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When Arkansas State athletics director Terry Mohajir went to hire a football coach six years ago for a program that had been a reliable launching pad to the Power Five, he looked to the staff of one of the most profitable athletic departments in the country. At the time, Texas offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin wasn’t just a highly regarded rising assistant in college football, he was also attainable for a Sun Belt program whose total athletic budget is roughly one-fifth of schools like Texas. “He was making ($700,000) and that was pretty high,” Mohajir said. “It was pretty good money, but I was able to pay him more to be a head coach.” Fueled by an explosion in the cost of hiring and retaining top-level assistants, however, the economics of grooming the next generation of head coaches has been turned on its head in less than a decade. Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/columnist/dan-wolken/2018/12/05/college-football-assistant-coaches-salaries/2206867002/

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DENTON, Texas (AP) — Trevor Moore kicked a 39-yard field goal with 5 seconds left to give North Texas a wild 52-49 victory over Army on Saturday night, ending the Black Knights' six-game winning streak. Mason Fine threw for 386 yards and four touchdowns, including a quick 10-yard toss with no timeouts left to get the Mean Green (8-3) a little closer for Moore's winning kick. The longest winning streak for Army (8-3) since 1996 ended despite 244 yards rushing and two touchdowns from quarterback Ahmad Bradshaw. "My most important thing is winning football games," said Bradshaw, who set Army's single-season rushing record at 1,472 yards, breaking Collin Mooney's 9-year-old record of 1,339. "If I have zero yards and we win the game, I'll be happier than having a million yards and losing the game." read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2017/11/18/late-fg-lifts-north-texas-to-wild-52-49-victory-over-army/107842444/

Dan Wolken | USA TODAY Sports43 minutes ago North Texas will hire Wren Baker as its athletics director, a person familiar with the process told USA TODAY Sports. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the school has not officially announced the hire. Read more:. http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2016/07/27/north-texas-hires-missouri-wren-baker-new-athletic-director/87618550/?siteID=je6NUbpObpQ-vDhOhlrHF1_78JUKWlqaGw

[Johnny Quinn] 3 tips for dealing with Olympic village woes, from an Olympian who got stuck in a bathroom

USA Today gave us a D-, on par with Eastern Michigan, Fresno State, Kansas, La-La, Maryland, Purdue, South Carolina, and Wyoming. But hey, we beat out UCF (0-12). Thanks Mac & Co. for what you gave us in 2015. But its a new year and I feel a good vibe with what Littrell is doing so far. Lets hope it all translates into W's. http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2016/01/12/final-grades-all-128-teams-fbs-college-football/78670874/

Barring a last-minute change of direction, Tulane is set to part ways with football coach Curtis Johnson following Friday's game against Tulsa, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. Tulane is set to make a decision on hiring a new atheletics director next week and a coaching search will be the immediate priority for the new athletics director, much like the situation at Central Florida. read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/aac/2015/11/25/tulane-university-football-coach-curtis-johnson/76399708/

In the middle of what already shaped up to be the wildest college football coaching carousel in recent memory, LSU's move toward removing Les Miles over the past week has turned the industry on its head. It isn't official, isn't done, but it's hard to imagine how LSU goes back now with leaks springing from the LSU Board of Supervisors and athletics director Joe Alleva tacitly endorsing change through his silence. So in a year when big jobs like Southern California, Miami, Virginia Tech and South Carolina are all open, you can probably add LSU next week. And imagine the chaos if Georgia makes a move on Mark Richt or Brian Kelly leaves Notre Dame for the NFL. Meanwhile, the next tier of open Power Five jobs like Missouri, Maryland, Syracuse and Illinois face a simple supply-and-demand conundrum. There are already more jobs open than attractive candidates. And more are going to open. That's why some schools like Purdue and perhaps Indiana, should Kevin Wilson get to 6-6, will stand pat and wait out this cycle. They know they'd be pretty far down the food chain. Meanwhile, athletics directors who have coaches they like are are desperately hoping they don't have to go find a new one this year. Though good ADs keep an eye on the landscape to make sure they're not flat-footed, the general feeling nationally is that this isn't a deep pool of up-and-coming candidates to draw from. read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2015/11/24/college-football-coaching-turnover-lsu-les-miles-usc-south-carolina-miami-virginia-tech/76321246/

