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Wow. That was a wild day. I talked to Tony Benford about the exchange he had with Arkansas State coach John Brady, talked to Dan McCarney about Justin Gaines, wrote a story about Jacob Holmen and Justin Patton hanging it up in their senior seasons with the UNT men’s basketball team, talked to Jermaine Antoine and Kahlee Woods about their decisions to not sign with UNT and tried to get ready for signing day. As far as the blog goes, let’s split this in half and talk football tonight and basketball in the morning — mostly because I wrote a story on “Benford-Brady Gate” for tomorrow’s paper that gives Benford’s side of the story that people will see late tonight/early tomorrow. Dan McCarney returned my call late this afternoon and said that Gaines resigned to pursue other opportunities and said he wished his former cornerbacks coach well. read more: http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2013/02/monday-night-football-notes.html/

North Texas will stay a little closer to home once football season rolls around — both this year and for the foreseeable future in Conference USA. UNT will play its first season in C-USA next season, when the Mean Green will play host to Rice, Texas-San Antonio and UTEP. Those three games were announced, along with the league’s full schedule and its divisional lineup, on Wednesday. UNT will join Louisiana Tech, Rice, Tulane, Tulsa, UTEP and UTSA in C-USA’s West Division. The East Division will include East Carolina, Florida Atlantic, Florida International, Marshall, Middle Tennessee, Southern Miss and UAB. “It’s great,” UNT coach Dan McCarney said of C-USA’s lineup. “There is nothing better than football in Texas, and we have four Texas teams and two Louisiana teams. It’s a tremendous conference with teams from all over the South and Southeast.” UNT announced its schedule for its first season in C-USA in conjunction with the league announcing its divisions and schedule. UNT will open at home against Idaho on Aug. 31 before going to Ohio (Sept. 7), Ball State (Sept. 14) at home and traveling to Georgia (Sept. 21). The Mean Green then will play four home games and four road games in C-USA on dates that have yet to be determined. UNT will play host to Rice, UTSA, UTEP and former Sun Belt Conference rival Middle Tennessee. The Mean Green will travel to Tulane, Tulsa, Southern Miss and Louisiana Tech. Ohio, Georgia, Rice and Tulsa all won bowl games last season, while Ball State also played in a postseason game. Louisiana Tech and MTSU finished 9-3 and 8-4, respectively, but were not selected for bowl games. UTSA finished 8-4 but was still in the process of joining the Football Bowl Subdivision ranks and was not eligible for the postseason. Read more: http://www.dentonrc.com/sports/colleges/north-texas-headlines/20130124-football-notebook-unt-learns-c-usa-details.ece “This has to be one of the most challenging schedules in the history of our program,” McCarney said.

Dan McCarney called me back while traveling the back roads of who knows where on a recruiting trip to talk a little about the new lineup of his coaching staff. UNT added Tommy Perry as its special teams/running backs coach, moved Mike Grant from running backs to wide receivers and Nick Quartaro from wide receivers to tight ends. McCarney was very impressed with Perry when he sat down with him at the coaches’ convention. He had terrific recommendations from former Texas A&M coach R.C. Slocum. UNT director of football operations Scotty Conley also recommended Perry, who was on Conley’s staff at Texas A&M-Commerce. Perry played at Tyler JC and A&M. I asked about how important Texas ties were in the interview process. McCarney said that he was going to hire the best coach he could find and felt he found the right guy in Perry. Read more: http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2013/01/mccarney-on-perry-staff-lineup-and-a-recruiting-note.html/

UNT put out a little note on the performance of its football team academically today that is definitely worth talking about. UNT had 45 players post a GPA of 3.0 or better this fall, the top total for the program since 2001. “I am extremely pleased with the effort that this team put in to their academic work during the fall,” head coach Dan McCarney said. “With all of the demands on their time during the season, they still took pride in showing progress in the classroom. With the help of the academic staff, football players at North Texas are beginning to understand the importance and benefits of scholastic success.” read more: http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2013/01/unt-posts-impressive-performance-academically-in-football.html/

