RamoneArchie

Probably right. I guess sometimes our perception of things could get skewed a bit, wow imagine that. Thanks for the info.

Well, you don't spend all day reading it of course. It's just human nature to see what people think about you positive or negative. Why do AD's read it? More people read it then would probably admit to. I only found out about it when I was hired, someone told me my article was on the board. So, every once in a while I would visit the sight to see what people were saying. Maybe it's just me.

Okay, let me start by saying that we as coaches are going to get critisized from time to time. We know that we are evaluated on a weekly bases and the results are clear. You win you've passed the evalutation, you lose and you fail. This happens at every level of football from Pop Warner leagues to the NFL. We expect the criticism and sometimes need it to make us better. All that being said, we are also humans. There's all of this talk about the mystery coach that confronted FFR, the most visable North Texas Fan in the stands. Okay, maybe it's not a mystery. We all assume it's Mendoza. I'm going to say i'm not defending his actions, but I understand. Like I said earlier, coaches do read this board! And even though we shouldn't take things that are said about us in a Forum personal we are human, and we do. For example. Last year before the Texas game I would read the board from time to time and I would read alot of negative posts. Well, negative if you were standing in my shoes. So, on the way down to the game I see a guy that was identified to me as one of the negative posters. Of course I wasn't going to confront him, but I did take the comments personal. To top things off this guy was getting a free ride on our bus down to Austin. I was like what? Okay, so you want to talk noise about how horrible we are and how we should be fired, but you'll ride down to the game with us like nothing had ever been said. I didn't confront him, but I did take it personal. This coach is human. He had to be under alot of stress because of the way the defense was performing and I wouldn't doubt if there was a little self doubt slipping into his conscience. Even though FFR didn't call for his head on this board, he was the most visable fan so he took out his anger on him. You have to realize the weight that was lifted off his shoulders when the defense played, in my opinion, Great. Finally some validation that he did belong here as a D-I coordinator. He reaction was just a big, "now say something" to all of the doubters. Was it right? No. Do I agree with it? No. Could he have reacted differently? Yes. Have we all done or acted in way that we later regreted? I would say yes. No matter how old we get, or how long we are in the business of coaching one fact that doesn't change is, We are still human. With human emotions and human mistakes. Hopefully this coach will appologize and we can get on with the season. Just my take.

Let me just say this. We have a sophmore that is pretty good. Watch out for this guy in two years, he'll be big time!

One thing that i've learned from my few years of coaching is, "You can't get too high with the highs, or too low with the lows." During this transitional period there will and have been some lows, but Saturday night we got a glimpse of how great the highs will be in the future. The defense played great, the offense produced as always and we came out with a victory. Man there were alot of fans in the crowd! That made me proud to be an alumni. Now, I'm not satisfied with the endzone stands being empty, but that will soon change in the next couple of years. Now, I say this is a great victory for one reason...we won our first game. You have no idea what a "first" victory after a string of losses does for the morale of the team. Now, it wasn't a great victor for the outsiders looking in because we beat a bad Monroe team. So by no means am I saying this is a marquee victory, but it was great. Oh, I also got the chance to meet some of you board guys up in the stands, see some of the players I played with in the lettermans lounge, and (get this) I even had a good converstation with the son of running backs coach Shelton Gandy (I thought it was ironic). He's a great kid from the conversation we had. I'm saving this ticket stub so i'll be able to say I was there for Dodges first win and Casey Fitzgeralds record breaking catch and run. Let's go get another one! Go Mean Green!!!

ha ha ha. Yes that was me guys. I just read it and it was pretty good. Some hump day reading to take our attention away from the negative posts on here.

Wow, did I actually say those things?

Hey, i'm coming to the game this Saturday and I was just wondering where I could find some of you guys. We've got some interesting characters and I would love to meet some of you. Let me know!

In reality that's in every program. It's just that with UNT we depend so much on underclassmen to play that it's more evident. We just don't have the depth of the BCS giants. Thanks for clearing that up though. It also hurts that Woody and Loren aren't here.

What is RV's screen name anyway?

Wow, that was kinda harsh Finch. Just remember how happy and excited most of you were when Dodge was hired. "He's the obvious choice." "We need to get Dodge in here." and all that stuff. He has done wonders with the offense, my opinion. He's a good coach. I just hope he turns it around before his 3 years are up.

Just curious, where did you play ball?

I am definately anonymous.....(they'll never figure out who I am I agree.

