The Fake Lonnie Finch

Are the wheels falling off? On and off the field? Well, on the field for sure. Dodge raised the white flag on the season when he went with a true freshman at QB. It didn't matter; either one QB or the other was going to be an interception machine in this offense. The only difference between the two is timing. Meager threw them in the fourth quarter, Vizza throws them at any point in the game. We've seen weird personel decisions all season. Guys who used to play a bunch last year relagated to the bench or special teams. Seniors quitting before the season started. You might be able to draw the conclusion that Dodge doesn't have control of his locker room. It appears, now more than ever, that Dodge and his staff has been unable to get the team to buy into what he is selling. And, honestly, they are not doing a good job of selling to many of us either. The vast majority of the fan base isn't made up of football coaches. However, it doesn't take a football coach to see the sharp decline in the defense and special team. It doesn't take a football coach to wonder about Jamario Thomas. Why isn't he used more? If his injuries really are lingering, for three seasons, why didn't the strength and conditioning coach and training staff get the same hard look Darrell Dickey got? Perhaps if they'd had some form of cancer our athletic director would have pulled the hook on them. Who knows. What we do know is that the only improved area of this team is in passing yards. We're still not throwing more touchdowns than interceptions. We're still not consistently producing points from game to game. The defensive players, I'm sure, are tired of being sent out to execute a scheme that doesn't show results. No question that this is probably part of Dominique Green's frustration. A season ago, he was being coached by a guys with a lot of college experience. Now, he's taking instructions from a guy who's never coached at this level, and whose results, save a quarter here and there, have been poor. Is there immaturity on Green's part? Yes, of course there is. He's a kid. But, kids are not always 100% stupid or wrong. He's been inside the program for three years now. He's been a part of defenses that worked better than this one, for sure. Anyway, no telling what all of this dust up will bring. However, to me, it kind of draws the curtain back a little on this team's overall chemistry. And, what it shows is that this team does lack the chemistry necessary to produce a winner. And, it shows that this coaching staff could have a long way to go to sell what it has to the entire team. Welcome to division I-A football, Coach Dodge and staff. Guess it's a little difference than running a squad full of 15-18 year olds. Huh. Imagine that.

I thought we'd win three or four. However, I never saw being blown out by anyone except OU and Arkansas. I thought, like Todd Dodge did, that they defense would be better. We were bad the past two season, but alot of the games in the Sun Belt were close game, low scoring with great defense and special teams helping us at least field position-wise. That's the other thing I wouldn't have guessed in a million years - the total collapse of the special teams. It's stunning, just stunning to watch it. You think of all the great punter and kickers we've had. A fair to decent return game in most years. This year...well, there's no point in rehashing. From game one where we were trying to run kickoffs out of the end zone at OU to the plethora of Homecoming Game penalties on returns, it's just been a nightmare. Oh, well. What doesn't kill us makes us 1-7...or something like that. By the way, I think we can still hit my three or four game prediction. FIU is the worst team on the planet - and that's even with them cheating! I'm stating right here and right now that there's no way in freezing hell we can lose to FIU! No way! We could spot FIU 20 points and give them the ball at the 25 yard line every possession and we'd still beat them. They've only scored 68 points in 8 games. I don't care how bad our defense plays, FIU moves the ball on no one. I also think we can get up on WKU. I know they beat Middle Tennessee. But, that was that Dasher QBs first start. He's obviously done better since then. I just think the Hilltoppers don't have enough to put us away. So, all in all, we're doing about like I thought we would record-wose...just in a more frightening way than I imagined. I thought the losses would be closer.

Ah, yes...Mr. "Entering his first season, Robert Drake came to North Texas along with head coach Todd Dodge from Southlake Carroll High School...." I'm sure opposing teams are terrified about this guy's schemes, based on what he did in high school and all. The official biography goes on to say he was part of six state titles at Southlake Carroll since 1990. Gee, that's terribly interesting. Now I have something to comfort myself with when our punts are being blocked and our return team is...well, doing what our return team does. It's really hard to question this guy's credentials. I mean, think about it. How do you question the decision to hire a guy with absolutely no college coaching experience at any level whatsoever? It was a brilliant move! Dodge was smart to bring him along. Darrell Dickey had stealth recruiting, Todd Dodge has stealth hiring. Think of all the other college teams that missed out on hiring a guy who was a part of six state, high school football titles! How did this guy slip through the cracks for so long? The genius of it is stunning! Also, the president and Board of Directors were equally smart about going about their daily lives and ignoring the football program while it happened. Oops. This post might be seen as critical. I'm probably not real Mean Green fan anymore. Because I recognize poor coaching, I'm a bad, bad person. A really mean person. A person who probably hates puppies and kittens. <burp> ...and has bad manners to boot!

Yeah, because no one ever yelled negative things at Darrell Dickey and his coaching staff. Ever. Everyone was very supportive until the bitter end. This board was upbeat. The crowds were positive and boisteriously rooting on the home team....<fart> Anyway, I completely agree. Why should the alumni who give the most money and time to the program be allowed to voice their opinions? Why don't they just keep giving, watch their crappy football, and shut up?