DENTON, Texas - North Texas head coach Dan McCarney has announced the hiring of Tommy Perry as the new running backs coach and special teams coordinator. Perry, a Texas native, comes to North Texas after spending the last four seasons as an assistant at South Alabama. "Out of the hundreds of applicants that we had for this position, Tommy clearly rose to the top as I went through this process," said McCarney. "He brings in a wealth of experience and success and has a great passion for the running back position." In addition to the hiring of Perry, Coach McCarney has made two staff changes. Mike Grant will now coach the wide receivers and Nick Quartaro takes over as the tight ends coach. While at South Alabama, Perry coached the running backs and was the special teams coordinator. In 2012, the first season at the FBS level for South Alabama, Perry coached placekicker Michel Chapuseaux who set a school record for scoring with 84 points. Chapuseaux hit 20 field goals last season, the second most in Sun Belt Conference history. South Alabama had four running backs with over 200 yards rushing last season. In 2011, Perry coached placekicker Jordan Means, who connected on 13-of-15 field goals and was South Alabama's first All-American after he was honored by the Beyond Sports College Network. read more: http://www.meangreensports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=1800&ATCLID=205979565

Mac was hired in late November basically December of 2010. Recruiting shuts down during the holidays and basically Mac had a couple of months to put that class together. Most of that class was redshirted and some of them are playing right now including Antoinne Jimmerson, Zach Whitfield, Derek Akunne, Laramie Lee, Cyril Lemon, Alex Lincoln and Daryl Mason. Andy Power and Brett Osborn were the only two juco's he signed. Power had a good career here despite injury. In 2011 Mac had his second class and the VAST majority of these players are being redshirted this season with few exceptions primarily on special teams. Mac did not sign a bunch of Juco quick fixes and has not knee jerked and rushed a bunch of young guys on the field. So please quit saying that Mac is responsible for the players we have when he is not. He is only responsible for wins and losses and frankly, he was given very little to work with from a personnel perspective. As I have chronicled on here often, Dodge had two heavy juco classes in a desperate move to keep his job and that is exactly why we have only 6-7 scholarship seniors. We are now paying the price for that. Now, as somebody pointed out earlier, next season, Mac will have three classes under his belt and he should then hold more responsibility for the players we have. To say Mac hasn't recruited well just isn't true because we haven't seen the majority of his players even step on the field yet! This post has been promoted to an article

There were a couple of good news tidbits to come out of today's Dan McCarney press conference. Here goes: – The big news that came out of left field is that backup quarterback Brent Osborn is going to graduate this year and will not be back next season. Osborn never played much at UNT, but he is the Mean Green's No. 2 guy with Andrew McNulty spending the year as a redshirt. To me this is just another sign that Brock Berglund is going to make a run at the starting job next year. read more: http://meangreenblog...e-notes-7.html/ This post has been promoted to an article

While UNT had to punt on its first three possessions, Houston scored 17 points. In the second quarter, UNT’s running game broke out with two touchdowns of its own. Redshirt freshman Antoinne Jimmerson scored on a one-yard touchdown and senior Jeremy Brown had a 48-yard touchdown of his own, where he broke multiple tackles en route to pulling the team within 10 points. But the Houston offense always had a response to a Mean Green score. In the third quarter, a seven-yard rushing touchdown by redshirt junior quarterback Derek Thompson once again pulled the Mean Green within 10 points of the Cougars. However, the Cougars went on to score 10 straight points to push the lead to 41-21 at the end of the third quarter. On the night, Houston racked up 624 total yards and scored on eight of 11 possessions. In last year’s 48-23 loss to Houston, the Cougars gained 690 total yards and 32 first downs to spoil Apogee Stadium’s opening in Denton. Houston also ran 77 plays on the night, getting 35 first downs. That’s a first down every 2.2 plays. Sims had a career night for Houston, rushing for 210 yards on 10 attempts (21 yards per rush) and reeling in 55 receiving yards. He had two total touchdowns. The top performer for the Mean Green was Brown with 80 rushing yards and 36 receiving yards. He had one touchdown. “We will be back,” head coach Dan McCarney said. “There is a lot of character in that locker room. Kids are hurting and coaches are hurting. We care. We expect to win and when we don’t we’re really disappointed.” UNT will play the University of Louisiana at Lafayette on Tuesday, Oc. 16 in Denton for the Mean Green’s only home game in the month of October. Read more: http://www.ntdaily.com/?p=69522

One of the tidbits I picked up this week while I was talking to players was that Dan McCarney is working with UNT’s defensive linemen extensively on the pass rush this week. McCarney is known for his prowess as a defensive line coach and for being particularly quotable. Love that about the guy. The point being, he said there is something wrong if you go a whole game without laying a hand on a quarterback something’s wrong. Read more: http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2012/09/mccarney-working-with-unts-defenive-line-on-pass-rush-this-week.html/

