Anyone See The Damn Today? I Love This Team!

THOR · October 9, 2007

I was going to make a thread out of this topic, but you beat me to the point. Would it kill us to line up under center on 3rd and short and 4th and short situations? I don't understand us only needing half a yard, and we line up in the shotgun. We could easily QB sneak in those situations to pick up half a yard (especially with a QB like Vizza)

if we were to run under center for the short plays, the defense could line up and know we're going to run. if that's the plan, then line up under center every once in a while and run. we don't want to give the defense any more help than they already get.

moffat · October 10, 2007

Currently, Mendoza and Monroe have been a disappointment at LB and should be replaced by Mahan and Penson.
I agree, they should at least be given a chance.

greenminer · October 10, 2007

This is clearly Riley Dodge's team at year end.

I don't know how some of you come up with some of this stuff. Get off the Riley bandwagon and realize he hasn't played a down in college yet. Or, at least, respect that Vizza isn't exactly going to be handing him the reigns at year end.

Cooley · October 11, 2007

Riley Dodge is not the mid-major QB that I hope we will eventually land but he is better than what I have seen from Meager and Vizza. I know the kid is a freshman and a backup role is not bad. This is not Vizza bashing! It is also not the love fest over Vizza, that I continue to read either. The kid had a very bad game the other night yet I read where he had a great game. He may turn out to be ok but we should never be content with the same personnel that is clearly at the bottom of D1 football. I'm sorry if I disagree with many of you and am not on the Vizza bandwagon.

I've seen Riley Dodge enough (since his soph year) to know that he is more accurate, (deep and short) More importantly, the kid has the pocket presence that you want in a passing offense. His 4.5 speed will be a welcome addition to the offense; until the linemen can get more experience. Lastly, there is no one who knows this system better. Why shouldn't he be the #1 signal caller. Todd Dodge's decision to start Vizza is more about what Meager hasn't done than what Vizza has.

Spencer Stack was 5A MVP at QB and never made it on the playing field here at UNT. For the guys that truly follow HS sports will know that the MVP will always come from the State Championship team; not necessary the best player or prospect. William Cole of Cedar Hill was the best kid in the state last year but didn't have the name recognizion coming out of Cedar Hill versus a Southlake Carroll.

Some of you guys get so hung up on stats, ratings and 2-3 highlights from Rivals.com. During HS signing days, the coaches always talk up each recruit. For the record, I discuss basketball more on this board because other don't. I've followed HS and college football more than most on this board. HS football recruiting has been a passion (and hobby) of mine forever. I attend HS football games weekly all over the metroplex. I don't evaluate a kid on what I read or what their stats are. I generally hit on most kids most of the time.

I have absolutely no ties to the Dodge family, Carroll HS or Southlake, TX. I want UNT to get it's ass from the bottom of D1 football and move toward top 75 in the next 3-4 years. Riley Dodge is the much better QB to get us in that direction.

I don't have a problem at all with you guys disagreeing with me. I don't agree with a great amount of stuff I read on here as well. Unlike UNTLifer though, I never try to tell people where to post, when to post and how to post. I can understand if the criticism was coming from a student and/or the board administrators. (Even though I may cross that politically correct line). I don't mean to imply that the condescending comments are totally directed toward me but I'm equally offended when he continues to lay back and blast many others.

Go Mean Green!

DeepGreen · October 11, 2007

Cooley, are you done?

Just kidding. Those are all good points and appreciated by this Mean Green fan. I think many of us, myself included, tend to look at too many stats, rankings, rivals videos when talking about how good certain recruits are, and how they will elevate our program. For the record, I do think that Vizza is a good one. The ULL game was his coming out party of sorts. Yes, he stumbled early on; maybe it was Freshman stage fright, or whatever. ULL was a good game to baptize the lad.

I think our biggest problem this year and in years past has been the lack of quality linemen. Both defensive and offensive. This is not a knock on our present group, we just don't have enough of the good ones. Speaking of linemen, I think Kelvin Drake will end up being one of the top centers for UNT that ever wore the Green and White, regardless of shade and font. I have not counted the number of total snaps he's taken from the spread offense in five games, and only one miscue against SMU, but this guy is very special in my book.

I hope Todd Dodge's recruiters are out combing the high schools for good, quality linemen. Hell if it was me, I'd spend half of our recruiting class on linemen. We have enough defensive backs!

stebo · October 11, 2007

I generally hit on most kids most of the time.

Gross! You should get some professional help for that!

Cr1028 · October 11, 2007

I've seen Riley Dodge enough (since his soph year) to know that he is more accurate, (deep and short)

Everyone is more accurate in high school. How often do you face D-1 prospect dbs in a given season? Maybe 1/4 of your games or less?

