The UNT football team will look to bounce back from last week's heartbreaking loss at UTSA as it travels to play rival Western Kentucky at Houchens Industries-L.T. Smith Stadium on Saturday, with kickoff set for 2:30 p.m.

Head coach Seth Littrell and selected players spoke to the media on Tuesday and discussed, among other things, how the team's mental strength will help it bounce back after last week's loss, the contributions a pair of tight ends are making this season and how this season-ending stretch is similar to last year's.

Team looking to move on after learning from loss
It'd been a while since the Mean Green lost a conference game before they dropped Saturday's game at UTSA in the final seconds - their first conference loss in nine tries.

UTSA prevailed 31-27 on Saturday to remain the lone team unbeaten in C-USA play, but Littrell said the team has already flushed the loss from its memory and moved on to the next game, which will come against a fellow 3-1 team in the Hilltoppers.

"They bounce back quick," Littrell said. "They have great character and a very strong bond between each other. They're disappointed after a hard fought game. Coming up short is never easy but you have to go back to the drawing board and get on film and correct mistakes and figure out how to improve as a football team and move forward. You can't let an opponent beat you twice."

Junior quarterback Austin Aune said he could tell right away on Tuesday that the team was ready to move on after a lively, successful practice.

"I think today was a really good practice for us," Aune said. "We had a chip on our shoulder today. Guys were running fast and guys were locked in. It was a great start to the week. I'm looking forward to keeping that intensity throughout the week."

Tight ends making presence felt
Despite a resurgence in recent years of more hybrid-type players like Rob Gronkowski, Travis Kelce and Kyle Pitts, the tight end position is still a scarcely used piece of the football puzzle on a national scale.

UNT has utilized tight ends for years now and the ones the Mean Green have used haven't been just an extra receiver on the field but complete, textbook tight ends who can be as effective in the run game as they are in the passing game.

This year, the Mean Green have two dangerous weapons at tight end in sophomore Jake Roberts and redshirt freshman Var'Keyes Gumms.

Roberts has started all eight games and is fifth on the team with 191 yards on 14 catches. He is also one of five UNT players to have multiple touchdown receptions this year. Gumms has caught 18 passes for 317 yards and four touchdowns - the most of any tight end in C-USA and 12th nationally among tight ends. He ranks third nationally among tight ends in yards per catch at 17.6.

"They're multiple," Littrell said, "and that's what makes them special. There's a lot of guys out there that are really good run blockers and more guys that are more hybrid but how multiple they can be, whether you're flexing them in the core or moving them around, you can get into a lot of different 12- and 11-personnel sets and even empty sets. You can be more multiple and they're gonna have to defend it. It's been good for us, and it's something we'll continue to hopefully evolve with."

Aune credited former tight end Jason Pirtle for teaching Roberts and Gumms what it takes to be a well-rounded tight end last year, when Roberts was playing sparingly as a freshman and Gumms was in a redshirt season.

"They've definitely grown, especially from last year to this year," Aune said. "They're big bodies in the box but can also run routes. They had a good guy to look up to with Pirtle last year. Jake's doing a great job of running routes and teaching Var'Keyes the tools of the trade. Whether it's pass or run, we're super confident in those guys to step up."

Season-ending stretch draws parallels to last season's
Last year, the Mean Green had to win their final five games of the season to earn bowl eligibility, including the last game against then-No. 15 UTSA, which marked the program's second all-time win over a ranked opponent.

So it's obvious the team is no stranger to adversity and the program's culture is built to overcome it.

This year, the Mean Green have more than bowl eligibility on their minds.

Despite last week's loss to UTSA, which snapped an eight-game conference win streak that dated back to last season, UNT is still in position to control its own destiny in making it to the conference championship game - possibly in a rematch against the Roadrunners.

First up, UNT needs to beat fellow 3-1 team Western Kentucky in what is essentially a must-win game in terms of securing a berth in the conference title game in a little more than a month.

"Last year, we wanted a bowl game and this year we want the conference championship," senior defensive back Sean-Thomas Faulkner said. "If we lose another game, that probably won't happen. Our mentality doesn't change, no matter what our record is. We're just gonna keep working and keep preparing."

The team's mantra, dating back to last season's win streak, has been to go 1-0 each week and look no further ahead than that.

But Aune said he knows the magnitude of this game, especially with the team's back against the wall following last week's loss.

"We definitely feel like we're in contention," Aune said. "This next game is big because it's next, but we're also both 3-1 and it's an important game as far as conference standings. We have to go 1-0 each week to give ourselves a chance to be in the championship game."