The North Texas Mean Green stormed back from a 14-point deficit to the UL Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns, sealing a 30-23 victory with a 78-yard touchdown in the game's final minutes. Beating the defending Sun Belt champions on national TV was one of the biggest wins in the recent history of the Mean Green, but Tuesday night belonged to freshman running back Antoinne Jimmerson of Desoto, who had 141 total yards and two touchdowns.
After the UL Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns tied the game in the fourth quarter at 23-23, things looked bad for the Mean Green. Their offense stumbled out to a 3rd-and-8 from their own 22, with a little over 2:00 left.
With the way Terrance Broadway had been orchestrating the Ragin' Cajun offense for most of the night, punting the ball away with such poor field position could have been deadly. However, with the UNT coaching staff still clearly unsure of starting quarterback Derek Thompson, they dialed up a "safe" screen play to Jimmerson.
The rest was history: Jimmerson read the blocks beautifully, weaving through the UL Lafayette defense before a brilliant cut-back at the 20-yard line got him into the end zone.
A fumble from a Ragin' Cajun running back on their last-minute drive ended the game.
For UNT, whose offense had been lacking a big-play element, unearthing Jimmerson may end up being the biggest victory of them all from Tuesday night.