Harry

That is my hope. I really would hate to give a space up on a guy who ends up signing with his dads team. There appears to be a level of trust there.

Yeah his HuDl appears to be off. Went to Howard Payne and lit it up on special teams returns. Will be interesting to see how he fares at a higher level. Interesting that coaches mention him because they usually don't do that unless there is something there.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Feb. 26, 2017 Contact: Jordan Stepp jordan.stepp@unt.edu/940-369-8329 FOOTBALL Mean Green Set to Open Spring Practice Monday North Texas Begins Its Second Spring Under Head Coach Seth Littrell DENTON – North Texas is set to open spring practice Monday, February 27, at the team’s practice facility. The team will host 15 practices, which include three on Saturdays, culminating with the Green-White Scrimmage on Saturday, April 8 from Apogee Stadium. Media availability during spring practice will be held Wednesday, March 1, Saturday, March 25, Saturday, April 1 and Saturday, April 8, immediately following that practice or scrimmage. North Texas athletic communications would appreciate interview requests for these dates at least 24 hours in advance. The Mean Green had the second-best turnaround in the Football Bowl Subdivision in 2016, his first season at the helm. North Texas improved its win total by four games, finishing 5-8 on the season with a Zaxby's Heart of Dallas Bowl appearance. Littrell helped lead the Mean Green to a 9.6 points per game jump in scoring offense from its output in 2016, which ranked 11th-best in the nation, and the 2016 defense allowed 8.7 points per game fewer than it did in 2015, which was the 13th-best turnaround in the country. Season tickets for 2017 are on sale and fans can purchase tickets through the Mean Green athletics ticket office. For more information, visit meangreensports.com/tickets or call the ticket office at 940-565-2527 or 800-868-2366. 2017 North Texas Spring Practice Schedule Date Time Location Monday, Feb. 27 9:10 – 11:40 a.m. Darrell R. Dickey Practice Facility Wednesday, March 1 9:10 – 11:40 a.m. Darrell R. Dickey Practice Facility Friday, March 3 9:10 – 11:40 a.m. Darrell R. Dickey Practice Facility Monday, March 6 9:10 – 11:40 a.m. Darrell R. Dickey Practice Facility Wednesday, March 8 9:10 – 11:40 a.m. Darrell R. Dickey Practice Facility Friday, March 10 9:10 – 11:40 a.m. Darrell R. Dickey Practice Facility Wednesday, March 22 9:10 – 11:40 a.m. Darrell R. Dickey Practice Facility Friday, March 24 9:10 – 11:40 a.m. Darrell R. Dickey Practice Facility Saturday, March 25 TBD TBD Monday, March 27 9:10 – 11:40 a.m. Darrell R. Dickey Practice Facility Wednesday, March 29 9:10 – 11:40 a.m. Darrell R. Dickey Practice Facility Saturday, April 1 TBD TBD Monday, April 3 9:10 – 11:40 a.m. Darrell R. Dickey Practice Facility Wednesday, April 5 9:10 – 11:40 a.m. Darrell R. Dickey Practice Facility Saturday, April 8 TBD Apogee Stadium

http://www.hudl.com/video/3/5342084/5721d8cc0dcb0d12f87d5ea4

Love seeing is land the local kids!

There is no comparison to Mac and Littrell from a contract renewal perspective. Mac had some significant health issues which he admirably fought through. He was a good 15 years older which lets be honest makes a difference in today's coaching circles. Honestly the biggest issue is Littrell being snapped up in the next round of head coaching hires. Would love to keep him for 2-3 years. We need to make sure his buyout leaves us in a good position for the next hire. Ark state has been good at this.

Arkansas has an indoor one that is raised off of the ground:

This is the Rice Wendel D. Ley Track & Holloway Field This is the Mike Myers Track and Soccer Stadium at University of Texas: Texas Tech's Terry and Linda Fuller track stadium: Texas A&M has an indoor track facility:

Speaking of his reputation at the time Rick. also having his ship tied to Uncle Craig probably didn't help.

Amen. I know Ernie is a track letterman and if we are going to participate we should give it our best but having a track around the soccer field is a real beat down. It's like we are tearing down Fouts and building a similar track around the stadium design. Hope like hell I am wrong.

