A few months ago, North Texas was one win away from the College Football Playoff.

That is not an exaggeration.

The Mean Green went 12-2, played Tulane for the American championship, won the New Mexico Bowl, and finished with the first 12-win season in program history. It was the kind of year that changes how people talk about a program.

Then everything changed.

Eric Morris left for Oklahoma State. Drew Mestemaker followed him. A ton of production walked out the door. Now Neal Brown takes over, and North Texas is trying to follow the best season in school history with basically a new team.

That is not easy.

It may not be fair.

But that is the challenge.

HEAD COACH

• Neal Brown, entering year one at North Texas
• Brown is 72-51 as a head coach.
• North Texas went 12-2 last season.
• The Mean Green finished 7-1 in the American.
• North Texas won double-digit games for the first time in program history.

I like the hire.

Brown was excellent at Troy, going 35-16 and winning 10 games three straight years before getting the West Virginia job. His time at West Virginia was more complicated, but it was not a disaster. He went 37-35 there, with his best season coming in 2023 when the Mountaineers finished 9-4.

This is the right kind of job for him.

North Texas gives Brown a strong recruiting footprint, a league where the program has already proven it can win, and a chance to rebuild quickly through the portal.

But the timing is brutal.

North Texas is not just replacing a coach.

It is replacing almost the entire identity of the best team the school has ever had.

QUARTERBACK

This is the first major question.

Drew Mestemaker is gone after throwing for more than 4,000 yards and becoming one of the biggest breakout stories in the country. He followed Morris to Oklahoma State, leaving North Texas with a completely new quarterback picture.

The most experienced option is Tayven Jackson.

Jackson has been everywhere: Tennessee, Indiana, UCF, and now North Texas.

Last year, Jackson completed about 63% of his passes for 2,151 yards, 10 touchdowns and eight interceptions. He also ran for 85 yards and three scores. That is not superstar production, but it is real experience.

And North Texas needs experience badly.

The other names in the quarterback room are Chaston Ditta and Chris Jimerson Jr. Ditta is a redshirt freshman from East Carolina, and Jimerson is a redshirt freshman who was already at North Texas.

Ditta is interesting because he got meaningful snaps in the Military Bowl for East Carolina, going 8-of-17 for 177 yards and two touchdowns against Pitt.

But this feels like Jackson’s job to lose.

He is the older player. He has been in multiple major programs. He has played more football than the other options.

The key is whether he can give North Texas stability.

The Mean Green do not need him to be Mestemaker.

They just need him to keep the offense from falling off a cliff.

THE REST OF THE OFFENSE

This offense is going to look completely different.

Last year, North Texas led the country in scoring and total offense. The Mean Green were explosive, aggressive and difficult to stop. Now almost all of that production is gone.

The backfield will likely start with Jahiem White, who followed Brown from West Virginia. The official roster lists White as a junior running back from West Virginia.

White has already produced at the Power Four level. He has more than 1,800 career rushing yards, but he was limited last season by a knee injury. If he is healthy, he gives North Texas a legitimate lead back.

That matters because Brown probably wants this offense to be more balanced than last year’s version.

At receiver, Baron Tipton is back, and Corri Milliner comes in from UAB.

Milliner had 816 receiving yards over three years at UAB, so he brings some real college production. Tipton gives North Texas a big target at 6-foot-5.

The offensive line has been rebuilt too.

Neto Umeozulu comes in from Texas, and Chandler Strong comes in from Georgia Southern.

Strong brings a lot of starting experience, and Umeozulu gives the Mean Green a former blue-chip type from a major program.

That is the positive spin.

The concern is obvious.

This is a brand-new offense.

New quarterback. New running back. New line pieces. New receivers. New head coach. New system.

There is talent here, but talent does not automatically become chemistry.

That may take time.

DEFENSE

The defense may actually decide whether North Texas can stay competitive.

Last year’s defense was strange.

The Mean Green were excellent against the pass but awful against the run. That kind of split is hard to sustain. If teams can run on you whenever they want, it puts the entire defense in a bind.

That has to change under new defensive coordinator Matt Powledge.

Powledge is listed as North Texas’ defensive coordinator after coming over from Baylor, and he brings some familiar pieces with him.

The most notable are twins Caden Jenkins and Cameren Jenkins. \

That helps.

So does the addition of Zakye Barker, listed as a senior linebacker from SMU and East Carolina, and Aaron Alexander, listed as a junior linebacker from Arkansas State, Michigan State and UMass.

The defensive line has Terrell Washington, a junior defensive lineman from Northeast Mississippi CC. The roster also lists Avion Carter, Udoka Ezeani and others who could factor into the rebuilt front.

The question is whether this group can stop the run.

That is it.

If North Texas is still getting pushed around up front, it is going to be a long year. The offense probably will not be explosive enough right away to cover up defensive problems the way last year’s offense could.

The defense has to be better early.

Not eventually.

Early.

SCHEDULE

The schedule does North Texas no favors out of the gate.

The Mean Green open at Indiana, the defending national champion, on Sept. 5. Then they host UNLV, go to Texas State, and come home for Houston Christian.

That is a tough way to start a reset.

Indiana is about as hard as it gets. UNLV should be one of the better teams in the Mountain West. Texas State on the road is not easy either.

So before North Texas even gets to American play, it may already have a good idea of how far away this new roster is.

Conference play opens with a Thursday road game at Tulsa, followed by Charlotte at home. After the bye, North Texas goes to Navy, then hosts Florida Atlantic five days later. That Navy-to-FAU turnaround is tough, even if the FAU game is at home.

The November stretch is not easy.

North Texas hosts Rice, then plays its only back-to-back road games of the season at UTSA and Tulane, before finishing at home against UAB.

Those road games at UTSA and Tulane could be brutal.

UTSA is always tough at home.

Tulane is still one of the league’s measuring-stick programs.

If North Texas is trying to scrape its way to a bowl, that late stretch could be the difference.

OUTLOOK

I like Neal Brown.

I like the idea of Tayven Jackson getting a fresh start.

I like Jahiem White if he is healthy.

I like some of the portal pieces on defense.

But I do not love this situation for 2026.

There is just too much new.

North Texas went from the best season in school history to a full reset almost overnight. That does not mean the Mean Green are going back to the bottom of the American, but it does mean expectations need to be realistic.

The best-case scenario is that Jackson settles the quarterback job, White gives the offense a real running game, the transfer offensive linemen come together quickly, and Powledge fixes the run defense enough to keep North Texas in games.

If that happens, the Mean Green can push for a bowl.

The worst-case scenario is that the offense loses all of last year’s explosiveness, the quarterback battle drags, the run defense stays bad, and the opening schedule knocks the confidence out of the team before October.

Last year was historic.

This year is about proving the program can survive the reset.

Full disclosure: I use AI tools to format my research into an article encompassing all of the information.