LEWISVILLE, Texas — Here are a few theories as to the origin of “Mean Joe” Greene’s nickname. There’s the story of a middle-school nemesis named “Sleepy,” who once stole the five dollars Greene’s mother had left on the television set to pay the insurance fees her son needed to play on the school’s football team. “I popped him, knocked him down,” Greene said. “That ended it. He didn’t bother me anymore, and no one else did it. I ended up playing catch-up. I guess I caught him. So I ended up having the reputation as a bully for a while.” There’s the reputation that girls from his hometown of Temple, Texas, brought along to North Texas in 1966, when Greene joined the football team as an imposing defensive lineman. TWO WEEKS IN TEXAS: The series so far “They knew me,” Greene said, “and their explanation of Joe was, ‘Oh, he’s a real nice guy, but he’s mean.’ ” read more: http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/08/mean-green-mean-joe-green-nickname-origins

none have more than Texas. For 12 days, as teams nationwide dig into preseason drills, USA TODAY Sports’ college football reporters are traversing the state of Texas and visiting each of its one dozen FBS programs. AT&T presents Two Weeks in Texas … Day 6: North Texas DENTON, Texas — Mike Canales and Mike Simmonds came to visit Kaydon Kirby in the fall of 2011 with reams of information about North Texas, then in its first football season under Dan McCarney, but without the item Kirby wanted most: a scholarship offer. Instead, they brought honesty. We like you, they told Kirby, then a under-recruited senior at Flower Mound High School in this county; we just don’t have an offer. But you’re a player, they added, and you could come into our program and make an impact — as a walk-on, with the potential to earn a scholarship during the course of your college career. “They told me to take a chance, and I trusted them and took the chance,” Kirby said. “I earned my way the hard way. They just want players. No matter how you got here or what your journey was, as long as you’re there to play, then you’re there to play.” TWO WEEKS IN TEXAS: The series so far Four years later, Kirby enters his junior season as the Mean Green’s entrenched starting center, as an all-Conference USA selection and national-award candidate, and as the most shining example of what McCarney-led North Texas has done better — and more often — than any program in the Football Bowl Subdivision. Along a wall inside the football program’s offices is a display of 32 faces and names, all former or current North Texas players of varying success, from backup defensive backs through starting offensive linemen, each with a shared starting point: As a former walk-on who “through effort and dedication,” the display reads, was awarded a scholarship. read more: http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/08/north-texas-mean-green-football-walk-ons

Oklahoma Highway Patrol identified the driver of the 18-wheel tractor-trailer as Russell Staley, 53, of Saginaw, Texas. He was treated in hospital and released. It was not immediately clear why the northbound truck lurched across the median and into the southbound lanes, or whether the driver has been charged with any offense. Police said they would investigate the accident as if it were a homicide. The tragedy shocked the close-knit Texas community college, where counselors were brought in to console grieving students and athletic teams on trips for away competitions were called home. "This is the most traumatic event that NCTC has had in its 90 years of history," North Central Texas College President Brent Wallace said at a press conference Saturday in Gainesville, Texas, about 60 miles south of where the crash happened. The four players killed were identified as Meagan Richardson, 19, Brooke Deckard, 20, Katelynn Woodlee, 18, and Jaiden Pelton 20, according to the highway patrol. Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2014/09/27/north-centra-texas-college-sotball-bus-crash-truck-death/16321951/