Yes. Of course, when we're down by 20 with less than two minutes left and we're still dropping back to pass...it would have been nice to feed Jamario the ball at the end of the game when it was over to try to let him get 100 yards. But, that would have cut into the potential to add more worthless passing yards onto the stats ledger. It's important to have lots of passing yards at the end of the day, no matter what the score is.

There are plenty of pre-snap penalties, but the ones that drive me crazy are the special teams penalties. We're eight games into the season and we're getting penalties on kick and runt returns darn near every time we field a kick! It's just sloppy. Coaching. Sloppy coaching. Our special teams is beginning to remind me of the song, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald." You know, "the ship was the pride of the American side...." Well, the UNT special teams used to be the pride of the program. Now, it's sinking fast. Blocked punts and field goals, penalties galore on returns, poor return yardage when we do happen to pull off a return with no penalty. Does anyone coach the special teams or do our guys just coach "spread offense" and ignore everything else football related? I mean, seriously.

Your point was the same as always - wait, wait, wait. You also like to point out teams whose history is only lost on those people who believe a football wasn't snapped until ESPN was formed. No team you name had similar circumstances to us. Nor did they succeed by trying to do it the way we are. That's a simple fact easily borne out with just a modicum of research. My point is this - why call each other names over it? It's the same stuff that's been thrown at us time and time again. It's not worth it to turn on each other. Different coach, same result. Different president, another high school coach hired. Dennis Parker then, Todd Dodge now. In between, some position coaches, Simon and Dickey, from run of the mill I-As. So what? Be mad at me if you wish. That's your choice. At this point, what counts to me is results. Dodge came in talking a good game, "defense will carry us this year because that's where the experience is on this roster" blah, blah, blah. Yeah, sure. Seven game into it, and we're still wondering how nine returning starters could be so confused about playing defense. Different people standing on the sideline with headphones and clipboards, same results. Gee, the high school coach and his high school coordinators didn't see this coming? Yawn. Tell me about it.

Except Dodge isn't managing a business, he's coaching a football team. At the end of the day, if your business is in the black, you're still in business. If Dodge has this "what gets measured gets done" mindset, he'll continue to be outmanuevered by coaches who are out there to win and will adapt on the fly to do it. Warren Buffet buys businesses, but he never goes to see them. He doesn't dictate to them what to do. His pattern is this - he and his team find a business they think is a leader in their market, they buy it, they let the same guys continue to manage it. All Buffett asks is for an end of the year report. Guess what? It works for him. The man sits there in Omaha, buying businesses he'll never darken the doorway of, and he makes billions. Not millions, billions. If we have a "bend, but don't break" defense like the Dallas Cowboys under Jimmy Johnson, who cares? They won. You think Jimmy and Dave Wannstadt were taking time out of their Super Bowl celebrations to count up three-and-outs? I doubt it. They just wanted guy to make plays. If it happened at one end of the field or the other, it didn't matter. As long as they kept their opponent out of the end zone and off the scoreboard enough. Results are what counts. And, the result in football is showed on the scoreboard. Everyone knows you can have individual goals. But, you can also get overly focused on them. I don't know if Dodge is doing that. I just know that I don't hear Notre Dame's coach or any other struggling coach saying, "we need this many yard here and there." What I hear them saying is, "We've got to find a way to win." Their focus appears to be on getting back on the winning track, not bogging down in the numbers game with their players. That's all we're asking here. Win. Find a way to win. We don't care how. We could care less what the numbers are. Just do it...Nike.

ULa-La did it, too. Maybe that's the film Blakeney was referring to when he said his staff "saw something" they thought could exploit in the offensive line scheme. Some people have discussed tight ends. I'm not so sure you have to have a true 100% tight end. The way Kragthorpe did it at Tulsa was he had an H-back, kind of a tight end hybird. Sometimes the guy would line up where a traditional tight end lines up. Sometimes he'd line up in the back field. Sometimes he'd be split out as a receiver. I don't remember who Kragthorpe's main H-back was, but I do recall that he got a ton of catches and then got drafted. Never made the league, but his utility on the field as both a blocker and receiver at least got him a shot.

You know what it sounds like from Dodge's interviews? It sounds like he's too obsessed with numbers. You know, we want this many three-and-outs on defense, we want this many rushing yards out of these guys, that many out of those guys, such and such a number passing, etc. Look, the guy's got a good head for offense. But, maybe he just needs to forget about the numbers and coach. Throw out all of the charts and tell the guys to just go out, win their individual assignments, and win each play. I mean, seriously. Would it make any difference if a team punted to us after five or six plays instead of three? Who cares? Our one win this year shows what can happen if the defense steps up, even if the "passing game" numbers goal isn't met. Am I crazy here? I don't recall hearing any other coach mention numbers goals so often in interviews. In my twisted mind, the only number that counts should be the score. If we've got more on the scoreboard than them when the scoreboard reads 00:00, I could care less what the numbers are in three-and-outs, QB run yards vs. RB run yards, passing yards...just, please. Maybe Dodge is collaring himself with this stuff. The game isn't played on paper. The game plan may be on paper, but you've got to be able to change and adapt with the flow of a particular game. Statistics be damned.

