North Texas after Seth Littrell: How good is Mean Green job? Who are candidates?

The Seth Littrell era is over at North Texas. Littrell was fired Sunday, two days after the Mean Green lost to UTSA in the Conference USA championship game.

Littrell was 44-44 in seven seasons. He reached six bowl games, though the Mean Green had a losing record for two of those selections, and they went 0-5 in those bowls. They will play in the Frisco Bowl this year. The high point of Littrell’s tenure came from 2017-18, when North Texas won nine games in consecutive years, and Littrell became a candidate for Power 5 jobs. He nearly took the Kansas State job, but the sides couldn’t come to an agreement.

But the graduation of record-setting quarterback Mason Fine led to another downturn, and UNT’s defense over the past few years has been among the worst in the country. After a 1-6 start last year, the Mean Green won five in a row to get to a bowl game. At one point across 2021 and 2022, UNT had won 10 of 11 C-USA games. But it also lost 48-10 to future conference rival SMU and lost 48-27 in the C-USA championship game.

“I believe we are positioned to be highly competitive in the American Athletic Conference,” president Neal Smatresk said in a statement. “We have the benefit of a passionate fan base, great facilities and resources, and we are committed to excellence in football with a support system that is dedicated to developing elite student-athletes. We will be looking for a leader with the vision, energy, commitment and organizational skills to elevate our program to a championship level.

Because of its location and investment, there will be a lot of interest in this job, especially as it prepares to move to the AAC next year. But it also doesn’t have much success in its history.

So how good is the North Texas job? What names could get in the mix? Here are some factors to keep in mind.

Seth Littrell finished with a .500 records in seven seasons. (Denny Medley / USA Today)

Who will make the hire?

Athletic director Wren Baker left for the same job at West Virginia. Will the school hire a new coach with Smatresk and interim AD Jared Mosley and stick the new AD with a coach the new AD didn’t hire? Will it hire a new AD and let that person make the hire?

With the transfer portal opening, time is of the essence. In many ways, it would have been beneficial for UNT to make this move a week ago. But the Mean Green had a championship game to play.

It’s a great area for recruiting. Will Texas ties be required?

North Texas is in Denton, just north of Fort Worth and northwest of Dallas, one of the strongest areas in the country for high school football. You can find more than 100 Division I players within a one-hour radius. More than 80 players on the current roster are from Texas.

But there’s also lots of competition for those players, especially within the state. UTSA has improved its recruiting in Texas, led by head coach Jeff Traylor, a former Texas high school coach. How important will Texas ties be for the next head coach? At the very least, that coach needs a staff that has deep connections.

North Texas has put a lot of money into the program

Littrell’s $1.9 million salary was near the top of Conference USA, and it was at the top before Traylor got his big contract. That’s the kind of money that can grab the interest of a Power 5 coordinator.

The program also opened an indoor practice facility in 2019, the third-largest of its kind in Texas, and Apogee Stadium is a beautiful facility that is just a decade old. In a state that has high schools with indoor fields and stadiums that cost tens of millions, you need to spend to stand out, and North Texas has done that. The investment to be one of the top Group of 5 programs is there.

UNT is moving to the AAC next season

That location and facilities investment is why UNT earned an invitation from the American Athletic Conference. Between the market, the money and the local talent, all the potential is there. Now North Texas will share the same conference as SMU, its local kind-of rival.

But despite all the potential, North Texas has rarely put it together. The program has had just three winning seasons since 2005, not including the current 7-6 record. It won four or fewer games 11 times in that span. Littrell was the program’s most successful coach since Hayden Fry in the 1970s.

There’s a lot to like about the job, but history says there’s a reason to question it, too.

Justin Fuente went 69-54 at Memphis and Virginia Tech. (Denny Medley / USA Today)

So what names could get in the mix?

Former Virginia Tech head coach Justin Fuente’s name has been mentioned around this job for a few weeks. He’s an Oklahoma native with deep ties in the region and 10 years of head coaching experience. A former TCU assistant, he built Memphis from one of the worst situations in the country into a conference champion in his third season. He also won 19 games in his first two seasons at Virginia Tech. Things unraveled down the stretch, though he finished with a 43-31 record in Blacksburg.

TCU offensive coordinator Garrett Riley is a finalist for the Broyles Award for the nation’s top assistant coach and helped lead the Horned Frogs to the College Football Playoff. The 33-year-old brother of Lincoln Riley has spent the past three years in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, with two seasons at SMU before joining TCU. He’s a Texas native who played at Texas Tech.

Washington State offensive coordinator Eric Morris build Incarnate Word into a strong FCS program. He’s a Lone Star State native who spent nearly all his career in Texas outside of two separate seasons at Washington State. He built the UIW program into what it is now, including a 10-3 season a year ago and an 11-1 record in 2022. Morris was a finalist for the Texas State job that went to G.J. Kinne. Could this Texas job get him back to the state?

Illinois defensive coordinator Ryan Walters is also a Broyles Award finalist, and he spent a season at UNT in 2013 coaching cornerbacks, plus a year as a graduate assistant at Oklahoma. Walters’ Illinois defense leads the nation in points allowed at just 12.3 per game. The Illini held Michigan to 19 points and nearly won in Ann Arbor.

Sam Houston head coach K.C. Keeler was also in the mix for the Texas State job. Sam Houston won the spring 2021 FCS national championship, and he has five top-six finishes since 2014. But the Bearkats are moving up to the FBS next season to be a part of Conference USA. This year’s team went 5-4 in part because a large number of starters are redshirting, as Sam Houston could not compete in the FCS playoffs as a transitioning school. After Texas State hired Kinne, Keeler released a statement that he’d be staying with Sam Houston. Does this news change that?

West Virginia offensive coordinator Graham Harrell was North Texas’ offensive coordinator from 2016-18, coinciding with the Littrell’s most successful seasons. A former Texas Tech quarterback and son of a longtime Texas high school coach, the 37-year-old Harrell knows the state top to bottom.

Texas Tech associate head coach Kenny Perry spent 13 years as a high school head coach in the DFW area and also worked at SMU before the move to Texas Tech. UTSA and Texas Tech have had success in hiring former Texas high school coaches. Could the high-energy Perry be another?

Texas Tech wide receivers coach Emmett Jones is another former Texas high school coach, leading South Oak Cliff in Dallas for three years from 2012 to 2014 after 13 years as a high school assistant. He’s coached at Texas Tech and Kansas at the college level, serving as interim coach in spring 2021 between Les Miles’ resignation and Lance Leipold’s hire.

TCU defensive coordinator Joe Gillespie spent 20 years as a coach at Stephenville High School, including eight as head coach, before moving to Tulsa for six years and joining TCU this season. TCU’s defense allows nearly 10 fewer points per game than a year ago, improving from 118th in scoring defense to 57th. He’s played as big a role as anyone in getting TCU to the CFP.

Los Angeles Rams running backs coach Ra’Shaad Samples was one of the top Texas recruiters while at Houston, Texas and SMU, and the 27-year-old Dallas native was elevated to assistant head coach at SMU last season. He briefly followed Sonny Dykes to TCU before taking the job with the Rams.

(Top photo: Richard Rodriguez / Getty Images)