The 23-year-old Mexican player closed with an even-par 71 for a one-stroke victory in the regular-season finale. He earned $144,000 to push his tour-leading total to $515,403, with the top 25 on the money list getting PGA Tour cards. "I didn't envision any of this," said Ortiz, also the winner in Panama in March and Mexico in April. "To be honest, I came out this year without any expectations. I realized early that if I was able to play good I would be able to win on this tour." Ortiz finished at 14-under 270 on Pumpkin Ridge's Witch Hollow course. The former North Texas player opened with rounds of 66, 63 and 70 to take a two-stroke lead over Canada's Adam Hadwin into the final day. In the final round, Ortiz birdied three of the first five holes, dropped three strokes in a five-hole stretch and closed with seven straight pars. Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/golf/2014/08/25/carlos-ortiz-wins-portland-open/14546581/

In the new system, a mid-major team simply needs to be ranked higher than any team in the other mid-major conferences. "It's more open now," Banowsky said. "In the BCS, we could get a team in, but not only would they have to be our champion and be better than all the other champions, but it would have to be ranked in a certain place in the top-12 or top-16 and ranked above the other champions. With this, the best of our (mid-major) champions is in automatic. We need to find out a way to get a team to run the table, have a great season and be better than teams in our other peer conferences." As for a Cinderella bid in the College Football Playoff, Hancock said the door is still open if a mid-major team has a very strong resume. But that would likely mean a combination of an undefeated record and a challenging schedule. "Absolutely, it's open because there is no automatic qualification (in the College Football Playoff)," Hancock said. "It's wide open. Their opportunity is significant." Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2014/07/24/undefeated-c-usa-team-maybe-not-enough-for-playoff-spot/13099055/

A Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 with 295 people aboard crashed Thursday in Ukraine near the Russian border, the Russian Interfax news agency reports, quoting "a source in the aviation circles." The report has not been confirmed. Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/07/17/malaysian-airlines-crash-ukraine-russia/12779763/

DALLAS — Conference USA schools are prepared to pay their student-athletes a full cost-of-attendance beyond their athletic scholarship, following the lead of the Power Five conferences pushing for autonomy within the NCAA. Calling the task part of "the most challenging time in college athletics," at C-USA Football Media Day on Wednesday, C-USA commissioner Britton Banowksy said his league's universities are ready to adjust to change. He said presidents at C-USA universities support the move to pay their student-athletes full cost-of-attendance because it is "the right thing to do, and it does not obviously violate the principles of the collegiate model." Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2014/07/23/conference-usa-britton-banowsky/13045909/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=usatodaycomcollegefootball-topstories

9. Conference USA Top four: Marshall, North Texas, Rice, UTSA Conference USA does house the non-major team with the best shot at an undefeated season: Marshall has the talent, experience and schedule to make a run at 13 wins. But the well quickly runs dry after the Thundering Herd, UTSA, Rice and North Texas; Conference USA's bottom third is as bad as it gets, so the pressure is on Doc Holliday's gang to do all of the heavy lifting. Well, at least most of it: UTSA could be one of the great surprises in the country. The league as a whole is still one of the nation's weakest. Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2014/07/14/fbs-football-conference-rankings-aac-acc-big-12-big-ten-cusa-mac-mwc-pac-12-sec-sun-belt/12613255/

READ MORE: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2014/05/05/uab-alabama-birmingham-2014-preview-schedule-roster-football-four/8660101/

10 things to know about Quinn 1. Quinn played college football and in the CFL, and he signed with two NFL teams. He starred at North Texas and holds school records for career receiving yards. He had preseason stints with the Buffalo Bills and Green Bay Packers. "When you're with a team, it's guys made up of different personalities, different backgrounds, and it the cool thing is, everybody comes together for one goal," Quinn said. He also ran track at North Texas. Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/sochi/2014/02/12/johnny-quinn-bobsled-10-things-to-know/5419179/

