Report: North Texas fires head football coach Seth Littrell

North Texas has fired head football coach Seth Littrell, according to a report from The Athletic’s Sam Khan Jr. The move comes on the heels of a 48-27 loss to UTSA in the Conference USA Championship Game on Friday.

Littrell spent seven seasons as the coach of the Mean Green, leading them to a 44-44 record in that span. This season, North Texas ended the year with a record of 7-6 and earned a bid to face Boise State in the Frisco Bowl.

A former Oklahoma fullback, Littrell was a member of the Sooners’ most recent national championship team in 2000. He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Kansas in 2002 and later went on to serve as an assistant coach at Arizona, Indiana and North Carolina, eventually taking on the role of associate head coach for the Tar Heels. When North Texas offered him the job in 2016, it was the first head coaching opportunity of his career.

Littrell’s seven wins this season were the most for North Texas since 2018, when the Mean Green finished 9-4. He led UNT to a bowl game in six of his seven seasons, but failed to win a single one of those contests.

Perhaps Littrell’s biggest contribution to the program was recruiting quarterback Mason Fine, who served as the team’s starter from 2017-19. Fine went on to set program records for both career passing yards (12,505) and touchdowns (93). Littrell also enjoyed his most success as a coach with Fine under center, leading the Mean Green to back-to-back nine-win seasons in 2017 and 2018.

North Texas’ decision to fire Seth Littrell also comes at a convenient time. The Mean Green are set to move from Conference USA to the American Athletic Conference next season, and will now do so under new leadership.