Former Iowa football assistant and current North Texas head coach Dan McCarney suffered a stroke on Sunday but has been moved out of Intensive Care in a hospital in Denton, Texas, according to a release.

McCarney reportedly felt numbness on the left side of his body after sitting down with a sandwich after his daily workout. He was rushed to a hospital in a helicopter, and he has been undergoing medical tests since.

The 58-year-old said in a statement that he "fully intends on leading the North Texas football program through spring drills" and sounded in good spirits when reached at the hospital by the Des Moines Register on Tuesday.

"I’ve got too much Irish in me to stay down very long," McCarney reportedly told the Register. "… I feel good right now. I’ve got a little tingling feeling, but hey — if that’s the worst of it, I’d say I’m a pretty lucky guy.

"Nothing wrong with me that a little Grey Goose won’t cure."

McCarney was an Iowa offensive lineman from 1972-74 and served as a Hawkeye assistant coach from 1977-89. He was the head coach at Iowa State from 1995-2006, during which he won 56 games and piloted the Cyclones to their first two bowl wins in school history (the 2000 Insight.com Bowl and the 2004 Independence Bowl). He left Ames in 2007 to become the defensive-line coach at South Florida, joined Urban Meyer’s staff at Florida the next year, and left to take the reins at North Texas in 2010. He led the Mean Green to a 5-7 record in 2011, his first season at the school.

"If there’s any lesson to be learned in all of this, it’s to make yourself aware of the signs of a stroke and act immediately when those signs become present," he said in the release. "I’m not sure if our quick reaction saved my life, but it definitely saved the quality of my life … I’m confident that there will be no long-lasting effects, and I will be able to return to my normal routine in time."

— by Seth Roberts