I guess the most disappointing thing is the lack of comment on the Johnny Rotten freebie. I expected more from people associated with a "music school." Also, Kentucky didn't ditch the coach before they hired Rich Brooks, he left. And, Kentucky has basketball to fall back on. You're talking about a school, like Kansas and North Carolina, who simply takes a successful football season as a bonus to smile about while they're watching great basketball. In other words, no one there would have really cared what the football team did as long as the basketball team was winning. That's why they can hire goof offs like Hal Mumme and castaways like Rich Brooks. Brooks could have coached there for a decade without winning and no one would have cared. Look at how long it took North Carolina to fire Jim Bunting! Utah didn't build either. The guy before Urban Meyer coached there 13 season, producing 10 winning seasons, five bowl teams, and two shared conference titles in two difference conferences. The season before Urban Meyer arrived, the Utes were 5-6 with five of those six losses losses by less than 10 points, and two by four or less - including a 10-7 loss to Michigan at Ann Arbor. So, it's not as if the Utes were in dire straits when Meyer was hired. They'd had plenty of success over the previous three decades. They've had 19 winning seasons since 1980, and they haven't had back-to-back losing seasons since 1985-1986. Like, Utah? Come on, man. The story is the same with Boise. They didn't "build a winner over time" anymore than Utah did. They've been winning a two different levels for over five decades. They were regular I-AA playoff qualifiers. The Broncos have only had five losing seasons since 1968! None since 1997. Whatever level they've been at, they've piled up conference titles - I-AA and I-A. It hasn't mattered. They've got 40 years of football - 35 of those winning. There was no "building time" recently or in the past. TCU may be comparable...except that they have money to hire real college coaches! They play in a real college football stadium! Big differences. The demise of the SWC was the best thing that ever happened to TCU. If they'd been thrown into the Big 12, they'd be no different than Baylor. They were thrust into a conference where they could thrive, and finally got an athletic director who could raise and spend money for the good of the program. And, he didn't go digging around in the high school ranks to find coaches either. Rutgers is the only possible plausible attempt you can make to us by comparison...but even that fails. Rutgers is The State University of New Jersey. UNT is not the State University of Texas. We've discussed the money and politics of this before. Also, their current head coach wasn't a high school coach with lots of state titles. He ws the defensive coordinator at Miami U for two seasons. Before that, he was the Chicago Bears' secondary coach for two seasons. Before that he was the secondary coach for six seasons at Penn State, each seasons the Nittany Lions were a bowl team. Shiano didn't have to have a personal "learning curve" for him and his staff. Also, having the best teams in the Big East defect to the ACC during his tenure hasn't hurt either! Virginias Tech...Miami...Boston College. Shiano wasn't exactly blowing those teams away when they were still in the Big East, now, was he? No. He was 0-9 against those Big East defectors the three years they were opposing him. Whether you like it or not, we are in no way like the schools you mentioned...other than our players also wear pads, helmets, cleats and run up and down a 100 yard field with 10 yard end zones at either side. After that, there's no similarity at all. If and when we make it big, it will be coming out of the blue like Kansas State did it...although, again, they plucked a longtime assistant at Iowa to lead their building, not a high school coach with high school coordinators and assistants. If Todd Dodge makes this thing work, it will be the football story to end all football stories. It will be like nothing that has ever been done before. If... Right now, we'd simply settle for another game where we scored more than our opponent.

Here we are again chopping each other up over bad football: -Once again, we see the ubiquitous "If you don't like Todd Dodge, you must clamor for Darrell Dickey" as if those are the only two people on the planet who can coach at UNT. Forget that the results over the past two season have been the same. In the minds of some, you are either in one camp or the other. Not me. I'm in the third camp, the "I don't care who the coach is, just get the players ready to win" camp. Run, pass, dance, wiggle...I could care less as long as we have more points at the end of the game than our opponent. -Folks, those of you who watched...Troy tried like hell to either ( a ) keep us in the game, or ( b ) allow us to upset them. I mean, really, seven turnovers? I'll bet that before the game Saturday there were probably teams who hadn't forced seven turnovers all season! Three inside the 35 and no points? Are you kidding me? Either Todd Dodge and his offensive coordinator are complete idiots, or Troy has a stout defense. I'd bet it's probably more of the latter and less of the former. -Hooray! The Return of His Players versus Players He Inherited! Woo-hoo! Grab the popcorn and settle in for this one! What an exciting intellectual showdown this promises to be...and one that is completely ignored by coaches like Bob Stoops, Mack Brown, Urban Meyer, Steve Kragthorpe, etc., etc., etc., ad infinitum. Spread offense Todd Graham at wishbone attack Rice for a single season, anyone? Bowl game? Hello? Bueller? Bueller? CASE STUDY EXAMPLE: Do you realize that OU was ground-based for three seasons before Bob Stoops took that job, boasting 1,000 yard rushers in '96, '97, and '98? And the offensive coordinator he brought in was...Kentucky OC Mike Leach who had been following Hal Mumme around. You think OU had the personnel to run the spread in 1999 and 2000 with the players John Blake left? On paper, no. But, Stoops and Leach didn't care. They coached what they'd inherited and had some shiny trophies to look at as a result...7-5 in 1999, 12-0 and a conference and national title in 2000. No excuses. No, "wait for new players for the system, new culture to be established, blah, blah, blah." They got the returning players from three consecutive crappy Sooner teams to buy into what they were doing. They got linemen who blocked for 1,000 yard rushers to block for an offense that jacked up 400-500 passes a season...and they did it in the span of a few months. Perhaps Todd Dodge and staff have been less than successful at getting older guys to buy into what they have. If so, that's hardly the players' fault. He's hired to do the job with whomever is there. Part of the job is motivating the players...no matter who recruited them. If he believes in his own mind that it's okay to just wait and wait, then, as I've said before, we've just been sold the same old crap just in a different wrapper. Anyway, take what we have and just...well, take it. We've got no other choice. But, we shouldn't fight each other over it. I suspect, when the dust settles, we're all in the third camp, the "I Don't Care, Just Win!" camp. Hallelujah...amen....

