The Fake Lonnie Finch

Exactly! Bingo! This is the type of idiot that is going to be getting our tax money - someone who refuses to live within their means. Damn this thing makes me sicker and sicker every day. Barak Obama is hell bent on rewarding idiots for their idiocy. In a perfectly real world, nobody would owe this guy anything. He needs to get realistic about life and quit whining to the goverment (the American taxpayer).

Six Flags is on the brink of bankruptcy anyway. This is, sadly, part of their last ditch effort to get more people in and squeeze more omeny out of them. It's stupid. But, companies on the verge of collapsing often do stupid things.

The head coach is a former UT assistant (Tim Brewster, 1998-2001). The guy before him was a Big 8/Big 12 coach who already had years of ties to the area (Glen Mason, KU 1988-1996...established KU's pipeline to DFW that is still going strong today).

No, but the things within his control have been his fault. Think about this - the 2007 defensive coordinator came straight from high school with no college background whatsoever. Same with the DL coach. The secondary coach hadn't coached in 13 years. The high school DL coach was also allowed to coach the special teams. Those who have always supported Dodge from day one will say, well, hindsight is 20/20. Yes, true. But, many of us were sounding the warning well before that. Football isn't just football at all levels. And, coaching isn't just coaching at all levels. Todd Dodge sorely misunderstood that in December 2006. He's the one who brought in a coaching staff with so few college skins on the wall. He's the one who put off recruiting until after Southlakes's season was over. He's also the one who has held over the offensive high school coaches despite the fact that the only two seemingly able to do their job are the guys who had college experience (Gandy and Leftwich). Look, we all want UNT to win. But, you can't hide from the fact that the hire of Dodge was high risk, and his recruiting inaction at the beginning and lack of thought in the hiring process put the whole thing even that much more behind the eight ball. Personally, I think it's great that we finally have the defensive side of the ball now being led by 100% college coaches. That will show this year. I also think special teams will improve vastly because Dodge has finally put a college guy in charge of it. Those moves alone should be good for two or three wins even if the offense doesn't show up at all. One of the overarching points is, alot of the losses and blowouts and off the field problems could have been avoided in the first place had a college coach been hired - or at least a full complement of college assistants.

That was negative? That was just straight reporting. It wasn't positive or negative.

I hope our crack athletic department does what other departments do and try to get him some recognition. He needs to be on the preseason Butkus list. Yes, we all know it's politically impossible for him to win it. But, many schools lobby for their players to be on those lists with postcard campaigns to sports writers, billboards, and other stuff. It would be some positive press that we are in need of these days. Plus, I think it could shake out as a good for the team as a whole. With the defensive side of the ball now 100% college coaches, I think they'll be the key to the turnaround. We'll be on shaky ground offensively due to the inexperience of the new skill players on offense. An early season, nonconference win should be accompanies by our athletic department bombarding the media with "Leading The Turnaround"-type postcards featuring the defensive players that make it happens - and, that's more likely than not going to be Tobe. Any type of early season success is going to give us a little "turnaround" type of publicity. Even if it's fleeting, we need to be in the mindset of capitalizing on it.

Tobe running back the interception in the lone win...with helmet stickers photo-shopped in.

Look, the situations are different because now, more than ever, we're giving welfare to corporations. I burns me up that, with my tax money (and my kids' and grandkids'), I'm being asked to bailout: (1) The wealthy graduates of Ivy League and Big Ten business and law schools who rans the banks, insurance companies, and financial institutions that caused this damn mess in the first place. They knew damn well that what they were doing was high risk and they did it anyway, lining their pockets along the way - first with private money, now with public money. (2) The so-called "working poor" who didn't do what I did - go to college working multiple jobs, then go to grad school on student loans, so that I could better myself and my family. You aren't required to educate yourself after high school. But, if you chose not to, don't expect the same wage and spending power as those who do. (3) The jealously "upwardly mobile" who couldn't wait until they could afford a house to buy a house. I didn't buy a house until I was in my late 30s. These morons who took ARM loans and zero down loans just so they could buy a house are reaping what they've sown. It's not right for me, or any other taxpayer, to be on the hook for any of the three classes of people listed above. I pay the mortgage every month. I pay my utility bills, student loan bills, and whatever other bill may occur (this month, it's a new ignitor for the furnace...it's always something when you own a house). I fully understand that there are disabled people with legitimate needs. However, that isn't the majority of what we're talking about here. We're talking about bailing out, with my tax money, every idiot from high school dropout to Wharton School of Business grad! And, that's not right. If you don't want to put in the sacrifice for schooling for a better wage, that's your choice. Live with it. And, on the other end, if you f*ck up a business, it should fail and you shouldn't be given reprieve by the government on my dime. Lunch time.

