One of the good guys in the history of UNT football assistants (not to mention one of the more successful) was in the news yesterday.

Freddie Kitchens, who was an assistant at UNT during the bowl years from 2001-03 had major heart surgery.

It sounds like he will be OK, but one always worries about people after major surgery like that.

Kitchens was a really good recruiter during his time at UNT and was part of a powerhouse staff that included Darrell Dickey (four bowl games, four conference titles), Eric Russell (Washington State assistant head coach), Spencer Leftwhich (Pitt, Tulsa, Arizona, UTEP assistant), Kenny Evans (former National Assistant Coach of the Year by the Football Foundation, head coach Northeastern State) and Ramon Flanigan (now the head coach at Lincoln).

Kitchen was UNT’s running backs coach and coached national rushing champion Patrick Cobbs and another Hall of Famer in Kevin Galbreth. He was also on the staff for UNT’s New Orleans Bowl win over Cincinnati.

Kitchens has been coaching in the NFL for some time now.

And in other news, the story of Christian Beard’s recruitment has gotten pretty weird.

I mentioned him on the blog yesterday because UNT had offered him a scholarship before he decided to commit to SMU, the program UNT fans loathe.

I won’t go into the full story, because I don’t know for sure what the full story is, but somehow there was a question about whether SMU would take Beard or not after he committed. He ended up backing out and is back on the market. He would be a good get for UNT.

I’ve been working for several weeks on a project story that will run in Sunday’s paper about UNT’s effort to improve its talent level as it heads out on its annual camp series.

Part of the idea is to illustrate how far UNT has come with the improvement in its facilities and how that should help recruiting, and thus, the results on the field.

Which brings us to UNT’s eight-year bowl brought.

UNT snapped a 42-year bowl brought (the nation’s longest) back in 2001, when it went to the first of four straight New Orleans Bowls. UNT hasn’t been back to a bowl since 2004, which brought up the question of where the Mean Green’s eight-year dry spell ranks.

It’s tied for sixth with UAB.

Here’s the list (team and last appearance):

New Mexico State — 1960
Eastern Michigan — 1987
UNLV — 2000
Tulane — 2002
Washington State — 2003
North Texas and UAB — 2004

UNT appears to be on the right track under Dan McCarney and could end that drought soon.

It’s just amazing to think that UNT had the nation’s longest bowl drought and is once again inching toward having the longest drought in the country again.

North Texas senior Steven White advanced to the NCAA finals in the 400 hurdles on Wednesday night. (Denton Record-Chronicle/Al Key)

One of those feel-good stories in UNT sports unfolded last night. Track isn’t usually something we talk about on the blog, but I think it merits repeating.

Steven White came pretty close to advancing to the NCAA finals last season in the 400-meter hurdles. It’s one of those events where a split second matters — and matters a lot.

White had one last chance to advance to the finals last night, and he took full advantage, posting a school-record time of 49.82 seconds. I wrote a short story about it for today’s paper.

White earned All-America honors by getting to the finals, which will take place at at 6:40 p.m. Friday. He has a chance to land on the medal stand, which would be one of the more noteworthy accomplishments for a UNT athlete in some time.

It might also be White’s last race. He is still trying to decide if he wants to run professionally. Running college track is hard. Those kids run the indoor season, the outdoor season and train pretty much all year.

I’ve talked to White several times over the years. He seems like a good guy. It’s nice to see him reap the benefits of all that work.

And now that we have talked about the feel-good story of the day, it’s on to a decidedly less happy note.

I used to keep track of the players UNT has offered scholarships to in football and ran a list of where they ended up. It filled in some of the dead time in the summer and offered some perspective of who UNT was competing with in recruiting.

There was a faction of UNT fans who were not real big fans of it, so now I only mention guys when there is a really good reason, like if they commit to SMU, the school Mean Green fans loathe above all others. The recruiting battles between the Metroplex rivals have also become more relevant now that the schools are about to begin a long-term series.

The first recruiting UNT-SMU recruiting battle went to SMU yesterday when Waco Midway lineman Christian Beard committed to the Ponies. over UNT, Louisiana-Monroe and Central Arkansas. Beard’s father played for SMU. Not a huge loss or a battle UNT was going to win considering the family connections, but the UNT-SMU recruiting wars are ones we will watch over the next few months.

