Sports

North Texas Football Player Who Worked As A Janitor Got His Revenge On School That Denied Him A Scholarship

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CJ Coombes Janitor north texas tulsa football revenge
North Texas Athletics

North Texas defensive back CJ Coombes finally got his revenge on Tulsa. The college football game on Thursday was personal.

He never would’ve left Oklahoma if he was presented with an opportunity to stay.

In the end, his college football career took him elsewhere. It came full-circle during an electric overtime win.

North Texas defeated Tulsa on a two-point conversion.

Tulsa was a 2.5-point favorite over North Texas at home on Thursday. The underdog ultimately proved victorious.

A shootout broke out during the second half. The Mean Green trailed 17-10 at halftime. They scored 21 points during the third quarter to go up 31-17. However, the Golden Hurricane scored a controversial touchdown on a bizarre play to. An easy interception was dropped, tipped up in the air and caught by the wide receiver. He was probably out of bounds but it was ruled a touchdown.

North Texas was up 31-24 at the end of the third quarter. Tulsa fought back to tie the game at 38 at the end of regulation.

Overtime was just as exciting. The Mean Green scored first. The Golden Hurricane answered and decided to go for two for the win. They came up just short of the goal line.

Or did they?

Officials ruled that Tulsa did not score. North Texas won 45-44. CJ Coombes finished as its second-leading tackler in the win.

CJ Coombes briefly paused his college football career to be a janitor.

Friday was a revenge game for CJ Coombes. The Delaware-native finished with 62 tackles, 3.5 sacks and four interceptions and won a national championship during a prep year at IMG in 2022. However, an FBS program did not offer him a scholarship.

Coombes moved back home to work as a janitor at a preschool. It allowed him to make some extra money to pay for college while searching for his next opportunity.

“Cleaning up the bathrooms after the kids were gone at the end of the day was probably the worst part,” he told the Denton Record-Chronicle.

And then Tulsa called just a few days before the start of fall camp. It had a walk-on spot available. Coombes accepted.

“I guess they lost somebody or had someone quit. They told me, ‘Hey, if you want to get out here, we have a spot open for you to come to camp.’ I didn’t know anybody and barely spoke to anyone, even the coaching staff. I just went out there and joined the team the first day of fall camp.”

The 6-foot-1, 200-pound safety played on the scout team at the beginning of the season. He played four games on special teams at the end (but no more than four to preserve his eligibility and redshirt). His coaching staff teased the idea of a scholarship. It never came.

As a result, Coombes transferred down to Wofford. He made 119 tackles with two interceptions in 17 games, which allowed him to transfer back up. North Texas brought him on in 2026. He is the Mean Green’s leading tackler through five games.

Friday’s game had extra meaning because Tulsa did not offer him a scholarship.

“I’m going to take it personally, because if I had been given an opportunity, I probably wouldn’t have left Tulsa.”

Coombes made eight total tackles against his former school. The Golden Hurricane defeated the Mean Green on a defensive stop at the goal line in overtime!