Yes tackling is very basic, but it is an art. I visited with TCU's defense this summer and learned alot about tackling. They go through a "tackling circuit" everyday. I won't go into the details, but it's basicly form tackling, positioning, and technique. Pretty good stuff. I say this because no matter how basic it is, at the highest levels it should be practiced. Now I haven't been to a UNT practice this year, but I think I heard somewhere that they do tackling drills. I can't explain it. I coach here in Gainesville now and we're 0-5. I'm the special teams coordinator and in our last game we had a fieldgoal blocked, a punt blocked for a touchdown, and a punt returned on us for a touchdown. Is it my horrible coaching? I would have to take the blame for some of it, but my players still have to make plays. I'm sure there are people screaming for my head too. Now if next year we start 0-5(unt) with no improvement from the Defense then we can start to....wait....oh crap....I think a little bit of the sky just fell on me. I'm outa here!

You can teach tackling. The running is up to the off season program and even then most speed is natural god given. Hopefully we will be able to get some faster recruits in here in the next 2 seasons. That being said there are some good football players on that side of the ball. I played with Kassell and he wasn't the fastest guy on the defense by far, but he made plays. Would I have traded him? Not a chance!

To answer that yes, coaches do read this sight. I did when I worked there and some of the posts that I read were, how do I put this in a nice way?, "ignorant?" I say that because alot of times people would make claims on Posts that were absolutely untrue. I would be like, "and people actually believe this?" So, I would guarantee that coaches read these posts. Does it make a difference? No, they just look at it as outsiders looking in, that really don't know what's going on with the team. Now at this point with all the negative posts about Mendoza Dodge might request that none of his coaches read this board anymore. That would be smart. Man, I just remember this summer all of the positive posts. They probably couldn't wait to read this board. One thing we should watch is that the PLAYERS read this board too. So some of these posts could put more doubt in their heads about their coaches. Doubt plus losing equals more losing.

Come on ULL is winless also. Let's give Dodge and Mendoza the benefit of the doubt, Dodge is a good coach and a great motivator. His confidence will soon spread to the rest of the team. I think our Defense finally plays big (against the worse team in the SBC) and our offense rolls. 330 + yards passing 145 yards rushing. My prediction: UNT 35 ULL 10. I know our defense hasn't done much this year, but I think this is a realistic prediction. Wow, I can't believe I put myself out there like that, but you know what I believe in those 9 returning starters on defense more than anyone on that team. They went years complaining about how the offense hadn't done their job, now the preasure is on them and they will produce. Mendoza? He's a proud man and if you think he doesn't read this board, along with all the other coaches, then think again. He will have them ready. Please Mendoza have them ready my GMG reputation is on the line here! This was my prediction. I just got the score wrong. Well, this is what the score should've been.

I have alot of respect for my collegues in the coaching profesion they (we) have to go through alot every week and no matter how successful you are fans are going to complain. I was at Denton Ryan During those 4 straight State Championship appearances and you should've heard some of the things we heard from the stands about how horrible we were coaching. I say this because I respect Dodge and he had to do what he had to do with Bleil and Evans in order to make this team completely his. I think he had to clean house. Even if that meant me leaving too. I understood his reasoning. I might not have explained it well, but I totally understood and didn't take it personal.

Okay, just from my experience as a coach and a player...I guess I would have to agree with you firefighter. You can change schemes or do more things around your base Defense to help the players out. And we have 4-3 personal. We were only a 3-4 for one year under Bleil, so all of those players were recruited for a 4-3 scheme.

I didn't want to say this when Dodge anounced his staff, you know because people would say I was bitter because I was fired, but I was sure hoping he hired some guys with experience on the Defensive side of the ball. I'll take Mendoza as DC, but give the guy someone to consult with.

I've always loved the Browns (well since 86 I believe)! My loyalty is equally split between the Browns and Cowboys (I've loved them since birth). Okay, now back to the Defense bashing! That was a joke by the way. Loosen up! Geesh!

I'm going to say it's almost too late for this year to totally change schemes that you have been practicing since Spring. I've only seen the one game tonight and we still missed alot of tackles. I say give him another year (we already said it would be a learning curve) and let him attend some clinics and talk to other D-I experienced coaches and he'll (our defense) will be alot better. Like I read in a Vito blog or some newspaper article there is not one defensive coach on that staff that has experience. Who can he go to for advice?

Yeah! I guess we've gotten spoiled with the yellow lines. When that QB was running all over us I was thinking, "hey it isn't as bad as it looks. He hasn't even gotten to the yellow first down marker."

Yeah I heard that all night too. Get it right anouncers it's on the back of his jersey!