Signing Coverage

Marty · February 8, 2007

Dodge’s first class has nice rings to it

By Bill Spinks

Herald Democrat

DENTON — Todd Dodge said he and his new staff didn’t have a lot of time to put together his first recruiting class at North Texas.

“It was Dec. 26 when we put our first ink on the board,” the new Mean Green head coach said Wednesday. “But we’re just a bunch of old high school coaches. We had 16 scouting reports for 16 games we just played. We just went through them and put the best names on our list. I’m not sure how scientific it was, but that’s how we did it.”

However limited the time frame was, something worked. Dodge’s first Mean Green recruiting class consists of seven prep stars from the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, and several others who altogether won a combined 10 state championships and 47 playoff games.

“That’s the flavor of this class,” Dodge said.

Dodge, who led Southlake Carroll to three Class 5A state championships in four years with a 77-1 record in that span, is bringing his offense, which requires a lot of wide receivers.

To that end, six of the 20 on UNT’s recruiting class are wide receivers — and all six are expected to compete for playing time.

“You want to have 10 to 12 receivers going into practice, and you want to be in the top eight if you want playing time,” Dodge said. “We have six in this class, a few on campus at this time, and a few walk-ons who are on campus. A lot of people this spring are going to get a lot of reps.”

Two of Dodge’s new receivers hail from one of Carroll’s rivals, Colleyville Heritage: Breece Johnson and Evan Walker. Dodge said Johnson is “a tremendous leaper” who combines speed with his jumping ability; and Walker will be what Dodge called an “A-back,” or slot player, in his offense.

Two former Dragons, linebacker Justin Padron and defensive end Kyle Russo, will follow Dodge to Denton. Padron’s strength is his leadership, while Russo’s toughness is his greatest asset, Dodge said.

The new UNT coach projects his two newly-signed linemen, J.J. Johnson of Plano West and Matt Tomlinson of Klein, as his future starting center and left tackle respectively, which addresses two needs immediately.

With four quarterbacks already on campus, including redshirt freshman Nathan Tune of Celina, finding a new signalcaller was relatively low on UNT’s wish list.

But Dodge is high on the one he signed Wednesday: Giovanni Vizza of San Antonio Alamo Heights, who accounted for 488 combined passing and rushing yards in his team’s state championship game victory.

Vizza, who ran a no-huddle spread offense very similar to the one Dodge is installing at UNT, will be given an equal chance to compete for a starting job.

“The four that are here ... are starting from the same level,” Dodge said. “One thing I don’t believe in is quarterback-by-committee. I think through competition, the cream will rise to the top. Through competition, we’ll have an outstanding quarterback, and he’ll know he won the job and won’t be looking over his shoulder.”

gangrene · February 9, 2007

“The four that are here ... are starting from the same level,” Dodge said. “One thing I don’t believe in is quarterback-by-committee. I think through competition, the cream will rise to the top. Through competition, we’ll have an outstanding quarterback, and he’ll know he won the job and won’t be looking over his shoulder.”

I absolutely love that quote...that's what I want to hear. No more of the QB by committee.

Oh, and btw...nice coverage...thanks for posting.

MeanGreenBrigader · February 9, 2007

After tracking and keeping up with the insane recruiting that TD has been able to pull together, I'm amazed at the great job that he was able to do. This can only mean a bright future for Mean Green fans everywhere. I can't WAIT for the new season to begin!!