DENTON — North Texas walked out of Memorial Stadium with a 36-point loss Saturday and a game that looked much closer on film than it did on the scoreboard. The Mean Green outgained No. 6 Indiana 367-365, finished with 19 first downs to Indiana’s 18, ran 21 more offensive plays and held the ball for 37:22, yet still trailed 24-6 at halftime and eventually lost 52-16.
Dan Mullen came away from the film looking at more than the final margin. North Texas entered the fourth quarter down 31-16 before Indiana scored three touchdowns in the final 13 minutes, and Mullen called the Mean Green a “very, very, very talented team” as UNLV began preparing for Saturday’s trip to Denton.
North Texas coach Neal Brown had a similar view after his first game with the Mean Green. “For three-and-a-half quarters, I thought we battled them and went toe-to-toe and represented UNT on a national stage,” Brown said. “We just couldn’t finish the game out like we needed to.”
The team Brown brought to Bloomington was almost completely different from the one that won 12 games last season. Eric Morris left for Oklahoma State, quarterback Drew Mestemaker moved on and most of the production from an offense that led the country in scoring and total offense went with them. Brown took over with 70 newcomers and no returning starters from the 2025 team, although he did not replace them with a young roster. UNT lists an average age of 21.01, second-oldest in the FBS.
The rebuilt offense settled in quickly enough to give Indiana a much longer afternoon than the final score suggests. Lee Beebe Jr. returned the opening kickoff 67 yards to the North Texas 20, and Indiana needed only three plays to score. UNT answered with a 12-play possession that lasted 7:44, converted a fourth-and-1 from its own 34 and reached the Indiana 38 before Tayven Jackson’s fourth-down pass for Corri Milliner fell incomplete.
The Mean Green did not punt for the rest of the first half. They followed with drives of 41, 60 and 38 yards, with Dominic De Freitas making field goals from 47 and 33 yards before missing from 55 as time expired.
By halftime, UNT had run 39 offensive plays and possessed the ball for 19:22. It still trailed 24-6 because three promising possessions had produced six points while Indiana kept turning its opportunities into touchdowns.
White finally got the Mean Green into the end zone to open the second half. He ran for 19 yards on the first play, Jackson found Milliner for 36 two snaps later and White finished the six-play, 75-yard drive with a 9-yard touchdown that cut Indiana’s lead to 24-13.
Indiana answered in four plays. Josh Hoover converted a third-and-9 with a 25-yard completion to Brock Schott, then found Charlie Becker for a 35-yard touchdown two plays later. Less than two minutes after North Texas reached the end zone, the margin was back to 18.
UNT kept moving the ball. Its next possession went 40 yards before the first punt of the afternoon, and the Mean Green later started at their own 42 and drove to the Indiana 20 before De Freitas made his third field goal.
Through seven possessions, North Texas had gained at least 37 yards every time it had the ball. Those drives produced one touchdown, three field goals, a missed field goal, a turnover on downs and a punt.
Indiana did not need nearly that much work.
Hoover completed 13 of 16 passes for 231 yards and four touchdowns. His scoring throws covered 15, 9, 35 and 42 yards, and Indiana averaged 17.8 yards every time he completed a pass.
Jackson had almost the opposite afternoon in his North Texas debut. The fifth-year quarterback completed 22 of 28 passes for 192 yards with no touchdowns and one interception, giving him the best completion percentage by a quarterback making his first UNT start in the school’s available records dating to at least 2000.
Most of those throws came quickly and underneath. PFF charted Jackson 11-for-11 for 37 yards behind the line of scrimmage and 7-for-9 for 56 yards between zero and nine yards downfield. He attempted only one pass of at least 20 yards, the 36-yard completion to Milliner on North Texas’ third-quarter touchdown drive.
There were still moments when UNT pushed the ball farther downfield. Milliner’s 36-yard catch helped set up White’s touchdown, and Jackson later found Justin Stevenson for 24 yards on third-and-23 to extend another third-quarter possession.
Those plays were the exception rather than the foundation of the passing game. Indiana was willing to let Jackson keep completing the short throw as long as the tackle came soon afterward, and he averaged 6.9 yards per attempt despite completing nearly 79 percent of his passes.
The difference became more noticeable when Indiana brought pressure. PFF charted Jackson 19-for-22 for 150 yards when kept clean, while he completed 3 of 6 for 42 yards and took one sack under pressure. The Hoosiers blitzed him on 17 of 30 dropbacks, and Jackson averaged 5.4 yards per attempt against those looks compared with 8.8 when Indiana did not bring an extra rusher.
Brown had spent much of camp praising Jackson’s consistency, maturity and willingness to take the available throw. The opener largely reflected that, even after Jackson briefly left in the third quarter before returning.
“It wasn’t his A-game, but it was a good game,” Brown said.
White gives Jackson the easiest answer when the defense changes the picture. The West Virginia transfer was playing his first game in 364 days after an injury limited him to two appearances last season, and Brown immediately put him back into a featured role with 14 carries and eight targets.
White finished with 61 rushing yards and a touchdown while setting a career high with seven receptions for 36 yards. PFF credited him with 49 rushing yards after contact and six missed tackles forced, a better description of his afternoon than the 4.4-yard average alone.
Brown, who coached White at West Virginia, called him an “elite player” afterward and said he was close to having a much bigger game. White also hurt North Texas after the whistle, drawing two personal fouls in the second half as UNT finished with nine penalties for 79 yards.
