SilverEagle

They keep calling it the athletic center, but it's just the practice fields. At any rate, my friend who used to cover North Texas football during the Hayden Fry era called me after this latest story broke. He was laughing at the absurdity of it all, and how (once again) our football program looks downright ineffective to the rest of Texas. He went on to say "you know, I bet the director of the Lab Bands has been on the phone to RV saying "Now, RV! don't you back down from that guy! Show em' what a real man you are! Tell him to stick his donation where the sun don't shine!" We both speculated about what Dr. B. might be thinking about all this....."I thought I was going to take over an institution of higher learning in Texas. How did I end up in doofus land?"

Okay, I keep reading that the the athletic center is being re-named. I thought that it was the practice FIELDS. Which is it?

I'd like to suggest that we go after this guy before SOMEONE ELSE DOES!

I really like your style.

I still like Don Carthel. Hard working, experienced as a HD, and good at making connections with the community.

You know twodogs, that's a very astute observation. It's also the same dynamic that comes into play regarding divorce. I learned a long time ago (from my sociology class about marriage and the family) that people don't file for divorce simply because they are miserable in their marriage per se. They make the decision to file for divorce when they see a viable option to their bad marriage/relationship situation.

Realistically, I don't see any coach coming in and having instant success. What I do realistically expect to see is someone with a passion to turn things around, and that passion is being reflected in how his team plays every week. I don't care if a coach loves my school or not. I want a coach that is hungry to make a name for himself, loves the opportunity, and is looking to move up to the next level. You can't do that at North Texas unless you're both talented as an X's and O's guy, and you're very personable.

Maybe you're operating on total faith, but I'm not. I'm not the least bit interested in this being an easy hire. I want someone who can work with the team and the North Texas fan base, not be someone's "good ol' boy". And BTW, Jimmy Johnson really tore it up after he left Dallas didn't he? Could it be that the Dallas gig was the ONLY time that a crony hire ever worked?

My concern is that RV is going to do yet another friend a bigger favor. NO CRONY HIRES RV! There isn't anyone at S. Miss that excites us!

My friend called me at 6:30 and said that "Babe" mentioned it on his sports report as well.

Trivia about North Texas coaches. Most have been Baylor graduates. One of the most successful, and with the longest tenure, is a West Texas State graduate....Odus Mitchell. So West Texas A&M figures in the process with two possibilities. Don Carthel, because he currently coaches there, and Mickey Mathews, because he is a graduate. Now, if we could just get a candidate/applicant that graduated from Baylor and coached (and received his masters) at West Texas A&M.

Corky was DC at Baylor before he was hired as HC at North Texas. His defense helped Baylor go to it's last Cotton Bowl appearance. Corky was the head coach at Tyler after he left North Texas.... where he was the DL coach under Rod Rust. While he was HC at Tyler, he made the decision to move Earl Campbell from linebacker to RB. Earl had played LB for all his HS career and felt that playing LB was his best shot at going to college. Earl was very distressed at this move, but agreed to it anyway. The rest, as they say, is history. While he was coaching at North Texas, Corky recruited Rex Johnson out of Junior College. Rex had been playing LB and earned some all-conference honors at that position. Even though Rex Johnson was 6'1" X 235 (a good size for a LB) Corky moved him to nose tackle, where he eventually earned 1-AA all-american honors. Corky had several years coaching in the college ranks before coming to North Texas. IMHO he was almost genius in his ability to assess players and put them where they could do the most good.

Exactly! When has he ever had to promote the SlC football program. I think never! We really need someone who has had to work in the community to build a program up.....or re-build a program. Here is one sample of his ability to sell. http://www.scholarshipmaker.com/AdvisoryBoard1.aspx

I've never heard that about Todd Dodge. In fact, I don't know much about his personality at all. I will say that North Texas definitely needs a salesman......a tireless salesman.

To me, Friday night lights hits home as a movie about the culture of football. It's my favorite of all of them.

Ok, we've established that TD is a great X's and O's coach. He knows how to win, and he doesn't tolerate anything less. Just my humble opinion, but the other great quality that a HD needs at North Texas is the ability to motivate the fan base. At SLC Coach Dodge hasn't had to talk anyone into coming to games. People are lining up to go to games, and to be in the booster club. They are also moving to the Southlake so that thier kids can play in his system. At SLC, coach Dodge takes care of the winning, and the administration and booster clubs take care of the spirit.....which was always there from the very beginning. I like coach Carthel, because he has gone to programs that were on the downturn, and turned them into winners. He doesn't mind working hard at getting out into the community and getting the fans/alumni interested. He's also used to working with limited resources. I have no earthly idea what sort of personality Coach Dodge has.

?????? Are you presenting these guy's comments as representing the majority of North Texas alumni/fans out there?

Dodge hasn't had to recruit since he was a coach here at North Texas. So, that being the case, I would say that Bruce Chambers (the recruiting coordinator at Texas) could probably recruit better than Dodge. Bruce Chambers played HS ball at Dallas Carter, played football at North Texas under Hayden Fry, and coached at Dallas Carter. He's had several years in the college ranks....coaching AND recruiting. That's one.

Carthel is still my favorite. He's worked as a HC at two universities, and he's worked in the political arena (9 years on a school board). He knows how to coach and he knows how to promote a program.

Well, assuming that the 5 years to play 4 rule was in place back then, he was cutting it pretty close to play for Hayden Fry, who started coaching at NT in 1973.

Since there are several who have posted on here that like to remind us of the "real world", and since MM likes to remind us of the four bowl trips under DD, let me bring up a "real world" response. In the real world, when a coach takes his team to four straight bowl games, someone takes notice, and tries to hire him away. I've posted this once before, but it obviously bears repeating. We had a coach (Jerry Moore) with an 11-11 record and NO BOWL TRIPS. Coach Moore was hired away from us..... DD has not been. The real world spoke a long time ago about DD's accomplishments.

....with a reasonable chance to win the game.

Yeah, he took out a full page ad, rather than send a letter to all of the decision makers. From what I've heard, he seems to do that a lot (take out newpaper ads to express his opinions). So Chris, what would the guys over at the psychology dept have to say about that behavior?

I'm guessing that RV and Dr. B knew what MM's reaction would be. So I'm sure that they would not (or could not) have made this decision without the support of the BOR.

One of the scary things in MM's ad/manifesto was the statement that Dickey planned to spend the rest of his coaching career here. That sort of thing just doesn't happen anymore. I want coaches to be here that get hired away from us...... especially the head coach. We just need to have the next one (who has a very similar personality and football knowledge) waiting in the wings when that happens. You know, as I was telling FFR earlier this evening, naming the practice facility ater Dickey is fine with me. Practice seemed to be his strength. He was well known for his marathon practices/scrimmages in the spring and fall. The only problem was that game day preparation (attacking your opponent, making changes/adjustments during the game) was not his strength. With the exception of the La Tech game, if we ever got behind, we were never able to come back. Dickey can have his name on the practice field, but I want coaches who went into their games at North Texas with the expectation of winning regardless of their opponent, to have their names on a new stadium. The four that some to mind are Mitchell, Rust (using Mitchell's recruits), Fry and Nelson.