Lots of technical issues tonight... On KNTU

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) - North Texas almost beat No. 15 Kansas State at its own game Saturday night. Using a ball-control offense devised by former Iowa State coach Dan McCarney - no stranger to matching wits with Kansas State's Bill Snyder - the Mean Green managed to keep Collin Klein, John Hubert and the rest of the Wildcats' potent offense standing on the sideline most of the night. It wasn't until Klein and Hubert scored on late touchdown runs that Kansas State finally squeezed out a 35-21 victory Saturday night. "It goes right back to your offensive line,'' McCarney said. "If you can sustain blocks and sustain some drives, you've got a chance to do that against a really outstanding Kansas State team, but in the end we just did not make enough plays. "You get into a game with Kansas State, and you don't want many three-and-outs,'' McCarney said. "We had a couple, three of those in the second half, gave that offense another chance to put a drive together and go score points.'' The Mean Green nevertheless held their Big 12 opponent to 143 yards rushing - Kansas State entered the game sixth nationally at better than 300 yards per game - while holding the ball an astonishing 37 minutes, 4 seconds, which prevented the Wildcats from getting into a rhythm. "They made more plays,'' McCarney said. "They made more big plays in the second half. That was the difference in the game.'' Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/football/ncaa/wires/09/15/2010.ap.fbc.t25.n.texas.0852/index.html#ixzz26eJSBMdv

“Coach Fry did such a good job of unifying the staff and keeping us humble, we were always on edge and I don’t mean that in a disrespectful way at all,” McCarney said. “It was an around-the-clock job, and you never felt like the work was quite done. “Bill was immensely organized and he had such a tremendous attention to detail. In the 10 years we spent coaching together, every last night Bill was the last one out of the office. He was always looking for another idea that might help us win, and he never lost that work ethic. That’s why he’ll be remembered as one of the best to ever coach the game … how could you not remember somebody like that?” McCarney faces a rebuilding project at North Texas, where he went 5-7 in his first season. But he has $78 million Apogee Stadium, which opened in 2011, and a move to Conference USA in 2013 to aid his cause. “I think it was just a terrific hire by North Texas,” Snyder said. “The time we spent together, I got to know him really well. He’s a good guy, a good coach who comes from a good family.” A good guy and a good coach who might be in for a rough day when he brings his 1-1 team into Snyder Family Stadium on Saturday in front of a sellout crowd of 50,000. “I’ve told my players they’re getting ready to go into one of the great atmospheres in college football, which makes it one of the worst places to go and play,” McCarney said. “That’s the truth. I don’t need to recruit for Bill, that’s just the facts. “But isn’t that what you want as a player and as a coach? To go and play against the best?” Reach Tony Adame at 316-268-6284 or tadame@wichitaeagle.com. Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2012/09/13/2488050/k-states-snyder-north-texas-mccarney.html#storylink=cpy

"Bill Snyder has meant so much to college football for a long time and thanks to the administration at Kansas State they got him back on the sidelines where he belongs," McCarney said Tuesday during his weekly news conference. "He's left an amazing imprint in college football for generations to come." Snyder and McCarney know each other well and go further back than just their days on opposite sidelines in the Big 12 where Snyder was 9-2 against McCarney. The former Iowa State coach and Snyder were both assistants on Hayden Fry's staff at the University of Iowa — working together from 1979-89. "When I went to Iowa with Hayden Fry, Dan was there at the time and Hayden hired him," said Snyder, who was an assistant at North Texas from 1976-79. "We were all impressed with him. He was our defensive line coach at the time and stayed with us throughout the period of time I was there. He's an excellent recruiter and awfully good with the players, very focused and a very intense football coach, and really a good guy." McCarney, who is 6-8 at North Texas, remembers his time coaching along Snyder fondly. Read more: http://www.themercury.com/K-StateSports/article.aspx?articleId=1c40af7174314d1bbfd09336aeda7761

