The Fake Lonnie Finch

As long as whatever I'm eating doesn't make me as willingly blind to truth as you are, it's all good. Also, your diet seems to have given you poor manners and a bad disposition. I suggest more fiber, a can of Pepsi, and a slice of pecan pie. Finally, while we're discussing football, and you're stuck on childhood fart humor, you can sort of combine the two. Follow me closely, or find someone who can read and write English to do it for you: Click this link, http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Idiots-Guid...7977&sr=8-2 , order the book, and put it in your bathroom to read a few hours after you have taken up my "more fiber" suggestions from above.

So, put you in the "Start Vizza Despite His Performance Against Scrubs" column, then? Very well.

Hooray, Vizza Cultists! Keep it coming. We trust Dodge! Dodgeball! Todge! TD! Wee-hee! The new offense is great! Just change to the quarterback who can't complete most of his passes against walk-ons. Please. The only things you should want Dodge to focus on at this point are fixing the defense and special teams. Fortunately, he knows that. If only his fanbase did. They're stuck in QB talk, even after he, their trusted new hire, has repeatedly said publicly Meager is the starter. At this point, if Dodge should do anything with Vizza it would be to move him to cornerback to see if he can cover. Or, send him back to return punts and kicks to see if maybe he will the one who actually fields a kick and runs with it. [Jerry Seinfield voice]Start the QB who throws interceptions to and gets sacked for safeties by walk-ons and scout teamers...pluhleeze![/Jerry Seinfield voice]

USF pays Leavitt $1.2 million a year. He was co-defensive coordinator at Kansas State with Bob Stoops back in the mid-90s. USF hired a guy who had skins and who had already been part of a rebuilding process at Kansas State - and a very successful one at that. So, USF has a former defensive coordinator from a BCS school and they pay him over $1 million a year. Anyone else here see why we're not going to follow in USF's footsteps? Hints: Experienced collegiate coach...defensive...$1 million dollars. Nevermind.

Here's what screwy about the Vizza Cultists: They say they "trust Todd Dodge's judgement" etc. But, when he won't put in the QB who keeps throwing inteceptions for touchdowns against scout teamers, they're mad. Because Dodge won't put in a guy who can't even complete 50% of his passes against scout teamers and walk on during blowouts, they're miffed. Get real, Vizza Cultists. He hasn't done anything to show he can do the job from snap one of a ball game. If anything, he's proven he needs to be right where he is - on the bench. If Dodge was seeing something different, he'd start Vizza. But, he's not. He's been a coach for a long time. He sees the two guys every day in practice. He knows - you don't. If you really trust Todd Dodge's judgement, quit your Meager bashing and shut the f up. Whiney babies.

I find this chart to be at once both interesting and useless: http://www.coacheshotseat.com/2006CostPerWin.htm Temple's crappy program pays their coach $125k more than us. Minnesota is paying Tim Brester $1 million? Talk about wasteful spending.

This is, again, a stupid comparison. We never played in the WAC. Fresno and Boise built programs when the WAC was allowing unlimited non-qualifiers. They only stopped the practice two seasons ago. The reason the private schools left WAC was the non-qualifiers issue. Yet, here we are, pretending to be in the same boat as Fresno and Boise. We don't have their circumstances and never will. We don't even have their stadiums, and probably never will. Also, these teams don't just play I-A powerhouses in their OOC schedule, despite what many of you think. Nearly every season, they have at least one I-AA on their schedule: Boise: 2007 - Weber State 2006 - Cal State - Sacramento 2005 - Portland State 2004 - NONE 2003 - Idaho State Fresno: 2007 - Cal State - Sacramento 2006 - NONE 2005 - Weber State 2004 - Portland State 2003 - Portland State I and many other poster have espoused the desire for us to schedule I-AAs to open the seasons as well. Even though you think they don't, Fresno and Boise do. As mentioned dozens of times, to build a winning program without the benefit of resources such as a big stadium and lots of money, the OOC should be as follows: One I-AA, one or two mid-majors or lower level BCS (Baylor, etc), one BCS. Regardless of what people think, it's not Todd Dodge's name, or student loyalty, or community support that draw butts to seats - it's winning. When Texas played Sam Houston State last year, DKR was filled. People like to watch wins. And, for the umpteenth time, winning breeds a winning attitude among the players and coaching staff. It doesn't matter who it is. Kansas State built their program in the 1990s this way. They had no money, an aging stadium, and almost no real football history. They built interest by winning winnable games. Quit throwing our team under the bus twice a season. Get games we can win and build on them. Do it. Do it now. Quit f'n around with 79-10 and 66-7 losses. They prove and build nothing.

