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Wow. Where shall I start. First, we have no idea of went on behind the scenes of this search. We are calling this a terrible hire; we are disappointed in RV;here UNT goes again; yadda yadda yadda. We were not in the interviews, we don't know who was in the search or who was not in the search. We have a head coach now, who if I think correctly had the number 4 ranked defense in the country (playing in the SEC) and coached in a national championship - wow UNT you chose a terrible HC. Give me a f'ing break. Yes we loved Coach Chico and he did a great job, Fran would have been a great hire, Mike Stoops would have been great. Yes we are offering him about 500k. Great. That shows UNT is making an effort to do something. But of course - people are saying - well, if we can pay him 500k, then we can pay coach Fran 500k. But this is a coach would could not get the job at UNLV. AGAIN, we don't know anything. I guarantee you - the same people who are bitchin and moanin about this hire and writing RV and all this other bullshit, are going to be the ones that are going to be on the UNT bandwagon when we go to a bowl, or win a conference championship, or have a huge win at home. This reminds of Ron Washington with the Rangers. Everyone hated him and bashed him until he took the Rangers to a World Series. How about we show some faith and confidence in who was chosen as the HC, rather than trash it. How about we give the new HC a f'ing chance before we pass judgment. I could give a damn what Texas State does or UTSA or TCU or SMU - I am a UNT Alumni. I care what UNT does. It makes me sad as a UNT Alumni to read these comments. Who would wanna come here and coach? UNT has not done shit in years in football, but suddenly we think that the next hot head coaching commodity wants to come here and save the world. All I can do is laugh. I get so tired of coming on here and reading nothing but negative stuff about this hire. UNT is truly starting fresh - a new $78 million stadium, a coach making $500k (when did we ever think that was going to happen at UNT) and a new coaching staff (hopefully keeping coach Chico). If I pissed some of you off, I am sure you will eventually get over it. We got the best coach, for UNT, at this moment. Welcome Coach Mac!!!!!

That was simply an amazing effort by Chico and his men today. If he isn't our HC he certainly will be somewhere soon. I hope he heard the appreciation from the Mean Green Nation, alumni and students both, with the many chants during and after the game. Thank You coach to you and your staff for a valiant effort. Rick

Simple: Mike Canales needs to be the next head coach at the University of North Texas.

You know, for Chico to do tonight what he has done with what remains of UNT players...He should be given a chance to be HC,,,,he deserves...he has passion...the students and players love this guy....gotta say...I believe he would do a great job all around....I just like the character of this guy...and Mama C. RV....if this isn't obvious, I don't know what is.

I, like most of you, was very impressed with Chico’s coaching during his interim position. After all he has done for the program in such a short amount of time, it’s hard to not like the guy and pull for him. Following the game yesterday against a quality opponent, it’s hard to not wonder what it would be like if he was the HC here. However, that doesn’t mean Dan McCarney is a “bad” or “boring” hire by any means. Yes, Chico is great and he will do well as a HC, but to claim that this is another botched hire before the guy even gets here and shows what he can do is absolutely ludicrous. Think about this from an administration stand point: 1) We needed a coach with previous head coaching experience. Check. 2) We needed someone who has taken a down program and turned it around. Check. 3) We needed someone who has experience winning against elite teams so that when we play them we can properly prepare and start winning more OOC games. Check. 4) Most wanted a defense minded coach because “it all starts with defense.” Check. 5) We needed someone who can recruit. Check. 6) If Dodge didn’t work out, we needed to “clean house” and get a new coach to open the new stadium. Check. 7) We needed someone with a lot of coaching ties to bring it a fully competent and extremely effective staff. Check. 8) We needed someone who installs discipline, competition, energy, and a hard nose mentality in their teams. Check. 9) We needed someone who will build a community around the program and get involved with the city of Denton. Check (per cyrocks). Now, the only thing that we can’t put a check mark by as far as the “things that UNT needed in a new head coach” is the splash hire demand. But quite frankly, I think that is a bogus argument. You don’t need a name to get butts in the seats. You need a good team that produces wins! People will not show up year in and year out just to hear the coach’s name. Dodge was a splash hire, a proven name in Texas football, and created a lot of buzz. Look where that went when the team didn’t produce wins under his direction. We weren’t selling out Fouts in year 3 simply because the Dodge name was on the sideline, were we? I really liked what Canales did and was actually hoping that he got the contract to be our next head coach. However, I think McCarney is going to be a quality hire for us. The hire is still fresh, but for the love of Scrappy, don’t shoot the guy before he even arrives. Welcome him, support him, and show him what the Mean Green Nation is all about. The more we support him and the more he becomes a part of the Mean Green Nation, the more he will want to win for us. Welcome Coach McCarney! We look forward to your arrival! Go Mean Green!

