gangrene

This is a guy I wish Canales would immediately call: Tarean Austin He's interested in two Sunbelt schools and he's open to leaving the state of Florida, since he appears to be leaning to Western Kentucky.

I'm going to go ahead and predict that Riley will win the open QB competition in a landslide, and not just because of the above statement. What Riley lacks in size, he more than makes up for in leadership skills, intelligence and heart. He didn't always make the best decisions last year, but I'm hopeful Canales will be able to help Riley cut down on his mistakes and make additional adjustments to help Riley improve his game and stay out of harm's way. Not to reduce the athletic abilities of our other QBs, but I think Riley gives us the best opportunity to win. It's a pretty big accomplishment to rank #38 in the country in total offense when you play on a 2-10 team. I'm afraid all of you that think the "open QB competition" announcement will result in Tune, Baine or Thompson starting are going to be in for a rude awakening. But, at least, you shouldn't be able to point the finger directly at Dodge for starting his son. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's how I see it, and I think we'll really see Dodge blossom in his Sophomore season with the addition of Stradford and Cole.

Nothing set in stone yet, but it's logical to assume Ausmus would follow Kiffin to USC, where Ausmus was previously on Carlisle's staff. Let's keep our fingers crossed that the rest of the USC S and C staff remains intact without further changes.

Looks like he was readying himself for the Jim Leavitt punch.

I'll join in on the celebration/party thread. I'm very excited about this hire for a number of reasons. Thank you RV and TD. Whether true or not, I'm going to choose to believe that TD did his homework and some internal soul-searching before going after Canales. I have a lot of respect for TD's decision to bring in Canales and virtually change everything he's done in his 24-year coaching career by relinquishing many of his offensive duties to Canales. That is a sure sign that he's growing, learning and adapting to coaching at the collegiate level. And, despite what many of the GMG board believed, this hire proves that we shouldn't set our bar too low when considering coaches and/or players who may consider joining the Mean Green. Many of you thought a coach with a greater than $100K salary was out of the question based on money alone and many more refused to believe Dodge would ever consider relinquishing his play-calling duties, virtually eliminating the need for an offensive coordinator. Well, thank you again RV and TD...much to our surprise, you have proven us all wrong. The new stadium and the new hire prove that we are serious about elevating our football program to the next level. I am hopeful these changes will translate into wins on the football field as well as wins in the recruiting war. I believe in the Mean Green!!!

Sounds like you're right on track as to what the holdup may have been. From "Shootin' the Bull with Scott Carter" Besides finalizing contract details, one of the primary hold-ups in negotiations was the question of how much of a role would Canales have in play-calling. Dodge’s son, Riley Dodge, is the Mean Green’s starting quarterback and Dodge has always called his own plays.

Do you think he'd view this hire as a sign that our program "is going in a direction, which is up?" Regardless of Rivals ranking/ratings, I was more excited about Jordan Taylor than I was Javia Hall, but I'd gladly take either one.

I bet you'd be "more happy" if we just learned that a five-star and a couple of four-star prospects had just committed to the Mean Green!!

From Vito's blog: January 29, 2010 I spoke with Todd Dodge for a couple of minutes today while parked on the side of the highway. Believe it or not, I am stranded on the way to the UNT-Middle Tennessee games in a pretty bad snow storm. Now that I have parked it in a cheep hotel, here are some interesting notes on the hire. First off, Dodge is turning over his offense, play-calling and his role as quarterbacks coach to Canales. This will be the first time in the 24 years Dodge has been in coaching that he will not be either the primary play-caller or share that responsibility with Todd Ford, who left the staff to become a head high school coach. Dodge is hoping that adding Canales to the staff will enable UNT to cut down on the number of turnovers it commits, improve its deep passing game and involve the tight end more in the passing game. The competition for the quarterback job will be open in spring practice, which will give Nathan Tune and Derek Thompson a shot to compete with Riley Dodge. Canales worked with a couple of shorter quarterbacks similar to Riley Dodge at South Florida. Thanks for asking the questions we all want to know Brett! This is what we've all been asking for...I hope we can be happy now and hope for the best!!!

I just got the email. Whew...nice to know it's official now. I'm still hoping Canales has time to influence maybe just one or two recruits before national signing day next Tuesday. At any rate, I'm very excited about this hire and glad to have "Chico" on board. I can't imagine how anyone can view this hire as anything other than a significant upgrade. As GMG '99 mentioned, this gives me additional optimism for next season. Regardless of how you view the success of Canales past experiences, you can't dispute that he brings a lot of D-I/FBS experience to the Mean Green.

