North Texas turned a rocky start into a roaring finish Saturday night at Rice Stadium in Houston, storming back from a 14-0 hole to crush Rice 56-24 in one of the most explosive performances of the season. Behind a historic passing-and-receiving tandem, the No. 22 Mean Green kept their AAC title hopes alive, improved to 10-1 (6-1 American), and gave Denton another reason to believe this ride is only getting better.

Drew Mestemaker was the conductor of chaos in the best way possible.

The quarterback lit up Rice for 469 yards and three passing touchdowns on an absurdly efficient 19-of-23 night, then added a 1-yard rushing score in the third quarter as North Texas ripped off 42 unanswered points.

“Drew was phenomenal at going through the reads,” head coach Eric Morris said. “We protected him well and were able to hit some shots down the field.”

Those shots came fast and deep with touchdowns of 74 and 84 yards to Wyatt Young and another 56-yard strike to Tre Williams III before halftime, and they flipped the game from tense to a track meet Rice couldn’t keep up with.

Young was even more ridiculous. The receiver set an American Conference single-game record with 295 yards and two touchdowns, the most receiving yards by any Division I player this season.

“It’s a surreal feeling,” Young said. “I’m blessed to be in this position, obviously, but today, me and Drew were just clicking.” Morris loved what he saw from the Katy native, who had a big homecoming crowd in the stands. “Wyatt is a great football player who will play for a long time,” Morris said. “He continues to get better playing receiver after playing quarterback in high school.” Young admitted he only realized the record was in play in the second half and started gunning for 300. “I did, but it’s all right,” he said. “I’m blessed enough to have the conference record. I’m fine with 295.”

While the air game stole headlines, Caleb Hawkins delivered the knockout blows on the ground with 97 rushing yards and three touchdowns. North Texas finished with a staggering 640 total yards, scored at least 50 points for the sixth time this season, and won its fifth straight game — all while being ranked for the first time since 1959.

On the other sideline, Rice coach Scott Abell felt the momentum swing hard once the Mean Green punched back.

“When they scored to make it 14-all, you really felt kind of, I don’t know if it was tension on our sideline or we lost that energy that we had so much in the first quarter,” Abell said. “Some of that is we have to grow up. They punched back, so how do you respond after you get punched back? We didn’t respond very well.”

The win keeps North Texas in a three-way tie atop the American with Navy and Tulane. Morris kept it simple about what comes next.

“Just win,” he said. “For us, that’s been our motto pretty much all year long. We’ve never gotten ahead of ourselves. We’ve never talked one time about the conference championship until tonight because if we win this one, obviously, we will have a chance to play for it.”

Up next, the Mean Green host Temple on Friday with everything still right in front of them — and with an offense that’s clearly feeling unstoppable.