Mean Green 93-98

Please do not. Todd Dodge has had a trying enough year. He and RV will make whatever changes are necessary; a website will not affect such decisions one way or the other. If your goal is to embarrass our football program and coaching staff, by all means proceed; and the rest of you keep posting vitriolic posts toward the coaching staff. It is one thing to point out that we have problems, it is another to say, "Ron Mendoza s*cks," etc. He took a chance by coming here, and very well may not be here next year. If you believe you have insight that would be helpful to TD and RV's decision making, by all means, contact them personally. But let's not go all out to publicly embarrass our program.

You've got to love this gem: Umm, I think if you accomplish #2, #1 and #3 do not really matter.

You know what it's going to say before you read it, but here it is anyway (Link). Indians ready for wild ride tonight BY MATTHEW V. ROBERSON SUN STAFF WRITER JONESBORO — Prepare for a track meet on turf. Gone are the days when North Texas lined up and shoved the football down the pipe, overpowering Sun Belt Conference opponents like a bulldozer shovels sand. UNT has joined the new face of football, opting for a wide-open attack, spreading the field and flinging it all over the place. With a new sheriff in town, North Texas is a one-win team in transition. The Mean Green are also a dangerous one-win team that has improved with each game this season, according to Arkansas State coach Steve Roberts. ASU and UNT meet this evening in the final home game of the season. Kickoff is 6 p.m. at Indian Stadium. “We have a tremendous challenge on our hands,” Roberts said. “There is no other way to put that. I think for once everybody can look beyond their record. You guys (in the media) don’t do a very good job of that, I don’t think, for a lot of times, but for once I think you have an opportunity to look beyond the record and see the improvement that North Texas has made throughout the year.” Under first-year head coach Todd Dodge, who was hired after winning four Texas Class 5A state titles in five seasons while rolling up a staggering 79-1 record at Southlake Carroll High School, the Mean Green are playing a brand of football few have seen. Twice North Texas has surpassed 600 yards offense in a game, including a mind-boggling 635 yards and 62 points last week against Navy. UNT quarterback Giovanni Vizza passed for 478 yards and set an NCAA record for a freshman with eight touchdown passes. The Mean Green line up in a shotgun formation, sending three, four or five receivers out every play. Arkansas State (4-6 overall, 2-4 Sun Belt) has fared well against the pass, ranking 35th nationally, but the Indians realize this test is different. “I’ve never seen anything like it before,” ASU safety Khayyam Burns said. “In all the years that I’ve been here, I’ve never seen a team do anything like they do. It’s going to be an up-and-down game. There’s going to be a lot of throwing the football. It’s going to be a huge offensive game. We have to play hard, be in the right place at the right time, keep our eyes on our man, and watch our keys.” Arkansas State has been productive offensively, too, just not to the tune of North Texas. ASU averages 372 yards a game and appeared to be full strength in a 34-31 setback last Saturday at Florida Atlantic with Corey Leonard back at quarterback. Roberts said establishing a ball-control attack is important for ASU. “From an offensive standpoint, the challenge for us or any offense when you’re playing a great offense is to maintain possession of the football,” Roberts said. “We have got to score, but we’ve also got to maintain possession of the football.” North Texas may have the ability to put defenses on their toes, but the Mean Green hasn’t fared well defensively. UNT is one of the weakest teams in the country when its offense isn’t on the field. North Texas (1-8, 1-4) has allowed 49.6 points and 518 yards a game as teams have destroyed its 4-3 scheme. Oklahoma hung 79 on the Mean Green in the season opener while Navy rolled up 74 last week. Eight of UNT’s opponents have scored 31 points or more, including Arkansas (66), Middle Tennessee (48), Troy (45) and SMU (45). North Texas’ only victory was a 31-21 upset of Louisiana-Monroe. The Mean Green rank last in the nation in points allowed and next-to-last in yards allowed. “There are three things we want to accomplish offensively,” Roberts added. “We want to win the battle of possession time, we want to score more points than them, and we want to keep getting first downs.” Last year Arkansas State had no problem with UNT, beating the Mean Green 29-10. But after watching an 11-point fourth quarter lead slip away in the defeat at FAU, the Indians have lost three of their last four games and aren’t exactly confident. ASU can’t finish with a winning record, is out of the Sun Belt race and won’t be invited to a bowl even if it wins its final two games. But Roberts doesn’t believe there will be a hangover effect from losing to Florida Atlantic. “We’ve had good practices this week,” Roberts said. “We feel real good about our football team and their competitiveness and character. We’ve had lots of disappointments here in the last six years, and we’ve found a way to bounce back from those the majority of the time.” Tonight’s game is the home finale for 17 Arkansas State seniors, many of them fifth-year seniors. Among them are some of ASU’s all-time best at their positions including receiver Levi Dejohnette, specialist Darren Toney, linebacker Koby McKinnon and safeties Burns and Tyrell Johnson. Johnson and Burns have had the biggest impact, ranking No. 1 and No. 2 in career tackles in the Sun Belt. Johnson has made 342, including 73 this year, while Burns has 313. Dejohnette is sprinkled across ASU’s list of receiving records, ranking third in career receptions (141), third in receiving yardage (1,680) and fourth in receptions (50) for a single season. He is 17 catches shy of the school record for career receptions. While Dejohnette said winning is motivation enough to finish strong at home, it will still be an emotionally charged evening. “It’s been creeping up on me ever since last Saturday at FAU, knowing that this is going to be my last time to play on this field after all these years,” Dejohnette said. “It just came so quick. It seems like yesterday I was just a freshman. I never thought I’d be seeing this day.” Burns shares similar feelings. “We’ve had a lot of ups and downs with the group that I came in with,” Burns added. “It’s going to be meaningful, it’s going to be really intense, and there’s going to be a lot of passion in this game. We really are going to have to focus and hold our emotions back until after the game.” For Roberts, it is the final home game for his first full recruiting class. Every player on ASU’s roster was signed by Roberts’ staff. While there will be one more game left in the regular season, the home finale won’t be easy for him either. He wants nothing more than to watch this group add one more victory at home before their careers come to an end. “It will be hard, but it’s hard every year. ... Those guys have meant so much to our program,” Roberts said. “They’ve certainly raised the expectation level of our program at Arkansas State.” mroberson@jonesborosun.com