UNLV will see a different offensive problem than it handled in Honolulu. Micah Alejado attempted 41 passes in Hawai‘i’s 21-6 loss, and the Rebels sacked him five times while holding the Rainbow Warriors without a touchdown. Brown stayed committed to the run against Indiana and gave the Mean Green more ways to get there than simply handing the ball to White.
North Texas mixed in two-tight-end personnel, worked from under center at times and used Jackson in the run game. The Mean Green also changed the picture with option concepts, quick throws and play action as the game went along. Jackson ran six times for 22 yards, including a 17-yard gain on third down, while UNT finished with 152 rushing yards on 38 attempts.
The offense also looked more deliberate than the tempo-heavy approach North Texas used under Morris. Brown was willing to stay with the run, use the short passing game and make Indiana defend another snap rather than turning the game into a race once the Mean Green fell behind.
The offensive line gave him enough stability to keep using that plan after being one of his biggest concerns during camp. Indiana recorded one sack, and North Texas created enough movement to keep White and the quarterback run game involved well into the second half.
Johnny Williams IV had the best individual performance up front, playing 71 snaps at left tackle and earning an 87.8 PFF pass-blocking grade without allowing a pressure. Chandler Strong provided experience in the middle in the 33rd start of his college career, while Keon Johnson allowed two pressures on the right side.
Brown had publicly challenged the line during camp, particularly its physicality in the run game. The Indiana performance looked better than those August concerns. North Texas did not control the front throughout the afternoon, but it ran well enough to keep Indiana from treating every down like an obvious passing situation.
There were still places where the new offense looked like a group playing its first game together. Indiana defeated several perimeter blocks before North Texas’ quick throws could develop, limiting some of the screens and throws designed to get the ball outside immediately.
Milliner led UNT with 66 receiving yards, while Stevenson supplied two of the better gains downfield. Nobody in the receiver room took over the game, leaving White as the most consistent player Brown could use to create touches from different spots.
Paul Guenther can test the protection before the ball is snapped. UNLV showed Hawai‘i double-A-gap looks, simulated pressure and crowded fronts, sometimes bringing the pressure and sometimes dropping defenders out after forcing the protection to account for them.
Jackson’s quick passing game gives North Texas an answer to some of it. The tackle after the catch may matter as much as the number of times UNLV actually reaches him.
The other side of the Indiana film gives Mullen a clearer place to attack. North Texas allowed 52 points despite holding Indiana to 365 yards and 46 offensive snaps, with most of the damage coming when Hoover found space downfield.
UNT finished with only two tackles for loss and no official sacks. Udoka Ezeani appeared to bring Hoover down for a 6-yard loss during the second quarter, but a facemask penalty erased the play and moved Indiana to the UNT 14. Hoover found Becker for a touchdown three plays later.
The coverage problems were not isolated to one player. PFF charged Chase Canada with two completions for 50 yards and two touchdowns on two targets, while Bryce Garza gave up a 42-yard touchdown on his only target. Indiana found explosive completions in more than one area of the secondary.
That group also entered the opener without two players Brown expected to have in the cornerback rotation. Caden Jenkins suffered a season-ending injury during camp, while Zach Johnson missed the Indiana game.
The Mean Green were much better against the run for most of the afternoon. Indiana finished with 134 rushing yards on 30 attempts, but 43 came on Grant Wilson’s touchdown with 1:47 remaining. Before that run, North Texas had allowed 91 yards on 29 carries.
That makes Saturday more complicated than simply asking UNLV to repeat what worked at Hawai‘i. Jai’Den Thomas rushed for 143 yards, Jackson Arnold added 89 and the Rebels finished with 248 on the ground, allowing Arnold to attempt only 18 passes.
Indiana did not throw often against North Texas either. Its successful throws simply changed the game.
Arnold has already shown UNLV can win through the air when needed. He threw for 291 yards and two touchdowns against Memphis, completing 17 of 21 passes for 203 yards before halftime before the protection broke down and the Tigers recorded six sacks after the break.
That protection remains one of the biggest questions entering Saturday. Austin Boyd will miss another game, leaving Griffin Scroggs and BJ Tolo as UNLV’s listed centers after the combination settled in at Hawai‘i.
Arnold said Monday that North Texas played “extremely hard” and “extremely physical” against Indiana and brought “a ton of pressure.” Matt Powledge’s defense will change fronts and bring pressure from different levels, leaving Scroggs and Tolo responsible for helping identify those looks without Boyd, whom Arnold has called the glue of the offensive line.
UNLV stayed out of the situations that hurt it against Memphis while playing in Honolulu. The Rebels ran 43 times, Arnold attempted 18 passes and the lone Hawai‘i sack came on a play Arnold said began when he slipped rather than when the protection was beaten.
Special teams worked against the type of game North Texas was trying to play. Indiana started its opening possession at the UNT 20 after Beebe’s 67-yard kickoff return, later got a 41-yard kickoff return and used a 36-yard punt return to begin another fourth-quarter touchdown drive at the North Texas 30. Four Indiana touchdown drives lasted five plays or fewer.
The red zone told the rest of the story. North Texas scored on all three of its trips inside the 20 but produced only one touchdown. Indiana reached the red zone four times and scored touchdowns on all four possessions.
The Mean Green moved the ball, protected Jackson, got White involved and defended the run better than 52 points would suggest. Indiana finished the possessions North Texas could not and turned its explosive plays into touchdowns.
Brown did not try to dress that part up afterward.
“We just couldn’t finish the game out like we needed to.”