Haltom Hc George Quits, Might Join Unt Staff

OldTimer · December 20, 2006

George quits Haltom; might join UNT staffBy ANTHONY ANDRO

STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER

There's a head football coaching spot available at Haltom for the third time in four years.

Clayton George, who was at the school for less than a year, turned in his resignation on Friday after going 3-7 in his only season with the Buffalos.

"We're sorry to see him go," Birdville athletic director Willa Gipson said. "He did a good job while he was here. But we have to go on with this."

Speculation on George's future has centered on the University of North Texas. He was a two-time all-conference receiver at North Texas while Todd Dodge was an assistant there and coached under Dodge for 10 years. Last week Dodge accepted the head coaching job at UNT and will take over after the Dragons finish the season Saturday in the Class 5A Division I championship game.

Dodge hasn't named any of his staff but George would seem like a likely candidate to be an offensive assistant. George did not return phone calls Tuesday.

After George was hired at Haltom in April, he said that next to his mother and father, Dodge was the closest person to him in his life and called him his mentor.

Gipson said the district posted the vacancy Monday and expected it to remain posted until Jan. 12. She hopes to have a candidate in place for the Jan. 25 school board meeting.

George came to Haltom after two seasons as head coach at Dallas Hillcrest, where he went 14-8 and twice led the team to the playoffs.

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Anthony Andro, 817-685-3868 aandro@star-telegram.com

Will to Win · December 20, 2006

5 more days before TD & Co. hit the ground running.

shaft · December 20, 2006

Wow! Dodge might be able to land a high school coach from a school with a crappy record, what can't he do?

I'm excited to see what the future might hold for UNT, but the way people on this board are acting like giddy school girls is just embarassing. I'm holding Dodge to a lower standard than what I would have held DD to for next year; that means a winning record and a win against SMU.

untgirl04 · December 20, 2006

Wow! Dodge might be able to land a high school coach from a school with a crappy record, what can't he do?
I'm excited to see what the future might hold for UNT, but the way people on this board are acting like giddy school girls is just embarassing. I'm holding Dodge to a lower standard than what I would have held DD to for next year; that means a winning record and a win against SMU.

A North Texas alumnus and wide receiver for the football team, who's worked with Dodge before? I think it's a great idea. His record may not be that great at Haltom, but he hadn't even been there a year yet. I'm withholding judgement until I see how this year works out.

TalkToME99 · December 20, 2006

I think anything will be better DD. The guy just don't have any B*lls and doesn't believe in the program. But I don't want to see a lot of HS coaches at UNT one or two is fine but not the whole staff.

I went to UNT and was an Athlete. I have meat almost all of the coaches in all the sports and DD to me is not a college head football coach. I hope his health gets better but I am happy as hell to see him go. UNT can do much better than him and did when they got TD.

stick82 · December 20, 2006

i talked to one of the coaches the other day and he told me that the head coach from Haltom was going to be on the staff. He said he probably coach WR.

UNTLifer · December 20, 2006

Wow! Dodge might be able to land a high school coach from a school with a crappy record, what can't he do?
I'm excited to see what the future might hold for UNT, but the way people on this board are acting like giddy school girls is just embarassing. I'm holding Dodge to a lower standard than what I would have held DD to for next year; that means a winning record and a win against SMU.

Thanks for that report, Sunshine.

emmitt01 · December 20, 2006

Wow! Dodge might be able to land a high school coach from a school with a crappy record, what can't he do?
I'm excited to see what the future might hold for UNT, but the way people on this board are acting like giddy school girls is just embarassing. I'm holding Dodge to a lower standard than what I would have held DD to for next year; that means a winning record and a win against SMU.

Mrs. Dickey while we appreciate you coming on the board at all please don't feel the need to hide behind a screen name. We always like you and your daughter...it was Darrell who some wanted gone.