There is that little detail that the fans clearly wanted a new coach that had experience as a BCS level head coach. Canales is going to be a great head coach someplace, someday. Just not here, now.

You know he may be ten times better then Canales I am not sure why we hate him already.

Congrats on bringing in Dan McCarney. I'm from Iowa so have seen what he's like and I think this is a good fit for him and the school. I'll be putting together a list of possible assistants for you guys shortly. With the change in OL coach and firing Todd Dodge, I've spent more time on this board than any other team in the country, so with that along with hiring McCarney, I guess I've become a follower and a fan of the Mean Green. The Coaching Tree Follow The Coaching Tree on Twitter

Whatever occured with his ex happened while he was at Wisconsin, so there was never a need to address the ISU faithful about it. In his time in Ames, he was a model citizen and an excellent ambassedor for the school and the community. He was definitely a positive re-enforcer. You'll probably never hear him publicly call people out. If something has to be taken care of, it'll be done behind closed doors, like it should be. I don't know about ticket sales, but I'm pretty sure we broke our sales records a couple of times while he was our coach. One of Mac's best traits is that he's an excellent fundraiser. He's great at selling what he's got and getting people to buy into what he's trying to sell them.

Reading this for some reason reminded me of the next play when Bain had to come in. The folks who didn't make this game or who won't be aware tomorrow when they see the tiny little score in the papers, won't understand the magnitude of what the rest of us saw tonight. We lose our 3rd/4th string QB, or whatever rank Riley was this year. And a cold Bain has to come in on a 4th down call and Chico calls that shuttle pass for a TD. I mean, that was simply a damn great call by a great offensive minded coach. We didn't just play with K State tonight. We should have beaten them. Had a couple of breaks gone our way we win this game, hands down, with many of our starters out, and none more importantly than our QB's and our punter. Rick

Really, you are "embarrassed to be an alumni"??? I do think that's a bit of a stretch. There is nothing to be embarrassed about. It's a message board...get over it. If you are an alumni...and if you buy season tickets, are a member of the Alumni Association and give to the University then you know you have absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about...rather you have much to be very proud of in your association with this great university. Many of those yo seem to be embarrassed about or for are actually big supporters of the university and give both of their time and dollars in support. A little ranting about a coaching search on a message board is really nothing to get "embarrassed about" in the scheme of things. Pretty good post, BTW, but the title is a bit over the top. I am very...VERY...proud to be a two time graduate of the UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS, and I am proud each and every day...and I, for one, am never embarrassed by that association. Perhaps the idea that one can be embarrassed by an association with UNT is part of the challenge UNT faces in trying to move forward.

"May as well have beat them," but didn't actually beat them. I hope like hell that under Coach McCarney we can stop celebrating moral victories. A loss is still a loss. Kansas State had one of the worst rushing defenses in the country. We had them 20-7 and couldn't finish them off.

Nice game, but ultimately so what? It is still a loss, and UNT fans are still claiming moral victories. UNT should be a program that beats OOC opponents in its stadium, not one that takes pride in playing them close. We hired a sentimental favorite and made the fan base giddy with Todd Dodge. It bombed. Maybe it was time to change the way we hire coaches and go for someone with head coaching experience, not unproven potential.

