North Texas takes rejuvenated offense to Indiana

North Texas, with its rejuvenated offense all packed, hits the road for the first of five away games over its final eight, starting with a trip to Big Ten country.

The Mean Green (2-2) returns from a bye week to play Indiana (2-2) at 1:30 p.m. Saturday in Bloomington, Ind.

“If we can’t go on the road with some resolve and some grit and some toughness we’re going to struggle and have a disappointing season,” North Texas coach Dan McCarney said.

McCarney believes his team is more fit for the trials ahead because of Dajon Williams, the redshirt freshman quarterback who made his starting debut in a victory two weeks ago against Nicholls State.

Coaches will no doubt get a better idea about Williams, particularly how he leads and handles adversity.

He has yet to face such a test as Indiana will provide.

Yet, in his 13 possessions this season, Williams has led the offense to 10 touchdowns. Williams impressed in a 77-3 victory over Nicholls State, passing for 176 yards on 11 of 14 attempts and rushing for 68 yards in three quarters of work.

The Mean Green is 13 for 13 in the red zone this season.

McCarney said the offense has a new air of confidence that has been missing this season, even with a quarterback whose only game action was mopup duty in a blowout loss to Louisiana Tech and against Nicholls State, which presented no challenge.

“It says something about the guy leading your offense that there is talent and ability there and the ability to lead and hopefully elevate the performance of those around him that I think he’s got,” McCarney said.

Williams took the long route to starter after spending time in the coaches’ doghouse because of what McCarney said was a lack of work ethic and commitment.

Hopefully, that’s all in the past, said McCarney, who added that the team has rallied around Williams.

Another step in the process of maturing, for both team and quarterback, is this nonconference game at Indiana. The Mean Green returns to Conference USA play next week with another game away from Apogee Stadium at Alabama-Birmingham.

This game will pit two teams whose foundation on offense is the run game. The Hoosiers average 284 rushing yards a game, led by Tevin Coleman, among the top rushers in the nation at 173 yards a game.

Though both teams share a common overall record, Indiana’s is a better 2-2. The Hoosiers have a road victory over a ranked Missouri team.

North Texas will need to excel at every phase to be competitive.

Starting with the quarterback.

“There’s going to be adversity at Indiana,” McCarney said. “How will he handle that? How will he react and lead? We’ll find out.”

This story was originally published October 3, 2014 at 7:40 PM.