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Football: UNT’s Bell to retire at end of year

Running backs coach has spent six years with Mean Green

08:40 AM CDT on Thursday, September 29, 2005

By Brett Vito / Staff Writer

One of the key contributors to the North Texas football team’s success over the last few years has decided to end his college coaching career at the end of the 2005 season.

Bruce Bell

Running backs coach Bruce Bell, who has worked at UNT for a total of six years in two separate stints, has informed the rest of the Mean Green’s staff that he will retire at the end of the year.

“I want to try some other things,” Bell said. “I am going to get involved with the NFL Junior Player Develop-ment program. I am looking forward to it and getting a chance to end my coaching career on the college level. It will be a lot of fun.”

Bell’s departure will end his memorable run at UNT that has seen him contribute to the Mean Green’s success as a player, coach and recruiting coordinator.

Perhaps Bell’s most lasting contribution has been his work with three of the best running backs in UNT history: Patrick Cobbs, Jamario Thomas and Ja’Quay Wilburn.

Cobbs won the 2003 national rushing title with an average of 152.7 yards a game and is the school’s all-time leading rusher with 3,133 yards. Thomas won the 2004 national rushing title with an average of 180.1 yards a game while Wilburn ranks second in school history with 3,120 career rushing yards, a total he compiled from 1997-2000.

Bell served as an assistant at UNT from 1998-2000 before leaving to become the assistant athletic director for the Houston Independent School District. He returned in 2003 and has served as UNT’s recruiting coordinator in addition to his duties as an assistant coach during his latest stint in Denton.

The Mean Green signed one of their top-rated classes in recent years under Bell’s watch in 2004, when Thomas committed to play for UNT.

Bell’s affiliation with the Mean Green began in the late 1970s when he played for legendary UNT coach Hayden Fry.

Bell is in his 29th year as a coach, a tenure he split between the high school and college levels.

Troy new to UNT’s defense

Two years are all that separates North Texas from its last game against Troy.

It just seems like longer than that for the Mean Green defense.

UNT does not return a single starter back from the unit that stifled the Trojans during a 21-0 win in the 2003 season.

UNT limited Troy to just 211 yards of offense on the night behind a pair of players now in the NFL.

Cody Spencer, a linebacker with the Tennessee Titans, led UNT with 10 tackles. Defensive end Adrian Awasom, who is now with the New York Giants, also played for the Mean Green, forcing a fumble and finishing with two tackles.

Defensive lineman Chris Miller is one of the few current UNT defensive players who played for the Mean Green defense in 2003.

Thompson leaves team

Travis Thompson’s star-crossed career at North Texas appears be at an end.

The junior linebacker has left the team, ending what once appeared as if it might be a promising career with the Mean Green.

Thompson was a member of the 2004 recruiting class, but saw his career interrupted when he broke his ankle in practice prior to UNT’s season opener last year.

The former Northeastern Oklahoma A&M transfer battled back in time to play this season and entered the year as a backup middle linebacker. He played in just one of UNT’s first three games and finished with one tackle.

UNT coach Darrell Dickey said he has left the door open for Thompson to return at a later date.

Briefly …

Sophomore defensive end Jeremiah Chapman sat out Wednesday’s practice with a sprained ankle. Tight end Robert Harmon practiced, but has been limited by a sprained medial collateral ligament in his knee. Both are expected to be ready for UNT’s game against Troy on Tuesday.

BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870. His e-mail address is bvito@dentonrc.com.

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OldTimer Newbie

OldTimer

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I hope this is sarcasm considering we signed three players from DFW.

We did not recruit a single football from Dallas ISD. We did sign recruits from Arlington, Burleson, Kennedale and Irving....but not Dallas Proper. Dallas itself is equal in population to the entire State of Oklahoma in population. We did not sign a single player in the DMN top area 100 last year.

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OldTimer Newbie

OldTimer

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I hope this is sarcasm considering we signed three players from DFW.

We did not recruit a single football from Dallas ISD. We did sign recruits from Arlington, Burleson, Kennedale and Irving....but not Dallas Proper or the FW ISD.

Dallas itself is equal in population to the entire State of Oklahoma in population. We did not sign a single player in the DMN top area 100 last year.

We signed 4 from Houston 2 from Alief Hasting, 2 for Eisenhower.

Its interesting that there are 21 High Schools in the Houston ISD and Bell was ASST District coordinating those 21 schools for several years immediately prior to returning to NT year before last.

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OldTimer Newbie

OldTimer

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Oldtimer I know you usually keep an eye on how recruiting is going, do you have any updates, I know its still way early in the game. By the way what happened to the MGR recruiting database, when the site crashed that was never put back up.

The recruiting page has not been updated in a while. I currently have 49 prospects considering North Texas...which doesn't mean in all cases that Nt is considering them.

Interesting there are two from states other than TX and OK , 1 from KS, 1 from Florida, and 6 from Oklahoma.

There have been 5 instances where football prospects committed to other schools but had listed NT as recruiting them:

1 to A$M, 1 to TCU, 1 to Tulsa, 1 to KState and 1 to Prairie View(this last one was both a BB and a FB recruit who chose to play BB. These are not included in the 49 current prospects.

We have never looked at recruiting this early, but it has run approximately 25 to 30 above where we started monitoring recruitment last year.

Hope this helps.

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H-towngreen Newbie

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It's good to see that many prospects this early in the season.

The kid from KS would be a good pick up, but it seems we are targeting some many good prospects at that postion.

I wonder how the one from FL picked up on NT as he is looking at some big time other schools.

The recruitment of OK is a huge help to the program as most other schools even OU and OSU are overlooking their own state of OK.

When will prospects begin coming to games for their official vistits?

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GreenBat Newbie

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I believe Roy Covington is out of DISD. That is atleast ONE player.

Roy Covington was recruited two years ago. We can than Ramon Flanigan, who was to busy interviewing for head coaching jobs, for having No DISD recruits in this last class. Also his interviewing kept him from preparing for Southern Miss in the New Orleans Bowl.

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Rudy Grand Master

Rudy

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The recruiting page has not been updated in a while.  I currently have 49 prospects considering North Texas...which doesn't mean in all cases that Nt is considering them.

Interesting there are two from states other than TX and OK , 1 from KS, 1 from Florida, and 6 from Oklahoma.

There have been 5 instances where football  prospects committed to other schools but had listed NT as recruiting them:

1 to A$M, 1 to TCU, 1 to Tulsa, 1 to KState and 1 to Prairie View(this last one was both a BB and a FB recruit who chose to play BB. These are not included in the 49 current prospects.

We have never looked at recruiting this early, but it has run approximately 25 to 30 above where we started monitoring recruitment last year. 

Hope this helps.

Rudy need linky....

This loss hurts.  Why cant we lose fannygain, not one of our good coaches. 

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