Edited October 11, 2007 by Cr1028

bigntex · October 11, 2007

Hey Cooley, how could Air Force, Army, Nevada, Rice, SMU, Houston,ect. etc. and Todd Dodge all be wrong on my former teammate, Vizza ???? If he is not D-1, why did he have all those offers and why were the likes of Kansas, TCU, and Wyoming kissing his ass to take a visit. We played against black, fast, athletes at Copperas Cove, whose entire secondary went D-1 and all Vizza did was have a game with 500 yards in the state championship. Alamo Heights had more scouts at practice than ever before when he was there.

I have seen Vizza and Riley at camps all over. Unless you have seen them side by side, shut your pie hole because you don't know what your talking about. I bet you never have seen Vizza in high school. Ryan Mallett couldn't beat Copperas Cove, he had a fair game against them and turned the ball over. Reserve you judgment LL Cool Jay, until the season ends and Riley gets on campus.

You'll never see a better leader or competitor who will sacrifice his body, or who will do anthing to win. Dodge was the only reason, Gio didn't go out of state.

Edited October 11, 2007 by bigntex

UNTFan23 · October 11, 2007

Hey Cooley, how could Air Force, Army, Nevada, Rice, SMU, Houston,ect. etc. and Todd Dodge all be wrong on my former teammate, Vizza ???? If he is not D-1, why did he have all those offers and why were the likes of Kansas, TCU, and Wyoming kissing his ass to take a visit. We played against black, fast, athletes at Copperas Cove, whose entire secondary went D-1 and all Vizza did was have a game with 500 yards in the state championship. Alamo Heights had more scouts at practice than ever before when he was there.
I have seen Vizza and Riley at camps all over. Unless you have seen them side by side, shut your pie hole because you don't know what your talking about. I bet you never have seen Vizza in high school. Ryan Mallett couldn't beat Copperas Cove, he had a fair game against them and turned the ball over. Reserve you judgment LL Cool Jay, until the season ends and Riley gets on campus.
You'll never see a better leader or competitor who will sacrifice his body, or who will do anthing to win. Dodge was the only reason, Gio didn't go out of state.

Please tell me you are coming to the games, cause I like your fire. We need thousands more in the stands like you.

Cr1028 · October 11, 2007

Please tell me you are coming to the games, cause I like your fire. We need thousands more in the stands like you.

Amen to that.

greenminer · October 11, 2007

I'm of the opinion that Riley's accuracy is fantastic...in high school. Those holes and the timing become much more tightly screwed in college, so it's hard to gauge what's going to happen with his accuracy once he hits the speed and size of the college game. However, Vizza - from the beginning of his OU playing time - has demonstrated a touch and arm strength that pales anything I've seen from Dodge.

Am I the only one that saw a long ball from Riley that just sits and floats for receivers to make plays on it? Anyone else see those jump balls he throws on the 20+ yard throws?

I'm with you on this: I want the best guy to win it, and if Riley comes in to prove us all wrong and is successful doing so, than the team is his. Because he knows this system. But Vizza is getting there as fast as the coaches can feed him and has given me every reason to believe this team is his to looz/loose/lose/luse.

At least we can step back and get excited about these two being on our side.

La-Mo will be Vizza's first game with a full week of practice as the starter under his belt. I'm excited to see how he fairs.

ADLER · October 11, 2007

That is funny. We need to fix the D, it is last in the nation. Nobody can argue with that. If TD can turn around the worst offense in the nation that quick - there is no reason why the D can't be a top 100 D at least - at this point they are dead last and are giving up close to 500 yards a game.

I have read about a very interesting defensive scheme that we may be able to use to correct these issues. The only problem is I don't think we have all the necessary personel this season.

It defense involves using a very powerful linebacker that can hurl midgets at the opposing team's ball carriers.

UNT Mean Green · October 11, 2007

I get the impression Bigntex may be a relative or close friend of Giovanni Vizza. His comments about attending Quarterback Camps with Giovanni that also had Riley Dodge in attendance, in addition to being quick to defend Giovanni leads me to believe that.

With that being said, how can you not be a Giovanni Vizza fan, or a Riley Dodge fan for that matter? Both are fearless leaders, and are outstanding Quarterbacks for this system. I've said this before, but it tells you the direction this program is headed when we land the reigning 4A and 5A players of the year at North Texas! And the good news is, they touch the ball on every play, and we have both for at least 3 more years! The QB competition will be interesting for the next couple of years, but for right now, Giovanni Vizza is the guy that the coaching staff has full confidence in that he can help this team win ballgames.

Edited October 11, 2007 by UNT Mean Green

Cerebus · October 11, 2007

People, this is a discussion board. It's here so people can discuss things CIVILLY.