Ricky Williams arrives; what will 0-9 Dolphins do with him? Nov. 15, 2007 CBSSports.com wire reports DAVIE, Fla. -- Ricky Williams arrived at the Miami Dolphins complex riding in a team van late Thursday morning, ready to resume his NFL career after a 1 1/2-year suspension -- if the team wants him. Williams' suspension ended Wednesday when he was reinstated by the NFL. The announcement came only hours after Dolphins coach Cam Cameron decided to give the quarterback job to rookie John Beck, who will make his NFL debut Sunday at Philadelphia. The back-to-back developments might provide exactly the sort of shakeup a winless team needs. Cameron was mum regarding whether the winless Dolphins want Williams back, but linebacker Joey Porter said he would love to have the 2002 NFL rushing champion as a teammate "just because we're 0-9." "I don't care who you got ... if you could run the ball like Ricky did," Porter said. "I mean, right now I'd do anything for a victory." Williams, who has played in only 12 games since the start of the 2004 season, arrived at the Dolphins' complex to meet with Cameron. The first-year Miami coach said he talked with Williams by phone for "five or six minutes" Wednesday, but hadn't made a decision about activating him. "I want to see where he is, and also let him know where we're headed, and we'll go from there," Cameron said. Williams' agent, Leigh Steinberg, said the Dolphins were noncommittal with him previously regarding the running back. But following the reinstatement announcement, Steinberg was encouraged by a phone conversation with Matt Thomas, the team's general counsel-football administration. "His indication was they were interested in Ricky," Steinberg said. "The spirit of the discussion was welcoming. It was a very similar discussion to what you would have regarding a draft choice or any returning player. The only contingent was whether they would have him practice Friday or Monday." The trading deadline has passed, leaving the Dolphins with limited options. They could cut Williams, or keep him but not play him and hope to trade him in the offseason. Another alternative: Work him into an offense that has scored one touchdown in each of the past two games. Regardless, there will be a new look to the backfield. Barring injury, the plan is to start Beck in the final seven games, Cameron said. "John has made tremendous progress in the last month," Cameron said. "The timing is right." Beck, a second-round draft pick from BYU, will become the 12th quarterback to start for the Dolphins since Dan Marino retired following the 1999 season. "I just want to be smart with everything I do," Beck said. "Obviously the first game you don't want to try to do too much, but also you can't hold back. So I'm going to try to find that balance." Handing off to Williams would likely make Beck's job easier, but the Dolphins may fear getting burned once more by the mercurial running back. Williams, 30, was suspended in April 2006 after violating the league drug policy for the fourth time. His return was delayed when he tested positive again for marijuana last spring. He played in the Canadian Football League last season and applied for reinstatement Oct. 1. Williams is eligible to attend team meetings and practice immediately, but the earliest he would be allowed in a game would be against Pittsburgh on Monday night, Nov. 26. The team will have a roster exemption for up to two weeks if and when he starts practicing. Williams rushed for 3,225 yards in the 2002-03 seasons after being traded to the Dolphins from New Orleans. He retired in 2004, sabotaging that season for Miami, and traveled in India and Australia before returning to the Dolphins in 2005, when he ran for 743 yards alternating with rookie Ronnie Brown. Brown is on injured reserve, leaving the Dolphins thin at running back. As part of the NFL drug program, Williams underwent therapy for the past 5 1/2 months in Boston and benefited from the treatment, Steinberg said. "This is the program working exactly as it should - treating a player for an underlying life problem in a positive and sophisticated way, and returning him to health," Steinberg said. "The Dolphins, or whatever team, is getting a highly motivated player with a new lease on life." AP NEWS The Associated Press News Service