This whole thread is ridiculous. Look, the bottom line is this - with Dickey, Simon, Parker, or Todd Dodge - we get what we pay for. We don't have the money to pay for real college football coaches, and so we don't get them. We don't get our program turned around in a season like other schools. We get perpetual rebuilding. We don't get a new stadium or renovations on the current one like other schools do, we get Fouts repainted every now and then and battling with crickets. Hey, you know what? So what. That's all we have the money for. Second rate coaches and an old high school-grade football stadium. That's it. That's the whole enchilada, my friends. And, so, the fanbase, who has been fooled yet again, is tearing itself apart because of the idiots who run the show? Step back, my Mean Green bretheren. Take a deep breath, and realize what you've been sold...and sold...and sold...and re-sold. It's crap. Crap wrapped in a different package every time. Meager, Vizza...who cares? They've both thrown more interceptions than touchdowns. Without the defense snapping out of it for one whole quarter, Vizza would be winless this year, too. This linebacker or that linebacker. This lineman or that lineman. This running back or that running back. It doesn't matter. They don't have anyone who can steer them through a major colleg football game anyway. No one who can size up a major college opponent on film and make a decent game plan. No one who can go in a halftime, digest what has just happened for 30 mintues, then come up with a plan to change it for the better. It's not there. And, guess what? It's not going to be there because we didn't hire college coaches. It doesn't matter. They could grab Mean Joe Green out of the stands and call Deion Sanders and suit him up secretly and it wouldn't matter. These coaches don't know what they're doing if the game plan doesn't work from snap one. Bob Stoops realized it. So did Howard Schnellenberger. And, Houston Nutt, and on and on and on to Larry "We saw something on film we thought we could exploit" over and over again Blakeney. They all realized what we have here. It must be like shooting fish in a barrell to those guys. It'll take some of you longer than other to realize that the crap we see on the field runs deeper than the quarterback, the poor player personnel decisions, the maddening inability of the coaching staff to adjust to anything offensively or defensively during an actual game, the gross regression of the special teams (once our calling card along with a tough defense), etc. It's just bad football. Again. And, except for a four year bowl run, and few highlight wins under Hayden Fry in the 70s, some near-misses under Corky Nelson in the 80s, and a couple of tweakings of Texas Tech in the 90s, that's all this program has ever been - a school that plays bad football. Our presidents don't take it seriously. Never have. Our Board of Directors don't take it seriously. Never have. They still don't. Therefore, I suggest you all stop taking it so seriously that you waste time ripping each other here. You want a chart? You like statistics and charts so you fight each other over who's the worst? Here's a chart for you: 2006: Mediorce running game + poor passing game + average defense + average special team = crap. 2007: Nonexistent running game + passing game in games 1 through 5, then disappearing in games 6 and 7 + abhorrent defense + abysmal special teams = crap There ya go. Either way you slice it, you've been paying for, and getting crap, for the past two seasons. Three seasons when you throw in 2005 for good measure. Who freakin' cares? I went to North Texas because I wanted to go there. I liked the degree program they had for me. I liked the campus, the atmosphere, the scene. Football played 0% into my decision about coming to UNT. You know what? Win , lose, or draw, I'll love UNT no matter what the football team does. As of two weeks ago, I could care less. The administration can set up as many smoke and mirrors as it wants about the stadium, coaches, and the whole nine yards. It's all just bullcrap. I ain't buyin' it anymo'...and I suggest you don't either. Many of you, like me, have families to feed and nurture. You students for sure need every penny you can muster for food and beer for you and your dates (assuming you get off this message board long enough to spend some time with the opposite sex). You also need to study. Watching this parade of never-ending crap is a waste of your time and money and mine. Save your time, save your money...and save yourselves from arguing about which interception-prone quarterback will lead the team to defeat. Life is far more important than to get bogged down on the circus they call a football program at our alma mater in Denton. Seriously. Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols summed it up best when the band was collapsing on and off stage - "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?" Yeah, Johnny. Yeah, we sure do.

