After spending all of his life in Lawrence, Clint Bowen is on the move for the second year in a row.

Bowen, a former Lawrence High and Kansas University standout player and 12-year KU assistant coach, recently agreed to become the defensive coordinator at North Texas.

The move to the Lone Star State comes one year after Bowen left KU for Western Kentucky, where he took the Hilltoppers’ defense from dead last in the conference in 2009 to first overall in just one season.

The fact that Bowen and his wife, Kristie, have two sons, Baylor, 6, and Banks, 4, was the only thing about the decision that was difficult to juggle. Football-wise, Bowen said it was a no-brainer.

“I didn’t want to move that fast again,” he said. “But it was a better situation than I was in so I’m excited about it. Obviously, I was very fortunate to be able to stay at Kansas for that long. And every other coach that came through said, ‘One of these days, you’re gonna be on that roller coaster with us.’ But it’s part of the gig. You gotta be willing and ready to make moves that help your career and help you stay alive in the profession.”

Although the Hilltoppers finished the 2010 season with a 2-10 record, Bowen received high praise for improving a defense that featured five true freshmen starting by season’s end.

“Clint did a great job for us this past season, and he laid a solid foundation for our defense,” WKU coach Willie Taggart said. “I really enjoyed working with him, and we wish him and his family well. We improved defensively in many areas, and that was due to the collective efforts of Clint, our coaching staff and players.”

The move to North Texas, which finished 2010 at 3-9, keeps Bowen in the Sun Belt Conference. More importantly, it unites him with a head coach he’s known for quite some time.

“The first thing that excited me was Dan McCarney, the head coach,” Bowen said of the former Iowa State head coach. “Whenever we played him at Kansas, we always said ‘Man, that is the best-coached team in the Big 12 year after year. They do more with less talent than any other team.’ And so the idea of working with Dan was obviously a big plus. There’s a presence about the guy that’s hard to deny. He’s really special in that way.”

In addition to McCarney, the North Texas administration’s recent upgrades also made the Mean Green attractive. The school that is located just north of Dallas, in Denton, Texas, currently is building a new stadium, which will be connected to a football dorm, training room and workout facility.

“They’ve built a little football village there,” Bowen said. “They’re making a commitment to turning that program into conference champion and a winning program.”

Asked if such lofty goals could become a reality, Bowen answered with confidence.

“It’s a place that I know we can win at,” he said. “And win in a hurry and win big.”

The more he talked about his new job, the more it sounded like Bowen, who was in Lawrence last week, could not have been more excited about the next chapter in his life.

“Living in Texas, it’s a little bit closer to home, closer to Kansas,” he said. “And then being in Texas, obviously, Texas is kind of centered around football in a lot of ways, so it will be fun to have an opportunity to be a part of that. There were just a lot of pluses. It was really a pretty easy decision.”

Miller joins Minnesota staff

Another former KU assistant, Bill Miller, who worked under Mark Mangino in 2009, also has landed on a new campus.

Miller, a 32-year veteran of collegiate coaching, recently joined Jerry Kill’s staff at Minnesota, where he’ll serve as assistant head coach in charge of linebackers.

Miller left Kansas when Mangino resigned last December and did not coach in 2010. This will be Miller’s second stint at Minnesota. He was the Gophers’ defensive backs coach from 1986-88.