Wednesday, December 15, 2010

UNT staff starting to look like Jayhawk South

Dan McCarney made the hirings of special teams/tight ends coach Kent Riddle, offensive line coach Justin Frye and defensive line coach Mike Nelson official today. He did the same Tuesday with defensive coordinator/safeties Clint Bowen, assistant head coach/receivers Nick Quartaro and associate head coach/offensive coordinator/quarterbacks Mike Canales.

We've known about Nelson and Canales for weeks, since they were retained from the former staff. Quartaro was a late addition when McCarney decided not to retain Conroy Hines, who had to swing in the wind for a while. Quartaro and Bowen both have long ties to the program at Kansas. Fry played at Indiana and was an offensive line graduate assistant at Florida for two years. Riddle has been at Colorado but apparently helped Boise State develop some of its famed trickeration in previous years.

We were the first to tell you Monday that Montana State DBs coach Justin Gaines was joining the staff as cornerbacks coach. That hire isn't "official" yet, but it's unofficial. Sources told us about Bowen, Frye, Riddle and strength coach Frank Wintrich last Wednesday and Thursday, as per the time stamps on this blog.

As for any douches out there who can't help but tell anyone who will listen how right they always are, Bowen did in fact interview last Thursday at Indiana after accepting the UNT job in principle. No one -- at least in this space -- ever said he was taking a job there. It's great that he didn't, but any assertions that Kevin Wilson wasn't interviewing assistants then is, well, smoking something. Congratulations to Bowen for landing a good gig, and he'll be an asset to UNT, obviously.

So, this is the lineup so far:

OC/quarterbacks: Canales
Running backs: ?
Receivers: Quartaro
Offensive line: Frye
Tight ends: Riddle
DC/safeties: Bowen
Defensive line: Nelson
Linebackers: ?
Cornerbacks: Gaines
Special teams: Riddle
Strength/conditioning: Wintrich

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