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Denton, TX – The University of North Texas is set to kick off their 97th season of football on September 1st in Baton Rouge against perennial national title contenders LSU. The Mean Green won’t be challenging for the crystal football, but they do have hopes of leaving the Sun Belt Conference on a high note before joining Conference-USA next season. Coach Dan McCarney and the players met with the media before the first day of practice and SportDFW was there. UNT went 5-7 in Dan McCarney’s (and Apogee Stadium’s) inaugural season in 2011 and have not had a winning season since 2004. Coach McCarney recognizes the challenge that he faces given North Texas’ recent lack of success and historical position near the bottom of the hierarchy of Texas college football programs. But he also understands what it takes to turn around a moribund program, as he transformed Iowa State from a team that had only seen three winning seasons in the sixteen years prior to his arrival to one that went to five bowl games in six years. Coach McCarney’s enthusiasm is infectious and he is working hard to change perceptions of his program on both the inside and the outside. Many people in Denton view the early 2000’s, when the team won four conference titles and went to as many bowl games, as the Mean Green’s glory years. He acknowledges and respects what those teams accomplished, but he also has a different vision for North Texas football: “We were 2-16 in non-conference games and one of those victories was over Nicholls State. If that’s supposed to be my glory years and my expectations for this program, then they brought in the wrong head coach. That’s not what my expectations are. We have to challenge everybody in this program to <get to> a higher standard. What’s been going on here has been unacceptable for a long time. I think we’ve come a long way <in the last year>, I really do…there’s real fierce loyalty in this program and we’ve developed a will to win and a preparation to win. I respect my guys, I trust my guys and it’s hard to find somebody that I don’t really like.” North Texas is going to be a very young team this season. They return only 14 seniors and 22 juniors, so underclassmen will be challenging for playing time all over the field. But Coach McCarney was pleased with the progress many players have made on strength coach Frank Wintrich’s offseason conditioning program, saying, “When I took the job a year ago, I knew this was the smallest Division One team I’d ever been around, and then I found out it was one of the slowest Division One teams I’d ever been around. Our football team has really bought into our offseason program, getting bigger, getting stronger, gaining weight, getting more physical to give <themselves> a chance to be a good division one program.” Read more: http://sportdfw.com/2012/08/11/north-texas-mean-green-football-coach-dan-mccarney-ready-for-2012-season/

Overview: North Texas didn't have a great record a season ago, but any body that has watched this team in recent years knows there was decent improvement for a team that hasn't tasted much success in recent years. This will be an interesting year with some key contributors gone and with head coach McCarney also recovering from a stroke there are plenty of questions. Offense: What do we know about the North Texas offense? I'm not sure but the face of the attack was back Lance Dunbar with his 257 carries and 1115 yards and ten scores. Throw in that back up James Hamilton and his 406 yards are also gone and that leaves Brandin Byrd as the top returning runner with only 20 carries under his belt. Derek Thompson returns under center after a 2011 that saw him banged up although he still threw for 1,759 yards with eleven touchdowns against six interceptions at 57.7% completion rate. Thompson has experience back in the receiving unit with Brelan Chancellor, Christopher Bynes and Ivan Delgado returning after catching 100 balls for over 1,200 yards. The offensive line should be a strength with four returning starters. read more: http://sportschatplace.com/football/mark/2012/july/27/north-texas-mean-green/