Ex-tj Standout Dodge Now At North Texas

[mgsteve]

The Beaumont Enterprise

Twenty-one miles south of Denton, Todd Dodge's pickup truck keeps rolling. It's one of those gorgeous days along Interstate 35W, a little warm, but shaping up to be a good one. The sky stretches on forever, wider and bluer than the ocean, and the sun hammers down on the cars that slither up and down the freeway.

On this day, one last time, Dodge will be honored as the coach who took a proud high school football program and turned it into one of Texas' greatest dynasties. He's headed to Fort Worth for a banquet, a salute to all the coaches who won state championships in 2006.

On this day Dodge wears a black jacket and an emerald green tie - colors that have served him so well for so long, colors that still serve him well.

An old coaching buddy chats with him as he enters this sprawling, ritzy hotel lobby. It's cooler inside here, but outside, man, it's a beautiful day - a shade under 90 degrees, just a few clouds here and there ...

His eyes twinkle a little bit, and he focuses on his target with a friendly, trademark squint.

First day of August. On this day, Dodge is excited, because it brings him one day closer to his next challenge.

After this banquet, and after four state titles at Southlake Carroll, it's back to North Texas for good. It's back to the task of making over a low-tier Division I-A football program, back to a challenge few have faced before.

After this banquet, it's back to Denton, a little farther away from his Port Arthur roots.

"It's been crazy, but I'm telling you, I'm anxious as all get-out," Dodge says. "I don't know if I've ever been as excited to get to the season as I am right now."

Who could have guessed, some 27 years ago, that the record-setting quarterback from Thomas Jefferson would have revolutionized high school football in the state where it's more cherished than any other?

Who could have guessed that Todd Dodge would win 79 of his last 80 games at Southlake Carroll, cementing his status as a coaching icon before he even celebrated his 44th birthday?

Who could have guessed he'd choose to walk away from it all and accept an even greater challenge - bringing the North Texas Mean Green to respectability?

Not many. Some could have, perhaps.

"I think other people are more in awe," says Richard Rice, who played alongside Dodge at TJ all those years ago. "In my mind, I always thought Todd was going to do great things."

Four days earlier, just a few blocks away in downtown Fort Worth, Dodge sat on a dais with seven other college head coaches. They all spoke to a crowd of high school coaches about their craft.

There was Art Briles, the man who took Houston from the doldrums to a conference championship. There was Gary Patterson, who has TCU taking aim at the BCS heavyweights. Mike Price, trying to do the same at UTEP. Phil Bennett from SMU. David Bailiff from Rice.

Some guy named Mack Brown.

Dodge was on the left side of the table, wearing a bright green polo shirt, sitting in with these famous names. The irony of the whole thing wasn't lost on anyone: A year ago, he would have been somewhere in the crowd, another high school coach listening to the big boys from the big programs.

During the discussion, Dodge talked about motivation. He talked about how the tough times always reveal character in a football team.

"How are we going to act when the first three series of the game don't even come close to getting us a first down?" he said. "How are we going to act when we go on a three-game losing streak?"

Dodge couldn't see the reaction out there in the masses, but several high school coaches shook their heads and chuckled.

Yeah, right, they must have thought. Coach Dodge just went 79-1 over the last five years and won four state titles in Class 5A, and now he's a college head coach. What does this guy know about tough times?

Maybe Dodge should have stopped the show and told them all about it. Maybe he should have convinced them that his life, too, has not been entirely charmed.

Maybe he should have told them about the two years in Port Arthur when he lived with someone else's family, just to keep playing football. Or the time in Austin, when he spent 21 days in a hospital burn unit after an explosion blew the skin off his hands. Or the time in Cameron, when fire claimed his house.

He could have pulled out his resume, which included a 24-35 record before his unprecedented run at Southlake Carroll.

But he didn't.

He could have told the crowd about his family, about how the Dodges were seemingly always on the move when Todd was a kid.

His dad, Don, was a Methodist preacher who seemed to always get a new assignment right as the family settled in. When Todd was in seventh grade, they moved from Orange to Port Arthur. They stayed there until his sophomore year in high school, and Don got another call.

This time, he and Jean were headed to Longview.

