Coach Andy Mac

Fresh off their NIT championship, North Texas is at a crossroads: new conference, new head coach, but plenty of continuity to keep the momentum going. Immediately following former head coach Grant McCasland departing for Texas Tech, the promotion of Ross Hodge, McCasland’s longtime associate head coach at Arkansas State and North Texas, should bring solace for the Mean Green faithful. Most importantly, much of North Texas’ defensive dominance has been thanks to Hodge: considered the architect of the Mean Green defense under McCasland, Hodge’s defense forces teams to grind out the shot clock, limit clean passing opportunities and eliminate easy shot attempts. This upcoming year, some of North Texas’ defensive stalwarts return: Rubin Jones, Matthew Stone and Aaron Scott are all tough, versatile defenders with high motors and an ability to play multiple positions. link: https://stretchingthefloor.blogspot.com/?m=1

Duke has only brought in three players via the transfer portal that have stuck on the roster thus far, but they convinced an FCS All-American Offensive Lineman to flip his commitment from University of North Texas today. Jacob Long, who earned Second Team All-American honors after a monster season at Angelo State, originally opted to return back to Texas where he played high school ball but the Blue Devils' coaching staff remained in pursuit as they lost a few linemen to the portal themselves this Spring. Long, who is 6-foot-4 and 330 pounds, played guard for Angelo State and projects as an interior lineman for the Blue Devils. He has two seasons of eligibility remaining and will arrive at Duke this week. He was part of an offensive line that led the conference in offensive yards and points while finishing 24th overall in total offense in DII. read more: https://247sports.com/college/duke/article/duke-lands-commitment-from-fcs-all-american-ol-jacob-long-210926149/

2022 Record: 7-6 overall, 4-4 in Conference USA Head Coach: Trent Dilfer, 1st year: 0-0 - UAB 2023 Football Schedule @ColFootballNews | @PeteFiutak If anything, UAB football has been a massively underappreciated sports story. Here’s a school with a football team that didn’t make a peep of noise in a divided state that worships either the University of Alabama or Auburn, and it not only broke though, it thrived. UAB first took up football in 1991 and spent five years as a lower level independent, moved into the FBS world in 1995, came up with just two winning seasons from 1996 to 2014, and then got put into a coma for two years. This program didn’t exist. Maybe it would come back, maybe it wouldn’t. No big whoop. But it did, and not only did it survive, it roared with head coach Bill Clark hitting the ground running with six straight winning seasons, two conference championships, regular bowl games, an 11-win 2018 season, and success, success, success in an unbelievable situation. Easily, Clark belonged on any list of coaches who did the most with the least. With all the wins came the interest, a nice new stadium, and from a near death experience the program moved up in weight class to the American Athletic Conference going into this season. It was more than just validation for a job well done, it was good deal for the AAC, too. And then UAB hired Trent Dilfer as its new head coach. read more: https://collegefootballnews.com/cfn/uab-blazers-college-football-preview-2023-breakdown-prediction-top-players-win-total

McKinney 2024 ILB Jonathan Agumadu (6'1, 215) and 2025 OLB Riley Pettijohn (6'2, 210) are impressive physical specimens blowing up in recruiting. Agumadu has seen recent offers come in from North Texas, SMU, Texas State, Memphis, Missouri and more. Pettijohn's most recent offer is from LSU, and the Tigers will be a force in his decision-making process. Link: https://www.texasfootball.com/article/2023/06/04/recruiting-news-and-notes-from-the-northwest-sqt?ref=article_preview_img

North Texas’ 2023 schedule features eight American Athletic Conference games. UNT’s non-conference slate includes one FCS contest against Abilene Christian, two Group of Five matchups at Florida International and Louisiana Tech, and one Power Five clash vs. Cal. 2023 North Texas Football Schedule 9/2 vs Cal 9/9 at FIU 9/16 at Louisiana Tech 9/30 vs Abilene Christian 10/7 at Navy 10/14 vs Temple 10/21 at Tulane 10/28 vs Memphis 11/4 vs UTSA 11/10 at SMU 11/18 at Tulsa 11/25 vs UAB Link to article: https://herosports.com/fbs-north-texas-football-2023-schedule-cpcp/