We are all happy that we finally won a game. And, look...surprise, surprise...it's like many of us have said all along - defense wins games. You don't have to throw the ball 50 times a game if your defense is good enough to win. So, finally - albeit against a 1-5 team - our defense showed up and pulled one out for us. So, for all of FFR's commitment to the program, a member of the staff dresses him down afterwards. I've told you before, and you can scroll through the archives to see for yourself, that this athletic department has fully demonstrated by its actions on this board that it is unprofessional and pathetic. An athletic director who posts, and has a weasel checking the boards when he can't. How utterly ridiculous can you be? Again, just try to imagine DeLoss Dodds at Texas or Joe Catsiglione at Oklahoma combing through a fan message board. And, then, take the next step. Imagine them have someone monitor it for them, take the information gleaned, and then calling out a season ticket-buying, donation-giving fan publicly after a win against a 1-5 team. What a freaking joke. Last year, RV and his flunky tried to paint me as a disgruntled assistant coach. So much so, that the flunky posted after my every post. So, I challenged them to put their money where their mouth was. For $1,000 apiece I offered to meet them, show them my driver's license, and log onto gomeangreen.com in person, right in front of them to prove I wasn't a coach. Of course, I never heard from either of them. Now, his flunky only occassionally follows my posts with snide remarks. Sadly, we have a pathetic, paranoid crew running our organization. There's no need to wonder why we can't hire the best college football coaches available. There's no need to wonder why we don't have a new stadium. No need. We already know. Our staff is so busy worrying what someone online might be saying about them, they can't work. Even with the win over a 1-5 team, I repeat my promise not to give one more penny of support to my alma mater UNT until the carnival barkers are gone. Calling out FFR...what a joke. Why don't you do something besides go 0-5, then beating a 1-5 team if you want some respect? If it weren't true, it'd be unbelievable. P.S. - Where is the president in all of this? The Board of Regents? Asleep at the wheel as usual. Only at UNT can the president and Board sit by and watch such a colossal waste of time by their own employees. They've already lost money and support here. Now, they'll sit and watch a pack of high school coaches go after a fan who watches their crappy brand of football...and even goes on the road to do it. And, someone who goes out of his way, without pay, even when times are bad, to promote the program. Sick. No more posts here, no money money for the school (except the department from which I earned my degree) until the carnival barkers are gone. It's simply casting pearls before swine, and I won't do it anymore. G'day, enjoy the train wreck.

Exactly. The thing that perhaps people are missing - (and maybe Dodge?) - is that having the one point prevents what happened to us ultimately in the game: us chasing nine point deficits instead of eight point deficits. You can overcome an eight point deficit with one TD and two-point conversion. Chasing nine has you needing two scores no matter what you choose to do after TDs later in the game. If it's 14-12 with time dwindling down in the fourth quarter, going for two is one thing. It's completely different when it's just the second quarter and there is a whole half of football yet to be played, and with any outcome possible.

All good and well, except I don't hate it. I just don't accept the b.s. coming from the athletic department anymore. I still give money to the department from which I earned my degree. I know those professors aren't wasting the money or blowing sunshine up my arse. Having a good athletic department would be fine. But, if I disagree with the direction of a entity to whom I've given money and time, I have the right to express my disappointment. Surely, you can see that. Or, maybe you can't. Maybe you're like Dodge and Mendoza with the defense - if things aren't quite right, you simply hum along in life just hoping they'll get better. That's fine, too. Not me. This isn't some five game thing. I've been involved with UNT as a student or contributor since 1990. Your perspective is different than mine. At my law school alma mater, they had things much worse football-wise than we did just a few short years ago - a crappier stadium (Skelly), fewer wins (2000-2002), a more clueless coach (Keith Burns). Now five years later, their stadium is renovated, they've been to multiple bowl games, they've hired in real college coaches, they got a real athletic director, etc. They did, we didn't. My perspective is simply from having seen a similar situation at a much smaller place...and from one of our fellow former Missouri Valley Conference mates. Somewhere along the way five years ago, people at TU decided to hustle and get things done. I just don't see it here. And, believe me, if Tulsa could go from 1-10 in 2001 and 1-11 in 2002 - and one of those wins being against I-AA Indiana State - to 8-5 in 2003 with Steve Kragthrope at the helm, it could happen here. I say it could, but it isn't. Tulsa was a much more downtrodden football program than we were just five years ago - 2 and 21 with only one win versus a I-A school over two season! Tulsa didn't wait for "rebuilding" or "getting Kragthorpe's recruiting classes into place." He just stepped in and started winning with the roster he was dealt in the crappy stadium his school had for his team. There's no excuse for us not to do the same. There never has been. Sorry, I've given for years. I don't hate my alma mater. I just know when to quit throwing money and time at a bad thing.