I've got to admit, I thought it a little strange that Coach Mendoza has been withheld from our local reporters; and yet a national reporter with no particular interest in the success of UNT is able to get a couple of quotes from him.

Or we could just do what we do in the fight song - U...N...T...Eagles!! U! N! T! Eagles FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! Or just do the second, faster moving, part. At any rate, it's something everybody already knows.

It sounds to me like the game's being dropped had more to do with UNT's record than anything else. I don't think we can blame ASU for any of that, at least not yet.

Points onslaught makes mincemeat of national defense By Dennis Dodd CBSSports.com Senior Writer Link to story It was bad. Real bad for Ron Mendoza. At the end of The Week That Defense Died, North Texas' defensive coordinator was searching for answers. Along with perhaps a shot of Jack. Mendoza and his players were on the losing end of the highest scoring I-A regulation game in history, contributing to one of the highest scoring weeks in the sport in recent memory. Still, Navy only squeaked out a 74-62 victory. That's because Navy's porous defense was almost as bad as North Texas'. Almost. "On the record or off?" Mendoza said when asked what he did Saturday after his defense surrendered 70 for the second time this season. We told you it was bad. The offensive revolution that has taken over college football since roughly the beginning of this decade has been well chronicled. Another set of national records is being established this season in scoring, passing yards and total yards. Last week, more than a quarter of I-A teams scored at least 40 points. North Texas was one of 11 that scored at least 50. It was the only one of the group that lost. CBSSports.com decided to look at this scoring explosion from the other side of the ball. What is happening to defenses that are at such a disadvantage these days that games probably feel like ambushes? For those who love defense, will it ever be like 2001 again? That's the last year a defense (Miami) allowed less than 10 points per game. "We'll probably never see somebody holding people to nine points a game, 10 points a game," San Jose State coach Dick Tomey said. Never? Only 10 years ago, Michigan won a share of a national championship limiting teams to 8.9 points. If current leader Ohio State holds limiting opponents to 11.4 points, it would be the second-highest average to lead the country since 1995. "I will never fail to believe that you can't play good defense against somebody," said Tomey, whose 1993 Arizona "Desert Swarm" defense allowed 331 rushing yards in a season. "I believe you can, but obviously it's much, much tougher." Almost impossible for North Texas, which regularly plays I-A non-conference heavyweights (Oklahoma and Arkansas this season) in guarantee games. In the 916 games North Texas has played in its history, it has given up 70 points only four times. Two of those games have come in the past 11 weeks. The season started with a 79-10 loss to Oklahoma and went South from there. Mendoza soldiered on as the guy in charge of (statistically) the worst defense in the country. Worst, at least, in scoring D (almost 50 points per game). Second-worst in yards surrendered per game (518.2). "I got with my family, and my grandson, and they consoled me," Mendoza said, his only on-the-record comment regarding his Navy postgame depression. "It all falls back on me ... I'm ultimately responsible." A year ago, Mendoza was coaching in high school at powerful Southlake (Texas) Carroll. In fact, the past quarter century of his career has been in the preps. This is his first college since a year spent as a grad assistant with New Mexico Highlands in 1980. There have been better times to jump up into the big time. For this man of 51, 30 is the new 20. That is, 30 points per game, which is roughly the average points per team this season (28.4 points, up four from 2006). "It's tough," Mendoza said. "The offenses have gotten a lot better, a lot faster. You're having 6-6 receivers and 6-5 receivers who run like deer. That kid at Oklahoma makes a lot of folks look silly. The running backs at Arkansas? Gosh almighty." That exclamation would be in reference to Oklahoma's gifted receiver Malcolm Kelly and Arkansas tailbacks Darren McFadden and Felix Jones. The trio accounted for six touchdowns against the Mean Green, which is four fewer than what Navy put up in North Texas on Saturday. Mendoza is not a lone victim. Even grizzled veteran coaches feel like they're chipping out of pot bunkers on most Saturdays. The NCAA rules committee has been passing rules in favor of the offense for years. The rise of the spread offense has taken advantage of one of the most difficult defensive skills to perfect: tackling in space. "You can catch a guy out of position a yard or two down the field," West Virginia's Rich Rodriguez said. "The hardest thing to do on defense is tackle in the open field." De facto holding has been legal for offensive linemen for years. "They acknowledge that if you have your hands inside (the shoulders) and are holding onto the jersey, it's OK," Oklahoma's Bob Stoops said. "I don't see it changing." Michael Clark, chairman of the NCAA football rules committee, is hesitant to do anything at the moment. In 2006, timing rules cut down the number of plays. Coaches howled and the rules were re-adjusted for this season. Game length is up 14 minutes from 2006 to 3:21. The average offense runs 72 plays, up an average of eight from last season. "You don't want to be reactionary," said Clark, the coach at Division III Bridgewater. "I thought two years ago we were reacting to game length. (But) competitive balance is always on the table. We always try to look for trends. Is this just a spoke in the road that is going to sustain itself?" Every coach talks about evolution. The defenses will eventually catch up, but how? Cornerback might be the loneliest position in football considering the height and speed of the modern receiver. Defensive linemen are harder to find than cheap gas. Linebackers are less likely to even play when coaches are forced to play more defensive backs to combat four- and five-receiver sets. "Defense is recognition," Tomey said. "The biggest thing is you've got to believe you can stop people. You've got to go in feeling like you're not going to give up touchdown after touchdown after touchdown." There already is a league like that. It's called Arena Football. One stop during the game by a defense can literally be the difference between winning and losing. Sometimes it seems that all college football needs is a roof to join the AFL. Tomey's old Arizona defense was in the top two in rushing defense three consecutive years from 1992-94. Now if a team is good against the run, it usually means the opponent is having an easy time passing. Currently, Oregon State is No. 1 in rush defense but 82nd in pass defense. It's depressing to learn the old tenet: Things will change because they always do. When? • In general, most coordinators still haven't figured out how to account for the quarterback being a runner. UCLA quarterback Patrick Cowan rushed for 108 yards last season, 55 of them in the upset of USC. The Trojans completely disregarded Cowan as a running threat during the afternoon that knocked them out of the national championship race. Ten years ago, a defense could dismiss most quarterbacks as runners. Now Tim Tebow dominates games because he has a rocket arm and the body of a linebacker. • There are only a handful of defenses that can generate a consistent pass rush with four players. Once a coordinator starts blitzing to compensate, he leaves himself open to the big play in the secondary. Defensive masterminds Nick Saban of Alabama and Bo Pelini of LSU try to mix up their blitzes, playing a game of cat-and-mouse, gambling that their defenders can reach the quarterback before he can throw. • Defensive linemen are still the rarest commodity in the sport. Unless some coach taps into a gusher on the recruiting trail, it's going to stay that way. • Normally we would look at the defense-rich SEC to show us the way, but as of this week, the league is the second-highest scoring in the country (30.7 points per team). Until something changes, guys like Mendoza will need more than a hug on most Saturdays. They'll need a therapist. "We told our kids it was going to be a high-scoring affair," Mendoza said, Navy still on his mind. "We made them punt two times. That's something other people haven't done."

