North Texas got the wheels back on the rails with an expected blowout victory over UT San Antonio on Saturday in a Conference USA opener at Apogee Stadium in Denton.
Quarterback Mason Fine had a nice game with two touchdown passes in a 45-3 triumph, but the Mean Green cohort were most enthused by the effort of a young, beleaguered defense, which held the Roadrunners to the lowest point total by an FBS team against North Texas since 2003.
The Mean Green have gone seven quarters without allowing a touchdown.
To North Texas, that’s a better trend than anything on Twitter, especially with a titanic Texas tilt set for Saturday against Houston in Denton.
While coaches studied film on Sunday, many others near and around campus were tuned into the PGA’s Sanderson Farms Championship in Jackson, Miss.
Not one but two former North Texas golfers were in contention.
Mean Green alum Sebastian Munoz carried away all the prizes, a trophy with a rooster on it and the biggest check he has ever seen in his life, the $1.2 million to the winner. Munoz defeated Sungjae Im of South Korea on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff.
Both golfers shot 18 under to force an extra hole.
Two shots back was Munoz’s former teammate Carlos Ortiz, a Mexican native and, as we learned on Sunday, Munoz’s inspiration.
Munoz never dreamed of playing golf professionally. He came to the United States to go to school with the help of a golf scholarship to pay for it. He always believed he would return home to Columbia to work on the family farm, Rubber Tree Plantation.
“If I can get a scholarship playing good golf, why not do it?” Munoz said. “So, I played really good when I was 17 and 18 and got myself a scholarship to North Texas. There I met with Carlos. He was a junior when I came in.
“First couple years I had the talent but didn’t put the hard work at it. Like I never really thought I was going to be a PGA Tour professional. I didn’t think I was that good. Like, it wasn’t even an option.”
Ortiz, two years older than Munoz, graduated and went to the Korn Ferry Tour, the minors for the PGA Tour, and won three times.
“I’m like, ‘Wait. I know he’s good, but I can compete with him. He’s better right now than me, but if I put in the work, I bet he’s not that much better than me.’ So, in a sense he kind of made me believe and realize that I’m just as good and I could do it as well.”
As a junior, Munoz earned the No. 1 spot on the team. He set a goal as a senior: If he won a tournament, he’d try to go pro. If he didn’t, he’d go back home to the farm.
Munoz won twice his senior season.
“All right,” Munoz said, thinking back to the conversation he had with himself. “Made a promise, so let’s go.”
Munoz won his second start on the Korn Ferry Tour after receiving a sponsor exemption into the event in Colombia. He made his PGA debut at the Sanderson Farms three years ago, and he held his first 54-hole lead a year later at the Greenbrier.
“I was leading the Greenbrier,” Munoz said. “The last day, didn’t get my win … didn’t even get 125 to 150 [money] status. Lost everything.
He had status in Korn Ferry and rebuilt his swing with coach Troy Dannon for the 2018 season. It took him a while to get accustomed to it, he said, but by the end of season he had made progress.
“I was a lot more consistent. I wasn’t missing that many cuts. I was having more Top 10s. I wasn’t getting as hot. Last year I played a lot better than my first season, but I never had the lead. My rookie season I had the lead five different times. So, just showed that the game was there but my consistency wasn’t. Now the consistency is here, so just feels awesome that that hard work paid off.
“We’re here.”
For one week at least, Munoz is atop the FedEx Cup rankings for the new golf season.
On Sunday, Munoz trailed by one when he pulled out his driver on 18. His tee shot traveled 322 yards into the fairway. He hit his approach 160 yards to within 15 feet. After making a birdie putt, the grandstands around the green erupted with approval.
Neither Munoz nor Im hit the green in regulation of the extra hole, but Munoz successfully got up-and-down for par. Im failed to do so.
“He has a lot of moxie and confidence,” said Brad Stracke, Munoz’s coach at North Texas, to PGA.com.
At 26, Munoz is the same age as North Texas’ most notable PGA Tour player, Dan January, when he won for the first time on the biggest stage.
January won the Dallas Centennial Open at Preston Hollow in May 1956, the first of 10 PGA Tour titles, including the 1967 PGA Championship.
January won by sinking a blast out of the sand on 18, but had to sit and watch Dow Finsterwald and Doug Ford, both one stroke back, play 18.
A cork-tipped cigarette clinched between his teeth in the center of his mouth like a cigar bore the brunt of his anxiety.
“I’m so nervous I can’t talk,” January told reporters.
“Life works in weird ways,” Munoz said. “I never thought this was going to be my path, but here I am. I’m enjoying it 100% and I can’t wait to see what comes next.”
(Photo: WLBT/Jackson, Miss.)