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – UNT softball junior Kailey Gamble was named to the National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-South Region Third Team at first base, the organization announced on Thursday. Gamble led Conference USA with 16 home runs and finished tied for 23rd in the nation. She started all 57 games for the Mean Green and paced the team in 12 statistical categories including batting average, RBI and walks. Gamble became the seventh player in program history to earn the distinction and first since Hope Trautwein and Tuesday DerMargosian garnered first and second team selections, respectively, in 2021. Gamble was one of two C-USA student-athletes to be named to All-South Region teams and was among nine players in the league to be listed by NFCA. North Texas closed its final season as a member of C-USA with 35 wins and a second-place finish at the conference tournament on Saturday. UNT moves to the American Athletic Conference on July 1, 2023.

Dr. Roger H. Grant (aka Coach), 77, passed away on April 10, 2023, at home in Laguna Park, Texas. While we are deeply saddened at his passing, we find great comfort that he is no longer in pain. Roger was born on September 3, 1945, in Plainview, TX to Betty and Dee Grant. Roger was preceded in death by his parents and sister, Annette. Roger's love of basketball began early in life and he played point guard for his high school team the Plainview Bulldogs. His senior year, his team won the title of District Co-Champions and advanced to the Bi-District game. Roger's basketball career continued through college playing point guard for the Wayland Baptist Pioneers. Roger received his B.S. in Business Administration & Education and Physical Education from Wayland Baptist College. It was here that he met the love of his life, Marilyn (nee Maxwell), and the two were married August 28, 1967. Roger received his M.S. in Physical Education and Business from North Texas State University and his Ed.D. in Physical Education and Health from East Texas State University. Roger began his coaching career as the Men's Tennis Coach at East Texas State University, but found his true passion to be coaching Men's Basketball at Sul Ross State University starting in 1987. Coach Grant loved to help players achieve their maximum potential both on and off the court. What started as mentoring his athletes to achieve in the classroom, quickly turned to mentoring and encouraging those same athletes to pursue and obtain higher level degrees. Many of those athletes became coaches themselves and circled back to the values and work ethic that Coach Grant instilled in them on the court. Nothing brought Coach greater joy than hearing their success stories and knowing that his coaching legacy continues to this day. Coach loved to golf, play guitar, and to watch The Cowboys every Sunday even if he was "only watching to see them lose." He is survived by his loving wife of 56 years Marilyn, son Darren Grant and wife Cyndal of Tyler, Texas, daughter Kari Grant and husband Lee Robinson of Austin, Texas, and grandchildren Damian, Elise, Gracie, Brailey, and Slaiden. A Celebration of Life is being planned in San Angelo, TX, in June with the option to attend in person or via livestream. To be included in updates on Coach's Celebration of Life or to share pictures, stories, or memories, please email RememberingRHGrant@gmail.com In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to one of the following charities: Positive Coaching Alliance https://positivecoach.org/the-power-of-positive/ USA Basketball Foundation https://usabfoundation.org/ Guitar Center Music Foundation https://guitarcenterfoundation.org/ To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

North Texas qualified for the Conference USA title game a season ago, but the real danger for California is that its season opener against UNT occurs on the road. The Golden Bears have a ton of transfers, and with this being their first game with several new faces, a less-than-ideal situation could present itself. Breakdown: California has one of the Pac-12's toughest tests when facing Auburn, which has been rejuvenated following the hiring of Hugh Freeze. The Golden Bears' clash with the Tigers comes during Week 2 and falls between dates with North Texas and Idaho, which could lead to some assuming the Golden Bears would have one of the most manageable schedules in the conference. But California faces Washington, Utah and Oregon with each of those games coming on the road in venues often described as among the loudest in the Pac-12. LINK: https://247sports.com/longformarticle/pac-12-football-biggest-trap-games-in-2023-for-every-team-in-lea-209762327/#2164922

