Have We Lost All Of The Momentun Of The Dodge Hire?

KRAM1 · September 30, 2008

Coach Dodge and his staff will have another good recruiting year. Since when does one judge a recruiting class after one season or less?

KBJ · September 30, 2008

Coach Dodge and his staff will have another good recruiting year. Since when does one judge a recruiting class after one season or less?

He should have another good recruiting class but when is he going to coach these players so they look like they can play football on the field???

gangrene · September 30, 2008

You are no longer convinced these were excellent recruiting classes? Why? These young men are either freshmen, RS freshmen or sophmores at this point. As you mention, classes are re-rated, at least by DCTF, after they graduate not two years into their collegiate career.
Most of our past team leaders emerged in their junior year, Kennedy, Hurd, Casey, Spencer, Jones, Zuniga, Cobbs, Galbreath, etc... not their freshmen or sophmore years. Give these young men a chance to mature. While sitting at the Rice game I saw more young athletic ability on this team than I ever recall seeing in a North Texas team, but when 2/3rd's of your scholarship players are sophmores or younger, you are going to go through growing pains. Considering the circumstances Dodge walked in to when he was hired, I think giving him time until his first group of players becomes seniors is fair. Doesn't make it easy to watch, but it is the right thing to do.

I understand your points and I agree wholeheartedly. It's not the kids that are still on the team that make me doubt the quality of the recruiting classes. It's those that have left the team or never qualified that have me doubting the quality: Alonzo Horton (3-star JUCO), Justin Edwards (3-star JUCO), Marcus King, Evan Fentriss, Justin Padron, Evyn Roman (AKA “Hair”), and two highly touted JUCO OL that are still out of shape four games into the season.

These classes could still very well turn out to be great, but I am disappointed that they will not reach their potential. Of course, I'm aware injuries and non-qualifications are a big part of the game. It just seems we've been hit with more than our fair share.

Coach Dodge and his staff will have another good recruiting year. Since when does one judge a recruiting class after one season or less?

When two of your eight 3-star recruits don't even qualify and another one of those 3-star kids shows up to play 100 pounds over weight.

Smitty · September 30, 2008

Since when does one judge a recruiting class after one season or less?

Complete agreement. It takes three or four years to judge an NFL team's draft, so how can you judge a class of 18-year olds just one year later?

I agree with a lot of the criticism being made this week, but it's too early to be firing coaches or labeling a recruiting class a bust.

Edited September 30, 2008 by Smitty

gangrene · September 30, 2008

Complete agreement. It takes three or four years to judge an NFL team's draft, so how can you judge a class of 18-year olds just one year later?
I agree with a lot of the criticism being made this week, but it's too early to be firing coaches or labeling a recruiting class a bust.

Is this the Fox News Channel?? It must be...with all the spinning that's going on here.

Smitty, I'm assuming you're talking about my comments on recruiting thus far under Dodge, but how are my comments below

I was pleasantly surprised on the recruiting front and I thought the first two recruiting classes were phenomenal but now I'm no longer convinced. There's still a lot of time left on determining the success of those two classes but we've already lost a LOT from each of those two classes. If re-rating/re-ranking our classes were to occur now (as sports writers normally do after the class graduates), I guarantee our classes would already be ranked much lower than they were on national signing day.

misinterpreted to read this???

I agree with a lot of the criticism being made this week, but it's too early to be firing coaches or labeling a recruiting class a bust.

September 30, 2008

and two highly touted JUCO OL that are still out of shape four games into the season.

JUST TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT! Gabe Hollivay wasn't that far out of shape. He got himself into playing shape by the opening game and has STARTED all four games. In the Rice game I saw one play where he not only took care of his own man but a blitzing lineman shooting through an open gap as well.

I don't know what progress Jenkins has made. He had a lot of hours to make up in a short period of time and I'd gues that meant spending a lot of time on the books and very little time working out. It takes a lot of work to get a person the size of Nate Jenkins in shape. I hope that he is willing to sit out this year so that he will be in top shape at the beginning of next year.

Smitty · September 30, 2008

Smitty, I'm assuming you're talking about my comments on recruiting thus far under Dodge, but how are my comments below
misinterpreted to read this???

I was not talking about your comments. Sorry if it came off that way. I was just agreeing with Kram's post, and I don't know if he was referring to any comments of yours. My comment regarding Dodge was in reference to posts elsewhere about firing him, and was just a general observation that it's too early to judge Dodge or his recruits.

Didn't mean to link you to calls for Dodge's head. My apologies for the confusion.

gangrene · September 30, 2008

I was not talking about your comments. Sorry if it came off that way. I was just agreeing with Kram's post, and I don't know if he was referring to any comments of yours. My comment regarding Dodge was in reference to posts elsewhere about firing him, and was just a general observation that it's too early to judge Dodge or his recruits.
Didn't mean to link you to calls for Dodge's head. My apologies for the confusion.

No worries. I'm certainly not in favor of firing Dodge, at least not yet. :unsure: And, I agree, his recruits haven't been given proper time to assess just yet. I was just disappointed in the recruits that never made on the field and even more disappointed with the lack of improvement I've seen 16 games into the Todd Dodge tenure. These blowout losses, especially to CUSA teams, are disgusting and humiliating.

Smitty · September 30, 2008

No worries. I'm certainly not in favor of firing Dodge, at least not yet. And, I agree, his recruits haven't been given proper time to assess just yet. I was just disappointed in the recruits that never made on the field and even more disappointed with the lack of improvement I've seen 16 games into the Todd Dodge tenure. These blowout losses, especially to CUSA teams, are disgusting and humiliating.

Couldn't agree with you more about the lack of improvment in 16 games. I don't blame anyone for anything being said this week. Who could have imagined (shut up, Fake Lonnie) that things would be this bad at this point? 54 points a game? Just unthinkable.

I really do feel bad for the players. This has got to be terrible for a group of young people. I just hope they hold their heads up.

Edited October 1, 2008 by Smitty

houstonmeangreen · September 30, 2008

The state of Texas is loaded with players who never get an offer who could contribute at UNT and many other programs. The key is how to find such players. There are many kids who play out of position at the high school level that no one knows.
Recruiting is an art but it is also a lot of luck for programs in the Belt, the MAC, and the WAC, even Conference USA.
When a kid looks at Fouts, that is a tough sell, I don't care if your DD or TD or Mack Brown.

you are right....building a new stadium will correct many recruiting problems.