El Paso Eagle · December 20, 2006

Wow! Dodge might be able to land a high school coach from a school with a crappy record, what can't he do?
I'm excited to see what the future might hold for UNT, but the way people on this board are acting like giddy school girls is just embarassing. I'm holding Dodge to a lower standard than what I would have held DD to for next year; that means a winning record and a win against SMU.

It's sad that the thought of a positive future for the Mean green really sucks for you :blowup:

Eagle-96 · December 20, 2006

Wow! Dodge might be able to land a high school coach from a school with a crappy record, what can't he do?
I'm excited to see what the future might hold for UNT, but the way people on this board are acting like giddy school girls is just embarassing. I'm holding Dodge to a lower standard than what I would have held DD to for next year; that means a winning record and a win against SMU.

If you are so embarrased about the way people are acting then don't read the posts. I am embarrased that you continue to post negatively about our new coach before he has even assembled his staff, let alone coached his first game. We are not gonna let you rain on our parade just because you aren't thrilled about the coaching hires. I'm sure TD knows what he is doing regarding his staff and he has probably forgotten more about football than most of us will ever know.

GMG!!!

The Fake Lonnie Finch · December 20, 2006

Wow! Dodge might be able to land a high school coach from a school with a crappy record, what can't he do?
I'm excited to see what the future might hold for UNT, but the way people on this board are acting like giddy school girls is just embarassing. I'm holding Dodge to a lower standard than what I would have held DD to for next year; that means a winning record and a win against SMU.

The problem you have shouldn't be so much that people are excited, but that when the season begins, the reality will hit that we have a sideline full of high school coaches trying to match X's and O's with experienced D-I coaches who have better athletes. It could be pretty ugly early on, especially against OU and Arkansas with as many players as they each have returning.

The upshot is that the Sun Belt Conference isn't difficult to win. Dodge and the high school assistants can go 1-3 or 0-4 against the OOC schedule and still win the Sun Belt - just like Dickey did. In the end, then, 2007 should be more or less the same as 2001-2004.

Edited December 20, 2006 by The Fake Lonnie Finch

UNTLifer · December 20, 2006

The problem you have shouldn't be so much that people are excited, but that when the season begins, the reality will hit that we have a sideline full of high school coaches trying to match X's and O's with experienced D-I coaches who have better athletes. It could be pretty ugly early on, especially against OU and Arkansas with as many players as they each have returning.

TFLF, it seems to me that Arkansas did pretty well this year with a first year offensive coordinator straight up from HS running the show this year. Coaching is coaching. You should continue your rants about us hiring a former Longhorn QB and shaft should go back to harrassing folks for not attending Bball games.

The Fake Lonnie Finch · December 20, 2006

TFLF, it seems to me that Arkansas did pretty well this year with a first year offensive coordinator straight up from HS running the show this year. Coaching is coaching. You should continue your rants about us hiring a former Longhorn QB and shaft should go back to harrassing folks for not attending Bball games.

I guess you haven't been paying attention to what's been happening in Fayetteville lately. Since you haven't here's the skinny:

Things turn ugly when parents Hog attention

JEFF KIDD, The Island Packet

Published Sunday, December 17, 2006

These will not be glad tidings to anyone who has suffered the jackass in the adjacent bleacher seat and his rants that the coach is misusing his son.

Coaches accosted after the game by said jackass will like this news even less.

Just the same, it must be delivered: The legion of narcissistic, meddling parents grows more ubiquitous and sophisticated every day. An insidious swarm once confined to the high school and recreation field has spread to the college stadium.

And it has learned manners.

Earlier this week, the parents of three Arkansas football freshmen -- quarterback Mitch Mustain, tight end Ben Cleveland and receiver Damian Williams -- met with Razorbacks athletics director Frank Broyles, ostensibly to express "concerns" about the direction of the school's football team. Even casual followers of the college game will find their concerns puzzling, inasmuch as the Razorbacks are 10-3, champions of the Southeastern Conference's Western Division, set for a New Year's Day bowl and powered by a pair of 1,000-yard rushers, including Heisman Trophy runner-up Darren McFadden.

