McCarney Proud Of North Texas Turnaround
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Don’t let the trademark sunglasses fool you, rolling up his sleeves and getting to work suits Dan McCarney just fine. The North Texas football coach isn’t afraid of getting his hands dirty.
The gene for building and rebuilding football programs is embedded in McCarney’s coaching DNA. He did it at Iowa State, turning a moribund program into a bowl contender in the rugged Big 12.
The job McCarney has done at North Texas is just as impressive. In just three seasons, he’s turned the Mean Green into a legitimate contender in their new conference. North Texas went 6-2 in its first year in Conference USA and 8-4 during the regular season.
That constitutes the program’s biggest single-season turnaround since 1982-83. The Mean Green’s invitation to the Heart of Dallas Bowl presented by PlainsCapital Bank on Jan. 1 against Navy (7-5) in the historic Cotton Bowl is the school’s first postseason game since 2004.
“We went from 4-8 to 8-4,” McCarney said. “From last year to this year was the best turnaround in almost 30 years at North Texas. You don’t do that by tricking people or smoke and mirrors. No matter what scheme we have, you better have players that can go execute.
“We came out of last year with a lot of disappointment. We were 4-8 and felt like we
should have been 6-6 and bowl eligible, but we didn’t. That’s one of the reasons we were able to come on and do some real positive things this year.”
North Texas athletic director Rick Villarreal had reasons, three specifically, to pluck McCarney from the University of Florida back in 2010. McCarney had spent three years on Urban Meyer’s staff as assistant head coach, including a national championship run in 2008.
When Villarreal went through his three-part checklist on McCarney, he saw a coach who had done the rebuilding job before, had gone to bowl games and won, and cared about people. McCarney was the complete package.
That’s why Villarreal isn’t surprised by the Mean Green’s current success. He saw this coming.
“Some people might say that’s been a little crazy,” Villarreal said. “When you looked around at what we had in place with the new stadium coming online, guys like Lance Dunbar, Zach Orr, and Derek Thompson, and Brelan Chancellor. There was a lot of young talent in the room. It needed just to be brought together.
“It was apparent quickly that Dan took charge of his program, that he took charge of everything from academics to football. The culture changed immediately.”
McCarney’s first bowl game at North Texas is the 21st in a coaching career that stretches back to 1978. Playing in Dallas is also a boon for the Mean Green faithful on New Year’s Day.
As much time as McCarney has spent repairing the on-field product, reconnecting the program with the North Texas community has been just as important. It’s all about rolling those sleeves up.
“We’ve got great leadership from the administration here and a tremendous fan base,” McCarney said. “It’s been a slow but steady process to bring our fans back. We’re going to really reach out and challenge them and hopefully they’ll really, really come out and support us not only for this bowl game.”
