89rabbit
August 29th, 2009, 04:11 AM
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_13227316
unc football
Tough transition for UNC football
Program struggling after making bold jump
By Terry Frei
The Denver Post
GREELEY — Early in the decade, when the University of Northern Colorado committed to taking its athletic program to Division I and upgrading the Bears football program to Division I-AA, transitional struggles were inevitable.
Yet even the worst pessimist couldn't have envisioned what at least on paper looks to be a mess: The Bears, who won back-to-back Division II football national championships in 1996 and 1997, have gone 3-31 overall and 2-22 in league play in their first three seasons as a member of the Big Sky Conference.
That coincides with the tenure of Scott Downing, a former Wyoming, Purdue and Nebraska assistant who UNC hired to succeed Kay Dalton as head coach after the 2005 season.
"The job here was probably a little bit bigger than I thought it was when I came," Downing said Wednesday after practice, near the ongoing construction project at Butler-Hancock Sports Pavilion that will give the Bears upgraded locker room and training facilities. . . . (read more)
unc football
Tough transition for UNC football
Program struggling after making bold jump
By Terry Frei
The Denver Post
GREELEY — Early in the decade, when the University of Northern Colorado committed to taking its athletic program to Division I and upgrading the Bears football program to Division I-AA, transitional struggles were inevitable.
Yet even the worst pessimist couldn't have envisioned what at least on paper looks to be a mess: The Bears, who won back-to-back Division II football national championships in 1996 and 1997, have gone 3-31 overall and 2-22 in league play in their first three seasons as a member of the Big Sky Conference.
That coincides with the tenure of Scott Downing, a former Wyoming, Purdue and Nebraska assistant who UNC hired to succeed Kay Dalton as head coach after the 2005 season.
"The job here was probably a little bit bigger than I thought it was when I came," Downing said Wednesday after practice, near the ongoing construction project at Butler-Hancock Sports Pavilion that will give the Bears upgraded locker room and training facilities. . . . (read more)