Misconceptions........

Ole Green Guts · October 30, 2008

What really chaps my arse is the fact that people on here think TD and the coaching staff are sitting in the office with their feet up riding this pony until they get fired. I don't know or understand why people think that coaches have practice and games and give no other thought to what’s going on. People act like football is the lasting on the mind of coaches that they are doing whatever they can to win. These guys are doing everything they can to put the kids in the position to make plays but there comes a point in frustration that you have to start trying to gear up for the next year.

I haven’t been able to see a game, but I have stayed in touch with the board and maybe we have a selfish team. A team that wont do what they are asked to do but rather what they want to. Football is a selfless team sport, everyone must do their job and only their job each play. Of course being a coach I am going to take their side but with the changes offensively two years ago. Defensively this year these kids are being asked to do drastically different things than they were. Yes tackling and blocking are the fundamentals but the change from a run based to spread pass base offense is tough. Defensively some things stay the same but more things changed than not. Assignments, reads, coverage’s, positions changed and it takes TIME.

TD is a competitor and a coach and trust me he is trying like hell to find a way to win.

FirefightnRick · October 30, 2008

Good post. I meant to post this last night but it's good to see you back on the board.

Rick

Charlie NT 73 · October 30, 2008

Ole Green Guts,

Your arse is not the only one that is chapped by the same

reasons you have mentioned!

The offense will continue to develop, and will be very good.

There are many talented players that are gaining experience

and learning. All of these guys are competitors, hate losing,

working hard, and will bring the glory back to NT!

Defense. Basicly, DeLoach is in his first year. The players are learning

his defense. Freshmen, red shirts, sophmores starting over with

DeLoach's system.

Every one of the coaches are working their asses off, every day,

to build a winning program. All of this pain and misery will pay

off big time down the road. The cost to be a winning program

is very high. It takes investments in the future. All of these

young kids are our investment in the future.

KRAM1 · October 30, 2008

As everyone on this board knows or should know by now...I agree! My only "want" would be to see more of our senior leaders get a chance to lead a little. Tough to be a leader when you are stuck on the bench most of the time...I know it's the coaching satff's call, but would be interesting to see what happens, wouldn't it?

GO MEAN GREEN!!!!!

Smitty · October 30, 2008

What really chaps my arse is the fact that people on here think TD and the coaching staff are sitting in the office with their feet up riding this pony until they get fired. I don't know or understand why people think that coaches have practice and games and give no other thought to what’s going on. People act like football is the lasting on the mind of coaches that they are doing whatever they can to win. These guys are doing everything they can to put the kids in the position to make plays but there comes a point in frustration that you have to start trying to gear up for the next year.
I haven’t been able to see a game, but I have stayed in touch with the board and maybe we have a selfish team. A team that wont do what they are asked to do but rather what they want to. Football is a selfless team sport, everyone must do their job and only their job each play. Of course being a coach I am going to take their side but with the changes offensively two years ago. Defensively this year these kids are being asked to do drastically different things than they were. Yes tackling and blocking are the fundamentals but the change from a run based to spread pass base offense is tough. Defensively some things stay the same but more things changed than not. Assignments, reads, coverage’s, positions changed and it takes TIME.
TD is a competitor and a coach and trust me he is trying like hell to find a way to win.

I've seen a lot of criticism of the coaches, but I have not seen suggestions that they're not trying. I think everyone here believes the coaches are trying, and everyone - from those calling for Dodge's head to those calling for him to stay - want the same thing: North Texas victories. There have been strong criticisms of how Dodge has coached, but I don't think anyone has suggested that the coaches are simply waiting to be fired.

And most of those criticisms are at least based on observation. You admit that you haven't seen the team play, yet you suggest the players may be selfish? You indict an entire team that you have not seen play? Do you review books you haven't read, movies you haven't watched, or music you haven't heard? I know you played and you now coach, but I don't see how that gives you the extra insight to evaluate a team that you have not seen play. That suggestion is unfair.

VideoEagle · October 30, 2008

Thanks Ole Green Guts!

