North Texas Head Football Coach Dan McCarney thought the University of Louisiana-Lafayette coaching staff has done a great job in their first year. “They have a good system. They’re solid. They know what they are doing.”

He emphasized “speed, speed, speed. Team speed” it is what the Cajuns have and what he wants to work on with the players on North Texas. “We’ve gotta get more, we have to recruit it” and they are going to have to develop it with the players they have.

McCarney pointed out that the players on team have the desire to win, have the ethics to win, have the will to win, have the talent to win but the area they are lacking in is team speed. It was the thing he noticed the most in the UL-L game and when he first came to the program.

The fourth quarter UL-L  hit a couple of big plays but the coach stated he did not think the defense was tired because the offense wasn’t getting the job done. When the defense is expecting a pass and in “a deep third, that should never, ever, ever happen.” He thought it was more technique which is something the coaches have to work on to get the player to have better understanding of what he is suppose to be doing in certain coverages. McCarney said the techniques his is referring to are taught in ninth grade football.

“I’m not going to throw a player under the bus” because there is a problem with communications when a player gets beat in three deep coverage and “we as coaches” have to teach better and coach better.

Cox television in Lafayette kept referring to someone else as the head coach of North Texas and showed him on a cellphone. The McCarney stated “I have a face for radio” but he thought that it did not do justice to the program, to him and it was unprofessional.

North Texas has been having problem with field goal kicking and he felt the problem was with technique.  He stated Offensive Line Coach Mike Simmons takes great pride in the protection for the point after and field goal attempts. None of the kids are taking off during the attempts, they are fighting hard. Opposing coaches look for a weakness of the line and try to exploit it. They look for a player to make one little mistake like looking down, or slightly out of place etc. He doesn't think things like that are happening, he feels the coaching staff has to improve the players techniques and things will get better.

Sophomore Quarterback Brent Osborne has been in third place on the depth chart while Freshman Andrew McNulty has gotten in games. The main reason this has happened is in practice, Osborne has not be as consistent as McNulty and starting Quarterback Derek Thompson. In fact, Thompson and McNulty are pulling away from him. He can turn things around but he is the one that has to do it.

The coach is extremely happy that he has started true freshman Linebacker Michael Stojkovic. “He’s relentless, he makes plays” and “he is playing winning football for North Texas.”

The offensive line is playing a lot of freshman this year and the coach stated it was because “it’s the best that we have.”  There are several offensive linemen that are no longer with the program because if they were ready to play winning football they would still be with the program.  “Did I run them out? No. Did I run any of them out? Absolutely not, I don’t do that.” Some players figure out that this is not what they want and leave.

“There’s no reason that should happen” McCarney stated when talking about the Texas players that are playing for Louisiana-Monroe. Those Texas players just dominated Troy and they could have played at North Texas. He wants to know why they would want to leave Texas when they have everything they need here.  The coaches are going to have to do a better job evaluating the players, recruit better, close the deals and convince the players and families North Texas is where to play.