Ok. I really like Canales, but is this sample size really enough to totally convince people that he is the right guy period?

No joke...he seems like he could be exactly what we need. I know Canales is the sentimental pick, but damn lets give this guyba shot before we run him out of town!

Boo! No need to be rude to our guests.

Not excited about anyone who has a "circle the wagons" mentality. I like Chico's positive attitude.

So, we should have never hired Hayden Fry and UT never hired Darrell Royal?

It seems most of you are down on him as a hire, but I think when it's all said and done, most of you will change your tune. Mac is one of the best motivaters out there and if you talk to anyone that played for him, they would tell you that they'd run through a wall for him. I know his overall record isn't great (although it's quite a bit better than what was reported) but take it with a grain of salt. He took an Iowa State team that was arguably one of the worst in Division 1A football as his first gig. His first teams were flat out terrible because he didn't just inherit a team with a bare cupboard, but he inherited a team where the cupboard was completely ripped off the wall. It took him a few years to get some players on those teams, but he eventually brought us to respectable standards. He still has taken ISU to more bowl games then every other coach at ISU combined. The only reason he isn't still at ISU is because he failed to recruit a kicker and it cost us a spot in the Big XII championship game two years in a row. I'm going to assume he's learned from that lesson. Just give him a chance, I think he'll surprise a lot of you. If any of you have any reasonable questions about him, feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer for you.

Anytime you want to come to a game in the new stadium , PM me and I'll buy your ticket , food whatever you want. I don't really like the hire either , but it's done and I'm just gonna roll with it and hope for the best. I was all about hiring TD so maybe the fact I don't like this is a good thing. I would really hate for any fan to miss a game because of $ , so please if you or anyone else ever needs a ticket please feel free to PM me

I just cant say enough about how great our seniors were this year. These guys will be truly missed. Shavod Atkinson Kelvin Drake Victor Gill Jamaal Jackson Kelvin Jackson Benny Jones Alex Lott Micah Mosley Draylen Ross Craig Roberson Esteban Santiago Ira Smith Nathan Tune

That makes one of us, I guess.

