Mario Cristobal turns down Rutgers

[UNT90]

Interesting

[NorthTexan95]

Interesting

Very.

[All About UNT]

tough place to coach and get above .500

[All About UNT]

Miami Herald

[Texas Stranger]

obviously angling for a crosstown move

[Harry]

Good for the Belt but better for us cause we don't have to play em next year!

[rcade]

This is good for the Belt, but Cristobal is taking a heck of a risk by not jumping to a BCS school when he had the chance. FIU could take a nosedive and his coaching stock will drop.

[Stan R]

Whoa, what a shock! Great to have him to play against in 2012. Brings great energy to the 'belt.

[PlummMeanGreen]

Back in the Day...

FIU fans probably now feel similar to how many of us felt after Hayden Fry's 1975 season at North Texas (and to debrief GMG.com newcomers some of whom have kids signing with us tomorow) Coach Fry's Mean Green team that year was quite successful with wins against the University of Tennesse Volunteers and UH Coogs the year before they entered the SWC).

After that 1975 season, North Texas and Fry were the talk of that winter's NCAA convention as I recall reading in the Dallas Morning News. In fact, Rice University's AD Dickey Moegle who back in his student days was a Rice All American RB player and during a game in the Cotton Bowl as he was running for a certain TD in that New Years Day classic game, he was suddenly way-laid and knocked unconscious with an off the bench tackle by an Alabama Crimson Tide player ; anyhow Moegle (spelled Maegle before he changed its spelling years later) offered Coach Fry the job to become the new HFC for the Rice Owls and to make a long story short..... ......Coach Fry turned down a Southwest Conference job to stay at North Texas.

Had there been as many bowl games during Fry tenure in Denton as there are today, I can count 3 or 4 of his 6 Mean Green teams which could have gone to bowl games and I suppose that among several reasons the Big 10's Iowa Hawkeyes swooped down to Denton, Texas, and took him to the frozen tundra in the midwest. And his Iowa job where he would be a tutor to several future NCAA FBS head football coaches and among that group the great Dan McCarney. One year in Mean Green Country with a team that almost became bowl elgible should tell us we are very fortunate to have a coach that wants to stay in Denton,Texas, America and build something very special at a very special football stadium located on the campus of a very special school no matter what our respective eras were as students. (I know many of us sense the same thing with UNT BB Coach Johnny Jones, too, and myself being from the Houston area, I can remember just how many years it actually took UH's Guy Lewis before his program really got into a winning groove on a national stage like Coach Jones could take MG basketball, too).

A Happy & Successful Signing Day Tomorrow Coach McCarney And Staff!

GMG!

Edited February 1, 2012 by PlummMeanGreen