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On why it was so important to ‘do his own thing.’ … “I learned a valuable lesson watching Brian Schottenheimer. He came into a situation where he tried to run an offense that was already in place and didn’t run his offense, so to speak. I didn’t want get into a situation like that after watching the difficulties that he had. When you do that – and I watched it happen – as a coordinator, and it’s not really your stamp but it’s your name, that’s not a good gig. That’s why I chose to go to North Texas with a guy I think is a rising star as a head coach and a great friend of mine. I absolutely love him. And I have the opportunity to do exactly what I believe in.” On settling on North Texas in Dallas as his next destination … “I had a chance to go to another SEC school, a couple of Big Ten schools, the Pac-12. But it wasn’t as sole coordinator. I want to get out front and lead and do it the way I want to do it and treat kids the way I want to do it, and I want to work with people I want to work with. I don’t want to be in rooms with people I don’t enjoy and don’t have much in common with.” On what if anything you’d change about college football coaching if you could … “People talk about hiring great recruiters; I think that’s an absolute joke. If you’re labeled that, 99 percent of the time that means you can’t coach a lick. That’s a fact. There are very few exceptions. Ed Orgeron is a fantastic recruiter and he’s probably the best defensive line coach of them all. The guy is big-time. It’s great to recruit 5-stars, but then they come in and play like 2-stars. It’s too bad that’s how this profession is, but that’s part of the deal now. “It’s not about recruiting, it’s about evaluating. That’s one of the things I learned from Ed Orgeron. It doesn’t matter if he’s a 2-star or a 5-star, it’s how you evaluate it and what you think you can do with him. That’s what I learned from him. Again, you recruit them. But there’s only about five players in the country that are totally different than everybody else. Everybody else can fall into a similar category. At that point it’s about developing and teaching. It’s about evaluating and developing your talent. And that’s a fact.” read more: https://www.dawgnation.com/football/team-news/an-exit-interview-with-former-uga-assistant-mike-ekeler

UNT coach Dan McCarney will begin interviewing candidates to become the Mean Green’s new defensive coordinator next week. John Skladany spent three seasons in that capacity at UNT before electing to retire. McCarney’s long-time right-hand man completed his career with the Mean Green this past season, the pair’s 13th working together. McCarney has said ever since announcing this fall that Skladany is retiring that there has been tremendous interest in the position. Skladany was a veteran coach who worked as a coordinator at Central Florida, Houston and Iowa State, where he spent 10 seasons with McCarney, before arriving at UNT. Read more: http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2014/12/unt-defensive-coordinator-update.html/