Hey, everyone, I believe so strongly in Dan McCarney (DanMac to many of we Iowa State fans) as a man and as a coach that I could not resist commenting here. I hope most of you will not mind my presence and will listen (read) what I have to say about your new coach. First, you cannot understand what DanMac's hiring will mean to NTU before you get to know the man, imho. He is an exceptionally fine person; this will be important to many of you. But, like any fan group, you have members who not give much of a hoot about that but will be concerned only about what happens on the football field. I believe you will be happily surprised there, too. Quick point: DanMac resigned at Iowa State two-thirds of the way through the 2006 season, his 12th in Ames. He was followed by Gene Chizik, who stayed two seasons in Ames before bailing for Auburn. (I haven't looked, is Auburn ranked No. 1 in the polls?) Chizik was 5-19 in his two seasons with the Cyclones (a win percentage of 20%). Chizik had far more capable players to work with than did DanMac when he arrived to takeover the ISU program in 1995. The program was in shambles. It took DanMac six years to turn the corner at ISU, in 2000 posting a 9-3 record and defeating Pitt in the Insight Bowl. In those first five seasons, DanMac's win percentage was 23%. In my opinion DanMac did far more with what he had at ISU than did Chizik, who took over a program that had been to five bowl games the previous seven seasons. DanMac the man? He is irrepressible, indefatigable, and always, always positive. This wore on some persons in the ISU fan base over the years, because through the ups and downs DanMac did not change. He was always up, it's his nature, who he is. Those fans who rode the football roller coaster and were mentally down when the team troughed did not want to hear DanMac always finding positive things to talk about when the going was tough. But, that's who he is. He WILL NOT be mentally defeated. My personal knowledge of DanMac goes back to his high school days at Iowa City High. An older brother of mine is one of DanMac's better friends; my brother was a weightlifting maniac, and it was he who introduced Mac to training for football. They are close to this day. (I know Mac personally only to say hello.) Mac was an OG starter at Iowa when the Hawkeyes were mediocre at best, but he excelled through his dedication and willpower (as do many athletes, of course). He was a grad assistant at Iowa when Hayden Fry was hired at Iowa in 1979 (from NTU, where his six-year record was 40-23-3, iirc). One coach from the previous Iowa staff was retained, and one Hawkeye grad assistant was hired as a full-time assistant coach. DanMac so impressed Fry, as Fry has discussed over the years, that Mac (maybe 26 at the time) was the only Iowan on a staff of Texans. Unusual position for a young man in his first full-time job. Iowa had not had a winning season for 20 years (1961-80), yet in Fry's third season at Iowa the Hawkeyes tied for the Big Ten crown and won a trip to the Rose Bowl, its first since January 1959. More Big Ten titles followed, and DanMac's defensive lines were tough, rugged mainstays of those teams. He was a key man in Iowa's rise to national prominence under Fry. Just as key, DanMac became known as a terrific recruiter; his energy and positive outlook were great assets. Another first year coach on Fry's staff was Barry Alvarez, who became the Wisconsin head man in the late 1980s. Before accepting the Wisconsin DC job offered by Alvarez, DanMac turned down an assistant's job at Notre Dame. You're all familiar, aren't you, with the fantastic turnaround job Alvarez did at Wisconsin? Big Ten championships resulted, and DanMac's role as DC was key. Iowa State came calling. You cannot know, likely, how moribund was the ISU program. If not the worst Div. I program in the land, it was close. The school to this day has never won a football conference championship outright, a singular fact for a BCS school, I believe. (For such a fine school and beautiful campus, it's a sad state of affairs. But with Paul Rhoads at the helm, a DanMac protege, the football roller coaster is grinding upward.) Sure, DanMac was 13-42 in his first five seasons at Iowa State, but unless you understand the context in which DanMac labored, I contend you cannot understand, and cannot fairly evaluate, DanMac the coach. He would not be deterred, he was irrepressible, he was always positive. Season six was the breakthrough, the 9-3 record was the most single-season wins in school history (that tells you something important). Five bowl games in the next seven seasons followed. He laid the foundation for unmatched success (we believe Rhoads is on his way to even greater success) at what arguably is the toughest Div. I job in America. DanMac will represent NTU with the highest integrity, unbridled enthusiasm, and a positive outlook unmatched by few human beings. What a wealth of football knowledge the man possesses. Including a national championship earned under Urban Meyer at the U. of Florida. His greatest negative, in the view of many ISU fans, is his extreme loyalty. While the wide consensus in Cyclone country is that ISU intercollegiate athletics has never had a better ambassador, many of us feel he was reluctant to fire assistants when performance called for it. A case in point was when OLine coach Marty Fine was replaced in DanMac's last couple of seasons with Barney Cotton, who joined the staff after serving under Frank Solich at BC's alma mater, Nebraska. Cotton became an escape goat for those ISU fans who were disappointed with ISU's OLine performance the last few seasons. Yet, today, Cotton is the OLine coach and assistant head coach at Nebraska. . . . My bottom-line contention: If you believe you know DanMac the man and coach based on his overall win-loss record at Iowa State University, you do not. Fry's Iowa program owned the state of Iowa at the time DanMac became ISU coach. It took a little time, but eventually he wrested control from Iowa and won five consecutive games. ISU has the Big 12's smallest financial budget, it is overshadowed yet in Iowa, where the population is under 3 million, and the primary recruiting grounds of Texas and Florida are far away. DanMac saved Iowa State football; it is hard to imagine that the school would have survived to remain in the Big 12 without DanMac's relentless effort at resuscitation. If you don't understand how mighty this achievement is, that's understandable. You're Texans, you expect much more than this. But DanMac, in many ways, is Atlas. I'm one Cyclones fan who can't wait to see what he can do in assets-rich Texas. Can't wait. The man is strength from his toes to the hair on his head. I hope most of you will give him a fair chance. If not, I'll wager he'll win you over eventually, anyway. Best wishes.

