Stoops, Ferentz and the legendary '83 Iowa staff's impact on 2015 CFP race

meangreen15 · November 18, 2015

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/14120644/kirk-ferentz-bob-stoops-iowa-legendary-1983-staff-make-impact-2015-playoff-race

Coach Fry had a helluva staff back in '83.

Here is the part about Mac.

Dan McCarney

Iowa defensive line coach: 1983
Iowa State head coach: 1995-2006
North Texas head coach: 2011-2015
Career record: 79-116

It was such an amazing group of people. Coach probably saw things in all of us that we didn't even see in ourselves.

He had such an ability to empower you. He had what he expected, what needed to get done, but he let you do it in your own personality.

I don't remember one time in 11 years him ever chewing one of us out individually. He's say things like, "A couple of you guys better get your butts in gear and do a better job of recruiting." And of course you are you thinking, "Well, who the hell are those couple of guys?" So he obviously kept everybody on edge.

None of us, I think, would have ever become a head coach if not for Hayden Fry and the opportunity he gave us.

You don't want to sit around and pat yourself on the back, but I think he just saw there was loyalty, there definitely had to be some talent there and there were guys who really responded to challenges and obstacles. I never ever wanted him to let him down, to regret hiring me.

Coach Fry would tell us, "I don't want guys on this staff who don't want to be head coaches." I don't think any of us doubted we all had that down deep, but we didn't sit around talking about it. We were too consumed with our day-to-day responsibilities.

There are only 128 Division I [FBS] head coaches in America. And to look at all of us that got opportunities to become had coaches, it's really amazing, it really is.

Ben Gooding · November 18, 2015

yaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

Harry · November 18, 2015

I tend to agree with Ben on this. Fry was a great era. But I am ready to move on past that now that Dan is gone.

MGNation92 · November 18, 2015

Kind of sad that out of every single one of Fry's assistants that went on to be head coaches, we got the one who sucks compared to the rest. All the others had/have winning records. Mac was the only one not to.

untjim1995 · November 18, 2015

Kind of sad that out of every single one of Fry's assistants that went on to be head coaches, we got the one who sucks compared to the rest. All the others had/have winning records. Mac was the only one not to.

I'll believe until the day I dies that Mac never thought for one second that it would be so tough to recruit here to UNT. I think he thought this was going to be exactly like it was at South Florida, where he went to coach just after losing his job at Iowa State. A huge public university, within a metro area of a recruiting hotbed, with a brand new stadium...I truly believed that he figured this place would sell itself. And I think he stuck with his Woody Hayes offense as a way to differentiate UNT from others when recruiting. But he couldn't get one (ONE!!) Texas HS QB to come here that could play at this level, meaning he had to rely even more on the running game. Obviously, McNulty as a starter was the gigantic mistake that couldn't be overcome, to the point that the whole team just gave up. But Mac thought he had found a place that would be the perfect spot to build up a program from the ashes and cash it into a huge retirement infusion--and he did with that 2013 team full of Dodge's skilled recruits. But when they left, the whole house began to crumble on the sand it was built upon. Once 2014 began to fall apart, his frustrations at being so wrong began to come out in media and fan interactions--and once that happens, you're done with recruiting victories for most recruits against your peers.

Whoever takes this job has to overcome the overall apathy of the UNT family, the losing that recruits, Texas High School Coaches, and their parents have only known about UNT for the better part of 20 years as a FBS program, and the fact that you are the lowest FBS school on the totem pole right now with the media and the fans who still follow the team. And, oh by the way, a roster full of mostly low-ranked players that have openly quit and allowed themselves to get beat by 59 points in the worst loss in modern college football history with no decent QB to lead the team. This isn't even considering the fact that you have the worst AD in America to work for...its gonna take some serious time, like 3-4 years, to get this thing back to even a .500 record. Its highly probable that next year's team will be like Dodge's first squad here at UNT or how Chad Morris has done at SMU this year, where you win 1 or 2 games. This roster just has too many huge holes to expect anything different. Chad Morris is finding out the same thing at SMU, especially as their conference has had its best season ever because of the success that Navy, Houston, Memphis, and Temple have all enjoyed this year. Its gonna take them a few more years to get back up to where June Jones had the program before he quit on them, if then. I believe that same thing will be in play here, except for the tough conference schedule. CUSA is weak right now--its just that we are the weakest link in the group right now. That SMU-UNT game next year in Denton will be one of the few winnable games that either school plays in 2016.