Yes, and Mack Brown had a steeper climb in the ACC than Dodge has in the Sun Belt. And, despite that steeper climb, Mack's team wasn't being blown out week after week. In 1988, Mack's Tar Heels played four lost games within 6 points, and only gave up 40+ twice. In 1989, they had five losses within 7 points, and gave up 40+ three (one of those was for 50). Compare that to Dodge, in the Sun Belt: In 2007, only two losses were within double digits, opponents scored 40+ six times, (of those, 50+ three times, 60+ three times, and 70+ twice). In 2008, only one loss was within double digits, opponents scored 40+ ten times (of those, 50+ four times, 60+ once, and 70+ once). It also should be obvious that comparing Todd Dodge to Mack Brown is the ultimate in comparing apples to oranges. Mack had been a coordinator and a head coach at the Divison I level before North Carolina hired him. Todd Dodge had only had a swim through I-AA for a pair of losing seasons - and those were over a dozen years before he was hired as head coach at UNT. There is no serious coaching comparison to be made between these two men.

So, in street clothes, our football players didn't appear to be football players? That's what it sounds like. Look, some of your points have been discussed before. As to the defense in 2007: (1) Before that season, most of us believed that would be a strength, due to the returning of nine guys from a middle-of-the-pack type defense. (2) Doubts were raised when no adjustments were made during the OU game, and rarely thereafter. Schemes do matter. (3) Doubts about so many high school coaches were underscored as the defense was scorched throughout the season. (4) To exacerbate things, the DB coach that year hadn't coached antwhere at any level, high school or college, in 13 years. That raised real doubts about whether or not Todd Dodge had a grip on what he was doing. As to the 2008 defense: (1) You can check back and see that in July and August, many of us posted that we should tap the break a little of the Deloach as Jesus concept because there were going to be a tons of new faces on that side of the ball. (2) Whether or not the scheme was right in 2008, we don't know because the play was so undisciplined. That's to be expected from a team with nine or so new starters. (3) Candidly, though, it would seem that if Dodge were really recruiting better all around athletes, the sheer number of big plays would have dropped. They didn't. The speed he is said to have recruited apparently isn't showing up on game day. Overall, whether he ever comes right out and admits it or not, Dodge isn't satisfied with the progression of his first two classes either. If he were, he wouldn't have been pounding the JUCOs so hard this time around. I think this demostrates that he didn't quite understand the speed level of FBS-level college football on either side of the ball. I'd also say that it isn't a stretch to suggest that he took special teams play for granted. I mean, our butts were handed to us in dramatic fashion by FIU, another school under a second year coach with only two of his own recruiting classes. We ended their long losing streak in 2007; then, the came here and pounded us in 2008. Just another second year coach, with a roster full of guys who had produced winless seasons, and a couple of recruiting classes. Yet, somehow, his teams weren't being blown out in his second year - and actually playing the Big East's South Florida to a 17-9 final. One thing we do know is this - there are no more high school coaches or businessmen on the defensive side of the ball. And, there are players with lots of game experience. Therefore, this year, there will be no excuse for getting blown out - with the exception of the Alabama game. If teams are running it up on us in 2009 the way they did in 2007 and 2008, there will be no defense of any coach on the staff - no matter what their background was before they arrived in Denton.

Constantly shilling for the current state of affairs "WON'T DO CRAP" either. The game isn't won and lost here on the board. Unfortunately for Todd Dodge, he's got to prepare the team for success on the field. And, unfortunately for the team, he's never been part of a college staff that has produced as much as even a .500 season. Until the proof is on the field that he knows what he's doing, it's fair game to question whether or not he knows what he's doing. Following up a 2-10 campaign with a 1-11 campaign doesn't really lend credence to notion that he has a clue about what to do at this - this Sun Belt - level of college football. Currently, this battle station is not yet fully operational...and Luke is rapidly approaching, with Han and Chewy backing him up:

Gee, how is it that he keeps landing such cherry gigs with no high school skins on the wall? Do LSU and Alabama know something we don't about hiring coaches?