One more small suggestion - on the second line of the topic heading, the font color needs to be changed when viewing that topic. It looks fine when you're viewing the forum pages to look at the different topic headings but, once you actually click on the thread (and are reading/posting within that thread), the second line converts to a white font and it's very difficult to read on the light-shaded background. Here's an example:

Mean Green blog Vincent Eddie, a cornerback out of DeSoto, has withdrawn his commitment from UNT to commit to the Mean Green's Sun Belt rival Louisiana-Monroe. I talked to Eddie a couple of minutes ago. He has family that lives in Monroe, so he will have a built-in support system there. ULM's sports and fitness major was also a draw. Eddie was recruited by UNT as a defensive back, who would play cornerback or safety, depending on the way he develops. He's a good player. UNT wouldn't have been after him if he wasn't, and it does hurt a little that he bolted for a Sun Belt rival. I wouldn't be surprised to see him have a good career with the Warhawks, but losing him isn't one of those class-buster deals. Losing Javia Hall, a top-rated quarterback with a lot of potential, was probably the bigger loss. Hall is headed to UTEP. What I would worry about if I was a UNT fan is Zach Orr, the three-star linebacker and teammate of Eddie, who is still committed to UNT. Eddie said Orr is sticking with the Mean Green, but you know that the coaches at ULM are going to try to work that connection to flip him as well. I don't see that happening, but it is something to watch. So the deciding factor was ULM's Sports and Fitness major?? LOL I certainly hope we don't lose Zach Orr...come on February 2!!!

Ok, what's the holdup with Canales?? How long we should give him to make a decision?? He may be our top choice, but there are other options out there...it sounds like there's a long line of unemployed coaches looking for work at the Senior Bowl. From footballscoop.com: Senior Bowl Lobby: It certainly seems as though there are more coaches around this year than any previous year. The afternoon practice had a big-time crowd yesterday. We have seen at least 30-40 unemployed college coaches walking and talking. Crazy profession.

USF's new Offensive Coordinator will be Mike Canales! Doesn't sound like USF was too excited about the possibility of naming "Chico" the OC last year. Nevertheless, it's some interesting insight as to how Canales was received by USF for his second stint as OC.

Personally, I don't see how there can't be some differences of opinions on how the offense should be run. And I think that's exactly what Dodge needs...someone with a different perspective that offers experience and advice on how to correct some of the problems we've experienced on the offensive side of the ball. I don't really care who made the decision to hire Canales but I'd prefer to think that Todd Dodge has come to the realization that he could use some help. Every great leader is surrounded by great minds working to accomplish the same goals.

That doesn't sound too promising. Come on UNT - pay the man what he needs to sign the damn contract.

#71 ranked Safety, Chad Moncure, is a soft verbal to UTEP. He is/was interested in UNT although we never offered. It looks like we have a ship available for a DB now, why not put the full-court press on this guy?

Well, I'm certainly not suggesting that Canales won't accept the job but, if that turns out to the be case, I'll still be very satisfied with the attempt. IMO, Canales is one of, if not, the top option(s) out there right now and I am ecstatic we've gone after him. It's proven that a coach's previous pay scale and UNT's dismal, short-term future aren't as big of obstacles to overcome as many on this board once believed. I hope Canales views the UNT job as a challenge he is willing to take head on and sees that our odds aren't insurmountable. If not, I hope we move on to the 2nd top option, rather than working our way from the bottom up. Please Coach Canales, accept the offer and help us get this ship headed in the right direction!!

Maybe it did...I don't know...I was just giving you a hard time. After watching all the erroneous reports at Tennessee and ECU, I've been looking for some "official" word too. While I did hear the ticket ticker announcement on the way home, they were careful to insert the word "reportedly" into the announcement.

I've got a great idea...why don't we just post/rename links to the same story until something official is announced? UNT to hire former USF OC, Mike Canales and Sources: North Texas close to hiring USF's OC or Pigs Fly! - Dodge to hire OC with FBS and NFL experience

There is only one reason to pull the job posting.

Found something.... Canales coached Rivers at N.C. State

So, do we have to wait 17 days after he was offered the position before he can accept it? Anyone else a little concerned that no "official" report has even mentioned Canales by name yet? It's been more than 24 hours since it was reported that the job was offered to "a coach that coordinated at a BCS school last season" (and I'd probably add another 12-24 hours for that news to leak to a reporter). If Canales was going to accept the job, wouldn't it make sense for him to do so ASAP so he could at least talk to a few recruits (maybe even those he was recruiting for USF) before national signing day next week? Might we be jumping the gun on this announcement? Or should I just take the advice of the old, wise one and "choose to let the folks who get paid to do this stuff worry about all this 'behind the scenes' stuff???" No, I was never very good at waiting until Christmas to open my presents.

This would be most excellent. The new, black font is much better than the gray one!!

To that point, it appears many of the other programs are not abiding by the new 17-day waiting period. Several have hired new coaches the same day the old coach left and, in the case of San Jose State, they actually hired their new coach 29 days BEFORE the old coach left. This site is pretty cool for tracking all of the coaching changes: 2009 NCAA Division I Football Coaching Changes Now, I'm not sure if the 17-day rule applies solely to assistant coaches or if it is also applicable to head coaches, as well as Diet Coke boys.