MeanGreenGlory

Welcome Coach Mac! Glad to have you!

That would be epic. I'm not counting on it by any means though. One of the Iowa guys said to keep an eye on Chris Ash.

Wow, had no idea that he recruited a quarter of your roster from Texas. This is good news. I'm hoping he continues to recruit Florida as well...I'm getting more and more excited.

Thanks for stopping by and letting us know! I'm particularly excited about points 1, 3, 4, and 6. I saw a video with him talking about the way he grades and ranks his players that I found very interesting. Apparently he posts it in the locker room so all of the players know exactly where they stand and what they need to improve upon if they want to play more. I think that is a great system to have in place if he continues to use it. No favorites, just facts and hard work.

There is no doubt that Canales did a superb job and improved the team in a short amount of time. Sometimes it's best to tear down and rebuild a burnt house instead of trying to renovate a charred structure.

This, along with the stadium and new facilities, is a huge statement by UNT.

I understand what you're saying. But at the same time, I think the massive structure across I-35 that opens next year will compensate for some of that "boost." Yes, it will be a short lived boost of interest, but I think the new stadium will bring about as much boost and buzz as the name of any coach. Therefore I think if he wins a couple of games in the beginning and harnesses all of the momentum being built up (literally), we will be just fine. Let's face it, the AD saw a huge reset button in all of this. They made a firm fist and hit the button hard. It's a great opportunity and one that we desperately need after our recent history.

I, like most of you, was very impressed with Chico’s coaching during his interim position. After all he has done for the program in such a short amount of time, it’s hard to not like the guy and pull for him. Following the game yesterday against a quality opponent, it’s hard to not wonder what it would be like if he was the HC here. However, that doesn’t mean Dan McCarney is a “bad” or “boring” hire by any means. Yes, Chico is great and he will do well as a HC, but to claim that this is another botched hire before the guy even gets here and shows what he can do is absolutely ludicrous. Think about this from an administration stand point: 1) We needed a coach with previous head coaching experience. Check. 2) We needed someone who has taken a down program and turned it around. Check. 3) We needed someone who has experience winning against elite teams so that when we play them we can properly prepare and start winning more OOC games. Check. 4) Most wanted a defense minded coach because “it all starts with defense.” Check. 5) We needed someone who can recruit. Check. 6) If Dodge didn’t work out, we needed to “clean house” and get a new coach to open the new stadium. Check. 7) We needed someone with a lot of coaching ties to bring it a fully competent and extremely effective staff. Check. 8) We needed someone who installs discipline, competition, energy, and a hard nose mentality in their teams. Check. 9) We needed someone who will build a community around the program and get involved with the city of Denton. Check (per cyrocks). Now, the only thing that we can’t put a check mark by as far as the “things that UNT needed in a new head coach” is the splash hire demand. But quite frankly, I think that is a bogus argument. You don’t need a name to get butts in the seats. You need a good team that produces wins! People will not show up year in and year out just to hear the coach’s name. Dodge was a splash hire, a proven name in Texas football, and created a lot of buzz. Look where that went when the team didn’t produce wins under his direction. We weren’t selling out Fouts in year 3 simply because the Dodge name was on the sideline, were we? I really liked what Canales did and was actually hoping that he got the contract to be our next head coach. However, I think McCarney is going to be a quality hire for us. The hire is still fresh, but for the love of Scrappy, don’t shoot the guy before he even arrives. Welcome him, support him, and show him what the Mean Green Nation is all about. The more we support him and the more he becomes a part of the Mean Green Nation, the more he will want to win for us. Welcome Coach McCarney! We look forward to your arrival! Go Mean Green!

Wow, this is great news. Congrats Lance!

For his own sake, I think the same thing some days. Riley is a tough guy and definitely a champion. The way he has handled this season has been phenomenal.

"...Dan McCarney has been offered the UNT job and that he is considering whether or not he wants to take the job..." If he decides he doesn't want it I wonder who the number two candidate is.