Do you get tired of typing the same crap over and over?

I voted 1-3, thinking we could win against Army. However, their new head coach had a history of giving I-A/FBS schools fits, taking Wisconsin into overtime at Camp Randall and eventually losing by one point. He was also on the defensive coaching staff at Arizona during it's "Desert Swarm" heyday in the 90s. So, while I think we can beat the Black Knights, it will be no gimme. And, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they beat us as well. They've got a bona fide, college football coach who will be gameplanning against, well...our coaching staff, which claims a 2-0 record against Western Kentucky.

Yes, because it's quite obvious that Gio is to blame for the lack of defense, special teams, blocking, and credible offensive gameplan. It was all on his shoulders to somehow pull the mess up from a coaching staff laden with high school coaches who didn't (and still don't) understand the Division I game. Yes, even though Todd Dodge admitted that he underestimated the speed and quickness of the defensive backs at this level, it's Gio's fault that Dodge didn't know how to prepare him for it and create a scheme to account for it. And, further, that Todd Dodge was going to "personally" help coach the special teams, but they still didn't improv, Gio is to blame for the field position disasters Dodge's "personal attention" to the special teams caused. It was all on Gio to: (1) Hire competent, college-level coaches, (2) Come up with a blocking scheme using only five players since tight ends and fullbacks were moved to other positions to suit the "genius" of Dodge's offense, (3) Teach the kick- and punt-returners how to properly field punts, (4) Teach the place kickers how to kick extra-points, (5) Make sure Eddrick Gilmore went to all of his classes and passed them so he could be with the team for the whole season, (6) Make the decision to kick field goals instead of going for touchdowns when inside the red zone and trailing by several scores, (7) Come up with a defensive game plan to compensate for the high school defensive line coach, (8) Teach the defensive backs to play man against the likes of OU's Malcolm Kelly, (9) Teach the defensive backs to cover anyone, at anytime, in any game for more than a handful of plays, (10) Teach linebackers to have enough gap discipline to stop the opponents' run games, (11) Teach the defensive ends how to pass rush since the defensive backs couldn't cover a dead cat with a 20 square foot blanket, (12) Teach the entire defense how to take proper pursuit angles, (13) Teach the entire defense proper tackling technique in case they ever accidentally stumbled into the correct pursuit angle, (14) Teach the offensive line not to jump before the snap count, (15) Condition the squad in the off-season so that they'd be competitive in every quarter of every game each season, (16) Make sure more than two receivers per game were ready to play in the pass-based, spread offense, (17) And, make sure none of his teammates on the sideline were cussing during the game within earshot of the receivers' coach. Am I missing anything? Oh, yeah. Conduct and supervise study hall, lead the stadium fund drive and come up with a plan to solve the national economic crisis while talking North Korea and Iran into abandoning their nuclear weapons programs. Yes, the losing seasons are all to be pinned on Gio because the "genius" gameplanning of the high school coach and his staff had us in every game, down to the wire. I mean, just look at the scores. We were just a play here and there from winning enough games to win our piddly, little conference and go to a bowl game, right?

You mean like his overall record at UNT? His tenure here as an assistant on two squads with losing records at the I-AA level? That kind of fact?

Hey, Lama...how about a little something, you know, for the effort?

"Although it is flattering to know that my body of work as a head coach is respected enough to be mentioned when openings like this arise...." It's hard not to laugh out loud at this Todd Dodge quote from the article. Yeah, Todd. Because the other 118 coaches of FBS schools are just sitting around waiting to be considered for the opening of a high school coaching position. It would be so flattering for, say, Nick Saban if Huntsville Grissom High School began mentioning his name in their coaching search. You see stuff like this and it is laughable; but, it's also sad. It may be a harbinger that the guy's head really is so big that he believes his old press clippings. In a little over six months, we'll see if he's learned anything at all about his "body of work as a head coach" from 2007 and 2008.