Back then, the University Interscholastic League had a rule: students who moved out of the district had to sit out of athletics for a year, no ifs, ands or buts. This presented a problem, because Todd Dodge was about to become the full-time starter at TJ, and if he were to sit out his junior season, the college recruiters might never find him.

Besides, Ronnie Thompson was the coach there, and at a time when two-receiver formations were exotic in Texas, Thompson liked to chuck the ball around.

Dodge and partner in crime, Richard Rice, devised a solution. As far as they were concerned, it was simple.

"I'd only met Todd in high school. He was a year younger than me," Rice says. "We just became friends, talking in the locker room. ... He was telling me his parents were going to move, and he was going to have to leave. I said, 'Hey, why don't you come live with me?'"

OK, so Rice might have forgotten to ask his folks about it first, and this wasn't exactly like asking permission for a sleepover.

Still, Rice's parents met Dodge's parents, and that was that. The two teenagers shared a room for one season, and after Richard Rice left to play at McNeese State, Dodge was by himself in the Rices' house.

Don and Jean Dodge came down for the games, came to the Rices' house for parties and gumbo afterward. But at the end of the weekend, they went back up to Longview, out of Todd's daily life. At 16, he was all but forced to become a grown-up.

"I suppose it was tough on Todd, but he never let it show," Rice says. "He hasn't let obstacles stand in his way."

Instead, Dodge did what would become a common pattern in his life: he made other people part of his family.

To this day, Dodge refers to Richard Rice as his brother; they are godfathers to each other's children, and Rice's parents, Bobby and Colleen, always referred to Dodge as their son.

Back on the football field, Thompson realized that keeping Dodge around was no small victory.

"He didn't say much in the huddle. He never had to say much, period," Thompson says. "But Todd had this way of communicating with guys. His receiver would drop a pass, and Todd might tell him he should have thrown it better. He'd tap (the receiver) on the arm and tell him to look out; he was coming back to him. He could just nod at guys, and they'd get it."

With one week left in the 1978 season, the Yellowjackets were on a nonstop flight to pathetic. They were 0-9, hadn't scored more than 14 points in a game all year. Thompson decided to start Dodge, then a sophomore, in the final game against Beaumont-Charlton-Pollard.

TJ won, 35-13.

The next season, it was more of the same. The Yellowjackets' season point total more than doubled, from 99 to 256. The next year, Dodge's senior year, the number doubled again, from 256 to 513.

In that magical 1980 campaign, Dodge set a state record with 3,135 passing yards, and TJ headed to the state finals for a showdown with Odessa Permian. The Yellowjackets' only loss of the season came that night, as mighty Mojo rallied to win in the second half, 28-19.

But the passing era was born in Texas, and Dodge was on his way to Austin. He figured out what he wanted out of life.

"People ask me, 'When did you decide you wanted to be a coach?'" Dodge says. "It was in those two years in Port Arthur."

He could have told the crowd that his time at the University of Texas was not all perfect, either. Thompson became an assistant coach there after Dodge's freshman season, and sure, he watched Dodge fire away at the record books; at one point, the Port Arthur star was second in school history in career passing yards with 2,791 (he ranks ninth now).

But Thompson also remembers how the crowd booed Dodge in 1984. That year, the Longhorns climbed to No. 1 in the polls but, over their last nine games, lost four times and tied once.

The worst was yet to come.

In 1987, Dodge was finished with school and seven months into his marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of longtime Austin Westlake coach Ebbie Neptune. He was also about to begin his coaching career as an assistant at Rockwall.

In the meantime, he was working for the city of Austin's electric department. During a routine day, at an office complex on Ben White Boulevard, Dodge plugged a meter into a transformer.

It exploded. He was catapulted 12 feet away and knocked unconscious, and that was the least of his worries. When Dodge woke up, skin was dripping off his hands. Doctors told him he might lose a finger or five.

Toughing it out, he spent 21 days in the hospital burn unit, enduring treatments he said felt like pouring gasoline on a fire. He wore special gloves while the skin healed, and eventually, he emerged with all five fingers - not to mention a few hellacious scars.

"I had a lot of friends and teammates - guys that were still on the team (at Texas) - and some coaches who really rallied around me," Dodge says. "I already had the job at Rockwall, but that really solidified my ... resolve to want to be a coach. It helped me understand that a football team is a family."

