MANHATTAN, Kan. -- Heading into its game against Kansas State on Saturday, there seemed to be just one given for North Texas.

UNT, one would have assumed, would have some success throwing the ball.

After all, freshman quarterback Giovanni Vizza threw for 2,388 yards last season in just eight starts and had much more experience heading into his sophomore season.

That’s what was so baffling about the Mean Green’s 45-6 loss to Kansas State on Saturday at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. UNT had its worst performance under head coach Todd Dodge when it came to throwing the ball.

UNT and Vizza finished with just 100 passing yards. The Mean Green’s previous low under Dodge came in a loss at Arkansas State last season when Vizza threw for 160 yards.

“When you come in with a mindset to win, it’s tough to come home with a loss like this,” Vizza said. “All we can do is learn from the film that we’re about to watch in a couple days and try to get better and prepare for the next game.”

UNT will have to find a way to get Vizza and wide receiver Casey Fitzgerald, its top two offensive threats, on track. Vizza finished 16-for-29 on the night with a touchdown and was sacked twice.

Fitzgerald caught six passes for 31 yards with a long reception of 7 yards.

Vizza averaged 238.8 passing yards a game last season while Fitzgerald posted 110.2 receiving yards a game.

Alex Lott caught a 9-yard touchdown pass from Vizza for UNT’s lone points of the night.

“We were not able to make enough plays on third down and we had too many dropped passes,” Dodge said. “I thought for the most part, as many times as we threw the ball, our offensive line protected pretty well considering the athletes they were going up against. We did not execute well enough.”

The outcome was a dramatic turn of events following the end of last season, when the Mean Green showed signs of adapting to Dodge’s no-huddle spread attack. UNT scored at least 27 points in four of its last five games and posted one of the best offensive outings in recent history in a 74-62 loss to Navy at Fouts Field.

Vizza threw eight touchdown passes against the Midshipmen.

Kansas State coach Ron Prince said the Wildcats’ objective was to slow down UNT’s passing game.

“We felt like we might have to give up something in order to stop [Fitzgerald],” Prince said. “This was a quarterback that threw for 2,400 yards last year, and we just felt that if the quarterback and wide receiver did not have a great game, then they couldn’t score enough points to beat us rushing the football.”

BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870. His e-mail address is bvito@dentonrc.com.