North Texas battles perception, inconsistency

Harry · September 22, 2015

IOWA CITY — North Texas’ football past resembles Jello in the summer heat. There’s a slight formation at first but there’s little to mold into something of substance.

The Mean Green’s history begins with consensus All-American and Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive tackle “Mean” Joe Greene. There also are connections with Iowa, which is important this week when North Texas comes to Kinnick Stadium. Hayden Fry coached the Mean Green from 1973-78 and led the squad to 10-1 and 9-2 seasons before accepting the job at Iowa. Fry’s former defensive coordinator, Bill Brashier, still holds school records for interceptions in a season (10) and career (19). He played from 1949-51.

North Texas quarterback Andrew McNulty led Iowa City High to the 2009 Class 4A state title. North Texas Coach Dan McCarney played for the Hawkeyes in the early 1970s and coached under Fry in the ‘80s. He guided Iowa State from 1995-2006 and became head coach at North Texas in 2011.

Two games into his fifth season, McCarney has compiled a 22-29 record at North Texas. In 2013, he directed the Mean Green to a Heart of Dallas Bowl victory and a 9-4 season. It was just the sixth time in 100 football seasons the school won at least nine games. Half of those seasons have come from either Fry or McCarney.

North Texas’ journey from FCS after 1994 to its current home in Conference USA featured one season as a Division I independent and three conference shifts. That has fed a stereotype that the program doesn’t match the stature of its larger Texas competitors or even the history of comparable in-state foes like Rice, UTEP, SMU or Houston.

“When I got here the perception was it was just a small-time program,” McCarney said. “It’s one thing rolling up your sleeves and working like crazy, and it’s another overcoming that perception. You’re I-AA, you’re Division I, you’re big time, you’re small time, you’re making a commitment, you’re not making a commitment. We heard all that stuff as soon as I took the job here.”

read more: http://www.thegazette.com/subject/sports/north-texas-battles-perception-inconsistency-20150921

Eagle1855 · September 22, 2015

“When I got here the perception was it was just a small-time program,” McCarney said.

Still is.

Cerebus · September 22, 2015

The Mean Green’s history begins with consensus All-American and Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive tackle “Mean” Joe Greene.

I am pretty sure we had won close to 20 conference championships before Mean Joe every stepped on campus...

Ben Gooding · September 22, 2015

"When"? It hasn't changed Mccarney. You are on the brink of coaching yourself out of a job and you're talking about the change of perception that you have done. It's puzzling. It's as if he thinks no one has access to North Texas football and the results thereof. He must be of the group that believes that if he says something enough then it must be true. I'm telling you folks, he's gone crazy.

UNT90 · September 22, 2015

Surface article that makes it seem like we have only been playing at the highest level since 1994, ignoring that we only played D1AA football for only 12 years of our 100 plus year history.

But when you are a whorin', you really can't expect much respect (from others or even yourself).

untjim1995 · September 22, 2015

Surface article that makes it seem like we have only been playing at the highest level since 1994, ignoring that we only played D1AA football for only 12 years of our 100 plus year history.
But when you are a whorin', you really can't expect much respect (from others or even yourself).

To many, the modern age of college football started in the 80s--more passing, more television, fewer scholarships, etc...when that was happening, we were playing games against Northwestern State and McNeese State at Fouts Field in the Southland Conference. I will never forget seeing what amount to about 150 people, including the band, for a November night game against Nicholls State in 1992--I've always felt that was the low point for our program. To host a game in front of 150 people (in a toilet of a stadium) that includes your band, as you are aiming to win your 3rd game of the season in mid November is all I have to look back at to realize that things in Denton are better. Granted, that was also 23 years ago, but to watch us play in CUSA with UTEP, Rice, La Tech, and Southern Miss and have Apogee as our stadium are both reminders of just how far we have come. To put that in perspective, if we made the same type of jump in the next 23 years, we would play in a P5 conference (or whatever it will be then) that includes even more SWC schools and have a stadium that seats about 50k.