He could have mentioned that the first time he reached the state finals, as a quarterbacks and receivers coach at Rockwall, his team lost to Dan Hooks and West Orange-Stark.

He could have mentioned how he took over as offensive coordinator at McKinney and started to cobble together his own passing attack, borrowing bits from Thompson's spread, Houston's run-and-shoot and Miami's five-step drops - but that, despite the video-game numbers his offense put up, McKinney never made it out of the Class 4A regionals.

Still, Dodge's success earned him the chance to be an assistant coach in the college ranks. In 1992, he became the quarterbacks and wide receivers coach at North Texas, which was then a Division I-AA school playing in the Southland Conference.

He got his first taste of the recruiting process, calling prospects, visiting with their parents, sending letters, communicating. He learned how to run a college practice.

More challenges.

"Todd, X-and-O-wise, isn't going to have to make any adjustments (from high school to North Texas)," Texas A&M coach Dennis Franchione says. "The biggest adjustment he's going to have is learning the NCAA rules. I mean, it seems like I'm learning a new one every day. ... But didn't he coach in college before, at some point? That probably helped him with rules, and it helps him with recruiting. If he hadn't had that experience, it might be a little more new to him."

North Texas was hardly a winner, though, and two seasons of identical 4-7 records had Dodge looking for something more.

He got his chance at Cameron Yoe. More challenges.

Dodge could tell them about the time when he was a promising young coach in Cameron, and the family was celebrating Independence Day, and something went horribly wrong with the fireworks.

The next thing he knew, Dodge and his family were outside, and Todd was calling his adopted brother back home in Port Arthur, asking him for help as their house went up in smoke.

Everyone survived, but the place was a bona fide mess.

The couch? The fridge? Insurance policies take care of those things. Pictures? Nothing can bring them back.

"I guess that was the other thing, the real bad thing that he had to deal with," Rice says. "I remember going through there, and a lot of their stuff was saved. But when you've got as much stuff as Todd had - player-of-the-year awards, team pictures, letterjackets - he lost some of it. ... Those are things you can't replace."

By the way, in two years under Dodge, the Yoemen were a mediocre 8-12. In two more years at Newman Smith, Dodge went 9-11. In two more years at Keller Fossil Ridge, he went 7-12.

Six seasons into his high school head-coaching career, Todd Dodge had zero playoff berths to show for himself.

Yeah, sure; this guy'll be a legend someday.

Was he worried?

"No," he says, letting out a sigh. "You know, I've been really fortunate to be around some great programs. I became a head coach in 1994 (at Cameron Yoe), and we didn't win as many games as we wanted to - and of course, as a coach, you want to win them all.

"But I felt like I was growing as a coach and always learning. We had some tough times at North Texas, but I felt like I learned a lot there, too."

It all changed at a place called Southlake Carroll.

Two years after Dodge arrived in Southlake, everything started to click. The Dragons were 19-10, fresh off a trip to the Class 4A Division II semifinals, when he added a new wrinkle to his spread offense.

Forget the pre-snap huddle, Dodge figured. His offense can set up at the line of scrimmage and go from there.

"I asked him one time, 'How many words does it take for you to call a play?' Usually it's one. Sometimes it's none," Thompson says. "The kids look at the sidelines and get the hand signals. I tell you, it's something to watch."

Looking back on it, Dodge says that's when the Dragons really took off, and it's hard to argue.

And this is the part that all those other coaches knew about: Dodge engineered a program that enjoyed success in Class 4A, then moved up to 5A and won four championships. The Dragons lost the 2003 title game by one point, but since then, they've won 48 in a row.

Five quarterbacks at Carroll have easily surpassed Dodge's old 1980 passing record. They are a Who's Who of high school stars, including Chase Wasson (now at Oklahoma), Chase Daniel (now at Missouri) and Todd's own son, Riley, who will be a senior this fall at Carroll.

It was just too easy, wasn't it?

So after Dodge got to enjoy the feeling of winning a title with his son, and when Darrell Dickey's program at UNT started to slide, well, things just seemed to fall into place.

He accepted the school's offer on Dec. 12, a few weeks before he won that last title.

