2026 First Glance Preview: North Texas Mean Green

Week One: North Texas Mean Green

Date & Time: Saturday, September 5 at Noon ET

Venue: Memorial Stadium, Bloomington, IN 

TV: FOX

Mean Green at a Glance

Head Coach: Neal Brown 

Entering his First season as North Texas head coach

Record at North Texas: 0-0 (0-0 in Big Sky Conference)

Overall Record: 72-51 

Last Season: 12-2 (7-1 in AAC), Runner-up AAC, Won New Mexico Bowl (49-47 vs. SDSU)

Series History vs. Indiana

Record: 1-1

Last Meeting: 2014 (Indiana Win 49-24 in Bloomington)

Mean Green Returning Leaders

Passing: Chris Jimmerson (1-2, 37 yards, 1 TD)

Rushing: Jayden Becks (21 rushes, 87 Yards 2 TD)

Receiving: Dalton Carnes (7 catches, 80 yards)

Tackles: DL Brayden Knox (19 tackles, 2 TFLs, 1 sack)

Mean Green Names to Know

Jahiem White, Running Back

Neto Umeozulu, Offensive Line

Caden Jenkins, Defensive Back

Mean Green  Preseason Predictions

Athlon: 11th in AAC 

Lindy’s: 7th in the AAC 

Phil Steele: Not Published Yet

Sporting News: 9th in the AAC

SP+: 109th Nationally

Impact Newcomers for the Mean Green

Tayven Jackson, QB (UCF)

Neto Umeozulu, OL (Texas)

Jahiem White, RB (West Virginia)

Henry Fenuku, OL (Missouri)

Udoka Ezeani, LB (UTEP)

Biggest Questions Facing the Mean Green

How quickly can the Mean Green rebuild after Eric Morris left for Oklahoma State?

Can Neal Brown Unlock Tayven Jackson’s Performance?

Can they build a program with FBS castoffs?

North Texas Program Preview

North Texas was one of the best stories in college football in 2025 as they went 12-2 and narrowly missed a College Football Playoff. However, with that success came a steep price. The Mean Green saw head coach Eric Morris take the Oklahoma State job and bring his Heisman-caliber quarterback and leading rusher to Stillwater with him.

Former West Virginia head coach Neal Brown will be back in the G6, where he had success at Troy. Brown’s offenses are usually pretty good and he brought his top running back from West Virginia with him in Jahiem White.

The Mean Green lost 37 players to the transfer portal, but is bringing in 49 (22 from P4 conferences), including former Hoosier quarterback Tayven Jackson. That’s life in modern college football as a G6 team. Any sign of success is met with a pillaging of the coaching staff and roster. UNT has done a good job of backfilling the production they lost, but it will be a tough hill to climb in year one to get back.

North Texas’ schedule features just one P4 team (Indiana), but road trips to Navy and UTSA will be tough in conference matchups. 

Offensive Preview

The North Texas offense was as explosive as any in 2025, but it will look totally different in 2026 as Neal Brown’s run-first offense replaces Eric Morris and the air raid. In Brown’s last two seasons at West Virginia, the Mountaineers ranked 27th (2024) and 4th (2023) nationally in rushing. Brown brings the leading rusher from those teams, Jahiem White, to UNT from the transfer portal. White missed all but two games in 2025 with an injury, but he gives the Mean Green a legitimate threat at running back.

Other P4 transfers Brendon Haygood (Missouri) and Colin Page (Texas) make this one of the deeper positions on offense. Haygood didn’t play much as a freshman while Page saw action in mop-up duty in seven games with the Longhorns.

White, who is a small running back at 5’7”, 187 pounds, was a freshman All-American in 2023 and has over 1,800 career rushing yards to his name. He can also catch the ball out of the back field, giving the Mean Green a weapon to lean on as they figure out their quarterback situation.

The face at quarterback should be a familiar one for Hoosier fans as Tayven Jackson will be battling for the starting spot after transferring in from UCF. This will be Jackson’s fourth school and third in three years.
Jackson played two seasons for the Hoosiers and had an up-and-down tenure as he struggled with accuracy and command of the offense. At UFC, Jackson played in 11 games with 10 starts. He led the Knights in passing with 2,151 yards and 10 touchdown passes, but struggled with accuracy as he completed 63.5-percent of his passes and threw eight interceptions.

Jackson should break camp as the starter at quarterback as UNT will eventually look to transition to redshirt freshman Chris Jimmerson in the future. It would not be a surprise to see them both when UNT takes on IU.
North Texas will be trying to piece together an entirely new starting offensive line (just like every position on offense). The building block is transfer Neto Umeozulu, a right tackle who arrives from Texas. He is 6’4” and 329 pounds and gives the Mean Green some P4 size upfront. Redshirt freshman Henry Fenuku (6’3” 310lbs.) is another SEC transfer (Missouri) brought in to start and is projected to play right guard.

