This has been a difficult football season for the Mean Green Nation and with that comes the evaluation of our head coach and the overall direction of the program itself.  There were fairly high expectations in 2008 after Dodge had success offensively in 2007.  With the return of Gary DeLoach there was hope that the defense would play better.  It hasn’t happened yet and the reality is we are still 2-3 years away from fielding a team ready to challenge for the conference crown.  Some fans have stated it is time for a change and are ready to scrap the Dodge experiment and move in a new direction.  I think Dodge deserves more time.

My biggest complaint with Dodge has been the positions he has focused his recruiting capital on, in particular I don’t think enough attention was played to our depleted front lines. This is nothing new at UNT, we like many mid-major programs struggle in getting quality linemen. I would spend at minimum 10-12 schollys on them in this 2009 class. It is going to take some creativity and hard work to make this happen, but I think it will because there is just too much talent in our backyard that wants to stay closer to home. The Dodge staff has shown good energy in knocking on high school doors now they need to do a better job closing on linemen.

I also think they need stronger contacts with the JUCO’s because you need quality jucos to rebuild a program quickly. I’ve seem some posts on here remembering fondly the Dickey days and there were some good ones for sure. But towards the tail end of his tenure, there is no question our talent level dropped dramatically. This after unparalleled historical success! So Dodge did not inherit a well oiled machine, rather a broken one that had fallen on tough times. Match that with a conference that is truly rising both in talent and stature and you have a recipe for disaster.

I am not saying Dodge and RV et al are without blame here. Bringing in a staff of mostly career high school coaches - was in hindsight - convenient but not prudent. Dodge would surely have fared better in every facet with more experienced assistants across the board. The sad irony is that there were several of these from the Dickey regime who wanted to stay and were shown the door. Every regime change does not have to be Machiavellian in nature. I think President elect Obama is getting high praise for his well qualified appointments and retaining leaders like Gates who have have experience and been successful.

The most important issue with any regime change is how do you pay for it?  For those who continue to list available coaches ad rant about how a change needs to be made right away, please break out the checkbook and show us the money. *crickets* Dodge should be given some time and a chance to infuse his own players and system before he is judged too harshly. Same thing for DeLoach.

Since many of Dodge’ s second class redshirted this year he is really only operating with one recruiting class. The guy wants to get this thing fixed, and I don’t think anyone questions his work ethic and desire. He has maintained a positive attitude through all of this and never once pointed a finger at anyone other than himself. Besides the financial ramifications, I think keeping Dodge in place - given his actions - is just the right thing to do.

Rather than blame Dodge entirely for the situation, let’s support him and give him the tools needed to succeed at this level.  I would rather see any additional funds be directed at bringing in quality, college experienced assistants that can recruit.  There is a lot of turnover of staffs already this year and that means there are quality assistants who need work.  

I’m not proposing that we stick our heads in the sand and hope for the best either.  If we don’t see marked improvement after next season it is probably time to start moving in another direction.  I think Dodge knows and accepts this.  It’s time our fans did as well.

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