VideoEagle

His name is Todd Graham. He’s the kind of guy I hope we don’t overlook by paying too much attention to Todd Dodge. He’s not available, but this is the kind of guy with whom a lot of stadium donors will feel more comfortable. I know I would. Before be became a D1A college head coach, he had 3 years as a D1A assistant at Tulsa, some time at East Central in Ada where he took them from nothing to an NAIA championship. Before that he was head coach at Allen H.S., getting a school with no district wins to five years of play offs. There are a lot of solid guys Graham like this out there. Guys who have turned around programs at every level, not just had success at an already successful high schoo. Todd Dodge might be the first guy since Gerry Faust to go directly from H.S. Head Coach to D1A Head Coach and get his team to a bowl before getting fired. But, let’s take a serious around before we announce the inexperienced guy the winner.

Todd Dodge might be able to make the jump directly from high school to a D1A head coaching job. But, from what I’ve been able to find, only one guy has ever done that and gotten to a bowl game before he was fired. That was Gerry Faust. Here is the Wikipedia entry on him. I haven’t been able to find any other coaches who got to a bowl before being fired. But, my search didn’t come up with Gerry either so thee might be someone. Dodge sounds like a great coach, but one who lacks any current college experience. I’m not sure we are ready to take that much of a risk when there are a number of guys with current college backgrounds available. The West Texas guy for one, but there are others. I know there are some who think “it just can’t get any worse than this, so why not.” They either weren’t around for Bob Tyler, or the entire 1AA fiasco, or just choose not to remember. With a stadium being built, we need someone everyone will feel confident in, not someone we’re confident can learn the job. Still, if you are going to try a high school guy, Dodge is the one to try.

Didn’t Tune just get awarded one of those scholarships that were held back for potential walk ons?

That is not true at all. The real story is he is being investigated for being the second gunman in the Kennedy assassination. All the evidence is on a blog someplace.

I wouldn’t be shocked if Princeton has more BILLIONAIRE alumni than we have MILLIONAIRE alumni!

And this is some how different from our other games this year?

One little comment about being in a room “with some many people with so few teeth” and he gets in trouble. But, with OU fans, it’s true!

Kind of like betting the future of the program on a spin of the roulette wheel. I know long shots do come in sometimes. And don’t get me wrong, he might be the first guy in 30 years to successfully jump directly from high school to college. But why to the extreme risk when there are other guys out there who know the job already.

You are correct with Gerry Faust! I stopped searching in the 80s and didn’t go back to the 70s. He is the only coach to successfully jump directly from HS to major college football head coach. It wasn’t called 1A back then as their was no 1AA yet. Art Briles did not jump directly from high school head coach to a Division 1A head coach job. Briles spent two years with a very successful Texas Tech program leaning todays college game as an assistant. Dodge‘s last college experience was over a decade ago with under a failed college coach! I’m all for Dodge as OC! Let him learn the job before you hand him the keys. Did anyone see that awful sales video he did? He couldn’t see water in the desert right now, but with some training I think he’ll get better. North Texas can’t afford to have someone who needs to learn how to inspire the alumni. We don’t have time for someone to learn how to run a recruiting system. We someone who can go out in the community and get donations immediately. While I’m sure Dodge can learn how to do these things in time, neither he nor Major Applewhite have ever actually done them. We need a head coach, not a head coach in training.

First, I think you misunderstood. I wasn't writing that no high school coach who jumped directly to a 1A head coach position ever got their team to a bowl in one year. From what I've been able to find through a limited web search is no high school coach who jumped to a 1A head coaching position has ever gotten their team to a bowl period. They are fired for not winning enough college games before they ever get a chance at a bowl. The web is not the best for searching this sort of thing, so I hope I'm worng here. Second, OC or DC is very close to what a high school coach does. It's an Xs and Os position. A head coach is manager/cheerleader/fundraiser/recruiter. The only one of those jobs most HS coaches spend anytime on is manager. And what they are managing is like comparing a fast food restaurant to a small chain of restaurants. NT needs the cheerleader/fundraiser/recruiter NOT, not someone who has to learn on the job. Comparing a coordinator to the head coach is like comparing a cost accountant to a corporate controller. The accountant can grow into the position of controller. But the skill set to be the cost accountant is completely different than the controller. And you would not promote a bookkeeper to the controller slot without some (often a lot of) time in the cost slot!