I'm going to step in and say that the worst UNT team I ever saw was the 1991 squad. It was my second year at UNT. Nevada hammered us 72-0. We scored 137 points all season and gave up well over 300. We had three wins, one versus Divsion II Abilene Christian. Our other two wins were by a combined 9 points - Stephen F. Austin, 18-14 and Nicholls State 24-19. Those were bad, very bad days indeed.

Okay, I'll say it...they're bad. They're both bad. Except I don't mean it. They're both fine, they're just being put in impossible situations by a coaching staff that hasn't figured out they're playing against college offenses yet. Blaming Roman and/or Green is absurd.

If they showed up out of shape, the strength and conditioning coach should be fired. Or, is he yet another coach who gets a free pass?

Like most here, I went to UNT and graduated from there. I had a good time in Denton.

Here again we are putting the cart way out in front of the horse regarding what position Riley Dodge will play in college. He may not even sniff the field in 2008, so relax a little, eh? And, he may never get behind the center. So, ease up. We've got two more months of 2007 yet to play. It's way too early to be talking 2008.

Against Tulsa, he only caught three passes for 48 yards and had no TDs. And, against Colorado....ZERO catches. ZERO. None. Nunca. Zip. Zilch. Nil. Nada. Double team. Yes, that's right. All Colorado does to this All-American candidate is double team him and he disappears. I'm not saying we'd have shut him out or held him to 48 yards, but... ...I'm just sayin'... Swallow your pride and look at some game film of what other teams did against one of the nation's best receivers to shut him down. Then, copy it. Yes, throw your high defense in the trash and copy a collegiate defense. It's been four weeks, you surely realize you're not lining up against Coppell and Grapevine anymore at this point. Swallow, watch, copy, learn, change. That's all we're asking here.

Vizza throws bad passes. I know there is a faction that is the Cult of Vizza here, but spare us. He's a true freshman and is playing like a true freshman. And, sadly, what the Cult of Vizza is failing to admit is that he hasn't even been facing the opponents' first team defenses when he plays. Yes, that's right...he's out there throwing picks to third teamers and walk on scout teamers who will probably never get into another game this year. Meager isn't Joe Montana, but he's better than he was before. And, he's playing it tough against the first team defenses of all our opponents. And, he's had us in position to win a couple of games. Yes, he's thrown late interceptions. But, that's only because we have a defense that is forcing him to take the team on his back and carry it all by himself to victory. As poor as his late interceptions are, I'd shudder to think what would be happening if Dodge just rolled Vizza out there as unprepared as he is. Chew on this one, Vizza Cultists: We wouldn't have been in the SMU and FAU games if Vizza had started. With as many picks as he's had against trash teamers, there's no telling how many he'd be throwing against the first teamers. I'm with the crowd that says it doesn't matter who the QB is until the defense quits bleeding. But, to bang on Meager for having us in winnable games and then being put in tight situations by the defense. How much more can you ask the kid to do? In my book, it's the same as last week... ...win...cover and win...tackle and win. And, then, win again.

This whole "getting a pass" non-sense is the reason we have a historically crappy football program. Getting a pass? Are you kidding me? Not for one season! And, certainly not for three! What a joke. These guys aren't working for free. People don't set aside time outside of their work and family life to support the program with the expectation that things will fall into place in 2010. Ridiculous. Can anyone imagine any other serious college football program "giving a pass" to a coaching staff for three years? Coaches are fired after two or three seasons these days on the Division I level if they can't "figure out the college game." There is no way in Todd Dodge's mind that he would ever buy into such baloney either. I gauran-damn-tee you he's not sitting back thinking, "Well, it doesn't matter...we've got four years to put it together anyway. These people will waste their time and money to watch us screw around for a season or two." Give me a huge, fat, f'ing break. Todd Dodge doesn't think this way, and neither should you! Cover and win. Execute the plays and win. No excuses. Win and shut up and win some more. If not, cut the charade and drop in back down to I-AA (or whatever they call it this year) status. Unbelievable.