I will be back in Denton in December I will let you know.

We didn't play well, but gutted out a win anyway. Fun fact (credit to NT03 for pointing it out): First half, we shot at the basket with that giant, blank, off-white wall right behind it. First half field goal percentage: 35.7%. Second half, we shoot at the basket with a traditional backdrop of seating and fans (10 of them). Second half field goal percentage: 69.6%. When we didn't have to shoot at the freak basket, our shots went in twice as often. Twice last year, we played road games against in-state opponents with freakish venues: Rice and UTA. Both times, we shot poorly but gutted out wins. Rice has one basket with a backdrop of a clear glass wall that you can see all the way through the lobby and out the doors. UTA has the weird theater walls that both look a lot like the Albino Monolith Wall at Texas State. If this year doesn't work out, it's going to be due to injuries and fatigue. Just like last year, 'unnecessarily' close wins and 'playing down' against inferior competition won't mean jack when it matters. If we 'play down' but still win, I don't care. We didn't play down against Tech, and I doubt we'll do it against LSU. As long as we do what it takes to beat the opponent on the floor against us on any given night, that's all that matters. For RPI purposes, home wins have a 0.6 multiplier. Road wins have a 1.4 multiplier. There is no RPI bonus for 'style points' or margin of victory. Until there is one, I don't care if we win every game by one point on a last second shot. We just need to keep winning. If we win, it's a win. The fact that we came from behind against Texas State doesn't bother me. The fact that we had to play basically a 5 man lineup the whole game does. But at the end of the day, we're 4-1 and counting, and even the experts are projecting us to finish with 4-7 losses. Is this sort of lineup sustainable? Probably not. I don't think so, at least. But then again, I didn't think we could survive when Kendrick Davis punched out a window after the UTA game back in 2006. But instead of folding up, we went on a 9-2 run. Right now, even if we end up with a 7 man rotation... Even if Holmen doesn't develop, if Alzee doesn't play, if Spencer stays injured... We've got a team that has already proven they can beat anyone we play this season (that isn't a potential NCAA #1 seed) and has proven they absolutely refuse to lose. I'd always be happy with more... But looking at what we've got, I'll take it. And I still like our odds this year.

He could also be ten times worse. If he wins and wins early then everyone will be on board, but me personally i expect nothing less than 6 wins next year

Not sure why Deloach would be offered back after the last 4 games.

After McCarney's 4-5 year tenure, who should we bring in as HC?

With Chico as HC THIS year we would have had 5-6 wins.

That was a pretty good game. Better than I expected. Our line did a nice job and Riley gave his usual over-achiever performance. Mighta won or tied with Riley still in. Even the ESPN3 announcers were rooting for KSU and Thomas, but you won them over. They had a lot of nice things to say about UNT, Dunbar and Riley. Congrats to the entire team for maintaining your poise under difficult circumstances this year. We look forward to seeing you next year in the new stadium with a new coaching staff.

I agree... this kind of game against a bowl bound BCS conference team? Give the dude a chance.

To get away from all the bickering about whom to hire and not to hire for our next head coach, how great has Lance Dunbar been this season? Tonight’s game was another notch in his belt for his great North Texas career, how can he not win Sun Belt Player of the year?

Get in my belly!!!

RV stated a long time ago, the decision would be made by the KSU game. When was the decision made, who knows, but it was obvious that the KSU game would not play into the decision. I'm not sure if Canales was ever a strong consideration which in my opinion was a big mistake. You can fault RV with a lot of things, but I don't think he led Canales on, in fact he seems to go out of his way to indicate the opposite.

NONE OF YOU CAN TALK UNLESS YOU'VE SEEN THE BINDER!!!!1!

