McCarney was an Iowa City native, who stayed to play with his hometown Hawkeyes.  He was a 3-year letter winner with the Hawkeyes, along with being the offensive team captain his senior season.  A few years after his collegiate career came to an end, McCarney joined the Hawkeyes as an assistant coach starting in the 1977 season.  He began as an offensive line coach, although for the 1979 season he switched over to the defensive side of the ball and coached the defensive line through the 1989 season.  The next season, he followed a former Hawkeye assistant, Barry Alvarez, to Wisconsin where Alvarez was named head coach.  McCarney was hired to be the defensive line coach as well as handle the Defensive Coordinator duties.  While there, the Badgers team turned around to being a contender in the Big Ten, leading McCarney to landing the Head Coaching job at Iowa State University in 1995.  McCarney was responsible for the complete turnaround of the Iowa State football program.  From 1995 through the 2006 season, McCarney became the winningest Head Coach in school history with 56 wins.  In 2004, McCarney led the Cyclones to a Big XII North Co-Championship and won the Big XII Coach of the Year.  When his time at Iowa State came to an end, McCarney had taken the Cyclones to 5 bowl games in 12 seasons, including getting the first ever Bowl win in school history in 2000.  In 2007, Dan was hired to be an Assistant Head Coach in charge of the defensive line at South Florida by another former Hawkeye assistant, Jim Leavitt.  He only lasted one year there, as the University of Florida came calling for his services the following season.  He was hired by Urban Meyer to fulfill the same role he held at South Florida.  He remained in that position until late in the 2010 season when he was named as the Head Coach at the University of North Texas for the 2011 season. His 2011 North Texas results:

Week 1 vs. Florida International: Loss (16-41)
Week 2 vs. Houston: Loss (23-48)
Week 3 vs. #2 Alabama: Loss (0-41)
Week 4 vs. Indiana: Win (24-21)
Week 5 vs. Tulsa: Loss (24-41)
Week 6 vs. Florida Atlantic: Win (31-17)
Week 7 vs. Louisiana Lafayette: Loss (10-30)
Week 8 vs. Louisiana Monroe: Win (38-21)
Week 9 vs. Arkansas State: Loss (14-37)
Week 10: Bye
Week 11 vs. Troy: Win (38-33)
Week 12 vs. Western Kentucky: Loss (21-31)
Week 13 vs. Middle Tennessee: Win (59-7)