Chandler Strong (6’1, 288 lbs.), a senior transfer from Georgia Southern, will play center. Strong was a freshman All-American and has started 30 games in his career.

The left side of the line will be junior Johnny Williams IV at tackle (6’7” 329lbs.) who played for Brown at West Virginia before playing at Missouri in 2025. While he has played a bunch, he only has two starts. Dylan Shaw (6’4” 320 lbs.) played four games for UNT in 2025 after transferring from Texas Tech, but missed the remainder of the year with an injury. Shaw is projected to start at left guard.

The tight end position should be manned by Mississippi State transfer Max Reese whose best season came in 2024 at Eastern Michigan. In 2024 he played in 12 games making 27 catches for 232 yards and two touchdowns. Last season at Mississippi State, he only made two catches in 11 games. His skill set fits the G6 better. 

The least proven group may be the wide receivers for North Texas. Western Carolina transfer James Tyre had 68 catches for 832 yards in the FCS in 2025 and should find a role in the slot. Will his production translate to the G6? It remains to be seen. Corri Milliner (6’2”, 180lbs.) comes from UAB where he had 816 career yards. He figures to start on the outside. Baron Tipton is a rare UNT returner who has game experience. He played 14 games last season on special teams and at receiver. He has 17 games under his belt and has three career catches.

Defensive Preview

Neal Brown brought in former Baylor defensive coordinator Matt Powledge to run the Mean Green defense. Hoosier fans should expect to see a 4-2-5 scheme, but that may be personnel-driven. Just like the offense, the UNT defense returns zero starters and went to the portal to fill needs.

While there are zero returning starts for UNT, there are two impact players who followed Powledge from Baylor to North Texas in twins Caden and Cameren Jenkins. Caden is a senior corner and earned freshman All-American honors in 2023. He has plenty of experience in Powledge’s scheme with 31 games played and 18 starts. He was productive as well, totalling 71 tackles, 11 pass breakups and four interceptions. Cameron is a redshirt junior safety who started his career at UNLV before linking up with Caden at Baylor. While he does not have the experience or production of his brother, he still has a nice resume. Caden made five starts in his 27 games played and has 38 career tackles. They both should start.

Junior Peyton Taylor will try and make a successful transition from Junior College and start at the other corner spot while senior Keshawn Davila brings SEC experience (Arkansas) to the secondary. West Virginia transfer Jason Cross should be in to start at one of the safety positions as well.

Zakye Barker and Aaron Alexander should man the middle of the defense at linebacker. Barker is a 5’11” Mike linebacker who comes in from SMU after two good years at East Carolina. He was an All-AAC selection in 2024 and has 133 career tackles with 13.5 coming for loss. He will be the on-field leader of the Mean Green defense. 

Alexander is at his fourth school after stops at UMass, Michigan State and Arkansas State. He has plenty of experience (40 games, 10 starts) and is bigger than Barker at 6’2” 239lbs. He has 103 career tackles and is projected to start alongside Barker.

Upfront, the Mean Green have a veteran group, but there are plenty of position battles. Justin Benton (6’0” 298 lbs.) comes in from East Carolina to play defensive tackle. He made 19 tackles with two for a loss last year. He will be competing with Terrell Washington (6’1” 305), who is a returning player and could slide over to the nose. The other defensive tackle is Rudy Vargas (6’2”, 287 lbs.).

On the ends, North Texas will likely turn to Davion Rhodes (6’2” 248 lbs.) who is a senior transfer from Georgia Southern. He was an All-Sun Belt honorable mention last season and has 18 career tackles for loss. Senior David Onuoha (6’1”, 238 lbs.) should start at the other end. Onuoha is another transfer and spent the 2025 season at UMass and the two seasons prior at Rutgers. He has 4.5 career tackles for loss.

Special Teams Preview

The Mean Green essentially brings in Appalachian State’s entire special teams unit with their kicker, punter and long snapper. Dominic De Freitas is a preseason All-AAC selection and was excellent at App State, making 21-of-27 field goal attempts as a freshman.

Punter Ian Ratcliff averaged 43.8 yards per punt and put 10 inside the 20-yard line. He has Power Four experience playing two seasons at Texas.

The return jobs are wide open after the roster turnover. There are several good candidates for both jobs, as the running back room is deep and there are several receivers with return experience.. 

2026 FIRST GLANCE PREVIEWS