You think that being in the Sun Belt makes it hard for UNT to win? We should be dominating the Sun Belt year in and year out. Yes, we are at the bottom of the barrel in terms of college football, but being in this conference should help us. It should be relatively easy for us to get to the top of this conference, gain momentum, gain recruits, gain a winning record and thus become more attractive for a higher profile conference to pick up. The Sun Belt is an okay place for us right now. If we got thrown into the SEC tomorrow it would be a hell of a lot harder to win and we would probably suffer through a long period of embarrassing growing pains until we were up to par wit the other SEC teams. By working our way up from the bottom we can make those growing pains far less embarrassing. As a matter of fact, we can make those growing pains enjoyable and entertaining. We need to start a winning tradition somewhere and build on it. I think the Sun Belt gives us an excellent opportunity to do that. I graduated last year. The OOC games will continue to be tough for us for a little bit. But look at the Clemson game from this year. If we play good OOC teams and make announcers say things like "this game was a lot closer than the score reveals" or make reporters write "the Clemson coaches would probably admit that they were out coached during parts of the game," I think that's a great start. We need to show up with a smart plan and play great games against superb teams to build the respect of other fans and teams. If we do that and win our other OOC games against the likes of Army and Rice...well I think that will definitely get us climbing the ladder. Quality attention against top notch teams and more wins all around will get us better recruits. After that you just rinse and repeat the process with a higher standard.

I have recently seen a number of people write that North Texas is a hard place to win. I understand that our recent record is terrible and that our fan base, alumni support, student support, and individual donations have been pitiful as a result. I understand that we have to recruit against regional powerhouse programs and as a result we don't get high profile talent on a regular basis. I understand that the university name and logo has changed a number of times and as a result people across the country have a hard time recognizing who we are. I understand that we are in the Sun Belt Conference and as a result other schools and fans view us as insignificant. Yes, all of this is true. Life isn't fair. I get it. However, I also understand that we now have top of the line facilities. We have a hungry fan base who is craving to support a good team. We are in a great location for recruiting and an even better media market. I also know that our recent record is in the past and was the result of a hire that didn't work out. Even though the high profile players tend to go to other regional power house programs, we still get respectable players, especially for the conference we are in. And this is where I think we have a huge opportunity. While some may look down at us for being in the Sun Belt, I think it provides us with an amazing opportunity. When you are a team in the Sun Belt, you don't have to have the biggest, fastest, strongest, or most athletic players to win. What you need to win in the Sun Belt is a smart game plan and a team composed of well taught players. If you have those two things (provided by a good HC), you can win a lot of games. When you win a lot of games you will win the conference. When you win the conference you get better recruits. When you get better recruits and pair them with a smart game plan and well taught players, you start upsetting ranked teams. When you start upsetting ranked teams, you turn heads and get a lot of attention. When you upset ranked teams, get attention, have phenomenal facilities, quality academic standards, a large student body, a great media market, and a hot bed of athletic recruits in your backyard, you get invited to a higher profile conference. When you get invited to a higher profile conference you start to become a regional powerhouse. When you become a regional powerhouse and retain all of the other qualities that the University of North Texas has, you can become a national powerhouse. Yes, it will be a lot of work. Yes, it will take time. Yes, there will be bumps along the way. But, we have a lot of GREAT things going for us. With the finalization of a new head coach, we will have all of the pieces to the puzzle. Stop making excuses. UNT is not a hard place to win. UNT is an easy place to win and will be an even better place to win when all of these things start taking place. We have what it takes to become a national powerhouse. All we need is a head coach who will strap on his boots, get in the trenches, teach every single player on the field to make smart decisions, and create intelligent game plans. We should have that piece in place on Monday or Tuesday. The rest will be history. Go Mean Green.

Thanks, Brett!

I completely agree with you.

Another Sun Belt team recruiting a quality player right out of our back yard...I really hope that the new stadium and coach will help stop this and keep these players here! GMG

I would like to see who the other top three candidates are as well as how the rest of the season plays out before making a decision. I think Canales has made it obvious that he has what it takes to be a great head coach and turn this program around. With the players buying in to what he is doing and the record he is posting as a head coach, it would be great to have some continuity between this year and next year and not have to start rebuilding the program all over again. I think he would be a great choice and a perfect fit for this position, but I would like to see what else is on the table before having him sign the dotted line.

He is definitely a dedicated and classy player. It is obvious that he has his heart in this program and is not going to let anything stop him from giving his all. I think that he has definitely learned from his mistakes in the past and is becoming a much wiser quarterback. He had some great plays yesterday and didn't make too many mistakes. One of the plays that sticks out to me was a 3rd and 11 (I think) in the second half that he faked the pass off to Dunbar and ran it himself to get the first down. Good stuff.