North Texas AD Rick Villarreal stepping down after 16 years
DENTON, Texas (AP) — North Texas athletic director Rick Villarreal is stepping down after 16 years, a tenure marked by persistent instability in the football program despite the building of a new stadium.
Villarreal said Monday the resignation was a "mutual agreement" with school President Neal Smatresk, who plans to hire an interim athletic director before deciding how to proceed with a search for a permanent replacement.
Dickey's firing a few weeks after he suffered a heart attack angered prominent Houston businessman and North Texas booster Jim McIngvale, a furniture store owner known in Southeast Texas as "Mattress Mack" because of his goofy radio and TV ads.