Yeah, but Lou Holtz is a moron.

If McCarney is our new head coach then I plan on getting behind him. Hope he brings in a new staff and hits the recruiting trails soon.

McCarney, who took Iowa State to five bowl games, is the most accomplished coach UNT has hired since Hayden Fry in the 1970s. He had a 56-85 record in 12 seasons with the Cyclones from 1995 to 2006, making him the program's winningest head coach. His 2000 Iowa State team snapped a 22-year bowl win drought.

Nah...no need to mention that K-State beat UT by more than they beat us. No reason to mention that UT managed a whopping 14 against them. Definitely didn't want to mention that UT's top 20 basketball team beat Rice by 3 tonight...a few nights after our basketball team beat Rice by, 3.

Tells me all I need to know right there. Rick

It's like we have the answers to the test and we STILL get it wrong. I don't wonder if Canales can make a team like ours compete cause I have seen it. I don't have to wonder if he will be a great motivator or a great spokesman for the university cause I have seen it. I don't have to wonder if the players will buy into him and his system because they already have. Our team played tonight with an opponent that should have destroyed them. They didn't. Why? Coach Canales got the most out of his team and his coaching staff. We know what we have in him and it is exactly what we need. We will hire Meh-carney and what will we hope he has? Well - we will hope he is like Canales.

A game like that, against a pretty good BCS team, coming down to the last play, and this board is dominated by bitching about coach speculation. Thanks for seeing it through seniors. It took a lot of dedication to stick out those four years.

I was wrong about Canales. I was overcome by his emotion for the team and community after the game. He clearly had both of them at heart. I will hate to see him have success elsewhere, and he was right under our noses to hire. I hope for great success for the Mean Green either way. GMG

All Lance has to do is tell RV he's going to transfer ( even if he's not) if Chico isn't the head coach.

If an offer has been made to McCarney, rescind it now. That is my appeal to RV.

Man that game was ugly. It looked like a few players were sick , mainly Hogans. Everytime he came out of the game he had to stand by the trash can incased he hurled. UNT fans almost outnumbered the TX St fans. Glad i went , but damn I wish they would make at least 1 game easy. We aren't going to be able to sleep walk our way to many more wins this season. It's early , but we need to improve if we want to go back dancing

As a huge Mean Green fan, I would not go to the press conference where they are announcing McCarney as our coach and ask a bunch of negative questions about the hire. If they hire him I will support him, but it if does not work out, then RV needs to be gone also.

Then why did we pay Neinas a f'ing dime. I am so pissed about this whole G damn procedure. I think NT f'ed up again and this better be RV's ass if it doesnt work out. No way in hell this would be a better hire than Fran.

Im proud of the way the team played

Greeting Green People! A cyclone fan here who just wanted to congratulate you on the DMac hire. You guys got a good one in DMac. The guy is a Hayden Fry disciple and resurrected ISU football. Before Fry came to Iowa, ISU was the top dog in the state with Johnny Majors and Earl Bruce. Once Woody Hayes punched that Clemson kid, ISU lost Bruce and we went through 20 years of losing. When DMac came to ISU he had nothing. Absolutely nothing. Our current Coach Paul Rhoads (CPR) was on DMac's original staff and he has said that there was 1 Big 12 caliber player on the roster. Comparing that to where the program is now is unbelievable. DMac was loved at ISU, but was ultimately fired because of 2 missed field goals that cost ISU the Big 12 North. 2004 Mizzou and 2005 Kansas are the 2 worst days in ISU history, but they would've never happened without DMac. Iowa State is the hardest program to win at in the country. Period. We have little local talent and what talent there is goes to Iowa (Stupid Fry). DMac turned ISU around with a ton of passion and hard work. CPR is a DMac guy and it shows. The guy is nothing but passion and works his butt off. DMac will pore his heart and soul into the Mean Green program and with the new stadium and local talent, you guys will be winning in no time. Good luck and you guys got a good one in DMac. Go Cyclones!