clear reason why the Mean Green are 2-0 right now is the fact that Mestemaker has done a terrific job taking care of the ball. He's thrown five touchdowns and no interceptions on 65 pass attempts and that should tell the Washington State defense two things; he will throw the ball a lot and he won't throw it to them hardly at all... if ever. Somehow the Cougs need to flip that trend in this game or leaving Denton with a win might not happen.

Conversely, the Cougars themselves have not yet notched an interception this year. DBs Kenny Worthy III and Tucker Large could be candidates to nab the first, though, as the pair have been lockdown so far this season. They've combined for three PBUs and ten total tackles. Pressure at the line, again, can make all the difference here. Forcing Mestemaker into ill-advised passes has not been easy thus far but Washington State will likely need to do it.

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