Coach Dodge

[NTEX1990]

I am not much of a TD lover, but open your eyes. this team is not very good at WINNING, last year they were not even on the same playing field. There were at least 4 games this year that we lost and left you scratching your head saying how did we lose that game. in my mind this was a 6 maybe 7 win team that just had no luck at the end of games. WE COMPETED and that is all anyone should have expected this year. With the talent coming back and experience these young men ENDURED i fully expect 2010 to be a 7 win + campaign. BRING TD back for one more year is my vote

[untStein]

Refreshing topic. jk.

[The Fake Lonnie Finch]

Really?

In our conference games, there was only one game where we didn't trail by at least two touchdowns at some point in the game. That was the FIU game, and we still lost it.

Final scores can be deceiving. We lost to many teams this season that were riddled with injuries or breaking in new quarterbacks, and they still jumped on us early enough to hold onto victories. At full strength, and with the benefit of experience, many of those teams that "only" beat us by a touchdown or less would have pummeled us.

Look, we've got one year at this thing. The offensive line is going to be as deep as it can be next year, but will be breaking in alot of new players in 2011. Ditto on the defensive side of the ball.

Everyone focuses too much on the stadium part of 2011. The real issue is depth and experience, and whether or not we have coaches who can get young players up to speed in a hurry. Currently, we have only one coach who seems to be able to do that - Shelton Gandy. The truth of the matter is that unless some changes are made, 2011 - new stadium and all - would likely be another bust year with Dodge on board. The roster is just shaking out that way.

We need a fresh approach. We won't get it with Dodge and the current staff as it exists. They are too much on the "we're young" excuse wagon. Well, they're going to be young again on the lines in 2011. So, do we really want to break it in with another season with a litany of excuses about being young? Especially when we watched a bunch of "young" teams beat us this season?

[Greendylan]

I don't know what the right decision is concerning the head coach. However, I do think that the coaching staff does shoulder some responsibility (not 100% but some) for not pulling off more of the close games. I imagine that if you looked at almost any team with a losing record they would argue that they really should have won two or three more. Colorado State finished 3-9, but they lost four games by seven points or less (three of them were by two or less), so you could argue that they were just a step away from 7-5. Western Kentucky lost three games by eight or less. Ball State lost six games by seven or less. Are they close to being an eight win team, despite their 2-10 record? Maybe, maybe not. My point is just that losing is still losing.

Again, I don't know what the right decision is in our situation. It's a difficult one either way, and I'm glad I don't have to make the call. I just know that regardless of the extenuating circumstances, pre-existing conditions, bad luck, or whatever, we sure have been doing a lot of losing for several years now. It's becoming exponentially harder each year to justify being a season ticket holder to friends and family.

[forevereagle]

I am not much of a TD lover, but open your eyes. this team is not very good at WINNING, last year they were not even on the same playing field. There were at least 4 games this year that we lost and left you scratching your head saying how did we lose that game. in my mind this was a 6 maybe 7 win team that just had no luck at the end of games. WE COMPETED and that is all anyone should have expected this year. With the talent coming back and experience these young men ENDURED i fully expect 2010 to be a 7 win + campaign. BRING TD back for one more year is my vote

Yeah, we competed, but not well enough to win. We competed for 3 quarters, and let the other guys win it in the 4th (sometimes in the first). To be competitive is not enough for me, we should be able to win games. I don't know of another school where competitive is good enough after 3 seasons.

[chrisfisher]

I haven't yet spoken out about the Dodge situation.. so it here it goes....

Everyone around here knows that I care deeply about this program so I don't make this decision lightly.... with that said, I think the best thing to do is to keep Coach Dodge 1 more year. If he garners anything less than 6 wins then he is out. I truly believe that giving Dodge another go around is better than the prospect of completely starting over again. A new rebuilding effort could take another 2-4 years, and I think Dodge is on the cusp of turning this whole thing around. The only exception is if UNT brought in a big time coach with name recognition and instant recruiting draw, which is a super long shot given the $$$ for these types.

[STE]

We can’t afford to buy out TD’s contract and spend what we need to spend to get a proven coach in here unless RV finds some money that he hasn’t found before. Yeah UTSA hired Coker for 200K a year but he also received between a 2-3 million buy out from Miami.

