Rice Owls at North Texas Mean Green

North Texas just had the best season in program history. Almost nobody who did it is still there.

Bush’s Picks

RICEUNT

RICEUNT

OverUnder

Best BetNorth Texas

North Texas is the far more proven program even with the coaching change — a 12-2, AAC title game season doesn't happen by accident, and the transfer portal additions suggest Neal Brown isn't starting from nothing. Rice's staff overhaul on defense is a bigger question mark than anything North Texas is dealing with. Back the Mean Green at home.

Rice

• +Upset wins over Louisiana and UConn in 2025
• +Jacurri Brown brings starting experience from UCF
• +Bowl game reps and extra practices last year
• −Finished 5-8, still a losing program
• −Every meaningful pass rusher from 2025 is gone
• −New QB has to prove it in a new offense

North Texas

• +Went 12-2, program's first AAC title game trip
• +Added RB Jahiem White and OT Neto Umeozulu via portal
• +Won 11 games for the first time in school history
• −Lost head coach Eric Morris and staff to Oklahoma State
• −Key contributors from the title run also left in the portal
• −First-year coach Neal Brown has to rebuild continuity fast

Rice enters year two of the Scott Abell era with a new QB1 in Jacurri Brown, a UCF transfer who's inheriting an offense that needs him to be steadier than whoever was under center during a 5-8 debut season. North Texas, meanwhile, is breaking in Neal Brown as head coach after Eric Morris bolted for Oklahoma State and took a chunk of his staff and roster with him. Two programs, two very different starting points, same basic question: can the new guy hold the thing together.

The roster churn actually cuts both ways here. Rice lost all four players who had at least 2.5 sacks a year ago, including Tony Anyanwu's team-high 6.5, so the pass rush is essentially being built from zero. North Texas has the opposite problem — a talented team gutted by the portal — but it did land some real reinforcements, headlined by running back Jahiem White, who put up 844 yards and 7 touchdowns back in 2024 at West Virginia, and offensive tackle Neto Umeozulu, a 26-game starter at Texas.

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RICE Rice

UNT North Texas

Both teams are still finding their identity by the time this one kicks off on Friday, November 6, which makes it one of those November AAC games that could mean a lot or very little depending on how the first two months shake out.

Rice Owls

Oct 16?vs Tulsa—

Oct 9?@ East Carolina—

Oct 2?vs UTSA—

Sep 26?@ Fresno State—

Sep 19?vs Western Michigan—

Sep 12?@ Notre Dame—

Sep 5?vs Houston Christian—

North Texas Mean Green

Oct 29?vs Florida Atlantic—

Oct 9?vs Charlotte—

Oct 1?@ Tulsa—

Sep 26?vs Houston Christian—

Sep 19?@ Texas State—

Sep 12?vs UNLV—

Sep 5?@ Indiana—

Abell's first year wasn't nothing — Rice knocked off Louisiana and UConn and squeezed into a bowl game even with a losing record, evidence the culture shift he's selling has some substance to it. North Texas' bar is obviously higher after going 12-2 and reaching the program's first AAC title game, only to get run off the field by Tulane 34-21 in New Orleans. That gap in recent success is real, even with all the new faces in Denton.

Rice Owls

(0)

Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report

North Texas Mean Green

(0)

Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report

By November, both rosters should look a lot more settled than they do on paper right now. Rice's defensive front either has found answers or it hasn't, and North Texas' portal haul either replaced what walked out the door or it didn't. This is exactly the kind of game where preseason projections stop mattering and you just watch who actually built something.