UNT has three good prospects on the board so far, as long as they all follow through and sign. The school’s summer camps series that usually produce some commitments begin Sunday.

Stay tuned.

Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin talked about Kelvin Gaines’ decision to transfer to UNT today with Bill Koch of the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Cronin echoed what UNT head coach Tony Benford expressed yesterday. Cronin said that Gaines is a good guy and a great student who needed to move on to find more playing time.

“Transferring is a good move for him,” Cronin said. “He did a great job academically. I’m extremely proud of him. He’s a wonderful young man.

Gaines is graduating in just three years and will have two years left to play at UNT.

“He wanted to play,” Cronin said. “I don’t want an upperclassman sitting around not playing when he could go other places and get a chance to play. He’s more than fulfilled his requirements with us and did great job getting his degree. He had some injuries that held him back. He had thought about some other high major schools. We talked about it and I told him you need to make sure you’re going to play.”

Gaines averaged 0.5 points and 1.4 rebounds a game last year. He’s 6-10 and a shot blocker. In other words, he seems like a good for for UNT’s needs post-Tony Mitchell.

UNT has some size coming in. The addition of Gaines will give UNT another frontcourt player with Division I experience. Gaines will also have a chance to continue his career after it looked pretty obvious that he was going to be bumped off Cincinnati’s roster after the Bearcats added Jermaine Lawrence.

This has been said before, but in this instance, it looks like everyone wins, from the player to both schools involved.

Following the addition of Kelvin Gaines to UNT’s roster yesterday, I started taking a look at the Mean Green’s roster for next season and doing the math.

UNT has six scholarship players set to return:
Keith Coleman, Chris Jones, Jordan Williams, T.J. Taylor, Alzee Williams and Brandan Walton.

To that group UNT has added:
Kelvin Gaines, Vertrail Vaughns, Collin Voss, Armani Flannigan, Tony Nunn, Josh Friar and Greg Wesley.

That’s 13 players, which is the NCAA scholarship limit.

Head coach Tony Benford said that he could add another player or two to that group.

He reiterated this morning that is still the case, but everyone UNT has on the roster right now will return next season.

If UNT does add to its current group of players and goes over the limit, it will be a “situation that will work itself out” by the beginning of the season.

Benford said that UNT will have 13 scholarship players when it counts, and that is when the season starts.

We will just have to see how it plays out over the next few months.

We have been writing about Kelvin Gaines for the last several days leading up to the news this afternoon that he has indeed decided to transfer from Cincinnati to UNT.

I was hoping to have a little more to add to the conversation and did pick up some perspective from Tony Benford. I called Gaines, who confirmed the news that he is on the move. He didn’t want to talk outside of that until he had a chance to sit down with Mick Cronin, the head coach at Cincinnati.

I have said all along that everyone I have talked to has said that Gaines is a good guy and a smart one.

It certainly seems like Gaines is making the stand-up move by waiting to talk to his coach before talking to everyone else about leaving Cincinnati.

As far as what Tony Benford had to say, he believes Gaines fills a rather large need on the defensive end and gives UNT the shot blocker it could really use after the departure of Tony Mitchell. Gaines blocked 39 shots in two seasons at Cincinnati, despite playing just 276 minutes during an injury-plagued stay at the school.

Gaines has two years left to play and will be eligible this fall.

“He’s mature, has been in a winning program, has a lot of character, athleticism and toughness,” Benford said. “Coach Croinin is a great coach, so he has been through Big East-level practices and knows how to work. With the guys that we lost, he will be able to step in and protect the rim.”

Benford believes UNT will have good offensive balance and improved outside shooting next season. Gaines adds a little muscle under the basket.

The addition of Gaines, who is 6-10, also continues the trend of UNT adding high-level athletes.

I’ll tell you this much. UNT is going to look good coming off the bus and in the layup line next year. UNT has added not only Gaines, but Collin Voss (a former DI tight end recruit), Armani Flannigan (who is supposed to be a Tony Mitchell level dunk artist) and Josh Friar (another big guy who looks the part). And don’t forget Keith Coleman, another huge guy.

What will be interesting to see is if all that physical talent translates to the court and into wins.