Great post. I'm often amazed by what people write here. If a coach is losing, he must not want to win and would rather be selfish. Or he must not want to win since he won't change his offense to fit the suggestions of anonymous posters on a message board. Or if he really wanted to win, he'd abandon every principle that earned him the head coaching position in the first place.

Ole Green Guts · October 30, 2008

I never said what the team was or wasnt and maybe I should have just left the selfishness out. My thought that they maybe selfish is because I know that is usually the number one reason teams fail. Not the X's and O's, not the coaches and rarely the talent (even in HS) but rather getting a player to do what you ask them to do each play in the way you want it done - - SELFISHNESS!

I have a DE that has 2 responsabilities, take the QB on option and keep contain, but he is too selfish to acomplish this task. He is one of the better athletes on the team and a decent kid but when the lights come on he just wont do what we ask, guess what we bench him and put in a freshman who has no business playing (small, slow and uncordinated ) but he does what we ask every play and did a GREAT job.

KRAM

Some times you dont want the leaders of the team to lead. They maby leading the wrong direction (I AM UNSURE BECAUSE I HAVNT SEEN A GAME)

One last note:

There are many things that go on in the offices and locker rooms that no one other than the players and staff know about. The second guessing, blame game and what not should not be going on because we only know what we see and hear - about 1/10 of the real story.

The Fake Lonnie Finch · October 30, 2008

One last note:
There are many things that go on in the offices and locker rooms that no one other than the players and staff know about. The second guessing, blame game and what not should not be going on because we only know what we see and hear - about 1/10 of the real story.

Geez, if we've only seen 1/10th of what's going on behind closed doors, please keep the doors closed because what we're seeing so far is lack of discipline in all areas on and off the field. It doesn't matter whether I or you or anyone else has "faith", "belief", or "patience." None of that buys our quarterback time in the pocket. None of it magically makes our defense able to stop the run or pass. None of it makes the special teams able to perform. Coaching does all of those things, not some pie-in-the-sky feelings of fans. And, since our coaches are inexperienced and unable to adapt to the college game, we simply remain what we are - the bottom feeder of the FBS level of college football.

Sorry, you all. I've read through the Rah-Rah Todd Dodge posts this morning and I don't buy into it. Coaches with as bad or worse situations have done more in shorter periods of time at other schools. Some have done it from scratch. I don't have to be in the lockerroom or diagramming plays to understand that what I see on and off the field around this program is nothing but chaos. Chaos is a sign of a coach who doesn't know what he's doing.

We will continue to suffer through the charade until someone, somewhere in the administration finally wakes up and puts an end to it. Until then, as usual, the joke's on us...and whatever players the current coaching staff decides to throw under the bus next week.

Green Dozer · October 30, 2008

Finch, maybe you need to get a drug test!

Edited October 30, 2008 by Green Dozer

LoveMG · October 30, 2008

2-10 to 0-12 means it is not working, whatever it is. bottom line for college football is wins, sorry just the cold facts. everyone knows the time is limited to achieve the wins or another guy gets to try.

Green Mean · October 30, 2008

OGG,

I dont think anybody thinks the coaches are just sitting there but IF there are selfish/lazy players like you mentioned then to me it falls on the coach. Thats the point of a coach is to get the best out of your players. And I find it hard to believe you have a full team of that. I just think Todd Dodge is way overwhelmed and he is sort of learning on the job. However I think it is a huge learning curve right now for us to be waiting patiently. As it is we are the bottom feeder of FBS, if we continue on this path then it is not good for the program and the consequences will be much greater than people realize. Just my opinion.

oldguystudent · October 30, 2008

I will absolutely defer to Ole' Green Guts on matters of football knowledge. As a member of the unwashed masses watching from the peanut gallery, this is what I see.

1) Unwillingness to adjust a system (on both sides of the ball) that flat out DOESN'T WORK. Is it the desire to do anything necessary to win a football game that is preventing TD from allowing a single freaking play from under center when it's 3rd and a nano-inch? Is it the desire to figure out any possible way to win that prevents TD from taking a shot at the endzone with 3 chances to go from the other team's 30 at the end of the first half?

