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Best Coaches In Unt History (Top 5)

BleedGreen

By BleedGreen
in Mean Green Athletics

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GrandGreen Grand Master

GrandGreen

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Odus Mitchell has to be in the group. The Rod Rust team that did so well was largely Mitchell's recruits. Besides Mitchell was a coach of Y. A. Tittle.

Odus Mitchell was good a coach by all accounts but I didn't see his teams. If you are going to go by records you would have to put Jack Sisco ahead of Mitchell.

As far as Rust's success being "largely because of Mitchell's recruits" bs. I have heard this many times and no doubt Mitchell left Rust some great players in particular Joe Greene along with others. However, Steve Ramsey, Ronnie Shanklin and many others were much more a product of Rust. Although Ramsey and Shanklin may have been on a winless freshman team under Mitchell, I would think their development should be credited to Rust and staff. Cedric Hardman was a small defensive back under Mitchell but grow and turned into a first round draft choice under Rust. Rust also added players like first round draft choice Lenard Dunlap to the team.

Rust was a victim largely of his success as he was made AD and was actually partly responsible for the athletic fund cuts that happened in his late career at NT. The killer to the program, however was a rule change that made it much more difficult for jucos to transfer. Rust had a large class of jucos including 5 or 6 first team All Americans that were all deemed ineligible. NT is essence lost almost an entire recruiting class. Also NT gradually lost the great advantage they had by being one of the few Texas and Southern schools that recruited black athletes.

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Graddean Collaborator

Graddean

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Mitchell's last home game was in 1966 against what was then the Univ of Chattanoga. Mitchell had coached at North Texas for 21 years and had combined experience of 42 years. During the game, we had scored 21 points. The PA announcer said 21 points for 21 years anyone want to go for 42. In the last quarter, we scored to make it 40-7. The extra point team came out to kick the extra point to make it 41, and the student section booed. It was all a fake. I don't know if Mitchell called it, or the team decided to do it. Anyway, we scored the 2 points and made the final score 42-7. Making it 42 points for 42 years.

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GrayEagle Veteran

GrayEagle

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I could look it up but too lazy right now. Who was the men's golf coach that led the team to our only national championship or was it championships?

That would be the late, great Fred Cobb. But, I believe that his friendship with Byron Nelson was a big factor in those North Texas championships. That, and Don January, Billy Maxwell, Joe Conrad and Palmer Lawrence.

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hickoryhouse Rookie

hickoryhouse

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It is interesting that Dickey only ended up on one person's list, granted it was on both sides of the list but I digress.

I am not an oldtimer, not yet, but when I was at school the joke was that we were going to the "Darrel Dickey Invitational" not the New Orleans Bowl. I don't care how much we might dislike the guy as a person or dislike his comments or attitude we can't ignore his success on the field.

Overall losing record is a bad thing... yes... but 4 conference championships in a row is a great thing. I have to put him on the top 5 list for that. It might not have been the most entertaining football but we had some great players and a bunch of winning to celebrate. My favorite memory on campus was charging the field after beating NMSU to win the conference in 2002 and the heading to New Orleans for another win. good times.

I can't comment on anyone else other than Johny Jones and Hayden Fry with any amount of intelligence... sorry

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NT80 Grand Master

NT80

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It is interesting that Dickey only ended up on one person's list, granted it was on both sides of the list but I digress.

I am not an oldtimer, not yet, but when I was at school the joke was that we were going to the "Darrel Dickey Invitational" not the New Orleans Bowl. I don't care how much we might dislike the guy as a person or dislike his comments or attitude we can't ignore his success on the field.

Overall losing record is a bad thing... yes... but 4 conference championships in a row is a great thing. I have to put him on the top 5 list for that. It might not have been the most entertaining football but we had some great players and a bunch of winning to celebrate. My favorite memory on campus was charging the field after beating NMSU to win the conference in 2002 and the heading to New Orleans for another win. good times.

I can't comment on anyone else other than Johny Jones and Hayden Fry with any amount of intelligence... sorry

Good points. I'm sure the sour taste of DD's exit and last two seasons will be forgotten with time. The 4 Bowl games were fun and will remain the highlight of his era.

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letsgiveacheer Rising Star

letsgiveacheer

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Certainly Fred Cobb, the only North Texas coach to bring home national championships (four of them!) would need to be at the top of the list. It's also nice to see mention of Odus Mitchel who won three MVC championships and was runner-up three more times. In fact, the MVC named him their Coach of the Decade for the 60's.

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BleedGreen Newbie

BleedGreen

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Certainly Fred Cobb, the only North Texas coach to bring home national championships (four of them!) would need to be at the top of the list. It's also nice to see mention of Odus Mitchel who won three MVC championships and was runner-up three more times. In fact, the MVC named him their Coach of the Decade for the 60's.

I revise my list.

1. Johnny Jones

2. JJ

3. The Bullet

4. Mr. Jones

5. The Shadow of Johnny Jones

This is by no means an emotional response to last night's win....lol.

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