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For the last eight years there’s been a slumbering giant in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex that has finally stretched its arms, let out a big yawn and started stomping around a little. The North Texas Mean Green, led by former Iowa State Cylcones head coach Dan McCarney, took home an impressive 36-14 win over the UNLV Rebels on Wednesday in the Heart of Dallas Bowl, showing they’re back on the map in the Lone Star State. In the early 2000s North Texas had a solid run of success under former head coach Darrell Dickey, winning four consecutive Sun Belt Conference championships from 2001-2004 and playing in four consecutive New Orleans Bowls over the same stretch, but winning only one. The stretch of 2005-2012 was a disastrous one for the Mean Green as things regressed under a number of new coaches, and the program floundered to a 13-58 record overall, effectively negating any momentum created by the success of the early 2000s. Plenty of optimism surrounded the arrival of McCarney to Denton, and with just cause. The energetic and fiery Iowa native is slowly moving things back in the right direction, and has compiled an 18-19 record in three seasons for North Texas. Obviously, these aren’t earth shattering numbers, but the 9-4 finish this season and a noted dedication to recruiting local high school talent over the traditional focus on junior college fill-ins has several implications for the program, and the overall balance of power in college football in the state, going forward. Read more at http://www.rantsports.com/ncaa-football/2014/01/03/north-texas-mean-green-are-lone-star-states-waking-giant/?55T68xmC5hDVB3uf.99

Thought this was an interesting article. The good news is that we would have made the cut!

Always fun to see how they rank everyone. 42. East Carolina (6-2, 3-1) 45. North Texas (6-3, 4-1) – UP 20 55. Marshall (5-3, 3-1) 57. Rice (6-3, 4-1) – DOWN 10 72. Tulane (6-3, 4-1) – DOWN 32 74. Middle Tennessee State (5-4, 3-2) 89. UTSA (4-5, 3-2) 95. Louisiana Tech (3-5, 2-2) 97. Florida Atlantic (3-6, 2-4) – UP 9 100. Tulsa (2-6, 1-3) – DOWN 5 113. UAB (2-6, 1-3) 115. UTEP (1-7, 0-4) 117. Florida International (1-7, 1-3) 122. Southern Mississippi (0-8, 0-4) Read more.

7: Snaps inside its own 3-yard line on the same possession that North Texas (6-3) stopped Rice in the fourth quarter. The Mean Green were called for defensive holding after apparently stopping the Owls on fourth-and-goal from the 6. The next set of downs ended with a fourth-down sack by Lairamie Lee to help preserve a 28-16 victory. Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2013/11/03/go-figure-fresno-state-michigan-state-north-texas/3412901/

NEW YORK (AP) — College football's Davids will get fewer chances to knock off the Goliaths in the coming years. Part of the fallout of the sweeping changes coming to college sports will be a decrease in so-called guarantee games in football, where a power conference school pays hundreds of thousands of dollars to have a team from a lesser league play at its stadium. The result will be far fewer opportunities for embarrassing blowouts (Oklahoma State 84, Savannah State 0) and startling upsets (Appalachian State 34, Michigan 32). Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said it would be good for college football and that he is "not very sympathetic" to the potential loss of revenue to the schools on the receiving end of the checks. The commissioners of the lower-revenue conferences say losing the pay days won't kill their leagues, and that giving players from smaller schools a chance to compete on the big stage has value. "Traditionally, we play the Big Ten a lot," Mid-American Conference Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher said in a phone interview Friday. "We're in the neighborhood so that makes a lot of sense." MAC teams will play 13 games against Big Ten teams this season, plus six against the SEC and two each against the Big 12 and Atlantic Coast Conference, and many of them fall into the category of guarantee games. The shift to nine-game conference schedules, along with an increased emphasis on strength of schedule for the coming College Football Playoff, all but guarantee fewer opportunities for the other five conferences (MAC, Sun Belt, Mountain West, American Athletic and Conference USA) in FBS to play the top five. Add in the need for the power conferences to beef up their schedules to create made-for-TV matchups to justify the millions they are getting in media rights deals, plus a possible reconfiguration of Division I, and it leads to speculation that the big five will be playing exclusively among themselves at some point. read more: http://www.meangreensports.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/marcus_trice_847388.html

