Numbers that Matter for Indiana Against North Texas

Indiana's Josh Hoover (10) during Indiana University's football camp practice on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026. It's one of football's oldest truths: when the final whistle sounds, the scoreboard tells you who won, but the numbers often tell you why. A team may rack up more yards and still walk away with a loss, only for the turnover margin to reveal the difference. Another may control the ball, dominate time of possession, and quietly squeeze the life out of a comeback attempt. Whether it's field position, third-down efficiency, explosive plays, or costly mistakes, the box score often uncovers the story beneath the result. In a game decided by inches, the numbers have a way of explaining what the eye test alone cannot. Today, we’ll preview some numbers that could ultimately make or break Indiana’s matchup against North Texas. 75 Modern college football has completely changed how rosters are built. Perhaps there is no better example of that this season than North Texas, who won 12 games last season but saw their roster and coaching staff raided this offseason. Instead, we will see an entirely new team this Saturday, featuring 50 transfers and 75 new faces. “It is different now,” said Curt Cignetti. “Have never really played the game quite like this one where there's just so many new faces, players to coaches.” One of those faces will be especially familiar, as the Hoosiers welcome Tayven Jackson back to Memorial Stadium. Jackson is the younger brother of Indiana basketball’s Trayce Jackson-Davis, and appeared in 16 games for the Hoosiers back in 2022 through 2024, including one start under Cignetti when Kurtis Rourke missed time to injury. “Tayven played really good football for us in '24,” added Cignetti. “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.” 66.7% After only hitting your own teammates for months, teams are often more than ready to finally have another opponent to go against. However, with lighter tackling loads in the offseason compared to in-season, there is often an adjustment period. Indiana will need to be sound in their tackling, however, especially with running back Jaheim White. White is a West Virginia transfer who played in a couple of games last season before missing the rest of the year to injury. When healthy, he has been a dominant back. “Jahiem White in particular, he was injured, missed some of last season, but he's really fast and elusive. He's great in space,” said Cignetti. In his two games last season, White had a 66.7% broken tackle percentage per Hudl IQ and averaged 4.9 yards after contact per attempt. When fully healthy in 2023, he averaged 7.7 yards per carry and added four touchdowns. After a long season, it’s time to hit new opponents. Just make sure to finish the job when taking down White. Redzone Efficiency It can be difficult to remember after the dominant full season performances the Hoosiers have had the last two years under Cignetti, but his Indiana teams have not always looked the best in their season openers. They eventually grew to blow out lesser opponents, but in Year 1, the Hoosiers won 31-7 over Florida International and last season they won 27-14 over Old Dominion. An area of focus to cruise to a more comfortable margin of victory should be redzone efficiency. “[Last year] we were inside the 10 six times and came away with 20 points, which isn't very good,” said Cignetti in response to what he’d like to see out of his team in week one. “Had the ball first and one on the opening drive, couldn't get in the end zone. We won the game, which is what we wanted to get done. Thinking there's a lot of work to get done.” Indiana finished the year in 2025 8th nationally in red zone conversions, scoring on 92% of drives. Only one team finished the year with more redzone touchdowns than the Hoosiers (North Texas, coincidentally). However, it took a while for the Indiana offense to find this level of consistency. Better execution in the redzone on Saturday would be great improvement over last year.

Numbers that Matter for Indiana Against North Texas

Discover more from Hoosier Huddle