Dodge was probably just trying to relive the good old days at Southlake when they could go for two at any point during a ball game. Perhaps by the end of the year he'll realize there are experienced college coaches on the other sideline who are coaching rosters full scholarship athletes to oppose his team. Or, maybe he won't. Right now, it's getting harder to tell as the season progresses.

There's nothing really passing, Greek. You are one of many who has written in support of me in the past and present. It's because you and me and others aren't cultists for one coach or one player. We just want the school we graduated from to win...or at least compete consistently. The comments this week is just the same old b.s. from a segment of our fans who have for years and years tolerated bare stupidity from a number of coaches, athletic directors, and administrators. It doesn't take deep research to look at the DI college football landscape and see many once-downtrodden (or non-existent programs) doing well while we flounder. Kansas State, Rutgers, South Florida, Tulsa, and on and on and on, on, and on, the beat don't stop until the break of dawn. Crappy high school stadium redone (Tulsa)...former minor league baseball stadiums revamped (Louisville)...new stadiums built from the ground up for run-of-the-mill public commuter schools (Central Florida). BCS conference invites to crappy programs (Baylor and Texas Tech), brand spanking new programs (South Florida), former I-AAs (Connecticut), and our former Missouri Valley Conference mates (Louisville). The only certainty is that we'll still have a dilapidated football stadium and we'll still have one of the lowest paying coaching jobs in the country. Thereby, virtually guaranteeing that we'll be forced to hire high school coaches - as we've done twice now since 1990. We play at the same place where defunct Wichita State used to come play us, and we sit in the same crappy stands we sat in for those "glorious" MVC days as well as the stupid dip into I-AA. This new high school coach happened to come from nearby, so people on the board are a bit more touchy about him. I don't really care. If the man says he's proud of bringing his friends along to the coaching staff that has created a defense worse than SMU and ULL field, you have to take him at his word and invite the possibility that he's an idiot. If the man says he did the right thing going for 2 points in the second quarter of a 14-12 football game against one of the worst football schools in America, you have to take him at his word and consider that maybe he's not what everyone cracked him up to be. The reality is, no one outside of the Metroplex really fears Todd Dodge. Sure, coaches at Coppell and Grapevine might cower, but not DI coaches like Bob Stoops and Howard Schnellenberger or Houston Nutt or Ricky Bustle or any other longtime college coach who has seen so many variations of the "spread" offense over the past 30 years that they draw up plans to defense it in their sleep. They also don't cower at a defensive coaching staff who continually doesn't change. Like OU's Malcolm Kelly said, "They didn't give him (Bradford) any different looks all game." Excellent. Just fabulous. Other team's players even recognize the defensive nut doesn't even have to be cracked because the delicious pulpy meat is already out of the shell just waiting to be eaten. But, does it phase Dodge? No. Not even a little. Proud of Mendoza, he just stands there, stone-faced on the sidelines, signaling in plays like a third base coach, checking his wrist band from time to time. Oblivious, apparently, that there even is a defensive unit and special teams unit that also need coaching. It doesn't matter. I won't drink the kool-aid. There's only so many times you can think things will change. Currently, the only thing that has changed is that we pass more. The results are the same. What used to be our rock solid foundation - defense and special teams - is gone and, apparently, forgotten. As long as one of the two QBs throws for 300+ yards, Todd Dodge is doing his job. As long as we stave off being dropped back down a level, Rick Villarreal is doing his job. Their message to us - shut up and give us money. Never mind that we don't have or use the political clout or will lesser or equal schools in other places did to build their stadiums and programs once we have the money, anyway. Be happy with our presidents who have no idea how help the athletic department nor the will. Never mind all that. Just renew your season tickets - with an added donation for the best seats - and keep your opinions to yourself. Sorry. Having seen Tulsa go through it while I was on that campus, watching in disbelief as a program with five full years of existence under its belt get into the Big East...at some point you just have to admit that the people we have in place simply have no damn clue how to do it. It doesn't matter that they're nice. It doesn't matter that you may have personally met them, shaken their hand, and made unimportant small talk with them. They just don't know how to do it. They don't. Their predecessors didn't. That just the way it is. Ineffectiveness is ineffectiveness no matter how you slice it. Here's to at least getting up on I-AA Western Kentucky and FIU...if they are still fielding a team come December 1.

Dear Crying Fans: As others have done over the past three seasons, PM me your malicious b.s. It doesn't matter to me. I won't respond, but it might be cathartic for you. And, it won't change the fact that in college football people are going to hit hard - and yes, sometimes after the whistle. And, sometimes, it's not going to be called. Those aren't high school referees out there, and Dodge apparently needs to add that to his learning curve as well. The list grows week after week. Love Always, TFLF

In other words, you do what ULL's coaching staff did against us - switch from a 4-3 to a 3-4...in one week's time. And, they didn't have to recruit new players to do it. They just told the players they had, who had already strunk up the joint to the tune of 0-5, to do it. Nah. You ask the impossible, FFR. Change in the middle of the season, without new players...can't be done...here!