Former Texas-El Paso coach Mike Price's lasting legacy isn't that he won four or five games in five of last seven seasons with the Miners, but that he made winning four or five games a disappointment. Stick with me here. UTEP played football before Price arrived, did so for the better part of a century, yet never — OK, almost never — did it well. How many times did the Miners win four or more games from 1975 through 2003, the year prior to Price's arrival? Six times. So Price's run ended on a low note, especially given how well the Miners opened under his watch — at least eight wins each season in 2004 and '05 — but in the long run, Price changed the way UTEP views itself. That's some legacy, right? In short, UTEP needs quite a bit to go its way in order to crack through the ceiling and reach bowl eligibility. The year could get out of control before it begins, thanks to a tough early stretch, and the Miners also get Houston and Southern Mississippi on the road over the final four games. If UTEP wins three or four games, does the program make a coaching change? If the school wants to snap out of this funk, it might have no choice. 2012 RECAP — In a nutshell: Price's run with UTEP ended poorly, at 3-9, though the Miners can take some solace in the fact that six of those nine losses were by 11 points or fewer. A seventh loss came to Oklahoma, 24-7, and an eighth to Mississippi. On the other hand, the three wins came against New Mexico State, Tulane and Southern Mississippi — nothing to write home about, in short. So this wasn't a great team by any means; nor was it a terrible team, and certainly not one that should have lost nine games during the regular season. Eight, maybe. Seven. Not nine. — High point: A 34-33 win over Southern Mississippi in November. UTEP could exhale: USM was winless, and no one wants to lose to a winless team in November. — Low point: The offense was missing in action most of last season, but never more so than Oct. 6 in a 17-0 loss to SMU. The shutout was the second of Price's career, joining a 48-0 loss to Montana State as the coach at Weber State in 1984. — Tidbit: UTEP has only two winning streaks of more than six games in program history: 2004 (under Price) and 2000 (under Gary Nord). The Miners have only one 10-win season, the fewest of any FBS program in the state of Texas with the exception of Texas-San Antonio, which only christened its program in 2011. — Tidbit (turnovers edition): UTEP is 10-6 the past six seasons when not committing a turnover. As that total suggests, it's not an overly common occurrence. Twice in this span, in 2011 and 2007, UTEP had at least one giveaway in every game. FORMER PLAYERS IN THE NFL — 10: WR Kris Adams (New York Giants), G Eloy Atkinson (Tennessee), RB Joe Banyard (Minnesota), S Antwon Blake (Jacksonville), CB Cornelius Brown (San Diego), OT Oniel Cousins (Cleveland), S Da'Mon Cromartie-Smith (Pittsburgh), WR Donavon Kemp (Dallas), CB Drew Thomas (St. Louis), CB Darren Woodard (St. Louis). ARBITRARY TOP FIVE LIST — Alabama coaches, 1997-2007 1. Dennis Franchione (18-8, 2001-02). 2. Mike Price (0-0, 2003). 3. Mike Shula (26-23, 2003-06). 4. Joe Kines (0-1, 2006). 5. Mike DuBose (24-23, 1997-2000). COACHING — Sean Kugler (UTEP '89), entering his first season. Kugler played at UTEP and later spent eight seasons as an assistant, the last six with the offensive line, making him an attractive candidate for the university following Price's retirement after last season. "We're so pleased to get Sean back at UTEP," UTEP athletics director Bob Stull said when Kugler was hired, and the feeling is mutual. After spending a dozen years away, one on the FBS level and 11 in the NFL, Kugler is back at his alma mater. Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2013/05/21/utep-college-football-countdown-2013-preview/2326879/