I understand emotions can run wild, especially if you are standing up for something/someone you believe in, but lets act our age, except for FFR.

ADLER · October 11, 2007

People, this is a discussion board. It's here so people can discuss things CIVILLY.
I understand emotions can run wild, especially if you are standing up for something/someone you believe in, but lets act our age, except for FFR.

I apologize if I inspired this, what I should have stated was persons of a vertically challenged stature. Would that have been more correct?

UNTLifer · October 11, 2007

Unlike UNTLifer though, I never try to tell people where to post, when to post and how to post. I can understand if the criticism was coming from a student and/or the board administrators. (Even though I may cross that politically correct line). I don't mean to imply that the condescending comments are totally directed toward me but I'm equally offended when he continues to lay back and blast many others.
Go Mean Green!

I wasn't going to respond and still don't think I need to considering "bigntex" and his/her remarks. I will respond to the above though. I didn't tell you when, what or how to post. I did say that you should stick with your basketball analysis, because you have proven knowledgable in that area. What I meant by that was that I disagreed wholeheartedly with your assessment of Vizza. Sorry, I'm sure it came out wrong, but I was worn out with some of the knee-jerk comments on here.

My point is that a ballplayer doesn't rack up awards and wins and get recruited by programs that Vizza was without talent. You, by your comments, were ready to cast him off in to the scrap heap after his 1st collegiate start. It takes time to adjust to the speed of the game and to calm your nerves. Plus, you don't throw for 384 yards and a couple of touchdowns without talent.

Your comments seemed to say that Riley will walk in and set the world on fire from day one. I just don't see that happening. He needs to mature physically and also adjust to the speed of D1A ball. I've watched Riley for a long time and am excited that he is here, but I am also excited to have Vizza and think he deserves more than one start before deciding on his future.

In my opinion, everyone needs to cool their expectations on this season and realize what Todd Dodge inherited. Just for a reminder, a team that won 5 games the last two years that needs to be taught how to win, a team with 3 WR's on scholarship when his offense utilizes 4 and a team recruited to a run based offense when he runs a passing system. You don't change these things overnight and we shouldn't expect that.

I am impressed with the freshmen on this team that he recruited in 17 days. I'm impressed with the early verbal committments, and I'm sure I'll be impressed with the entire class once signing day rolls around. I also realize that the players recruited specifically for TD's program are freshmen this year, will be freshmen, redshirt freshmen or sophmores next year. It could take a year or two to turn this entirely around.

What I am disappointed in is the perfomance of the defense, but I also think that will be taken care of shortly. TD is not one to call out his players or coaches publicly like Mike Leach. I'm sure he and Mendoza are working hard to correct the issues with the defense. I also believe that TD has made it perfectly clear to Mendoza that he is gone if they don't improve and produce better results.

Again, sorry for making you mad. I was just worn out with all of the negative crap on this board at the time.

Got5onIt · October 11, 2007

We played against black, fast, athletes at Copperas Cove, whose entire secondary went D-1 and all Vizza did was have a game with 500 yards in the state championship. Alamo Heights had more scouts at practice than ever before when he was there.
Reserve you judgment LL Cool Jay, until the season ends and Riley gets on campus.

So you have a problem with African American athletes or something?

Green Buckeye · October 11, 2007

So you have a problem with African American athletes or something?

I doubt it. By mentioning "black" with "fast", I understand that to mean that he's saying they're better athletes.

Let's not throw race into the mix and go off topic.

Edited October 11, 2007 by Green Buckeye

H-towngreen · October 11, 2007

I doubt it. By mentioning "black" with "fast", I understand that to mean that he's saying they're better athletes.
Let's not throw race into the mix and go off topic.

I too understand what bigntex was trying to say, but he could of just left it at the athletes from C.C..

newgreen · October 12, 2007

All of these discussions about Vizza and Riley may not matter one bit if Riley doesn't show up early(in January) to start spring ball. That needs to be confirmed that he is indeed graduating early and coming in for spring ball to compete. And if he isn't planning on it anymore, someone needs to ask why????????? Just would be nice to have confirmation!!! :unsure:

3XNTGRAD · October 12, 2007

All of these discussions about Vizza and Riley may not matter one bit if Riley doesn't show up early(in January) to start spring ball. That needs to be confirmed that he is indeed graduating early and coming in for spring ball to compete. And if he isn't planning on it anymore, someone needs to ask why????????? Just would be nice to have confirmation!!!

I've seen it mentioned several times in the press (sorry, can't remember a specific example for you to look up) where Riley has been quoted saying this is his intention.

Until I see a direct quote from Riley Dodge saying otherwise, I don't see any reason to doubt his statements. Not sure why you are so doubtful about this.