DENTON -- Even when players returned to campus, tickets were sold, contracts were finalized, it was hard to feel like college football was actually ready to happen. 

“Coming back, we didn’t know if we were going to play or not, if we’d even get the chance,” said North Texas linebacker KD Davis. 

For weeks, there were workouts and practices. Every other day it seemed like something changed or there was some new complication. Even when the clock turned to game week at Apogee Stadium, when game plans were installed, the opponent drove in, there was still an unrelenting cloud of uncertainty hanging over everything. 

In fact, for North Texas coach Seth Littrell, it took all the way up until his final rapid COVID-19 test on Friday to finally start feeling that he could focus on the game. When he finally tested negative and joined his players at the team hotel, it finally felt like an answer. 

“That’s when it was like okay, we’re here,” North Texas coach Seth Littrell said. “We’re finally going to play this game.” 

Things weren’t exactly the same in front of the crowd of 7,611, a near-sellout based on the 25 percent capacity allowed due to pandemic restrictions. Fans were spaced far out. Players had to get used to wearing a mask on the sideline, but also had more space to spread out. The pregame media meal – easily the most important part of the day of course – was delivered in to-go boxes in a socially distanced, fully masked press box. 

Naturally, there was a brief rain scare in Denton before the game to get our collective hearts racing one last time. But then, at last, college football. 

And thankfully, that part did live up to the hype in Denton. Quarterback Jason Bean had the monumental task of replacing Mason Fine in the starting line. After missing his first pass to Jyaire Shorter, he hit three of his next four for 62 yards, capped off by a beautiful 33-yard bomb to Jaelon Darden. 

“The first couple passes went incomplete,” Bean said. “I think I was a little jittery. I think that the first touchdown pass helped me settle down and helped me realize that I can do this.” 

Houston Baptist quarterback Bailey Zappe answered back in a big way with a 51-yard strike to Vernon Harrell, but poor playcalling stalled the drive at the UNT 5-yard line and ended it on downs. UNT took full advantage and took the ball 95 yards with another 32-yard strike from Bean to Greg White. 

Bean finished by completing 11-of-18 passes for 217 yards, three touchdowns and a pick, which Littrell blamed on a bad playcall. Littrell hesitated to name him the full-time starter heading forward, but Bean clearly did enough to earn the job. Darden was the favorite target, finishing with three of the team’s four TD receptions. 

On the ground, Oscar Adaway had his breakout moment with five carries for 118 yards and two touchdowns. Old friend DeAndre Torrey also got into the mix with 85 yards on 11 carries after a down season. In all, North Texas racked up a program record 721 offensive yards.

Zappe and Houston Baptist wouldn’t go quietly. The Preseason All-Texas Small College First Team member finished with 480 yards, three touchdowns and zero turnovers, everything you could have hoped for from the Victoria East standout. However, the Mean Green QBs had a heck of a game of their own, combined for 361 yards and four touchdowns. 

With so much uncertainty heading into this week – not to mention the untimely suspension of quarterbacks coach Tate Wallis following criminal charges – UNT could have come out distracted. But like Texas State earlier in the day, North Texas felt football was far more of a release. 

“It was a 50/50 chance, but in my head, I treated it like it was 100 percent,” Davis said. “I was going hard every day and riding my teammates to go hard. I’m glad that we put our all into everything we did.” 

And after all the extra protocols, distancing, trying to stay away from social gatherings, all the bizarity of a pandemic-filled world, leaving the playing surface with a 57-31 win over the Huskies felt good, like a return to normalcy. 

“We’ve been grinding all offseason just to be able to play,” Bean said. “To be able to walk off with a win is pretty sweet.”