Aug. 27, 2014
Game Information
Venue: Darrell K Royal-Memorial Stadium
Capacity: 100,119
Playing Surface: Field Turf
Series Record:Texas leads 9-0
Last Meeting:Texas 56 NT 7 (2006)
In Austin: Texas leads 9-0
Radio: KHYI 95.3 FM
KNTU 88.1 FM
KGAF 1580 AM
TV: Longhorn Network
Live Stats: www.Texassports.com
Webcast: WatchESPN App
NT Game Notes
DENTON - Game week has arrived and the North Texas football team opens the 2014 season on the road at No. 24 Texas. Kickoff at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium is set for 7 p.m. and the game can be seen on the Longhorn Network and heard on the Mean Green Radio Network.
The Mean Green is coming off a 9-4 season, capped by winning the Heart of Dallas Bowl. NT was picked as the preseason favorite to win the West Division of Conference USA in 2014. Texas begins a new era as Charlie Strong enters his first season as the head coach of the Longhorns.
North Texas has never beaten the Texas Longhorns. In seven of the nine games played, all of which have been played in Austin, Texas has been ranked in the top-25. In five of the nine games, the Mean Green has faced the Longhorns while they were ranked in the top-10, including three straight.
Head coach Dan McCarney has won 18 games at North Texas, which already ranks in the top-10 all-time, tied for ninth in coaching wins. McCarney reached 18 wins faster at North Texas than any coach since Rod Rust in 1967-69. McCarney joins Odus Mitchell as the only coaches at North Texas to record a season of at least nine-wins in their first three years.
Mitchell won a school-record 10-games in 1947, his second year. North Texas had the second biggest turnaround in school history from one season to the next in 2013, and the biggest single season turnaround since 1982-83. The 2013 team was just the third in school history to win five or more games from the previous year. The nine wins were tied for the second most in school history.
Texas enters the game ranked No. 24 in the nation in the coaches preseason poll. The Mean Green has beaten one top-25 team in school history, when it knocked off San Diego State, then ranked No. 20, on Nov. 2, 1974, 14-9 at Fouts Field.
The Mean Green forced at least one turnover in every game in 2013, the first such season since 1996, and has produced at least one turnover in 16-straight games. Since returning to FBS football in 1995, North Texas' longest streak of games forcing at least one turnover is 20, from 1995 to 1997.
Dan McCarney and Charlie Strong were assistant coaches at Florida together for 28 games in 2008 and 2009. The pair were part of the Gators 2008 National Championship team, and during their two-year stint together on the defensive staff, Florida had a record of 26-2, winning the national title in 2008 and Sugar Bowl in 2009.