Let's just hope the Mean Green don't supply it!

Yes, including "North Texas compounds firing of the only coach to get them to four bowl games with the hiring of a high school coach to replace him. New coach Todd Dodge's only college experience was as the offensive coordinator previously failed head coach ... While Todd Dodge has been extremely successful in Texas high school ranks, no high school coach has ever jumped directly to a Divsion 1A college head coach position and taken that team to a bowl." Not the headline we really want. Not the headline we want to have to recruit against, especially for a guy who has not had to actually recruit in over a decade.

I was watching fairly closely with the binoculars. The kid didn't move at all - any - for quite some time. I'm sure paralysis or other extremely serious injury was on all the trainers minds. Quinn was spinning around when he hit him and could have hit him anywhere. The fact it turned out to not be serious is great news.

What we need is something to knock it off the landscape. And NT hiring a new coach is not going to do that. But the start of bowl game announcements will. Hell, much as I hate the idea, SMU making a bowl right now would be the news story we want! If we announced a new coach next week, the fact we fired DD after being the first coach to take us to 4 bowl games - ever - is going to be paragraph two. Paragraph three at the best. We need bowl game announcements to distract everyone. Let those happen, then announce a coach. Please announce it at 10:30am on a Tuesday - the slowest news day of the week! It has a chance to become the biggest local sports story of the day then. It leads the noon and 5 and had a good chance to lead the 6. If it leads noon, 5 and 6 it automatically leads the 10 as it's a big story.

Looking at the picture, I could care less about any black uniforms!

I'm not losing any sleep worring if Pat Sullivan end up our hear coach. I have too much confidence in RV to consider it a real possibility!

Please everyone just relax. This will pass once they start announcing teams for bowl games. Meanwhile, it is just an ugly thing we will just have to live through. Removing DD for the last game will only make the bad publicity continue. The story for every media outlet everywhere is that NT is full of a bunch of ungrateful administrators and alumni. Removing DD for the last game or somehow punishing him for the black uniforms reinforces this story. The 2000 to 2500 people who read this board might know otherwise, but no one else does and if DD is removed for the last game, no one else ever will because "the vindictive people at NT" will be the story. That can only hurt our chances of landing a great next head coach. Punishing DD in anyway will only hurt those chances. More importantly, it will make US, not him, look petty. Just let it all slide and in two weeks it's all over.

Oh come on! You're really going to convince them that showing loyalty is bad? Give it a few weeks and everything will be fine. Let the kids blow off steam. Being punitive to students who are being loyal to their coaches will pour gasoline onto the "NT is ungrateful and vindictive" press coverage. The story is NT fired the only coach to ever get them to multiple bowl games. The people on this board know there is another story, but no one else does. Making that story last longer only hurts the school more. It will blow over in a few weeks. Besides, you can't get the scholarships back! It's not as though you could take them away and turn around and give them to another kid. You can only give so many in a year, no matter the circumstances.

Why do you think that since he has never recruited before? His last college experience was a decade ago with a previously failed NT experiment in hiring a high school coach. And that coach had won 5A championships with two schools, not just one.

Not necessarily. It would not be difficult to just have the black jerseys in the locker room. Even if someone objected, what could they do?

Students don't get in free! They paid at registration for the right to go to every home game in every sport through their student use fee. If they choose not to attend an event to which they have already paid admission, that is their right. The fact so many don't realize they already paid is their fault. Also, 50 degrees Fahrenheit in NOT COLD if you wear any kind of jacket, sweater, etc.

The negative articles will continue till Bowl selection season starts. There might be a couple of mentions of DD’s firing in the articles about whomever the new coach is, but not much. Bowl season will push it out of the papers and off the airwaves. In fairness, 4 consecutive bowls really was better than we’d ever done before. But it certainly is not the limit of where we can go!

Back in Spring/Summer 1981 Mike was at KNTU.

You’re right. I didn’t understand we are just a 1A institution and Dodge already works at a 5A school.