UNT was the best in the nation offensively last year. Can the Mean Green come close to a repeat?

North Texas was in one of its first meetings of fall camp a few weeks ago when Neal Brown presented the players on his largely reconstituted team a bit of a history lesson.

UNT put together the most productive offense in the country last season. Everyone in the room was aware of that. The Mean Green averaged more points (45.1) and yards per game (512.4) than any team in the country under former coach Eric Morris.

What UNT’s new coach wanted to make sure of is that his players know they’re carrying on a tradition, not looking to build on a one-off year.

UNT was a high-powered offensive team earlier in Morris’ tenure, not to mention Seth Littrell’s time at the school before that.

“You have to educate your players on it,” Brown said. “One of our goals is to be the most entertaining offense in the country. If you’re entertaining, that means you’re scoring points and you’re creative. We talk about scoring points from far with explosive plays.

“Not only last year, but all three of Eric’s teams were really good. Seth also had some high-performing offenses. That’s the tradition. We score points, move the ball and create explosive plays.”

The challenge is to build on that history again this fall while more or less starting from scratch.

UNT lost quarterback Drew Mestemaker, its record-setting triggerman who led the nation with 4,379 passing yards after the 2025 campaign, not to mention star running back Caleb Hawkins and wide receiver Wyatt Young. The star trio followed Morris to Oklahoma State.

The players who will form this year’s UNT offense are determined to pick up where last year’s edition of the Mean Green left off.

“I have very high confidence that we can build off last year,” wide receiver Baron Tipton said. “It’s a different offense with different players, but the new coaching staff came in and has done a really good job. I have no doubt that we’ll be the No. 1 offense again.”

UNT has undergone dramatic transformations before during its run of success. This fall will mark another.

Tipton is UNT’s lone returning player who started a game on the offensive side of the ball with the Mean Green. UNT will turn to a host of talented transfers who arrived in the offseason to complement him.

Quarterback Tayven Jackson started 10 games at Central Florida in 2025, when Jahiem White was a star at West Virginia before a knee injury ended his season. That pair has quickly settled in since arriving, along with a host of other transfer additions. The adjustment they have made has helped UNT begin to rebuild the chemistry that was vital to its success offensively last season.

“Absolutely,” returning backup wide receiver Kyle Koch said when asked if the Mean Green are starting to jell. “Over the offseason and the summer one of the things that I’ve really noticed is we’ve been coming together and connecting as a team.”

The Mean Green building that chemistry was far from a foregone conclusion after they brought in more than 50 transfers and in excess of 70 new players.

“Initially, it was a little bit to handle,” offensive lineman Neto Umeozulu said. “But, as of right now, we’re in a great place. We’ll just keep working.”

The approach is one that has worked out before.

There were plenty of questions heading into last season after UNT lost quarterback Chandler Morris to the transfer market and, eventually, Virginia. The hope was Mestemaker would pick up where he left off after an impressive first start in the 2024 First Responder Bowl.

That’s just what Mestemaker did under Morris, who found a new — and productive — starting quarterback on a yearly basis.

Littrell got UNT’s offensive roll going when he discovered Mason Fine heading into his debut season in 2016 and transformed an offense that averaged 15.2 points per game before his arrival into a unit that posted 24.8.

UNT hit its stride in 2017, when it averaged 35.5 points per game, and has only averaged less than 30 points in a season once since. The Mean Green scored 27.5 points per game in 2021.

UNT formed its reputation as an offensive power along the way while featuring a host of standout players, including Fine, running back Jeff Wilson Jr. and wide receiver Jaelon Darden.

The question for UNT heading into Brown’s debut season is who will emerge as the next batch of players to step in and carry on the Mean Green’s tradition of playing high-level offense.

“We have some playmakers,” Brown said. “Schematically we’re going to do some things that’ll give some people some problems. I have a lot of confidence in that as well.”

Brown named several players he believes in when it comes to the Mean Green picking up where they left off last season, starting with his quarterbacks.

Jackson has been the odds-on favorite to win the starting job since the summer and has drawn praise from Brown, who has called him the most consistent of UNT’s options.

White has regained the form that helped him rush for 1,819 yards in 27 games at West Virginia.

Brown called White a difference-maker and is also confident in tight ends Max Reese and Brec Long and Tipton, not to mention the long-term potential of sophomore running back Brendon Haygood.

The hope is that all the pieces will fit together and help UNT build on the history of success the Mean Green have enjoyed offensively that Brown talked to his team about when they first met in the preseason.

“The expectation, regardless of who’s in the helmet and puts the wings on, is we’re going to be really good on offense,” Brown said. “I don’t know when, but at some point during the year, we’ll be a high-level functioning offense that falls in line with the tradition that’s been here.”