N. Texas' Dan McCarney knows, respects Georgia football team

[Harry]

Dan McCarney has never lost to Georgia, but it would take a monumental upset to keep that streak alive.

The third-year North Texas football coach was Florida's defensive line coach under Urban Meyer from 2008 to '10, when the Gators won three straight games against the Bulldogs in Jacksonville. Georgia has won the past two meetings against Florida, but McCarney now is trying to rebuild the Mean Green in their first year in Conference USA. They could enter Saturday as five-touchdown underdogs.

"I would sure like to bring some of those draft picks we had at Florida to the hotel with me this week," McCarney said Monday.

McCarney was Iowa's defensive line coach throughout the 1980s when the Hawkeyes rose to national prominence under Hayden Fry, and he was Wisconsin's defensive coordinator under Barry Alvarez from 1990 to '94 before being named head coach at Iowa State. He guided the Cyclones for 12 seasons and left Ames in 2006 with 56 wins, 85 losses and five bowl appearances, which are all school records.

After spending the 2007 season as South Florida's assistant head coach and defensive line coach and the next three seasons in the same roles with the Gators, McCarney got his second crack at heading a program.

"I got the opportunity to come here in a state where there is phenomenal high school football, a great university and tremendous administration, and we have nowhere to go but up," he said. "It was a bottom-10 football program when we got here."

North Texas had lost 16 of 17 home games before his arrival, but the Mean Green have been a more respectable 11-16 overall since. They are no strangers to stout SEC competition, having lost 41-0 at Alabama in 2011 and 41-14 at LSU last year.

Read more: http://timesfreepress.com/news/2013/sep/17/mccarney-knows-respects-georgia/

[H-towngreen]

Is it just me or does Mac "know and respect" very team we go against?

[EagleMBA]

Is it just me or does Mac "know and respect" very team we go against?

I know where you are coming from (coachspeak) but in this particular instance I would have to say those are genuine sentiments.

[NorthTexan95]

When you've been around the game as long as Mac he maybe knows someone on just about every team we'll play.