Here's something else that works against the "give the DC as break" crew. ULL's coaching staff, noting its defensive troubles in their 0-5 start, swtiched to 3-4 blitz package during last week's practice from its regular 4-3 alignment. And...it worked. They had pressure on us all night. Same players they had from the first five weeks. They just asked them to do something different, in a different alignment, and to learn how to do it in one week, and they did it! So, don't try to sell me, the "we've got bad players from the former coaches and we've got new coaches and schemes." B.S. We've got upwards of 20 returning defensive lettermen who practiced this scheme in the spring and fall, and have played in it against big bad BCS teams and crappy bottom-feeding non-BCS schools. If ULL can change with positive results over a few day span, why can't we? If Jim Harbaugh's defensive coordinator can stop USC after giving up gobs and gobs of points and yards in a 1-4 start, why can't we? The answer continues to be one half the people here understand, but the other half won't admit - the coaching staff isn't capable of doing it. They're just not. We've played two of the worst football teams in America and lost. If ULL wasn't so bad, they'd have beaten us like a drum. We turned the ball over four times in the first half and they only cashed in for one score. Yes, they played without both starting tackles. Yes, two of their other OL played hurt. But, it seems we just gave them the ball too close to the goal line for their own good. I will gaurantee you that if we turn the ball over four times in the first half against Troy or MTSU, they won't be farting around with a two point lead. They have us down by 20 or more. It's a poor excuse to say these players aren't good enough to learn some half-assed high school defensive scheme. Coaches coach, not players. And, having Dodge say he's porud of those defensive coaches last week and wouldn't change his decision to bring them...that may be a window on how his career will play out. In the end, he may be as stubborn about being wrong as Darrell Dickey was.

Dear Coach Dodge: Welcome to college football. An Oklahoma defensive end wasn't flagged for decking UT's Colt McCoy on a play that had been whistled dead. If you can't take watching college football from the sideline, I suggest you listen to Colorado coach Dan Hawkins and take his advice "This is Divsion I-A football!" And, if you can't hack it, "...go play intermurals, brother!" Here's a suggestion...teach your offensive linemen to block as well as you've taught your QB's to throw the -2 to 2 yard pass play. They'll be All-Americans if they get as efficient at blocking as your QBs are at throwing passes behind and at the line of scrimmage. Pure genius. Love, The Fake Lonnie Finch P.S. - Because your punter seems to be only player who gives you a shot at not screwing up, why not use him during a game to pin people further back in their own territory. Oh, yeah...the 73 yard QB option run for a TD. Never mind. Go for every fourth down. It's a brilliant strategy to keep your defense off the field. I get it now.

Ah, here we are at 0-5. Only the game against FIU looks promising now. We have a QB starting now whose passes look like punts. The only question is who will field them, us or our opponent? It's Todd Dodge's way of waving the white flag on 2007. And, yet, for some reason, he and our genius athletic director who hired him will expect us to bite the baited hook of "rebuilding, learning curve" and a bunch of other complete crap. The athletic director may even come aboard and make a long post about it. It's a joke. We've been sold. Or, at least, some of you have. Half a continent away, another man who interviewed for our vacant head coaching position last winter took his 1-4 team into Los Angeles and walked away with a win over Southern Cal. Amazingly, Jim Harbaugh did it with no high school coaches on his staff. Schools who have been I-A less than ten years sit in the Top 5 of the AP poll. Somehow, they've gotten the resources to pay a real, bona fide college football coach over $1 million dollars a year. Somehow, they play in a stadium that's not on campus and it doesn't matter. They've wedged their way into a BCS conference with no football history or past. Just somehow did it. So, here we sit. Watching our high school coaching staff stand on the sideline of rainy Lafayette. Desperately going for nearly every fourth down. Even though many were fourth and very short, we convert only three all night. The one in my mind that sticks out the most is the one where the "QB that gives us the best chance to win" was unable to decide whether to hand off or keep on a Fourth and One, so he did a little of both and we lost yards. Genius. As our receivers nurse their ribs and kidneys from the "QB that gives us the best chance to win"'s constant high throws, we are expected to sit back and just throw butterfly kisses at the whole affair. Screw it. The real truth is, our school isn't serious about football. Our new president knows so little about it, she allowed the athletic director to hire a high school coach. Then, she and the athletic director sat aside and tried to pump everyone full of sunshine when he then hired a full crew of high school assistants. The board cares so little about it, they simply sat aside and signed whatever contract needed to be signed. They're off losing the battle to get a law school. No need to bother with football when you're losing political battles in other more important arenas, anyway. Our athletic department is so pathetic, the athletic director signs on and posts on fan message boards. But, because he can't do it every day, he has a flunky out to review it for him. And, like the paranoid idiots they are, accuse people who disagree with their constant circus of being assistant coaches. Yes, it's absolutely true. Instead of going out and doing real work and fundraising, they are busy monitoring a fan message board. It's laughable to think guys like DeLoss Dodds or Joe Castiglione would do the same. But, there I go again, looking at other programs with authentic athletic directors and expecting us to have the same. So, congratulations to Jim Harbaugh, who with "players he inherited" slayed the biggest giant of all-time, point spread-wise, in its own backyard. Unheard of because they only threw the ball 30 times...and only needed to complete 11 of them to win! What's more, their defensive coordinator only had 14 or 15 years of collegiate experience on the defensive side of the ball, the last dozen or so as a defensive coordinator. I wonder what he'll do when Stanford fans "give him time to adjust to the college game." We can't expect that at UNT. With the third largest enrollment in the state of Texas, we must sit and wait and wait and wait. Even though our athletic department has already proved they can't raise funds even in the midst of a streak of four bowl appearances. We're relegated to bypassing the Jim Harbaughs of the world for high school coaches and their friends around the Metroplex. We're relegated to watching new stadiums spring up or be renovated on campuses with undergraduate enrollments of less than 3,000 (Tulsa) or on commuter schools campuses (Central Florida). It's a joke. A hoax. Some of us understand it. Others, blindly, do not. It took no more than watching a QB on an 0-5 team to ramble 73 yards to the end zone on the first play of the second half to snap me fully into reality. I should have known it when our high school genius was going for two points after a touchdown in the second quarter! I should have read it in Fitzgerald's eyes all night as he kept glaring back at the sideline as he leapt for errant pass after errant pass and getting his ribs and kidneys pounded on worthless -2 to 2 yard pass plays. Welcome, fellow UNT fans, to the domain of Rick Villareal, Gretchen Bataille, Todd Dodge, and the Fabulous Sleeping Board of Directors. They've sold us the biggest con job in the history of college football. Bigger than OU hiring John Blake. Bigger than Notre Dame hiring Gerry Faust. And, yes, even bigger than Texas A&M hiring Dennis Franchione. It's a rip off. No more money or support until the carnival barkers are gone.