How many proven winners are out there that 1) already have their nest egg built up; 2)are willing to come to Denton; and 3) will not be tempted to go elsewhere for more money?

To play with the big boys you need to spend about 750K a year. For example in CUSA (where I think most of us want to be) here’s what the coaches make:

CUSA average approx 808K not including Tulane. see link

www.freep.com/article/20091110/SPORTS07/91110057/Database--NCAA-football-head-coaches%5C--salaries?appSession=027209658218771

Please note the amounts for SMU and Tulsa are lower than what’s been reported in other media outlets.

Even the WAC average is over 600K a year.

www.freep.com/article/20091110/SPORTS07/91110057/Database--NCAA-football-head-coaches%5C--salaries?appSession=385209658443344

Clearly we don’t have the money to play in the 600-800K legue. Maybe we could get Bower for less and if so I think that’s something that should be explored. However, if you can’t get a proven coach then you’re taking a big risk.

Moreover, time is against us even if we get a big name coach. Specifically, with a 30 day waiting period, a new coach would come in here in early Jan at the earliest leaving only a month to recruit. That would lead us right back to where Dodge started 3 years ago. A mistake here would set us back even further.

On the other hand, we had 5 losses by 4 points or less. Clearly, we’ve made some progress.

I’ve said before that Dodge has made plenty of mistakes and I’m not convinced that he will turn it around given his insistence on playing his son at qb and our inability to cure simple problems. However, at this point it’s too late to switch horses even assuming we had the money to do so.

Nevertheless, the lesser of two evils is to stick with Dodge. He has shown improvement and stability right now is key given the proximity of signing day and our economic situation.

What concerns me most right now is our inability to get RV and TD on same page. The longer this uncertainty of of TD’s job security lasts the more damage is done to the program. This is simply inexcusable. This is especially true in light of the comments Dodge made last week. RV should have publicly made his decision two weeks ago.

[akriesman]

I haven't yet spoken out about the Dodge situation.. so it here it goes....

Everyone around here knows that I care deeply about this program so I don't make this decision lightly.... with that said, I think the best thing to do is to keep Coach Dodge 1 more year. If he garners anything less than 6 wins then he is out. I truly believe that giving Dodge another go around is better than the prospect of completely starting over again. A new rebuilding effort could take another 2-4 years, and I think Dodge is on the cusp of turning this whole thing around. The only exception is if UNT brought in a big time coach with name recognition and instant recruiting draw, which is a super long shot given the $$$ for these types.

Exactly how I feel. In fact, I bet that 2/3 of the GMG members feel exactly like you do. Next year = No excuses.

[forevereagle]

Next year = No excuses.

But excuses are OK this year?

[akriesman]

But excuses are OK this year?

No. Not as far as all the losses go. But, there was a pretty big improvement with the team from last year to this year as far as competitiveness goes (I know the schedule was lighter...but still). While I agree that it is all about wins and losses, sometimes you have to look a little deeper to see if the program is on the right track.

Are we on the right track ? I don't know for sure. But, we "appear" at least to be moving forward.

[untgirl04]

No. Not as far as all the losses go. But, there was a pretty big improvement with the team from last year to this year as far as competitiveness goes (I know the schedule was lighter...but still). While I agree that it is all about wins and losses, sometimes you have to look a little deeper to see if the program is on the right track.

Are we on the right track ? I don't know for sure. But, we "appear" at least to be moving forward.

I disagree. As you stated earlier, we played a much lighter schedule this year, and were still only one win better than the previous year, and only matched Dodge's first year in wins. Would we even have had two wins this season playing last year's schedule? The only noticeable improvement I've seen is in penalties. Overall, penalties, especially personal fouls, are down. Army was a pretty clean game, penalty-wise. My only request for improvement in that area would be that when a player does get a personal foul (especially for stupid stuff, like taunting or fighting), the coaches pull him off and let him ride the pine for a few plays. I think immediate consequences for stupidity are more effective than waiting a day or two. But I digress....

Back to my main point - I'm not so sure we could have played last year's schedule this year and won two games. We'll never know, but to say that because we had a 100% increase in wins this season over last means we've made improvement is short-sighted.