McCarney on Stoops: "A clothesline tackle waiting to happen"
Published: 2/14/2012 8:59 AM
Last Modified: 2/15/2012 4:43 PM
Dan McCarney coaching Iowa State in 2004. DAVID ZALUBOWSKI/AP file
McCarney was hospitalized in Dallas over last weekend after, according to a tweet by Iowa State women's basketball coach Bill Fennelly, suffering a stroke. North Texas would not specify the cause of McCarney's hospitalization, only that he is "undergoing a battery of tests and will continue to be under observation."
The Mean Green went 5-7 under McCarney last season, their best showing since 2004. Shouldn't be a surprise. The guy proved his coaching mettle in Ames.
I have always respected that, as well as how cordial he has always been with reporters. The last time I interviewed him was in December of 2008, in the run-up to Oklahoma's national championship against Florida. McCarney was coaching the Gators' defensive line. We visited about how good his players were, and the challenges OU's O-linemen brought.
But mostly, we talked about what Bob Stoops meant to him, especially after losing his job at Iowa State.
"I didn't necessarily need a two-hour counseling session. I'm pretty upbeat and positive by nature," McCarney told me then. "But one of the first calls I received was from Bobby. We just talked about all we had done at Iowa State, and the legacy I helped build there and how proud I should be."
The two have known each other since their days at Iowa together, McCarney being Hayden Fry's D-line coach the same time Stoops played safety for the Hawkeyes.
In fact, McCarney gave the Des Moines Register a terrific soundbite about Stoops just last December, ahead of the OU-Iowa Insight Bowl:
"A clothesline tackle waiting to happen. One of the most physical players I've ever been around. I had defensive linemen who could run faster than Stoops, but he got around it by being the smartest player on the field."
That's the kind of stuff that makes it easy to pull for McCarney. Especially at a time like this.
Get well, Coach.
-- Guerin Emig
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