Finally, some sense. OU has shut down the spread more than it hasn't. They regularly beat Tech, Mizzou, and Baylor's spread attacks. Boise, and more recently, Colorado ran on them. The barometer of whether OU - or anyone - is having a good day defensively is whether or not they stop the run. OU allowed Boise's tailback to get 100 yards. The lost. Colorado ran all over them, their tailback got 130 or so, and won. But to say OU's defense could handle the spread is not right at all. Even in those two games, one went into overtime, and the other was decided on a field goal with time expiring. It's not like both team went to start to finish dominating OU's defense by throwing the ball. Both did enough to win, and the thing that put them over the top was - like with any other team - keeping OU's defense out on the field with a good run game. The spread is fun to watch, but winning is what matters. Everybody needs to run sometime. Passing alone doesn't chew up enough game clock or wear out defensive lines. Having a solid run game seal the deal when you have a lead.

True. But, I still think there is a world of difference between the type of program you can have a USF, a public school, and SMU, a private school with a history of NCAA problems. I would also argue that the Kansas State defenses under the Leavitt/Stoops co-defensive coordinator era were better than those coached by Bennett. Sadly, I like Bennett personally and like SMU to some degree. A guy I grew up with is one of the coaches on Bennett's coaching staff (hope he's enjoying his final season). My mom is friends with Gerald Turner's wife. And, my sister went to grad school at SMU. For better or worse, athletically speaking, SMU's President (Turner) has committed to academics over athletics. While many people say they want that, that it's laudable, etc...when the rubber hits the road, no one is opening the game program to see what a guy's GPA is. Bennett and any other coach that follows him will always have that to overcome at SMU. As for us, I just don't see how state schools like USF and UCF get more and pay more than we can. We're also public. We're also in a big state with a high population. Something just doesn't ever seem to add up when you look at what happens with our athletics. Look at the other schools and what they pay and their upgrades. Houston is ahead of us. TCU pays their coach more and has upgraded what they can of their stadium. Texas Tech expands and gets a name coach from the college ranks seven years ago. I've posted this theory before, and I think it's true - UNT simply doesn't have enough political muscle in the state of Texas to get things done easily. And, not just in athletics. It took a while to get an engineering school. For no good reason, people oppose us getting a law school (as someone with a law degree, I'd love to have UNT get a law school going). We just don't have the clout it seems like other schools have. It was nothing but pure politics that put Baylor and Texas Tech in the Big 12. Baylor! Anyway. We all want what happens at Boise, USF, Louisville, etc. The thing is, for a variety of reasons, those is high places for us just don't seem to be able to get it done. As far as Todd Dodge goes, I hope he succeeds, but deep down inside, especially after watching the confusion on defense, I wonder whether he was really hired to seriously get the program winning again, or whether it was a desperate publicity stunt. As Howard Schnelleberger said, "The only variable is time." Only time will tell. If he fails, it'll look like nothing more than a publicity stunt. And, even if he succeeds and moves on, we'll be stuck looking for the next thing. I don't know. As a UNT grad, it's just tough to digest it all sometimes.