It’s a simple case of cause-and-effect for North Texas quarterback Derek Thompson once he enters Snyder Family Stadium on Saturday. If he can’t show he can throw the ball effectively against No. 15 Kansas State, the Wildcats will, undoubtedly, stack the box on defense. And that could mean trouble for the Mean Green, already four-touchdown underdogs. “I know (Kansas State defensive coordinator) Tom Hayes,” North Texas coach Dan McCarney said. “And he’ll be grinning out the side of his mouth if he sees our passing game isn’t working.” Through two games, the Mean Green’s passing attack has indeed struggled. Thompson, a 6-foot-4, 226-pound junior, was eight of 21 passing for 143 yards and one interception in a season-opening loss to LSU, and 11 of 24 with 145 yards and one interception in a 34-7 win over Texas Southern last Saturday. He threw for 1,759 yards, 11 touchdowns and six interceptions in 2011, his first year as full-time starter. “(Thompson) has just misfired on some throws he usually makes,” McCarney said. “We don’t have draft picks all over the place on the offensive side of the ball, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be successful. Our first two games left a lot to be desired.” Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/09/12/3812151/north-texas-knows-it-must-pass.html#storylink=cpy'>http://www.kansascity.com/2012/09/12/3812151/north-texas-knows-it-must-pass.html#storylink=cpy Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/09/12/3812151/north-texas-knows-it-must-pass.html Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/09/12/3812151/north-texas-knows-it-must-pass.html#storylink=cpy'>http://www.kansascity.com/2012/09/12/3812151/north-texas-knows-it-must-pass.html#storylink=cpy

“They are an athletic team. I think Coach (Dan) McCarney, you guys are well aware of what he did at Iowa State, and they are a team that plays fast, plays tough and plays hard. They are not going to give you anything. It is going to be a battle. I know that it is only his second year there and they are still trying to develop a little bit, but they were able to go down to LSU and put up a fight. They are going to come in here and they are going to fight, and they are going to play hard, and that is kind of what we expect.” On what he has seen from North Texas’ defense… “They have a lot of guys that can run. Obviously, they are in a good spot down there in Dallas where a lot of athletes come out of, and I think they get a lot of good athletes. I know one of their defensive backs is a transfer from Oklahoma. They definitely have some speed, they have some size, and they have a pretty solid defensive line. They got talent across the board. They definitely have playmakers.” On Dan McCarney’s coaching stop at Iowa State giving a look at conference play… “I don’t think so. I used to coach with Dan over at the University of Iowa. I think that Dan is a tremendous coach, very talented, very bright. He knows that they are going to do what it is that best suits the young people that they have in their program. Not that we have not, but I don’t think that it is a great benefit to spend too much time invested in what took place at Iowa State or what took place when Dan was in Florida or any of the other coaches, which he has some very talented coaches on his staff. The defensive coordinator was with him at Iowa State. He has a couple of coaches on his staff that was here with us at Kansas State. You take all of that into consideration, but the bottom line is that they do what they do. If there is carry over, than yes, there is carry over, but they have made changes over the course of the years that may antiquate a little bit of what they were doing.” Read more: http://www.wibw.com/sports/headlines/K-State-Football-Prepares-For-North-Texas-169389586.html?ref=586

North Texas returns to home base this week relatively unscathed from its excursion into the muck of LSU's swamp, other than a 27-point loss, of course, to the third-ranked team in the country. Rather than the red carpet, awaiting the Mean Green for today's home opener is Texas Southern, a team from the ranks of FCS, and UNT's most distinguished football alum. And coach Dan McCarney's continued scrutiny. The coach's wish list of improvements for this week slipped off his tongue with the unrestrained style of an auctioneer. Unacceptable, the coach said, were missed tackles and drives that went three-and-outs and a fumble and an interception. Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/09/08/4240808/north-texas-looks-to-rebound-after.html

McCarney said he expects LSU to give Mettenberger a chance to show what he can do for a variety of reasons, including North Texas' own lack of experience at cornerback. ''What we're trying to do right now is be ready for what we keep hearing, which is they're going to be throwing the ball deep,'' McCarney said. ''They're going to take shots. Why wouldn't you? ... Both of our starting corners right now have never started a game.'' Still, Miles has said he won't veer too far from his run-first philosophy, and McCarney believes him. ''The things you never get away from at LSU is the (physicality) of the football team and running the football,'' McCarney said. ''I know it firsthand, and I know how physical they are. It starts up front on the offensive line. Les Miles played on the offensive line. He coached offensive line forever in his career as an assistant. ''They're going to come off the ball on the snap of the ball and hit you right in the mouth and play physical football,'' McCarney said. ''It's always been that brand of football with coach Miles.'' Then there's the matter of how North Texas will try to move the ball against and LSU defense that still has a talented secondary - even after the dismissal of former Heisman finalist Tryann Mathieu - and perhaps the most feared defensive end tandem in college football: Sam Montgomery and Barkevious Mingo. It could be a long day for North Texas junior quarterback Derek Thompson. Other than receiver Brelan Chancellor, who is also a threat in the return game, North Texas does not have a lot of proven skill players on offense and virtually no experience at running back. Whatever happens, McCarney hopes his players will handle it with more pride than he saw after their 41-0 loss at Alabama last year, when he noticed defensive players in the back of the bus light-heartedly talking about the experience of playing in a packed and electric Bryant-Denny stadium, and who did not seem terribly upset about losing. ''The environment was more important to talk about and what was happening out there, and giggling and laughing, rather than getting spanked ... and embarrassing yourself and the football program,'' McCarney said. ''If we happen to lose this year, do I think that's going to happen on the back of our buses? No. I think we've matured and I think we've come a long ways.'' Read more: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/north-texas-braces-lsu-qbs-151956192--ncaaf.html