Forget about McFadden for a moment...even if they just had Felix Jones we'd be in for a long night. Has anyone else seen this kid run? He's one of those guys that gets up to top speed from almost the first step. It's scary to watch him. I watched some clips of the Kentucky game, and he simply ran past guys that had good pursuit angles on him. Just ran past them. It was like watching a cheetah and the zebra was the goal line - the closer the goal line got, the faster he ran. Anything else in the picture, he just ran past it. Jones: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trj_RV51xQg...ted&search= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_8OLufobMc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ7aua6VOjc...ted&search=

Look, the reason for people's responses is not to throw high school football or Todd Dodge under the bus. The simple fact is that the thread began with a tone that we should be grateful, patient, etc. Well, we didn't all just fall off the apple cart. Many of us here expected that we'd have a losing season this year. Believe me, I never thought we'd go above .500 this year. However, as we have all seen, I and many other are just a few coaching decision and players making plays from being very wrong. We could just a easily be sitting at 2-1 as we are 0-3. It's the way we are 0-3 instead of 2-1 that has people raising legitimate questions. I'm not going to sit and blow sunshine up anyone's backside (if you don't believe me, check my post history and see how many times I've been in the minority of opinion on things). I openly questioned whether it was a good idea to bring in so many coaches without college experience. I openly questioned whether or not the current strength and conditioning coach would understand the need for more endurance given the offense Dodge was going to install. Each loss has revealed some doubts to be at least worthy of discussion: First, it's true that the defensive staff seemed completely unprepared for what happened at OU. And, as unprepared as they were, they were also unable or unwilling to make changes during the course of the game. Second, it's true that SMU has the worst defense in the country, and possibly the worst offense to match it. We went up 14-3 early, then faded, then fell behind, then tied it, then choked it away. We made their QB look like John Elway or Brett Favre. Again, the secondary burned over and over again. It was then that many people began to say, look it was one thing for it to happen at OU, but it's completely another for it to happen against crappy SMU. (And, yes, even though they beat us, they are crappy...uber crappy). Third, against FAU, at home, we are out in front in the third quarter and begin to choke it away. Again, a long pass is the culprit. But, more disturbing, after the game both head coaches agree that changes in FAU's defensive scheme turned the game. That means that during the second half while FAU's defense was turning the tide, the coaches on our sideline and in our pressbox were unable to counter FAU's in-game adjustments. Finally, during the FAU game, the one facet other than passing that had been 110% excellent in games one and two completely fell apart. I'm talking about the punt game. Of anything that worked at OU, it was Truman Spencer and the punt team not allowing their return guy to break anything. Against FAU, it's not one blocked punt, but two...one in the first half and one in the second half. That means that at halftime, whatever assignment that was missed on the first punt either wasn't taken seriously enough to be addressed, or Schnellenberger is just a genius for emphasizing special teams the week before. Again, for whatever reason, the rare two punt-block evening helped cement our second half collapse. Folks, it's obvious to all except the very stubborn or stupid that Division I college athletes are far superior to even the highest level of Texas high school ball players. I've said it before and been chastised for it, but it bears repeating now (for the sake of Whites Stripes) - 90% of high school football players are simply on the team to better their chances with the cheerleaders and drill team. I mean, seriously. Why else would so many 5'7", 130 pound white kids across the country, from good homes, risk serious injury week after week? They do it all for the nookie, come on the nookie.... At the Division I-A collegiate level it's different. The 10% who actually bothered with real off-season work and film study in high school are now on scholarship at Division I schools across the country. They are, even on the worst teams, the elite of what was high school football. And, they are altogether. That's why against Oklahoma, who rolls out sporting Malcolm Kelly, an acrobat of an athlete, and Juaquin Iglesias, a kid with sub-4.4 track speed, at receiver, you can't simply stick some kid on them that you picked up from a junior college two months ago...all night long! I mean, OU had a tight end that was on their second team that was like 6-7 and ran like a frakin' gazelle! And, we're going to man up on these guys...all night long? With no help? Hey, I was just as sucked in as everyone else. I even posted in defense of Mendoza afterward with this type of drivel - "Well, maybe that's just the way this defense is" and tough love and a bunch of other bullcrap that shows how stupid I am. After watching SMU and FAU make long pass plays when they needed them, seemingly at will, I now realize I was probably more right over the summer - we needed more coaches with college experience in order to understand what type of adjustments need to be made against rosters full of other college athletes.

Nah. I think people are happy with the passing game. It's just that people also like Jamario and deep down yearn for him to have success again no matter what offense we run. It's hard to watch a hero take a fall. I think people were just happy for him to succeed again.

