One of the bigger storylines of this transfer portal window is the mass North Texas to Oklahoma State exodus.

As of the start of Jan. 11, there have been 16 North Texas players that followed head coach Eric Morris to his new stomping grounds in Stillwater. Thus, the Mean Green fresh off their winningest season ever have a whale of talent they need to replace. Two of North Texas’ most critical transfer portal departures were quarterback Drew Mestemaker and running back Caleb Hawkins — freshman phenoms who both led the entire FBS in a major category. Mestemaker is the nation’s leading passer. Hawkins is the nation’s leader in rushing touchdowns.

Those aren’t easy players to replace, but North Texas added a quarterback and running back with starting Big 12 experience as it transitions into the Neal Brown era.

At quarterback, the Mean Green received a commitment from Tayven Jackson, a well-traveled quarterback making his fourth collegiate stop in Denton. Jackson onboarded at Tennessee in 2022 and transferred to Indiana for 2023, where he rose into a starting role for roughly half the season. He then served as the backup to Kurtis Rourke during the Hoosiers’ breakout 2024 College Football Playoff run, winning his lone start against Washington to keep an undefeated season in tact.

Prior to the 2025 season, Jackson transferred to UCF where he saw his most substantial action to date. Jackson didn’t start the opener, but after an injury to starter Cam Fancher, he led the Knights to a clutch victory over Jacksonville State and retained QB1 duties for the majority of the year. Across 10 starts and 11 appearances, Jackson collected 2,151 passing yards, 10 touchdowns, and eight interceptions on a 63.5 completion rate. At the beginning of the season, mobility was one of his strengths — posting 66 rushing yards on North Carolina — but injuries limited this attribute later in the season, and he finished the year with 85 yards.

UCF added James Madison quarterback Alonza Barnett III in the portal, and Jackson left Orlando for another opportunity in Denton in the ever-rotating quarterback carousel. He joins a Mean Green offense which ranked top 12 nationally in passing in each of the last three different seasons, under three different quarterbacks. However, North Texas is expected to run a different style offense without Eric Morris running the show, although Neal Brown has yet to hire an offensive coordinator.

At running back, Neal Brown brought in a familiar face in Jahiem White. White was Brown’s leading rusher at West Virginia in both 2023 and 2024, attaining 842 and 844 yards in those seasons, respectively. In 2023, White ranked atop the Big 12 averaging 7.7 yards per carry. He retained a respectable average of 5.7 in 2024 and was a focal point of two elite rushing attacks. The Mountaineers were fourth in the FBS in rushing in 2023 and 27th in 2024, and the Brown and White duo aim to sustain that trend in Denton.

In 2025, White’s season came to a sudden halt in Week 2 when he suffered a season-ending knee injury. He rushed for 93 yards and two touchdowns in the opener against FCS Robert Morris and posted 40 yards and a touchdown the following week at Ohio before going down on a horse-collar tackle. White underwent surgery and will spend a bulk of the offseason recovering his knee as he prepares for his fourth season of college football.

He retains two years of eligibility as he joins a North Texas running back room that lost each of its top five rushers to the portal — running backs Caleb Hawkins, Makenzie McGill, Ashton Gray, Kiefer Sibley, and quarterback Drew Mestemaker. Running back Jayden Becks (87 yards, 2 TD) is the Mean Green’s returning leader at the position after withdrawing from the portal.

With Tayven Jackson and Jahiem White as the new potential QB-RB duo leading North Texas’ offense, the Mean Green open this new era Sept. 5, 2026 as they battle National Championship-bound Indiana in a difficult matchup in Bloomington.