Sounds as if Arkansas travels an upward trajectory.

But look a bit deeper and you find the crux of the "concerns" (more accurately be described as "complaints") is not so much the direction the Razorbacks travel; rather, it's that they travel by ground and not by air.

A year ago, Razorback coach Houston Nutt was under fire after the program's second consecutive losing season. Nutt's job security demanded he relinquish play-calling duties, diversify his run-oriented attack and hire an offensive coordinator for the first time in his eight-year tenure in Fayetteville.

Meanwhile, Mustain, Cleveland and Williams were leading Arkansas' Springdale High School to a Class 5-A state championship, and Mustain was earning distinction as Parade Magazine's national player of the year. The quarterback also was entertaining offers from other schools after initially making a verbal commitment to Arkansas.

Nutt firmed up two tenuous situations with one hire. He brought aboard as offensive coordinator Springdale head coach Gus Malzahn, renowned in national coaching circles for his no-huddle, pass-oriented spread offense. This not only infused the Razorback scheme with creativity, it secured key Springdale recruits -- Mustain reaffirmed his commitment to Arkansas; Cleveland and Williams reneged on Florida to join him there; and receiver Andrew Norman, a fourth teammate apparently not involved in the current imbroglio, also signed with the Razorbacks.

By most measures, this season was a smashing success for the Springdale contingent.

Malzahn didn't try to foist a high school offense upon a team that plays against arguably the best-coached, most athletic competition in college football. He diversified the Razorback packages but built around the ample talents of McFadden and running back Felix Jones.

Even so, Williams caught 19 passes for 235 yards, and Cleveland caught 11 for 98 yards. Both were named to the All-Southeastern Conference freshman team. Mustain is the team's leading passer and started eight games -- all wins -- before being replaced late in the season by Casey Dick.

Not good enough, Cleveland's father said.

"Our boys are used to catching 60 passes a year," Rick Cleveland told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. "They want to go to a college where they get the same opportunity."

The statement is plenty selfish and even more ill-informed. For if the goal were to catch 60 passes (as opposed to winning 10 football games), Ben would have been better served in some backwater like Hawaii, New Mexico State or Baylor. After all:

• Only one player in Arkansas' history has ever caught more than 60 passes in a season.

• Even Malzahn's arrival wasn't likely to change that. Since 2002, only 13 receivers in the entire 12-team Southeastern Conference have caught 60 passes in a season. Only two were freshmen. None were tight ends.

• Of the eight teams playing in BCS bowls this season, only two rank in the top 50 in pass attempts. Four, however, rank in the top 10 in rushing attempts.

Of course, Cleveland's inability to acknowledge that the universe -- not even the Razorback universe -- revolves around Springdale is a garden-variety failing of today's over-involved, under-studied parent. More distressing is the Arkansas cabal's veneer of civility.

Cleveland described the meeting with Broyles as "non-confrontational." Mustain's mother, Beck Campbell, said in a statement, "It was agreed by all parties involved that the head coach has the valid right to determine the direction of the program and the manner in which the team would develop."

The jackasses are trimming their ears and muffling their brays. These are the statements of people who have stopped to consider how their meddling would be portrayed in the media. These are statements crafted by the passive-aggressive, albeit ham-handedly, to sound levelheaded.

But reason strips away the veneer. You don't have to be confrontational to be invidious. And if the parents truly respected Nutt's right to determine the Razorback offense, they would have taken their "concerns" to him, not his boss.

What happens next remains to be seen. Nutt said late this week that he believes Mustain and Cleveland are committed to the program but that Williams likely will transfer.

Campbell claimed in her statement that Mustain "loves his teammates, and he feels a deep sense of regret and sadness that his presence on this team has created a division in a state he loves."