FOOTBALL Littrell Completes Coaching Staff, Adds Langston, Yellock Langston to Coach OL, Yellock to Coach DL, Reffett Promoted to DC DENTON – North Texas head football coach Seth Littrell announced Friday that he has completed his coaching staff by adding former Lamar offensive coordinator Chuck Langston as offensive line coach and Marc Yellock as defensive line coach, after serving at East Carolina in the same capacity. Following the departure of Mike Ekeler, who was announced Friday as linebackers coach at North Carolina, Troy Reffett has been promoted to North Texas’ defensive coordinator. Reffett was the Mean Green’s co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach in 2016. Langston spent four seasons at Lamar from 2013-16, the last two serving as offensive coordinator and offensive line coach. He joined Lamar ahead of the 2012 season as the director of football operations. “Bringing an experienced coach like Chuck aboard was extremely important,” Littrell said. “He has a reputation for being a great teacher, and will continue the growth of this position group. He also has a lot of great relationships across the state of Texas and into Oklahoma at the high school and junior college level. We look forward to welcoming Chuck and his family to ours.” The Beaumont, Texas, native developed one of the strongest offensive fronts at the Football Championship Subdivision level in 2015. The Cardinals’ front five led the nation in pass protection surrendering less than a half sack per game. In addition to protecting the quarterback, Lamar’s offensive line also helped produce the nation’s leading rusher in Kade Harrington. A unanimous All-America selection, Harrington became just the seventh player in the history of Division I football to rush for 2,000 yards in only 10 games. Harrington finished second in the balloting for the STATS FCS National Offensive Player of the Year award (FCS football’s version of the Heisman Trophy). In 2014, Langston’s line blocked for one of the most prolific offenses in the nation. The line helped produce an offense that ranked fifth nationally in total offense (503 yards per game), seventh in passing (314 yards per game) and eighth in scoring (39.6 points per game). During his time overseeing the offensive line, Langston produced seven All-Southland Conference selections, including two first-team honorees. Prior to joining Lamar, Langston coached for three years at Trinity High School in Euless, Texas, and one year at Groveton High School. Langston also coached in the collegiate ranks at Central Oklahoma, and at Trinity Valley Community College in Athens, Texas, following his time as a graduate assistant at his alma mater, Oklahoma. Langston was a four-year letterman at center for the Sooners, where he was a team captain that helped guide Oklahoma to three bowl appearances during his time in Norman from 1991-95. Yellock spent six seasons on staff at East Carolina under former head coach Ruffin McNeil, working with the defensive line from 2010-15. Ahead of the 2016 National Football League season, Yellock worked with the New Orleans Saints defensive line and special teams during the preseason. “Adding someone of Marc’s caliber to our staff is huge,” Littrell said. “He has a strong background and has had a lot of success with a three-man front, which gels perfectly with what we are doing defensively. His experience in Conference USA and the American Athletic Conference, as well as his proven track record as a recruiter was something that we are very excited to bring to our group.” In 2013 and 2014, Yellock oversaw a unit that played a huge part in being ranked 13th nationally in rushing defense. The 2013 team also ranked 13th in sacks per game at 2.9. Six of his lineman earned all-conference honors, while another was a member of the conference’s all-freshman team during his time in Greenville, North Carolina. In just his second year in charge of the ECU defensive line, the Pirates saw a staggering turnaround, vaulting 64 spots on the Football Bowl Subdivision total defense rankings, holding opponents to 102.5 fewer yards per game than the year before. Prior to his time in Greenville, Yellock was the defensive line coach at Elon in 2006, where he coached First-Team All-Southern Conference honorees, Andre Campbell and Eric Ludwig, helping lift the Phoenix to the No. 11 ranking in total defense and No. 15 in rushing defense in the country at the Football Championship Subdivision level. Yellock began his collegiate coaching career with his first stint at East Carolina, his alma mater, as a defensive staff assistant in both 2004 and 2005. As a player, Yellock spent 1997-2000 with the Pirates under then-head coach Steve Logan. He appeared in 26 games across four seasons, starting 18 times and was a component of two ECU teams that advanced to bowl games.

Well stated. I hadn't thought about the age and health situation with Mac. Also a key point is what are the buyout provisions?

That's actually not a bad idea.

That may very well be the case but I seem to recall that Jank was not a very good recruiter and that played a part as well.