"First off, I believe in the University of North Texas. There's only 119 head coaching jobs in Division I, and the longer you go, the more you start to wonder how many chances you're going to get," Dodge says. "I figured I better not look a gift horse in the mouth.

"The other thing is that I didn't have to uproot my family. I'm 20 miles away from my home in Southlake. My wife can still teach third grade there, my daughter (Molly) is going to seventh grade there, and my son can still go to school there."

To say Dodge's hiring is popular in the Metroplex is like saying there's mild interest in what the Dallas Cowboys are up to.

According to the Denton Record-Chronicle, UNT has sold $259,118 in season tickets - an increase of about 94 percent from last season. Donations to the Mean Green Club, the fundraising branch of the school's athletic department, are up to $399,292 - an increase of about 95 percent.

And North Texas athletics director Rick Villarreal has been more open about building a brand-new $52 million football stadium, the paper reported.

Mean Green fans showed up to a news conference just to see the team's new uniforms: white helmets and bright green jerseys with black trim.

Hmm. Looks a lot like some prep team over in Southlake.

Nevertheless, taking over at North Texas could prove to be Dodge's toughest challenge yet.

Gerry Faust, after all, went just 30-26-1 at Notre Dame after coming from Moeller High School in Cincinnati, a program with similar success.

Thanks in part to Faust, every high school coach in Division I is guilty until proven innocent, met with skepticism from the start.

At the Sun Belt Conference meetings this summer, coaches picked the Mean Green to finish seventh. Dickey may have won four conference titles, but he was an old-school, run-first coach, and he managed just five wins over the last two years as his talent pool dried up.

For now, Dodge will have to tailor his attack to the athletes he has on campus, and it could be an ugly 2007.

But Mack Brown says he won't be surprised if Dodge meets this challenge, too.

"Todd played college football. He married into Ebbie Neptune's family, so he's been around sports with his family and that family," Brown says. "He played quarterback, so he was under a tremendous amount of pressure and answered a lot of questions. Really, that'll be one of the main differences - he had a lot of attention, even nationally.

"To me, he'll be able to recruit a lot of kids from (the Dallas-Fort Worth) area, because of his reputation, that some other guys could not recruit."

Brown should know.

Riley Dodge, projected as a safety or wide receiver on the next level, de-committed from Texas and has pledged to play for his dad next season - a move that thrills Richard Rice, who watched Riley grow up idolizing his father.

"Riley had UT posters, UT bedspreads, everything," Rice says. "He wanted to follow in his dad's footsteps. I guess he'll just be doing it a different way."

Riley Dodge is just one of 11 early commitments for North Texas - a number that has to concern other coaches around the Sun Belt. Forced to wait for other schools' leftovers, they have never been able to round up so much talent this early in the recruiting calendar.

And Todd Dodge has one other thing going for him, too: He's Todd Dodge, the same gifted communicator who inspired his older teammates back at Thomas Jefferson.

That level of trust isn't there yet with his new players, Dodge says. But it'll get there. They'll be part of his family soon.

"It's been a real good thing getting coach Dodge here," wide receiver Brandon Jackson says. "Everything's spread out. I love it. Everybody who plays receiver is excited about it."

The banquet is over.

Dodge makes his way out of the ballroom, closer to the entrance of the hotel lobby. But he doesn't leave quickly. There are so many coaches around, so many buddies, a few others who have a question to ask or a handshake to offer.

It's still a gorgeous day outside, blue and sunny at the moment. Clouds are up ahead, but hey, it's summertime in Texas - and if Dodge has learned anything, it's that dark days are a certainty every now and then.

"We've certainly gotten a nice response. There's a good feeling about North Texas football right now," he says. "But I'm not naïve enough to think that can't change."

He runs his thumb and index finger down the length of that green necktie. Then he climbs back into his pickup truck, heading away from high school, heading north toward home, farther away from the family he knows in Jefferson County.

"I've always been thankful of where I grew up, and very, very proud to call Port Arthur and the Golden Triangle my home," he says. "I think it's been an underrated area for football and for recruiting. And we plan on getting back in there."

Port Arthur, Austin, Cameron, Southlake. Explosions, fires, losing records, championships. All of it is somewhere back in the distance, too far away for him to see, but not too far away for him to forget.