And in a side note, don’t count out the possibility of UNT continuing to turn its roster over. Benford said publicly that he wanted to bring in another wing player. It wouldn’t surprise me if somehow Maurice Aniefiok, a former Ole Miss wing who spent last season at Collin County Community College and was briefly committed to Tulsa finds his way on to the roster by the beginning of the season.

If he does, or if UNT adds another player or two, that would put the team over the scholarship limit.

Kelvin Gaines, a 6-10 center who has spent the last three years at Cincinnati, signed a grant-in-aid agreement today and will join the UNT men’s basketball program, head coach Tony Benford confirmed this afternoon.

Gaines will have two years of eligibility remaining.

Gaines redshirted his first season at Cincinnati and then played sparingly the last two years. He played an average of 6.0 minutes in 22 games for the Bearcats last season, when he averaged 0.5 points and 1.4 rebounds a game.

Gaines spent his senior season at Arlington Country Day in Jacksonville, Fla.

Check back for more later on the story throughout the day.

Iowa released its schedule for the 2015 season yesterday. I haven’t had a chance to comment on it until now.

UNT is headed to play at Iowa on Sept. 26, which was previously mentioned in the Mean Green’s spring prospectus.

We can debate all day whether or not how it will work out for UNT in terms of home-away balance.

UNT is on record saying that it will try to keep a six-game home schedule and that it wants to play a major conference team every year. This season’s “money” or “opportunity” game, depending on your point of view, is at Georgia.

Going to Iowa in 2015 and 2017 is as good a pick as any, especially considering UNT’s connection with the Hawkeyes. UNT and Iowa have never played, but Iowa did manage to steal Hayden Fry after the 1978 season.

Fry led UNT to four straight winning seasons and is arguably the best coach in program history, not to mention unquestionably the most popular.

In case you don’t believe me, just talk to an older UNT fan or two. You don’t even have to ask about Hayden Fry. Just mention that you cut your grass yesterday or that you saw a white squirrel run across the road.

That will likely launch you into a “that reminds me of one time when Hayden Fry” story.

I’m kidding.

I think.

The Fry connection will be explored in depth heading into that game, especially if Dan McCarney, a member of the Fry coaching tree, is still leading the Mean Green. Considering he is off to a pretty good start after taking over a program in a ditch, there is a good chance he will still be around, if his health holds up. And even if he isn’t coaching at that point due to health concerns, he could be at UNT in another capacity.

UNT has gone down the road of playing a host of SEC powers on the road.

Iowa seems like as good a choice as any for another option.

Iseed Khoury, a UNT Hall of Famer who was the a standout kicker as well as a soccer star for the Mean Green, is leaving town.

Khoury has been the head girls soccer coach at Denton for more than a decade and had a ton of success there, including winning state titles in 2003 and 2004. He also essentially founded the Denton Soccer Association.

Khoury is to Denton like the Statue of Liberty is to New York, like the Space Needle is to Seattle, like really bad garage bands are to Denton.

That will all change now. Khoury is headed to Frisco Wakeland.

Denton has a lot of soccer talent that is now spread a little thinner with three high schools. The Broncos are pretty much struggling across the board in athletics.

Khoury will have a whole lot more to work with at Wakeland.

It’s just too bad to see him leave town.

And on the basketball front, it’s looking more and more like Kelvin Gaines, a center looking to transfer out of Cincinnati, is going to sign with UNT. I expect this to all become official tomorrow.

In a side note, I have been taking a bit of a beating from UNT fans via e-mail for saying that Gaines reminded me of a thinner version of George Odufuwa. Ok, Odufuwa was listed at 6-8, 240, his final season at UNT. Gaines was listed at 6-10, 227, last season at Cincinnati.

I said Gaines reminded me of Odufuwa, not that I got out a tape measure and had him stand against the wall.

Former North Texas forward Roger Franklin will represent the U.S. during a tour of China beginning later this week. (Denton Record-Chronicle/David Minton)

Roger Franklin will represent the U.S. in the Four Nations Challenge in China beginning Friday.

I talked to Franklin about the nine-game, 12-day tour this afternoon and will have a story on his trip later in the week.

It’s a great deal for Franklin, one that will offer him the opportunity to play in front of coaches and general managers of overseas teams. Franklin plans to begin his pro career after the tournament.

Franklin had a solid career at UNT after transferring from Oklahoma State. He was one of UNT’s leaders and represented the university well.

Now he’ll have the chance to represent his country.