Dodge ball: UNT hires Southlake Carroll coach

[Harry]

http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/...12.13cccf5.html

Dodge ball: UNT hires Southlake Carroll coach to lead program

Dodge's offensive philosophy could take time to implement

11:46 PM CST on Tuesday, December 12, 2006

By Brett Vito / Staff Writer

The offensive philosophies of new North Texas head coach Todd Dodge and the man he is replacing couldn't be much different.

Dodge runs a wide-open spread offense that has produced three state championship teams since 2002 at Southlake Carroll. Darrell Dickey produced a pair of national rushing champions with his mow-them-down running attack that finally fell flat the last two seasons before he was fired Nov. 8.

DRC/Gary Payne

Southlake Carroll coach Todd Dodge was named the new head coach at North Texas on Tuesday at the Mean Green Athletic Center.

The change in philosophy will present a challenge for Dodge, who will teach his offense to a whole new batch of players after taking over as UNT's head coach on Tuesday.

UNT will return 16 starters for its first season under Dodge, including former national rushing champion Jamario Thomas.

"The biggest thing will be to get in, teach and evaluate how our offense will fit the personnel that we have," Dodge said. "I look forward to teaching it. It's a similar to the situation when I got to Southlake Carroll seven years ago. They had an almost opposite style."

Dodge will have to rebuild the Mean Green's corps of receivers and find a quarterback to fit his passing system in addition to teaching it.

UNT rotated three players at quarterback over the last two seasons, but never settled on a starter. Daniel Meager, Woody Wilson and Matt Phillips will all be juniors next season.

UNT ranked last in the Sun Belt Conference in passing offense in 2006 with an average of 115.2 yards a game and was sixth out of eight teams in passing efficiency with a 96.4 ranking while rotating the trio.

Dodge said he had not decided whether he would pursue a junior college quarterback.

"The first thing I have to do is evaluate the quarterbacks that are here on this campus before we go anywhere else," Dodge said.

UNT struggled in the passing game despite having what Dickey called the best corps of receivers in his nine-year tenure with the team. Johnny Quinn set the Mean Green's career records for receptions (187) and receiving yards (2,728) before completing his career.

Joel Nwigwe played his final season with the Mean Green in 2006. Zach Muzzy, another senior, is expected to be granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA because he suffered a season-ending knee injury in the fourth week of his freshman season in 2003 against Arkansas.

Muzzy exceeded the NCAA's limit for a medical redshirt season when he was injured on a kickoff return before the Mean Green's first possession of the game.

Muzzy said earlier this year he was fairly certain he would be granted an extra year of eligibility, but would not decide whether he would return until after the holidays. Dodge has yet to talk to Muzzy.

Dickey said after his last game with the Mean Green that he thought the team had the players it needs to make a run at the Sun Belt Conference title in the coming seasons.

Junior defensive end Jeremiah Chapman and sophomore punter Truman Spencer were second-team All-Sun Belt selections last season and head a small number of returning UNT players who received all-conference honors.

Junior linebacker Maurice Holman and junior safety Aaron Weathers were honorable mention all-conference selections and will also be back next season to form the core of Dodge's first team at UNT.

"There are good football players here," Dodge said. "They will have to be real open to doing some things a different way. The way they have been doing it is not wrong, but our system is a little different. I look forward to teaching our system."

Briefly …

Dodge will not coach in the U.S. Army All-America Bowl next year because it is against NCAA rules for a college coach to work the game.

BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870. His e-mail address is bvito@dentonrc.com.