Just a general reply... ...nobody's expectations are unreasonable here. It is completely reasonable to expect to win winnable games - especially when you are leading in those games. Yes, OU blew us out of the water early and then followed us on shore and continued to blast us on land. But, SMU and FAU were completey winnable games. Also, TD is no more above criticism than any other coach. It was his decision to surround himself with so many coaches without college experience, particularly as coordinators. They appear to be unable to adjust during games, which is crucial at the collegiate level. Not switching out of man coverage after being burned time and time again. FAU figuring out the offense at halftime, then shutting it down... Todd Dodge is the head coach. He's not Jesus. When the staff he hired can't adjust on both sides of the ball - and regresses in special teams - fans are going to complain about it. Probably 99.9% have never been to a Southlake Carrol game. We could care less. I've never been to Southlake other than on business. I care nothing about it. Southlake can jump up my backside for all I care. I graduated from UNT and want them to have a winning football program. I don't care whether they hire a high school coach or lure Bill Cowher out of retirement. My loyalty is with the school , not the coach. The point is, Dodge, Cowher, or whomever...don't expect fans to sit around and be "grateful" for choking away games against two very beatable opponents. We've seen alot of ugly wins over the past few years. And, we'll take ugly wins over any type of loss. A win is a win. A loss is a loss. Down the road, no one carres about stats. The ony thing you see is the final score. Win.

Hooray! It's starting to sink in with some people! This is college, that was high school. He's the deal - many college games are won in July, during conditioning. We've lost two in the fourth quarter so far. So....

Exactly...and, surely, the kool-aid drinkers will be posting it all season, and perhaps next season as well. They ignore other coaching staffs who have taken on losing programs and mid-majors and made them winners. Somehow, at UNT, we must settle for years and years of building until a coach gets "his players." I've posted it before, and will surely post it again - Todd Dodge is the coach of North Texas. Therefore, every player on the roster is now his player. And, what's more, he inherited a roster with veteran defensive players. Somehow, his coaching ability isn't showing up on that side of the ball.

We already know this. We've watched the coaching staff not change the secondary scheme for three games now. We understood full well up in Norman as we watched their receivers run a track meet through our man coverage all night. We get that he's stubborn. It's doing wonders for our defense, too.

Mizzou has a run game. In Pinkel's six seasons, they've had at least 1,800 rushing yards every year. Three times they've had over 2,200 rushing yards, and in 2003 they had over 3,000 rushing yards for the season. So, while they throw it around, they also have the personnel - and know how - to run the ball as well.

Perhaps the most absurd post ever on the board. Pinkel got his start in coaching before Dodge was still banging erasers after elementary school. He was the offensive coordinator and QB coach at Washington from the mid-80s until Toledo hired him in 1991. Washington was a perennial bowl team while Pinkel was an assistant and OC, winning the Rose Bowl in his final year as OC/QB coach. In his 10 years at Toledo, he produced two 10 wins teams, including an undefeated 1995 squad. During his tenure at Toledo, Pinkel led the Rockets to a victory over Penn State at State College. At Mizzou, he took a school that had only had two winning seasons in the 17 years prior to his arrival, including a 3-8 mark the year before he took over, and has delivered three bowl teams in only six seasons. It's not like he stepped in after Tom Osborn at Nebraska and had a football machine at his fingertips. He took a long down-trodden program and has built them into an annual contender for the Big 12 North. His 2003 squad set a Mizzou record for points scored. The two season span of 2002 and 2003 marked the first time in Mizzou history that it had scored more than 300 points in consecutive seasons. In 10 seasons at Toledo, he had two squads score 400 or more points, and two others that posted more than 350 points in a season. In his final year as OC/QB coach at Washington, the Huskies scored 440 points. Three of the six seasons he was Washington's OC/QB coach, the Husky offense produced 330+ point offense three times. So, the idea that Chase and Dodge have done anything for Pinkel is laughable. Pinkel was training and turning out NFL QBs and producing explosive offenses while Dodge was setting records for interceptions thrown at Texas and goofing around at Texas high schools. Like any other coach, he'll add bits and pieces of what he thinks will work from season to season. Dodge will be lucky to have half as many wins as Pinkel at the D-I/FCS level when his career is done. If you want to see the true definition of "crappy" you won't look anywhere near Gary Pinkel's coaching career. Rather, you might start in our own back yard and look at our own staff of high school coaches and their 0-3 start, including two fourth quarter collapses, pleathora of interceptions, and inability to move the ball on anyone excpet the NCAA's worst defense, SMU...and we still lost that one.

My guess is that OU won that title in 2000 because Leach left. In 1999, they led Notre Dame in South Bend, but lost the lead in the second half, losing by four. They also jumped out to a 17-0 first quarter lead on Texas that year, only to lose the lead and game in the second half. If Leach hadn't left for Tech, OU would have lost a couple in 2000. Mark Mangino took over as co-OC in 2000 with Chuck Long. They did a ton more pro-style stuff in 2000 than in 1999. I'm like you. You can't be a pure running team anymore. But, you also can't be winging it 60-70 times per game. There has to be some sort of happy medium...mainly for the sake of the defense.