McCarney leaves Florida for top job at North Texas

By Adam Silverstein
November 28, 2010

Florida Gators assistant head coach, defense/defensive line coach Dan McCarney has accepted an offer to become head coach of the North Texas Mean Green, according to ESPN’s Joe Schad.

McCarney, who has coached at Florida since 2008, will be taking the reins of a program for only the second time in his 33-year coaching career.

After starring as an offensive lineman at Iowa from 1972-74, McCarney became an assistant coach at the school from 1977-89. He later moved on to Wisconsin to be a defensive coordinator and coach the defensive line from 1990-94 before being the head coach of Iowa State for over a decade from 1995-2007. Though he took Iowa State to five bowl games and had his best years from 2004-05, McCarney was let go after a 4-8 season in 2006. He coached the defensive line for South Florida in 2007 before Florida head coach Urban Meyer brought him on staff the following season.

He is the fifth coach to leave the Gators since last year and eighth since the season they won the 2009 BCS National Championship.

ESPN reports that McCarney’s salary will be “in the mid-six figures” and is a “significant jump” over what the previous head coach was paid.

Though multiple sources are reporting that an agreement has been reached between the two parties, Meyer denied knowledge of the situation after the game on Saturday. “No, not that I know of,” Meyer said. “I have not been made aware of that.”

In addition to being located in the talent-rich state of Texas, North Texas will be cracking the seal on a brand new $78 million stadium next season. The Mean Green went 3-9 (3-5) in regular season competition this year.

UPDATE: “I’m happy for Coach McCarney and his family,” Meyer said in a statement released by UF on Nov 30. “He has a proven track record as a head coach and we were fortunate to have him on our staff for the last three years. He did a great job with our defensive line and I fully expect him to be successful at North Texas.”

21 Comments

  1. Todd says:

    Please take Coach Adazzio with you.

  2. Andrewgator says:

    Maybe we’ll get a coach that actually develops the top three defensive line recruits. We haven’t had a pass rush all season and consistently get man handled by run blocking. Enjoy mean green. Great guy, bad results.

  3. David says:

    Hire Randy Shannon TODAY as DL Coach. Pay him a premium. He can recruit like a beast and can provide us great connections to Dade County. He also coached Miami’s defensive positions when that defensive was at its best.

  4. David says:

    Dee Finley just “liked” my post on facebook about the prospect of hiring Randy Shannon. Shows where at least some of the players’ heads are.

  5. Aligator says:

    I pray to god someone offers Addozzio a head coaching job!

  6. Mr2Bits says:

    Well seeing as how our D-Line had 1 sack in the last two games I can’t say I’m really upset. The d-line as a whole has been atrocious this year. I hope this is only the surface on the restructuring of our coaching group this year……wish him the best of luck though!

  7. alex says:

    Adam:

    Finley is from Auburn, Alabama.

  8. Aligator says:

    Hire Randy Shannon as the Defensive coordinator …

  9. E-PAIN says:

    Doubt Shannon would come here, don’t think he’d like working under Urban.

    “That FG will help us more than they will ever know” – lol

  10. g8ter27 says:

    If he would come to Florida then with Shannon on board nobody, and I mean nobody could touch us whenit comes to recruiting. AND as an added bonus, unlike another great recruiter we have, he can actually coach.

  11. gatorade7 says:

    we interviewed Michael Barrow last year…maybe Shannon and Barrow could come as a package to bring toughness and discipline to all this talent

  12. coolgator says:

    Is Shannon a good recruiter? I think Miami were far behind in recruiting ranking this year and they have not been good in recruiting for the last few years despite of the location advantage.

  13. Gatorfan says:

    Steve Addazio for Offensive Coordinator

  14. G8trpls says:

    We don’t need that mild mannered Randy Shannon loser here @ Florida, never.

  15. Aligator says:

    maybe we could pick up a couple of those miami coaches, don’t be surprised to see butch davis go back to miami.

  16. Tampa Tom says:

    Great job this year, GO AWAY

  17. dannyjack says:

    If mccarney has left,the first defensive line coach that i would contact is ODELL HAGGINS!!! Would he accept the FLORIDA offer??? Stranger things have happened and he would be thrilled working with talent like omar hunter,sharrif floyd,etc.etc.

  18. Wingtee says:

    You are funny dannyjack

  19. g6 says:

    bring back zook just to recruit. he sucked as a coach but brought urban his talent.

Leave a Reply to g8ter27 Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Top
WordPress Appliance - Powered by TurnKey Linux