BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — North Texas trailed by 11 points early in the third quarter Saturday. The No. 6 Indiana Hoosiers scored 28 of the game’s final 31 points from there and beat the North Texas Mean Green 52-16 at Memorial Stadium in Neal Brown‘s first game as North Texas coach.
Indiana (1-0) led 24-6 at halftime. Jahiem White scored on a 9-yard run with 11:40 left in the third quarter to make it 24-13, and North Texas (0-1) went into the fourth quarter down 31-16. Indiana scored 21 points in the fourth.
The game aired on FOX, and Brown said his players represented the program on a national stage.
“For three-and-a-half quarters, I thought we battled them and went toe-to-toe and represented UNT on a national stage, and we just couldn’t finish the game out like we needed to,” Brown said.
Josh Hoover Throws Four Touchdowns in Indiana Debut
Josh Hoover completed 13-of-16 passes for 231 yards, 4 touchdowns, and no interceptions in his first game since transferring from TCU. His first pass as a Hoosier went 15 yards to Nick Marsh for a touchdown on the opening drive. Hoover played at Rockwall-Heath High School. In four seasons at TCU, he threw for 9,629 yards.
Charlie Becker caught 4 passes for 64 yards and 2 touchdowns. His 35-yard score with 9:56 left in the third quarter put Indiana ahead 31-13. Turbo Richard, a transfer from Boston College, carried 15 times for 58 yards and 2 touchdowns and caught 1 pass for 38 yards. Backup quarterback Grant Wilson ran 43 yards for the final touchdown with under two minutes to play.
Indiana added a 49-yard field goal with 1:24 left in the first half for the 24-6 halftime lead. The win extended the longest active winning streak in FBS to 17 games. Indiana has also won 16 straight at home.
Tayven Jackson Completes 22-of-28 Passes Against Former Team
Tayven Jackson completed 22-of-28 passes for 192 yards and 1 interception in his first start for North Texas, and he ran 6 times for 22 yards. His 79% completion rate was the best by a North Texas quarterback in his UNT debut since 2000. Dajon Williams completed 78.6% of his passes on 14 attempts against Nicholls State in 2014.
Jackson played two seasons at Indiana before spending 2025 at UCF. He won the North Texas starting job on Aug. 26. On Saturday he left the game briefly with an injury and returned. His interception came with 1:55 to play.
Brown said the pressure on Jackson was heavy against a program and a coach he had played for.
“That was an emotional game for him,” Brown explained. “There was a lot of pressure on him, playing against his old team and his old coach, and I thought he played well. I was excited for him. It wasn’t his A-game, but it was [a] good game.”
Jahiem White Scores First North Texas Touchdown
White carried 14 times for 61 yards and 1 touchdown and caught 7 passes for 36 yards. The 9-yard run was the first touchdown of his North Texas career and the 18th of his college career. The 7 receptions were a career high. His previous high was 5, against Texas Tech on Nov. 30, 2024, while at West Virginia, where Brown coached him in 2023 and 2024.
White’s 61 rushing yards came against a front Brown said is probably the best defensive line in the country.
“He’s an elite player and I thought he did a lot of good things,” Brown said of White. “He was close to really having a special game. He’ll continue to get better especially when we get into our league where we can block people better than these guys. That is probably the best defensive line in the country, and I hope our fans can understand that.”
Corri Milliner caught 4 passes for a team-high 66 yards. His 36-yard reception on the touchdown drive was North Texas’ longest play of the game. Justin Stevenson caught 2 passes for 47 yards, Josiah Martin caught 2 for 26, and Brendon Haygood ran 6 times for 28 yards. Eight North Texas players caught a pass.
Dominic De Freitas made 3-of-4 field goals, from 47, 33, and 38 yards, and missed from 55. His 47-yarder with 9:48 left in the second quarter was North Texas’ first score of the season. The 38-yarder in the third quarter cut the deficit to 31-16. It was the third game of his career with at least 3 field goals. He went 5-for-7 against Arkansas State on Nov. 29, 2025, while at Appalachian State.
On defense, CJ Coombes led North Texas with 9 tackles. Zakye Barker and Aaron Alexander had 8 tackles each. Brandon Jones had 7 tackles and a tackle for loss, tying his career high.
North Texas went scoreless in the first quarter for the first time since Sept. 6, 2025, when the Mean Green were tied 0-0 with Western Michigan after one quarter and won 33-30 in overtime. The 18-point halftime deficit was the largest for North Texas since Nov. 15, 2024, when the Mean Green trailed UTSA by 20 at the half.
Indiana leads the series 2-1. North Texas won 24-21 in Denton in 2011, and Indiana won 49-24 in Bloomington in 2014. North Texas is 0-5 all-time against the defending national champion. The closest of those games was a 37-10 loss to Oklahoma in 2001. Saturday was only the second time the Mean Green opened a season against the defending champion, after the 2006 opener at Texas.
Two days before kickoff, Brown called Curt Cignetti‘s work at Indiana the most impressive coaching job he has seen. Saturday was the second time Brown opened a head-coaching tenure against a Cignetti team. In 2019, his first West Virginia team beat Cignetti’s James Madison 20-13.
North Texas entered the season with 70 newcomers. Its 215 new players over the past three seasons are the most in FBS in that span. The Mean Green returned zero starters from 2025. Iowa State is the only other FBS team that returned none. Ten North Texas players made their first career start on Saturday, and Jackson and White were among 10 others making their first start for the program. Barker and Chandler Strong served as captains. Strong’s start was the 33rd of his career, the most on the roster.
North Texas plays its home opener against UNLV on Sept. 12 at DATCU Stadium. Kickoff is 2:45 p.m. CT on ESPNU.