Davis wasn't the only prospect at Prosper High School to land an offer. Stein also extended a scholarship offer to 2025 offensive lineman Connor Carty. Carty is a 6-foot-4, 285-pound player who projects out to play as an interior offensive lineman. The Ducks are the second school to offer Carty a scholarship. They join North Texas as the other program to do so. LINK: https://247sports.com/college/oregon/article/oregon-ducks-football-recruiting-209952770/

May 6th Robert Allen (Ole Miss) – Commits to North Texas Ole Miss forward announced that he will be heading to play at North Texas. Allen will have one more year of eligibility remaining. Allen came to Ole Miss after spending two seasons at Samford. Spending three seasons at Ole Miss, Allen appeared in 69 games as a Rebel providing high energy. Allen appeared in 33 games for Ole Miss this past season coming back from a torn ACL the year before. He averaged 4.4 PTS and 3.4 REB. LINK: https://therebelwalk.com/2023/05/2023-ole-miss-mens-hoops-transfer-portal-tracker/

All conferences, including autonomy conferences, should actively discourage the use of P5 and G5 labels. The autonomy conferences do not refer to themselves as P5 conferences internally, although their memberships use P5 in the public forum. The media actually coined the term to replace the former Bowl Championship Series (BCS) description, and it often made little or no sense even during the last decade. The harmful divide that has developed can trace its roots to the advent of the BCS in 1998, which designated selected conferences as annual participants in BCS bowl games. The divide accelerated with the advent of the College Football Playoff, wherein the BCS label morphed into the media-invented P5. This divide did not exist in any meaningful way back in the College Football Association days of the 1980’s and 1990’s. No divisive nomenclature and arbitrary classification existed back then. Whenever a so-called non-P5 school wins the national championship in men’s basketball, as the American did in 2014, three national championships in women’s basketball, as the American did in 2014, 2015 and 2016, or makes the College Football Playoff, as the American did in 2021, or in addition makes (seven times) and wins (four times) a New Year’s Day Bowl game against a top ten team or makes the men’s Final Four and the Elite Eight and the Sweet Sixteen, how are those teams “non-power”? It is absurd, and proof that the power moniker makes no sense competitively. The fact that so-called P5 teams that have not achieved at that level are still deemed “power” teams is an absurdity on its face. Another absurdity involves realignment, where Group of Five teams instantly become Power Five teams simply by signing a piece of paper. It is time to retire the P5 moniker and shift the focus and nomenclature to the ten FBS conferences. We at the American strongly support that concept and urge the media to focus on the ten FBS conferences. Each FBS conference should be judged and characterized on whether it has achieved elite status, on whether it is powerful in its own right, and not as the beneficiary of an arbitrary label. We have no illusions about the difficulty of achieving change in this area, but this is a battle worth fighting. Read more: https://theamerican.org/news/2023/5/9/football-an-open-letter-on-power-5-group-of-5-branding.aspx

Ryder Mix, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound 2026 tight end, is going to be a valuable weapon in Brett Gilchrist's offensive attack. Mix is a versatile tight end who can split out in the flex, line up as a true in-line option, or play an H-back role where he roams around the offensive set. Mix has already picked up scholarships from UNLV, Missouri, Texas State, North Texas and Buffalo. https://www.texasfootball.com/article/2023/05/05/in-his-words-frisco-lone-star-2026-te-ryder-mix?ref=article_preview_img

