North Texas Pulls Away from Rice for a 52-23 Win
Jahiem White scored three touchdowns, Tayven Jackson scored two more, and North Texas reached 52 points against Rice without ever being tied or behind. The final was 52-23. North Texas goes to 7-2 and Rice sinks to 1-8.
It was not a runaway early. North Texas led 3-0, then 10-0 on a 3-yard run by White, and Rice cut it to 10-7 with a 36-yard touchdown from Gael Ochoa to Will Swartz in the second quarter. At 17-14 with 8:42 left in the third, Rice was still in it. From there North Texas outscored Rice 35-9. White scored from 1 yard out at 4:22 of the third, Jackson hit Dalton Carnes for 19 yards at 3:00, White broke a 60-yard run at 14:43 of the fourth, and Jackson (2 yards) and Brendon Haygood (4 yards) finished it off.
The strange part is that Rice ran for 261 yards on 48 carries and had 433 total yards, but turned the ball over twice (one interception, one lost fumble) while North Texas turned it over zero times. North Texas had 495 yards, with 303 in the air from Jackson. Rice's last touchdown came on the final play, a 7-yard run from Patrick Crayton Jr. with no kick, so the margin looks a touch kinder than it was.
White and Jackson were the top two fantasy scorers by a wide margin (39.0 and 30.3), and Ochoa led Rice with 17.6 on 17 carries and an eight-for-13 passing day. Three touchdowns for White is a normal Saturday for him.