On a pure, pound-for-pound basis, the biggest game of this weekend's college football slate is Navy at North Texas. Seventeen FBS teams have reached the 7-win mark so far, and the clash between the 7-0 Midshipmen and the 7-1 Mean Green is the only Week 9 offering between that group. It's also a meeting of two of the best offenses in major college football; North Texas leads the nation at 46.1 points per game, while Navy is second in the country at 7.57 yards per play. This could be one of those classic "First to 50" games.
But it almost certainly won't be the highest-scoring Navy-UNT game of all time.
That mark was set Nov. 10, 2007. The final score: Navy 74, North Texas 62. In regulation.
Setting the scene: Navy had its triple-option humming under sixth-year head coach Paul Johnson; the week before, Navy had snapped its NCAA-record 43-game losing streak to Notre Dame, a 46-44 triple OT thriller that has its own Wikipedia page. Within a month of its this game, Johnson accepted the head coaching job at Georgia Tech. North Texas was... not humming, especially not on defense. The Mean Green were led by first-year head coach Todd Dodge, who was hired from Southlake Carroll (Texas) High School and brought much of his staff with him from Southlake, including defensive coordinator Ron Mendoza. UNT opened the year with a 79-10 loss to Oklahoma where Sam Bradford, in his first start, completed 21 of his 23 passes for 15.7 yards per attempt. At 1-7, the Mean Green had also allowed 66 to Arkansas and surrendered 48 to Middle Tennessee the prior week.
The game: North Texas opened with the right idea -- to keep its defense off the field by any means possible. The Mean Green accepted the ball to open the game, scored, recovered an onside kick and scored again. The defense held Navy to a field goal on its opening drive, and then the Mean Green offense scored again, staking the home team to a 21-3 lead with 46 seconds left in the first quarter. Navy returned the ensuing kickoff to the UNT 41-yard line, and then quarterback Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada hit Tyree Barnes on the first play of the drive to bring the Midshipmen within 21-10 with 32 seconds still remaining in the first quarter.
Turns out, the Midshipmen and the Mean Green were just getting started.
A punt and a fumble opened the second quarter, but then the teams began a rally that would see eight consecutive touchdown drives and nine in total.
After forcing a fumble, UNT quarterback Giovanni Vizza hit Casey Fitzgerald for a 25-yard touchdown pass one play later. UNT led 28-10 with 12:54 to play in the first half.
Then Navy went 80 yards in seven plays for a touchdown. UNT led 28-17 with 10:26 to play in the first half.
Then UNT scored in two plays. Mean Green 35, Navy 17 with 9:40 left in the first half.
And then Navy scored in two plays. UNT led 35-24 with 9:05 left in the first half.
Then UNT scored in two plays. UNT led 42-24 with 8:18 left in the first half.
And then Navy scored in a sloth-like 7-play, 57-yard drive. UNT led 42-31 with 5:18 left in the first half.
Then North Texas scored in two plays. Mean Green 49, Midshipmen 31 with 4:12 still to play in the first half.
Then Navy scored, again, and again in seven plays. UNT led 49-38 with 1:16 left in the first half.
And then a miracle: a punt. Vizza, who to that point was 5-of-5 for 194 yards and four touchdowns in the second quarter, threw complete for a 5-yard loss to open UNT's sixth drive of the frame, then fired incomplete on second and third down. Truman Spencer's 37-yard punt was returned 14 yards to midfield with 24 seconds left in the half. Navy would only need 11 seconds; a 47-yard pass moved the Middies to the 3, and Zerb Singleton plunged in from three yards out to pull Navy within 49-45 with 13 seconds left in the half. Vizza added a 9-yard completion for good measure to close the half.
In the second quarter alone, Navy and North Texas combined for 538 yards of total offense and nine touchdowns across 12 possessions.
The 49-45 halftime score and the 35-28 mark in the second quarter set, and remain, FBS records for most combined points in a half and a quarter, respectively. The offenses cooled down in the second half -- Navy only scored 29 points, while UNT was held to a shockingly-normal 13. The 74-62 final set the FBS single-game record for points at the time, but it's since been surpassed by SMU's 77-63 win over Houston in 2022 for the most points scored in a regulation game, and Texas A&M's 74-72 seven overtime win over LSU in 2018 for the most points scored in an FBS game, period. (The record for most points scored against a major college team was Houston's 100 dropped on Tulsa in 1968, and the records for most team first downs in a single game was set by Texas Tech. Things gets wild in the Lone Star State.)
"There wasn't a whole lot of defense being played on either side. Look at them, they scored 62 and they lost," Johnson said. "If we don't score every time we get the ball, we're in a deep hole."
What are the most ridiculous numbers from this game? North Texas opened with seven touchdowns on its first eight possessions, but Navy bettered that by scoring touchdowns on eight straight possessions over a span that began with 12:54 to play in the second quarter and ended with 2:30 remaining in the third.
As a team, Navy ran 57 times for 572 yards and eight touchdowns, while hitting four of six passes for 108 yards and a touchdown. Two Midshipmen topped 100 rushing yards, and six rushed for at least 50.
Vizza finished 40-of-50 for 478 yards with eight touchdowns and two interceptions while also rushing 13 times for 93 yards. Jamario Thomas, who led FBS in rushing as a freshman in 2004, was limited to 38 yards on eight carries. Casey Fitzgerald caught 13 passes for 134 yards and five touchdowns; two more Mean Green receivers hit 100 yards and caught at least one touchdown.
There were 22 kickoffs. It was the second straight Navy game to inspire its own Wikipedia article.
Postscript: As mentioned above, Johnson took the Georgia Tech job within a month of the win. North Texas finished 2-10, and Dodge fired Mendoza after the season. Dodge coached three more seasons at North Texas, and in 2012 returned to high school football, winning three more state championships to bring his personal total to seven.
What are we in for on Saturday? It probably won't take 63 to win at DATCU Stadium on Saturday (noon ET, ESPN2), but it might take 53.
As mentioned above, no FBS team scores more points per game than UNT, and only one gains more yards per play than Navy.
The Mean Green have scored 55 and 54 in their last two outings, with a season low of 33. Drew Mestemaker is the nation's fourth-leading passer, fresh off a school and AAC-record 608-yard outing at Charlotte last Friday night. His 21 touchdown passes are three off the national lead. Navy is 102nd in pass efficiency defense.
Meanwhile, Navy has the nation's most imposing ground attack (318 yards per game on 6.55 a carry; second-place Air Force averages 284), while UNT is 120th in rush defense. Quarterback Blake Horvath would be a Heisman candidate if he played in a Power 4 conference. He's second in the nation at 8.85 yards per play; through eight games, Horvath has rushed for 814 yards and 12 touchdowns on 6.84 a carry, while hitting nearly two-thirds of his passes for 11.4 yards per attempt with seven more touchdowns.
Last year, UNT allowed Army to go on a 21-play, 94-yard, 13:54 touchdown drive, so magic tends to happen when a service academy offense takes the field in Denton, Texas. We could be in for some more on Saturday.