DENTON -- At the conclusion of the first half of his first season as North Texas's head coach, Eric Morris couldn't help thinking about the difference between cows and buffaloes. 

The bestselling author Rory Vaden used the animals in a metaphor for dealing with life's inevitable turmoil. When cows sense a storm brewing, they instinctively run away from it. Buffaloes, on the other hand, charge toward it. 

The Mean Green have faced multiple storms early in Morris's tenure, from an 0–2 start, a quarterback change, the nation's lowest-ranked rushing defense and most recently, a disheartening loss to Navy. But Saturday's 45-14 demolition against Temple proved this year's North Texas team is a buffalo. And that's good, because they aren't out of the storm yet. North Texas's faces the top-four opponents in the American Athletic Conference in its next four games, and they'll ideally need to pull an upset in two of them if they want to reach a bowl game. 

But they took the first step Saturday in the team's most complete game of the season.

Three Thoughts

Chandler Rogers is the man: Rogers was brought in as a transfer from Louisiana Monroe with expectations to flourish in Morris's high-tempo offense. Now halfway through the season he's doing just that after overcoming the roadblock of spending the first two weeks as the backup.

Rogers went 11-for-12 for for 146 yards and two touchdowns in his first two drives and barely slowed down after the scorching start. He hit wide receiver Ja'Mori Maclin six times for 163 yards, and his final throw of the day was a 64-yard laser to Maclin down the left sideline in one-on-one coverage. 

He's gained confidence with his new title as the starter, and Morris commended him postgame for his communication with coaches on route concepts and in-game adjustments. It's a sign the guy's taking his preparation seriously to master the offense.

"To see his mind thinking like my mind thinks and how (offensive coordinator) Coach Brophy's mind thinks, I think he's almost like a coach on the field for us," Morris said.

The only concern for Rogers surrounds the offensive line's protection of him. He was sacked eight times last week against Navy and four times on Saturday against a Temple defense that ranked 125th in the nation in quarterback takedowns. Morris layed the game plan with numerous screen passes sensing North Texas's offensive line might struggle, and even when Rogers wasn't sacked he was often getting smacked moments after he released the ball.

Defense has best performance to date: North Texas found out along with the rest of the world moments before kickoff that Temple quarterback EJ Warner wouldn't start. Then, they had to pivot from the pocket passer they'd prepped for to the quarterback power run game Temple wanted to run with backup Quincy Patterson.

After getting gashed for 79 rushing yards in the first drive of the game, North Texas's defense stiffened and pitched their first shutout half in the second half.

Sure, the Mean Green surrendered 242 ground yards, but they held when it counted most. In the opening drive of the second half, Temple went for a 4th-and-2 from their own 43-yard line. Patterson rolled to his left pondering whether to run or pass, but cornerback Ridge Texada chopped his legs before he'd fully committed. Two plays later, Oscar Adaway III ripped a touchdown run. The next drive, Temple again went for it on 4th-and-5 from their own territory only for Patterson to get sacked by Kortlin Rausaw.

Even when Temple started to sustain drives later in the game, North Texas forced three interceptions to keep them off the scoreboard. The most crucial pick came midway through the third quarter when safety Nick Nakwaasah peeled off his assignment to undercut a wide open Temple receiver near the end zone. 

"We can't just lose all hope when the expected game plan's not there for us," Nakwaasah said. "We've just got to be able to adjust, and I think we did a good job of that."

It only gets tougher from here: I wrote a column earlier this week about this Temple game being a must-win for North Texas. That's because their next four weeks - at Tulane, Memphis, UTSA, at SMU - are a guantlet. As of this moment, North Texas is not at the caliber any of those teams are.

"We can't read our press clippings after this and think we're better than what we are," Morris said. "We still know that we're in growth phase. We'll continue to be in growth phase until I declare it not."

But North Texas is taking tangible steps, specifically on the two fourth-down stops and three interceptions. For a much maligned defense, getting the chance to celebrate those stops will help its confidence soar ahead of matchups with strong opponents.  

"That's my greatest joy in coaching - when you can see the players have success and they come over and they get the chance to celebrate," Morris said. "Becuase I see them up at 6:00 a.m. every morning and doing things that other normal students aren't doing. So when you put in the work like that and to be rewarded and see the joy on their faces is something I love."