The defending national champion Indiana Hoosiers will kick off the 2026 season against the North Texas Mean Green on Saturday at Noon ET on FOX.
Head Coach: Neal Brown (1st year at North Texas)
Overall: 72-51 (.585) 11th year
At UNT (0-0)
North Texas All-Time Bowl Appearances: 15
Last Year’s Record: 12-2 (7-1)
This Year’s Record: 0-0 (0-0)
Postseason Appearances Since 2000: 13 Appearances (3-10 Record)
Mascot: Scrappy
Colors: Green and White
Outfitter: Nike
National Titles: 0
Conference Titles: 25
Heisman Winners: 0
FUN FACT
• The ‘Mean Green’ Cheer inspired the team’s nickname
In 1966 when a fan by the name of Sidney Sue Graham came up with the ‘Mean Green’ moniker as a chant when her beloved football team was way behind. “We were way behind and she started hollering, ‘Come on green, get mean,’ or ‘Here we go, mean green,’ or variants on that,” recalled Mark Graham, one of her three sons. “Then it became popular with some of the students and some of the other fans. So it caught on.” Graham said. Read the full story
A Whole New Team
North Texas went 12-2 in 2025, but it came at a cost. Head coach Eric Morris took Heisman Candidate quarterback Drew Mestemaker and a host of other playmakers with him to Okahoma State. Now the Mean Green are trying to reload through the portal as Neal Brown begins his tenure.
North Texas had a massive transfer haul of 49 players, many of which come off of Power 4 rosters. While all these players have past history of play it is nearly impossible to really know how they’l be deployed on Saturday.
The Mean Green has an entire new coaching staff as well, making Curt Cignetti’s scouting job a bit tougher. However, Cignetti knows where to look for answers. Neal Brown was an analyst with Texas a year ago and was the head coach at West Virginia and Troy before then. Defesnsively, Cignetti will look at what Baylor did last year since UNT defensive coordinator Matt Powledge is coming from there.
“Have never really played the game quite like this one where there’s just so many new faces, players to coaches.” Cignetti said on Monday.
Welcome Back Tayven Jackson
A familiar face will be trotting out under center for the Mean Green in former Hoosier Tayven Jackson. The former four-star recruit and highly touted transfer played for the Hoosiers in 2023-24. He started six games and played in 13 for the Hoosiers while throwing for 1,263 yards and six touchdowns.
Jackson was announced the starter for the season opener earlier in fall camp. Last season he played 11 games (10 starts) for the UCF Knights. He threw for a career-high 2,151 yards and 10 touchdowns.
“Tayven played really good football for us in ’24. Came in at halftime in a Nebraska game and played a great second half. Started the next week against Washington, a game that we won. He saw action,” Cignetti said. “He’s very talented. He’s got a live arm. He can run. He’s a good athlete. Started a number of games last season. He’s a good player.”
Top Cornerback Cayden Jenkins Out For the Season
The Mean Green received some bad news when it was learned that their projected starting cornerback Cayden Jenkins would miss the entire 2026 season with a knee injury. Jenkins, whose twin brother, Cameron is also on the team, came over from Baylor after earning Big XII Honorable Mention and Freshman All-American honors in 2023.
North Texas also lost senior corner Zach Johnson as well to an injury, so their depth will be tested. The Mean Green did bring in Keshawn Davila from Arkansas who was one of their prized transfers in 2026.
Running Back Jahiem White Looks to Reignite Career
North Texas will try and establish their running game in Neal Brown’s offense and with good reason. The Mean Green have one of the better running backs in the G6 in Jahiem White who is looking to get his college career back on track after injuries.
White played for Brown at West Virginia in 2023 and transferred to UNT after the 2025, had his best year in 2023. White was a freshman All-American as he accounted for 109 carries for 842 yards and four touchdowns with five catches for 125 yards and two scores receiving.
Beware of the Blitz
We may not know much about how UNT’s defense will look, but we know they will blitz. New defensive coordinator Matt Powledge was at Baylor last season and the Bears blitzed 29.6% percent of the time accounting to HUDLIQ.
“You can see pressure,” senior safety Cameron Jenkins told NTDaily.com back in April. “We’re going to blitz.”
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