Orr also could sense the heightened level of competition on the defensive side of the ball, where UNT is rebuilding after losing several key players following last season. “It was very competitive,” Orr said. “It helped us a lot as a team.” The higher level of competition was good for several players individually. Thompson named tackle LaChris Anyiam as one of the players who has improved the most during fall camp. Anyiam is competing with Coleman Feeley for the starting job at right tackle. Orr singled out his backup Derek Akunne as one of the players who has improved the most. Akunne isn’t expected to bump Orr from UNT’s lineup, but he could challenge for a starting job at outside linebacker. “Derek is really athletic and fast,” Orr said. “He can play any linebacker position.” McCarney named safety David Busby and offensive lineman Connor Trussell as two of the younger players who have stood out. Busby will play this season, while Trussell’s status on the depth chart at one of UNT’s deepest positions is still up in the air. Read more: http://www.dentonrc.com/sports/colleges/north-texas-headlines/20120822-football-mean-green-turns-focus-to-competing-against-lsu.ece

A Mac video and some notes indicating that Carlos Harris and Dylan McDorman are vying for PT. http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2012/08/mccarney-talks-about-importance-of-saturday-scrimmage.html/

Denton, TX – The University of North Texas is set to kick off their 97th season of football on September 1st in Baton Rouge against perennial national title contenders LSU. The Mean Green won’t be challenging for the crystal football, but they do have hopes of leaving the Sun Belt Conference on a high note before joining Conference-USA next season. Coach Dan McCarney and the players met with the media before the first day of practice and SportDFW was there. UNT went 5-7 in Dan McCarney’s (and Apogee Stadium’s) inaugural season in 2011 and have not had a winning season since 2004. Coach McCarney recognizes the challenge that he faces given North Texas’ recent lack of success and historical position near the bottom of the hierarchy of Texas college football programs. But he also understands what it takes to turn around a moribund program, as he transformed Iowa State from a team that had only seen three winning seasons in the sixteen years prior to his arrival to one that went to five bowl games in six years. Coach McCarney’s enthusiasm is infectious and he is working hard to change perceptions of his program on both the inside and the outside. Many people in Denton view the early 2000’s, when the team won four conference titles and went to as many bowl games, as the Mean Green’s glory years. He acknowledges and respects what those teams accomplished, but he also has a different vision for North Texas football: “We were 2-16 in non-conference games and one of those victories was over Nicholls State. If that’s supposed to be my glory years and my expectations for this program, then they brought in the wrong head coach. That’s not what my expectations are. We have to challenge everybody in this program to <get to> a higher standard. What’s been going on here has been unacceptable for a long time. I think we’ve come a long way <in the last year>, I really do…there’s real fierce loyalty in this program and we’ve developed a will to win and a preparation to win. I respect my guys, I trust my guys and it’s hard to find somebody that I don’t really like.” North Texas is going to be a very young team this season. They return only 14 seniors and 22 juniors, so underclassmen will be challenging for playing time all over the field. But Coach McCarney was pleased with the progress many players have made on strength coach Frank Wintrich’s offseason conditioning program, saying, “When I took the job a year ago, I knew this was the smallest Division One team I’d ever been around, and then I found out it was one of the slowest Division One teams I’d ever been around. Our football team has really bought into our offseason program, getting bigger, getting stronger, gaining weight, getting more physical to give <themselves> a chance to be a good division one program.” Read more: http://sportdfw.com/2012/08/11/north-texas-mean-green-football-coach-dan-mccarney-ready-for-2012-season/