It's still showing on ESPN Gameplan - Link.

Our athletic department is head and shoulders above where it was 10 years ago, and I look for it to be vastly improved 10 years from now. Kudos to RV and JJ for their contributions!

Boy, from those shots and the posts I've read, it sounds like it was an awesome gametime experience! Wish I could've been there. That second shot really shows the size discrepancy between Dove and Josh White.

Well, this will move Patrick down to the #3 spot on the roster. And I imagine unless the Dolphins trade someone, PC will be looking for a new team in the spring. Jesse Chatman just had a good game.

It has nothing to do with being a cultist. It has everything to do with challenging unsubstantiated and misleading claims, such as saying, "Dodge puts Dodge first," or such as branding everyone with whom you disagree a "cultist."

Thanks - I had just looked it up when I saw you had posted that. I had thought our 2 RBs did alright when given the chance. Why grade them an "F" with averages of 4.8 and 3.7, and a TD?

Does anyone know what J-Mo and Micah's per carry average was?

I'll be there. Of course, I live in northeast Arkansas (about an hour and a half away), and wouldn't dream of missing it when the boys come to Jonesboro.

I like the turn this thread has made! Much more entertaining than a civil greeting to fans of our upcoming opponent!

Perfectly stated.

Yes, it would be hard to beat. And yes, you're dreaming.

Sounds like an energy drink.

I am stoked about my first opportunity to see Vizza and this offense in person come Thursday night!

Welcome to the board, WarChief. Looking forward to a good game on Thursday. Yes, I believe the team's spirits were pretty down after Saturday's game, but hopefully they will be up in time for Thursday.

Correct. But their classification is currently I-A (or according to the new P.C. nomenclature, "Division I FBS").