Euless asked me if I thought TD regressed between his time with DD and his return to UNT. I pointed out that TD was never a coach under DD. Nor was he ever on the coaching staff of UNT during a winning season. Many people here have some challenge with reading comprehension. So, here's the breakdown (read slowly...or, as Irwin M. Fletcher suggests, "Find someone who can read it for you."): (1) A former OU player is transferring to UNT. (2) That player could be given a waiver to play this year because of circumstances related to Hurricane Katrina. (3) OU is helping with the appeal. (4) OU has a history of success in asking for things from the NCAA, such as requests for sixth years and appeals from sanctions (unlike our athletic department), so it's good that they're helping us. (5) There is a history between Stoops and Dodge that makes it plausible that OU would be helping us. (6) Todd Dodge is the coach of UNT, where the player from OU is transferring. (7) Someone remarked along the lines that OU was only helping because they don't have us on their schedule while the kid will be here. (8) Follow up remarks doubted that OU was ever worried about us being on their schedule no matter who was on our roster. (9) A summary of Dodge's poor performance here as both an assistant and head coach were used to underscore the point further - OU has nothing to fear in helping a player in need because we don't have a coaching staff that could handle gameplanning against anyone except Western Kentucky anyway. And, even then, the games come down the final possessions. (10) Those who worship Dodge and his history of losing and mediocrity everwhere except Southlake were predictably defending him. Those of us who understand he's a snake oil salesman predictably countered with facts, the anathema of Dodge and his defenders.

TD never coached for DD. He coached I-AA under Dennis Parker. Then bailed out into the high school game again for over a decade. He never was at a I-A level school as a coach. And, check back to the results of the 1992 and 1993 season: we went 4-7 both years. So, it's not like he was burning up the Southland Conference with his offense back then either. Again, just another exmpale of the ridiculous myth that Dodge had some sort of magic offensive formula that was ever proven at any level of college football. Look, you had to seriously buy into alot of bullstuff to think he was going to get this thing off the ground based on his "genius" alone. Sadly, many people did. Many here took victory after victory over Grapevine, Euless, and the like to translate into success against I-A school. Well, so far, it has been godd for one whole win in two years over a full-fledged FBS/I-A level school. One. But, it's hard to sit back and blame him totally. He'd never been up at this level, so how could he have known. What you can blame him for is not making more changes across the board after the first season bombed. Changes in the coaching staff - on both sides of the ball, not just the defense. Changes in the offensive gameplan - mixing in a credible run game, throwing in some more blockers in the way of fullbacks and tight ends to help a young line. I guess, in the end, you have to take him at his word from press conference Number 1 - he didn't have a college football plan, or a high school football plan, but just a football plan. Oh, okay. Brilliant. But, I now agree with him 100% - he certainly didn't have a college football plan.

I can resist, but what's the point? History has borne out what many of us were skeptical about back then, but we were pooh-poohed to varying degrees...usually by people saying we weren't coaches so how could we possibly know anything about it, or we loved Darrel Dickey, or other such nonsense. Besides, if the kool-aid drinkers had been right, they'd be gloating for saying Dodge was the magic bullet from day one. So, it's fair enough for either side to claim victory when the dust settles. Anyway, the long and short of it is, it's better late than never. Collectively as a fanbase, we're finally going to get, on the defensive side of the ball, what we should have gotten from day one - a full compliment of college coaches to prepare the defense for battle. Even if the offense doesn't improve much, having guys who know what they're doing for the defensive half the team should be good for another two or three wins alone during the seasons. And, you can look this up as well - I predicted we'd have a winning record in the Sun Belt last season. I was wrong, but I believed that based on what I thought would be the experience of the offense. Again, wrong. In that regard, I overestimated Dodge and his offensive staff's ability to drill their system into the heads of the returning players. This year, there will simply be no excuse for not have a winning record in the Sun Belt. Overall, I can easily see us going 1-3, or even 0-4 again on the out of conference part of the schedule again. I can live with that...if those OOC scores are closer than in years one and two. However, in year three I fully expect Todd Dodge to have a grasp of the competition level of this conference with no excuses. We're not Baylor trying to claw our way up the Big 12 South. It isn't climbing Mount Everest to expect winning at this juncture in this conference.