2) Defeated players. You can't teach a kid to be bigger, stronger, or faster, but you sure as hell can coach them to believe in themselves and keep trying no matter the challenges they face.

3) I get the sense of an "us vs. them" mentality between players and coaching staff. The players are instigating it and the coaches are not responding well, thus worsening the situation.

I'm no football coach, but I do come from a background of corporate sales that involves bringing out the best in people, sometimes to the limit and beyond of their normal capabilities. If you can't motivate your players/staff, if you can't all be playing on the same team striving for the same goals, I don't care if you've got a "system" hand written by the good Lord himself.

I've been through this before with Irvine basketball. I've seen what it looks like for a coach to lose control internally while maintaining poise and confidence externally. A change of staff, complete with "bare cupboard" players, went from 1-27 in 1997 under the "brilliant young mind from Boston" to 25-5 in 2000 under the nuts and bolts coach from Bakersfield.

Call it what you want to call it. Demand patience. Express faith. I'll be as happy as a clam to be proven wrong. I'll atone for my sins. But past experiences tell me this ain't going anywhere.

The Fake Lonnie Finch · October 31, 2008

Look, players and former players are sometimes too close to the situation to look at it objectively.

When John Blake was fired at OU, several players threatened to leave - Josh Norman, Rocky Calmus, Roy Williams, etc. Two years later, with a new head football coach and staff that knew what they were doing, they were in Miami hoisting the Sears crystal football as national champions.

I'm not saying that we'll be in the national title game if Dodge is fired. I am saying that while player and former player input here is good, they sometimes don't see the forest because they're too close to the trees.

I'm not in the forest. I can see it, and it's burning. I want someone to put the fire out before the whole thing goes up in smoke.

FirefightnRick · October 31, 2008

Good grief! I don't see anywhere in his posts that OGG claims he knows FOR SURE what is wrong with the team. :rolleyes: However, he's the only one here, that I've seen on this board, who has experienced the worst to first at this same program in the past and has offered suggestions as to what could be wrong with the team. Take his suggestions as that, suggestions. But I'll say this, his insight parallels with just about every oppinion I'm hearing from other lettermen who sit in my section and have watched every down this year.

Carry on.

Rick

VideoEagle · October 31, 2008

So, those of us who didn't play or coach football don't really know enough to be able to comment and should defer to the "I hate Todd Dodge and everything he ever stood for" crowd. Also, anyone who played or coached football who disagrees with the "We have to fire the evil Todd Dodge now" mob is "too close to the situation" be comment either. Only the "Todd Dodge is actually worse than the anti-Christ" cabal is capable of a "correct" evaluation.

Things like season ticket sales don't matter. Donations to athletics don't matter. Attendance doesn't matter. Quality football players are bad and we actually need more kids like the Carter HS class of the 90's - where nearly a quarter of the team ended up in jail are good. Coaches like Hayden Fry who with 7 wins in his first three season, with just 2 (gasp!) his first year and only 1 (the evil man!) in his third year should be fired. Since "if they start off like Todd Dodge, clearly they are clueless, unwilling to learn, have too big an ego" and must just not want to win.

Only getting rid of the "Demon Dodge" matters - he must be burned at the stake as quickly as possible.

(sigh) I believe I'll be clicking the "ignore" button a lot more often.

buff64 · October 31, 2008

Ole Green Guts,
Your arse is not the only one that is chapped by the same
reasons you have mentioned!
The offense will continue to develop, and will be very good.
There are many talented players that are gaining experience
and learning. All of these guys are competitors, hate losing,
working hard, and will bring the glory back to NT!
Defense. Basicly, DeLoach is in his first year. The players are learning
his defense. Freshmen, red shirts, sophmores starting over with
DeLoach's system.
Every one of the coaches are working their asses off, every day,
to build a winning program. All of this pain and misery will pay
off big time down the road. The cost to be a winning program
is very high. It takes investments in the future. All of these
young kids are our investment in the future.

Mendoza was also in his first year.