If this is true, it's difficult to say which is more appalling -- that Campbell has raised so self-absorbed a child or that she doesn't understand it isn't the quarterback's presence that creates a division.

It is her presence in Broyles' office.

Quoner · December 20, 2006

So you don't think Dodge will adjust his offense to personnel or to the teams he plays? I bet he just shows up with a SLC playbook and waits for the gameplan to work itself out.

I've got a flask in my car if you'd like to join me for an after-hours drink...

The Fake Lonnie Finch · December 20, 2006

That's not the point. The point, made in answer to one specific post that tried use Arkansas as an example or what is in store for us next year, is that the Razorbacks' new offensive coordinator didn't overhaul the offense, he merely tweaked it. Like before, Arkansas' offense is still run-heavy. That made some of the Springdale players and their parents mad because he ran a spread offense as a prep coach and they thought he'd do the same in Fayetteville.

The overarching point, in response to shaft, was that it should be concerning that we face the real possibility of having no assistants with college coaching experience next season. He was correct to be concerned about the hiring of a high school coach. Some people are excited to be getting a staff full of high school coaches at UNT, others are not. Shaft is not. Neither am I. We hope Dodge has sense enough to have a few guys on the staff with some Division I-A college coaching experience.

mad dog · December 20, 2006

I've got a flask in my car if you'd like to join me for an after-hours drink...

Will you also be leaving the show at 4:45?

UNTLifer · December 20, 2006

I guess you haven't been paying attention to what's been happening in Fayetteville lately. Since you haven't here's the skinny:
Things turn ugly when parents Hog attention
JEFF KIDD, The Island Packet
Published Sunday, December 17, 2006
A year ago, Razorback coach Houston Nutt was under fire after the program's second consecutive losing season. Nutt's job security demanded he relinquish play-calling duties, diversify his run-oriented attack and hire an offensive coordinator for the first time in his eight-year tenure in Fayetteville.
Meanwhile, Mustain, Cleveland and Williams were leading Arkansas' Springdale High School to a Class 5-A state championship, and Mustain was earning distinction as Parade Magazine's national player of the year. The quarterback also was entertaining offers from other schools after initially making a verbal commitment to Arkansas.
Nutt firmed up two tenuous situations with one hire. He brought aboard as offensive coordinator Springdale head coach Gus Malzahn, renowned in national coaching circles for his no-huddle, pass-oriented spread offense. This not only infused the Razorback scheme with creativity, it secured key Springdale recruits -- Mustain reaffirmed his commitment to Arkansas; Cleveland and Williams reneged on Florida to join him there; and receiver Andrew Norman, a fourth teammate apparently not involved in the current imbroglio, also signed with the Razorbacks.
By most measures, this season was a smashing success for the Springdale contingent.
Malzahn didn't try to foist a high school offense upon a team that plays against arguably the best-coached, most athletic competition in college football. He diversified the Razorback packages but built around the ample talents of McFadden and running back Felix Jones.

I have been very aware with family and alums from Arkansas. That has nothing to do with my point. My point is that Malzahn arrived straight from an Arkansas high school, installed his offense at a SEC program and led them to the conference championship game. Did he run the same offense he ran in Springdale? No, like a good coach, he adjusted his system to fit his players, and I would expect nothing less of Coach Dodge.

Quoner · December 20, 2006

That's not the point. The point, made in answer to one specific post that tried use Arkansas as an example or what is in store for us next year, is that the Razorbacks' new offensive coordinator didn't overhaul the offense, he merely tweaked it. Like before, Arkansas' offense is still run-heavy. That made some of the Springdale players and their parents mad because he ran a spread offense as a prep coach and they thought he'd do the same in Fayetteville.
The overarching point, in response to shaft, was that it should be concerning that we face the real possibility of having no assistants with college coaching experience next season. He was correct to be concerned about the hiring of a high school coach. Some people are excited to be getting a staff full of high school coaches at UNT, others are not. Shaft is not. Neither am I. We hope Dodge has sense enough to have a few guys on the staff with some Division I-A college coaching experience.