That's not true. Stoops is just trying to help the kid. With or without him, we still wouldn't be competitive with OU. The kid has speed and size, but OU had a roster full of speed and size. There, he's lost in the mix; here, he's a true hope and T.Y. Hilton-type threat in this conference. Stoops has recruited down here for years with K-State, UF, and OU. He knows Dodge well enough to help him out. It wouldn't have shocked me if Stoops would have hired him a few years back. In fact, it would have been a good place to Dodge to cut his teeth on the upper-echelon level of the college football world. Plus, Stoops' assistants are always getting head coaching jobs. It would have been a good pathway for Dodge to move up - certainly a smoother one than he's on now. As it is, I wish Dodge would do what Stoops does and have co-offensive coordinators, one for the pass game and another for the run game. I just think that's the future of the game on both sides of the ball. Look, it's not breaking news that I'm no fan of Dodge as the UNT head football coach at this point in time in UNT's history. I think a better hire could have been hire. And, easily. The man wasn't ready for what faced him on the field (speed and scheme-wise) or off the field (players' personal issues and actual criticism from a fanbase and press). Saying you're ready and being ready are two different things. But, these guys, with rare exception, are in a network that is never-ending and they're always doing things behind the scenes to help one another out. We had a guy who used to play QB at SMU in our office yesterday discussing a merger. He discussed games, people he knew from before, during, and after his playing time. They're all still friends and associates, no matter what jersey they wore back in the day. Hating is largely a fan thing. The players grew up playing with and against one another, visiting camps together, working out over the summers together. They rarely begrudge one another the way opposing fans do. I can easily see Stoops going to bat for Dodge on the Stadford issue. And, I think he and Castiglione have enough cache with the NCAA to get it done. They've been able to gets sixth years for a few players, and won an appeal in the Bomar/Quinn sanction deal. In short, they know how to play the game adminitratively. I'd bet we'll see Tyler not only suited up, but starting for us in the fall.

Favre went to Southern Miss, not Ole Miss.

FFR is right about the post - there are very, very few spread guys in the NFL doing anything other than holding clipboards. The reasons are plenty, but it all comes down to speed. In the NFL, you're at the very top of the food chain. There are no Iowa States and Baylors in the NFL. Each weekend, you're going to get defensive ends who can run like deer, even on bad teams. The linebacker speed is ridiculous in the league and the DBs are human jets. I think the overall point is, it'd be nice to see Dodge do a little something other than have a guy sitting back in the pocket and running for his life. No one has to be honest against us because of our scheme. They can cheat up, blitz corners, send multiple linebackers...it doesn't matter. We don't have the scheme (fullback, tight end) to stop the extra men blitzing. We've discussed all of this before. Our defense is then worn to hell with all of the three and outs, or one first down and then out. We get way behind, the opponent sticks in their second and third teamers and we get some stat padding time on offense as the opponents do their best to kill the clock andnot embarass us too much. But, it all come down to the scheme. It's not novel or difficult to defense as many here mistakenly believed when Todd Dodge was hired. I recall people here trying to tell me that what Dodge ran wasn't a "spread" offense. Yeah, okay. Anyway, the Sun Belt had already been defensing Troy's offense and Schnellenberger - whose been around so long, he'll throw any formation out there play to play. And, out of conference, since we play mainly Big 12 and SEC teams, they'd already seen the real practitioners of it - Leach, Mumme, Spurrier - and the variations of the theme done by OU and Texas. There was no way it - spread or whatever you think Dodge's spread is really called - was going to take anyone by surprise...as we found out in game one up in Norman and in repeated beatings ever since. This offseason, something has happened that should have happened in December 2006 - a real college coach was hired (for the DTs) and a dedicated conditioning guy was brought in. I'd love to go back and pull the threads back up where I predicted those were needed for Dodge to run this offense. But, why rub it in your faces personally? It's already been done on the field and the offseason actions to correct it are proof enough (and satisfying at some sick level as well). Our problem, though, is that the offensive side of the ball is still full of good 'ol boy, high school hires. The defense finally has a full complement of competent college coaches. So, we are again likely to see the same type of stupidity that made our offense worthless for the better part of two seasons. On the plus side, I think the players and coaches can now cuss in the heat of battle without being "redirected" by the high school receivers coach. I'm going to perform a Quoner-like task over the next few weeks about what the offensive statistics really mean. And, I mean to dig down and really see when we get the bulk of our yards and points. Lots of people like the stats, but to me, they're worthless if they don't add up to wins. I could care less if we pile up 400+ yards of offense if 250 of it came in the second half after we were already four scores behind! I'd rather win ugly with a stout defense and grinding, punishing offense. We'll never get the later out of Dodge, but we can at least now hope for the former with the new DL and conditioning coach.

McCain should have told him that he should help his own family and quit expecting the government to do it for him. Embarassing that some camera-weilding jackass from the What's In It For Me Generation would ambush a man like McCain. Although, what more do you expect from TMZ. They've made a name for themselves by ambushing people with stupid questions.