DENTON, Texas – UNT men’s basketball head coach Ross Hodge signed veteran Ole Miss transfer Robert Allen to a Financial Aid Agreement on Monday. The 6-foot-8, 230-pound forward from Orlando, Florida, joins the reigning National Invitation Tournament champs and immediately becomes the most experienced player on the team. He has 134 career games played under his belt and 88 career starts. Allen, who began his college career at Stamford in 2018, heads to Denton on the verge of joining the illustrious 1,000-point, 1,000-rebound club. He’s already surpassed the 1,000-point mark (1,079) and will enter his final season just 259 rebounds from 1,000. Allen for his career has averaged 5.5 rebounds per contest. Allen graduated from Edgewater High School in 2018 in central Florida where he was a 3.0+ student-athlete and led his prep team to a pair of state semifinal appearances, two regional championships and three distract titles. He earned MVP honors at the Winter Park Classic two years in a row, and he was named All-Metro and All-Area First Team by the Orlando Sentinel as a senior. In addition to basketball, Allen was on the Edgewater High School volleyball and swim team. Before transferring to Ole Miss, Allen began his college career at Samford where he played two seasons (2018-20) for the Bulldogs. In 2019 he was named to the SoCon All-Freshman team after averaging 9.9 points and 8.3 rebounds per game. During his sophomore season he improved on his stats by averaging 14.1 points and 7.0 rebounds per game. He also knocked down a career-high 32 3-pointers and had 43 blocks during his sophomore season at Samford. In three seasons with the Rebels (2020-23), Allen played in 69 games and made 25 starts. He started Ole Miss’ final 13 games this past season. He missed a majority of the 2021-22 season after sustaining an injury early in the year. Allen scored in double figures 10 times while in Oxford, Mississippi, including a 10-point performance last year in an 80-67 win over UNT conference mate Florida Atlantic who went on to reach the NCAA Tournament Final Four. A two-time SEC Academic Honor Roll recipient, Allen had some of his best performances at Ole Miss in crucial league games. He had an Ole Miss career-best eight rebounds versus South Carolina in the 2021 SEC Tournament to lead his team to victory. He had a five-assist and six-rebound performance at Georgia this past season to propel the Rebels to the win. Four of his 10 double-digit scoring performances came against SEC opponents with three of the four happening on the road. Allen joins a UNT men's basketball program coming off its most successful season in its history. The Mean Green won a program-record 31 games last season to go along with tying the program-record for conference wins (16). UNT earned a bid into the 2023 National Invitation Tournament where they defeated Alcorn State, Sam Houston, Oklahoma State, Wisconsin and UAB in route to its first NIT championship in program history. North Texas, which has now won a championship trophy in each of the last four seasons, elevated associated head coach Ross Hodge to head coach on April 2 and will make the move to the American Athletic Conference next season. Season tickets for the 2023-24 Mean Green men and women's basketball teams are available now at www.meangreentickets.com. Tickets start as low as $99 for men's and $75 for women's basketball. For more information on tickets, contact the Mean Green Ticket Office at 940-565-2527 or at ticketoffice@unt.edu. Fans can visit the UNT Athletics Ticket Office located at Gate 2 of Apogee Stadium between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

In 2021, Shippensburg University won the NCAA Division II Field Hockey championship, completing an undefeated season with a 3-0 victory over archrival West Chester. The “Ship” Raiders also won it all in 2018, 2017, 2016, and 2013, which I know because I saw it written in big letters on a banner festooning the fieldhouse on Ship’s campus in south-central Pennsylvania when I visited last month. Ship was in fine form. Young men and women wearing logoed Champion sweatshirts bustled between buildings. There was a line at the coffee shop in the student union. It was the kind of bright-blue autumn day that you would see on a brochure. There was no way to tell, from the outside, that Ship was a shrinking institution. Or that the problem is about to get a lot worse — not just here, but at colleges and universities nationwide. In four years, the number of students graduating from high schools across the country will begin a sudden and precipitous decline, due to a rolling demographic aftershock of the Great Recession. Traumatized by uncertainty and unemployment, people decided to stop having kids during that period. But even as we climbed out of the recession, the birth rate kept dropping, and we are now starting to see the consequences on campuses everywhere. Classes will shrink, year after year, for most of the next two decades. People in the higher education industry call it “the enrollment cliff.” read more: https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/23428166/college-enrollment-population-education-crash