I think you're overreacting - I'd understand you and Shaft's response if we had announced a full staff but we just haven't yet. If we don't get any experienced assistants, let's have this conversation and I will be on your side, but it's a whip right now.

We've had so much to shoot holes in for so long why fire bullets over a hypothetical that hasn't played out yet?

Quoner · December 20, 2006

Will you also be leaving the show at 4:45?

If I could convey the Danny laugh here I would...but alas, we don't have the technology...

SilverEagle · December 20, 2006

I think you're overreacting - I'd understand you and Shaft's response if we had announced a full staff but we just haven't yet. If we don't get any experienced assistants, let's have this conversation and I will be on your side, but it's a whip right now.
We've had so much to shoot holes in for so long why fire bullets over a hypothetical that hasn't played out yet?

Because that's what many people on this board do. Haven't you been paying attention?

GMoney · December 20, 2006

This is really dumb. The bottom line is about results. I could care less if the any coach TD brings in has a background with college experience. Would it make me feel better if some did, yes? Does that make them good coaches? No! It's not about pleasing us with his hires, but about getting results. If TD feels as though someone he trusts and knows his system inside and out is a better fit, then that is fine with me. No matter who is hired the results are all that matter and a coach with college experience doesn't guarantee you better results than one without.

We'll know if TD and the assistants he brings are a good hire in a few years. Just because one coach has college experience and another does not - doesn't mean he's a better coach - maybe he was just given the opportunity by circumstances, who he knew or what he did as a player. Everyone needs to stop telling TD what he needs and step back and let the man do his job. Evaluate him in a couple years after he's gotten his kids, system and staff in place.

The Fake Lonnie Finch · December 20, 2006

I have been very aware with family and alums from Arkansas. That has nothing to do with my point. My point is that Malzahn arrived straight from an Arkansas high school, installed his offense at a SEC program and led them to the conference championship game. Did he run the same offense he ran in Springdale? No, like a good coach, he adjusted his system to fit his players, and I would expect nothing less of Coach Dodge.

Again, Malzhan did not install his offense at Arkansas. He kept Arkansas run-based.

Also, Malzhan is one coach at Arkansas. None of the other nine coaches came out of the high school ranks. All had either exclusive NFL and college experience. Aside from Malzhan, only one other Razorback assistant ever coached in high school - and that guy was only a prep coach for one year, 23 years ago.

Nothing about Arkansas is similar to what is about to happen here. Not even close. The Razorbacks have a staff full of coaches with decades of Division I-A and NFL experience. We're apparently combing DFW high schools for a coaching staff. It may be exciting to some, but the result could be really ugly come September 1 in Norman.

Also, as much as some of you still want to pin Arkansas' success on Malzhan, you should note that he's not coming up with the game plans all by himself. Arkansas, like many colleges these days, has a run game coordinator and a pass game coordinator in addition to the offensive coordinator. So, there's not just one guy making the offensive game plan. Their run game coordinator has 22 years of college coaching experience; the pass game coordinator came to Arkansas this year after seven seasons as an NFL assistant.

So, it's not as if Houston Nutt simply hired a high school coach and turned the keys over to him on the offense, as some of you mistakenly believe. We, on the otherhand, look as though we're going to turn the entire thing over to high school coaches, the head guy with a couple of years of I-AA experience from 12 years ago.

Sorry, but some of us won't believe it's a good deal until we see good results. Personally, I think we'll be no different than we were with Darrell Dickey - getting stomped in OOC games, competing well enough against the Sun Belt competition to win some SBC titles. The upside for the athletic department is that they got Dodge for a couple of thousand dollars less than they were paying Dickey.

Quoner · December 20, 2006

Wow - when we do lose to OU (what a huge limb to go out on to evaluate a new coaches tenure) I bet you can take off your pants, light a cigar, and feel pretty damn validated...