Interstate 35W opens up.

Up the road, dead ahead, the next challenge awaits.

[MeanGreengdub]

Wow, what an awesome article.

[akriesman]

Wow, what an awesome article.

Agreed. What a terrific story.

[Mean Green 93-98]

The references to our uniforms looking like SLC's get under my skin a little bit, but this is a very good article.

[greenminer]

Man I'm ready for football.

[NTPhiKap99]

The Beaumont Enterprise

Riley Dodge is just one of 11 early commitments for North Texas - a number that has to concern other coaches around the Sun Belt. Forced to wait for other schools' leftovers, they have never been able to round up so much talent this early in the recruiting calendar.

So is this guy wrong or are we missing a recruit from everything I've see we're still at 10.

[EagleD]

Great read.

GO MEAN GREEN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BEAT THE HELL OUT OF OU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[FirefightnRick]

For me the season won't be ugly at all, regardless of our record because we have already won on so many fronts. This has just been that kind of hire for us.

Rick

[MeanGreengdub]

For me the season won't be ugly at all, regardless of our record because we have already won on so many fronts. This has just been that kind of hire for us.

Rick

Touche

[ksigjayt]

I hope he doesn't forget who handed him his first state title loss -- West Texas. We need some more West Texas recruits!

Edited August 13, 2007 by ksigjayt

[GreenBat]

Todd Dodge's life is a script for a Disney movie.

Edited August 13, 2007 by GreenBat

[PlummMeanGreen]

Todd Dodge's life is a script for a Disney movie.

I realize Santa is not a Walt Disney character, but he does represent Christmas to many and hopefully Christmas in Mean Green Country has finally, finally, finally..................arrived....................... (yet at a higher D1-A profile this time, of course).

PS: The article did leave out that the Todd Dodge family spent some time this year in the Oval Office as well (so I guess we can assume the reporter is a Democrat)?

GMG!

Edited August 14, 2007 by PlummMeanGreen

[TheTastyGreek]

I realize Santa is not a Walt Disney character, but he does represent Christmas to many and hopefully Christmas in Mean Green Country has finally, finally, finally..................arrived....................... (yet at a higher D1-A profile this time, of course).

PS: The article did leave out that the Todd Dodge family spent some time this year in the Oval Office as well (so I guess we can assume the reporter is a Democrat)?

GMG!

Just for you, Plummer:

Hey kids! It's Wide Open!

[greenminer]

I realize Santa is not a Walt Disney character, but he does represent Christmas to many and hopefully Christmas in Mean Green Country has finally, finally, finally..................arrived....................... (yet at a higher D1-A profile this time, of course).

PS: The article did leave out that the Todd Dodge family spent some time this year in the Oval Office as well (so I guess we can assume the reporter is a Democrat)?

GMG!

Another Plumm post bookmarked for me. I finished this one AND there's no stadium reference.

[PlummMeanGreen]

Just for you, Plummer:

Hey kids! It's Wide Open!

Did any of you other Baby Boomers have a Mickey Mouse Club T-shirt, ie, the "original" MM Club, that is?

I thought Annette Funiciello(sp?) was divine even when I was age 6. I know, I'll burn for that.

[MeanMag]

Did any of you other Baby Boomers have a Mickey Mouse Club T-shirt, ie, the "original" MM Club, that is?

I thought Annette Funiciello(sp?) was divine even when I was age 6. I know, I'll burn for that.

I see what you mean...

mmmm...

[PlummMeanGreen]

Barbara Hershey Seagull (at least for a brief time with that last name) took Annette's place, then Kathleen Beller (of The Betsy swimming pool scene fame) took Barbara's place and then..........the Divine Ms. Norah J. took Beller's place and I've been on HBP medication ever since.

Heck, at this stage of life for most of us Baby Boomer's we're only looking at the menu anyway.

[DeepGreen]

Talk about PR for North Texas! I just returned home from a trip and read this Enterprise article. Gentlemen, this article covered half of the front sports page, plus the entire second page. It included this years schedule and the projected two-deep. Front page had a large photo of Coach Dodge and his son Riley. Unfortunately, the photo showed SLC's uniform. Otherwise, excellent publicity.