Let me preface this by saying how glad I am that we are FINALLY putting some dollars behind the most successful coach in UNT history, John Hedlund. Is anyone more deserving of this? Kudos to UNT leadership for putting funds toward athletic facilities. That said, I have to think that a bigger part of this facility is the need to demolish Fouts and make room for more parking space. They have planned on demolishing it for some time. I constantly hear that parking at UNT is a mess which is saying something because it was a mess back in the ice ages when I was roaming the campus. Back to the facility, is it just me or is track really where we need to put funds right now? I know we have to give them a facility and all but I really felt like the indoor facility could have benefited soccer and football. Whenever I ask about track I am told that it was a requirement of Title 9. Clearly they deserve a place to train but I just wonder if this decision wasn't more of how can we deal with the parking situation and removing the Fouts eyesore more than anything else. RV used to always make clear how he wanted UNT to excel in all sports we participated in and I got that. I know that schools like UT always perform at the top of the national ranking in olympic sports etc.. which is admirable. The difference is UT built a great football program first and then built the programs around it. Again, I want to restate this is not meant as a wrinkled dollar bill comment, just some thoughts going through my mind as we get this good news on the new facility.

I agree with you but you would typically not want to have half your staff turnover every year. This year was somewhat of an anomaly with the SEC/ACC's sweeping in. I just wonder what prompted this even though I am glad for the outcome. I would have thought they would have addressed assistant salaries based on what transpired.

Love to see this happen -- but the other piece to this is what about the assistants? That assistant turnover issue is a big deal in my mind. Here is Vito's follow-up: http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2017/02/unt-announces-new-five-year-deal-for-seth-littrell.html/ States it will put him "among the highest paid coaches in C-USA..." Here is the listing of C-USA (and other) coaching salaries: http://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/salaries Interesting that it had Frank Wilson at UTSA just behind Rice Coach David Baliff who makes a little over 900K. Littrell was listed as 3rd in C-USA at $815K according to this listing.

FOOTBALL Head Coach Seth Littrell to Receive New Five-Year Contract Deal Runs Through January 2022 DENTON – The University of North Texas and head football coach Seth Littrell have agreed to a new five-year deal, Vice President and director of athletics Wren Baker announced today. The agreement runs through the conclusion of the 2021 season, and was approved by the University of North Texas System Board of Regents. “We are excited to announce this new agreement with coach Littrell,” Baker said. “Under one of the brightest young coaches in the country, our football program had the second-best turnaround in the nation last season and his performance was recognized by his colleagues and media members around the nation. This new contract represents an aggressive move to keep coach Littrell, his staff, and their positive momentum intact. This is validation of the successful efforts that Seth has led in the early stages of the turnaround of North Texas football.” Littrell led the Mean Green to the second-best turnaround in the Football Bowl Subdivision in 2016, his first season at the helm. North Texas improved its win total by four games, finishing 5-8 on the season with a Zaxby's Heart of Dallas Bowl appearance. Littrell helped lead the Mean Green to a 9.6 points per game jump in scoring offense from its output in 2016, which ranked 11th-best in the nation, and the 2016 defense allowed 8.7 points per game fewer than it did in 2015, which was the 13th-best turnaround in the country. “I am very grateful for the clear support from our Board of Regents, our president Neal Smatresk and our athletic director Wren Baker,” Littrell said. “It means a lot to me to move forward with this new deal and continue to work hard with my staff to transform this into the championship-caliber program that our tremendous university, fans and alumni deserve.” Season tickets for 2017 are on sale and fans can purchase tickets through the Mean Green athletics ticket office. For more information, visit meangreensports.com/tickets or call the ticket office at 940-565-2527 or 800-868-2366. The Mean Green open spring practice on Monday, February 27.

Great news! Would love to know more about where and what it will look like!

Have to go find a juco at defensive end. Cannot seem to hit on high school prospects at this position anymore.

Yellock updated the latest on his coaching career, broke down some Xs and Os and gave his thoughts on this year's ECU team, among other topics. Listen here: http://www.pirateradio1250.com/pod/HTC/htc101316.mp3

I wonder if they consider using the bubble concept for the indoor facility they use at Texas. Seems like it can keep the costs down but still provide a quality facility. I want to say UT paid about 4-5 million for it but that was a long time ago.

Wooolridge is really key. Quality point guard play is at a premium. He has a ton of potential.