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Dan McCarney reflects on his life and Iowa State Football

Coach Andy Mac

By Coach Andy Mac
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Coach Andy Mac

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Coach McCarney was offered and ultimately accepted another rebuilding job in November 2010.

“Like always, assistant coaches get opportunities,” McCarney said. “That’s what happened to me at Iowa, that’s what happened to me at Wisconsin, that’s what happened to me at South Florida, that’s what happened to me at Florida. And then I got a chance to be a head coach at North Texas where Hayden Fry had been many, many years before.”

This time, it was the University of North Texas in Denton.

The Mean Green were nowhere near as mean as the moniker intended when Coach Mac took over the job, as North Texas had no more than three wins every season since 2005.

“They were in the bottom 10,” McCarney said. “We took them to a bowl championship in 2013. Nine wins. We were voted the best team in school history last year. Then I rode off into the sunset and said ‘You know what? I could have never dreamed of the opportunities, the success and the wonderful memories I had in my time as a football coach.”

read more:  https://www.widerightnattylite.com/platform/amp/2022/1/31/22890407/legends-series-dan-mccarney-reflects-on-his-life-and-iowa-state-football

Edited by Coach Andy Mac
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peanuts104 Veteran

peanuts104

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1 hour ago, Coach Andy Mac said:

Coach McCarney was offered and ultimately accepted another rebuilding job in November 2010.

“Like always, assistant coaches get opportunities,” McCarney said. “That’s what happened to me at Iowa, that’s what happened to me at Wisconsin, that’s what happened to me at South Florida, that’s what happened to me at Florida. And then I got a chance to be a head coach at North Texas where Hayden Fry had been many, many years before.”

This time, it was the University of North Texas in Denton.

The Mean Green were nowhere near as mean as the moniker intended when Coach Mac took over the job, as North Texas had no more than three wins every season since 2005.

“They were in the bottom 10,” McCarney said. “We took them to a bowl championship in 2013. Nine wins. We were voted the best team in school history last year. Then I rode off into the sunset and said ‘You know what? I could have never dreamed of the opportunities, the success and the wonderful memories I had in my time as a football coach.”

read more:  https://www.widerightnattylite.com/platform/amp/2022/1/31/22890407/legends-series-dan-mccarney-reflects-on-his-life-and-iowa-state-football

I respect the hell out of McCarney, but he didn't ride off into the sunset. He crashed it into the ground, after the bowl game, with very few survivors (Jeff Wilson being one of the survivors). If you're going to coach G5 long term, you have to understand the turnover, especially now with the transfer portal (though again, not sure many G5 programs are going to win on the transfer portal, we certainly haven't).

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Cr1028 Grand Master

Cr1028

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9 hours ago, Coach Andy Mac said:

“We took them to a bowl championship in 2013. Nine wins. …. Then I rode off into the sunset

 

Edited by Cr1028
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Cr1028 Grand Master

Cr1028

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1 hour ago, greenjoe said:

These are all valid criticism.  In the end, I liked coach Mc Carney.  

I think we all liked him until he Iowa’d us more than any Iowan has ever Iowa’d an institution outside the state of Iowa.

Iowa lotta gratitude to Mac for the HOD bowl victory and also Iowa lotta disdain toward him for dismantling a great program in large part due to Iowan nepotism. He was Iowa and because Hayden Fry left us for Iowa, Mac ended up here. We had a really great season and then the wheels fell off. I wish we could’ve kept the positive momentum.

4M4r.gif

Iowa.

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untjim1995 Grand Master

untjim1995

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McCarney basically went crazy here--he got here and was a huge positive breath of fresh air. He would go anywhere anytime to hype us up. And as this place is wont to do, we drove him insane. He thought recruiting here would be simple--why wouldn't it be? He just left USF, a big public university in Tampa and recruiting there was not hard, so it stood to reason it would be the same or better at North Texas in Denton. 

And then reality hit...hard. He ran an offense that was basically 180 degrees different from what TX HS offenses run, so we had the worst collection of FBS QBs ever. And as things began to fall down the drain, it led to the debacle of debacles, losing to an FCS program at home on Homecoming by 59 points, which is the worst loss in modern college football history. And rightfully, he got fired on the spot. 

And when Seth Littrell got hired and saw what he had to work with at QB, he immediately realized that they had to be dropped and he got Alec Morris off the Alabama bench and found a gem in Oklahoma that got overlooked because he was too small, some guy named Mason Fine. And in two years, we went from beating UTSA and their 6th string QB by a late TD at home to finish at 1-11, to winning 9 games, a CUSA West division title, and a berth in the NO Bowl, an 8-game improvement in just two years. 

Edited by untjim1995
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Big Z Grand Master

Big Z

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6 hours ago, untjim1995 said:

McCarney basically went crazy here--he got here and was a huge positive breath of fresh air. He would go anywhere anytime to hype us up. And as this place is wont to do, we drove him insane. He thought recruiting here would be simple--why wouldn't it be? He just left USF, a big public university in Tampa and recruiting there was not hard, so it stood to reason it would be the same or better at North Texas in Denton. 

And then reality hit...hard. He ran an offense that was basically 180 degrees different from what TX HS offenses run, so we had the worst collection of FBS QBs ever. And as things began to fall down the drain, it led to the debacle of debacles, losing to an FCS program at home on Homecoming by 59 points, which is the worst loss in modern college football history. And rightfully, he got fired on the spot. 

And when Seth Littrell got hired and saw what he had to work with at QB, he immediately realized that they had to be dropped and he got Alec Morris off the Alabama bench and found a gem in Oklahoma that got overlooked because he was too small, some guy named Mason Fine. And in two years, we went from beating UTSA and their 6th string QB by a late TD at home to finish at 1-11, to winning 9 games, a CUSA West division title, and a berth in the NO Bowl, an 8-game improvement in just two years. 

Biggest gems were Rico, Jaelon and Jaylen 

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DeepGreen Grand Master

DeepGreen

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I wonder if McCarney will request to be buried at the entrance to the Iowa State football stadium.  You know, like A & M’s tradition of burying their mascot Reveille at Kyle Field.

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