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After wrapping up a couple of stories for both newspapers and editing a little video, I’m back with some thoughts from Conference USA media day. Before we get to them, the video above features a few thoughts on UNT’s move to Conference USA and the upcoming season from Dan McCarney and linebacker Zach Orr. We went over the news tidbits of the day earlier, but here were the highlights (it wasn’t a huge news day from the UNT end of things): – Defensive tackle Richard Abbe is back on the roster and could be back in the lineup by the season-opener after working his way back into the good graces of UNT’s coaches after his brush wit the law a few months ago. UNT really needs Abbe, one of the few defensive tackles with size on the roster, to play and play well. – The quarterback pecking order of Derek Thompson, Andrew McNulty and then Brock Berglund hasn’t changed since the end of spring practice. With only two major scrimmages in the fall, it seems unlikely that anyone other than Thompson starts the season-opener against Idaho. – Defensive end Quenton Brown and running back Konockus Sashington are the only two players who will not be ready for the start of two-a-days. read more: http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2013/07/conference-usa-media-day-wrap-up.html/

Dan McCarney - "This league is loaded with real talented head coaches. Real successful guys, you look at the resumes and their pedigree and they're really a great lineup of coaches...We're [uNT] just lucky to be there because we know there's lot of teams that would rather be in our shoes... We just hope we can be a factor in the race. We're in the process of trying to restore some dignity, some respect to North Texas football that's been missing for a long time. Bill Blankenship on who Tulsa is looking for in a player - "We're looking for the same player that the service academies are looking for but we don't require the same 4 year commitment after they graduate. They're not all Eagle scouts but we think leadership is important. And then they have to have the athletic ability to be able to play at a high level. We have 23 players out of the last 3 recruiting classes who turned down scholarships from the Big 12, Big 10 SEC etc. We're at a place we've identified that if you and your family value a great education in a smaller size student body where everyone can put a face to a name we can offer you that." C-USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky on the sabre rattling from the BCS institutions for NCAA changes: "I think the issue is how do you deal with the issues of the day - together. There's issues around how you deal with the student athletes financial package, there's issues with the safety of the game and players health which should be of the highest priority, we have financial sustainability issues in the long run and in the short we have issues of too much commercialization. It seems to me that we addressed conference realignment and now the [NCAA] system needs realignment now. read more: