Unt Coach Not Racist But Damage Is Done

[UNTflyer]

Todd Dodge is no racist, and we don't need an NAACP investigation to tell us that.

Dodge's coaching résumé may have picked up its gilded edge at mostly-white Southlake Carroll High School. But don't stereotype the man. Todd Dodge wasn't born with a silver whistle in his mouth.

His previous coaching stops included Rockwall, McKinney and Keller Fossil Ridge high schools, not to mention the two seasons that he spent as offensive coordinator at North Texas under coach Dennis Parker. Dominique Green and Desmon Chatman, in other words, are far from the first African-American players that Dodge has coached.

Members of the Texas chapter of the NAACP were on the North Texas campus Thursday to investigate the two players' complaint that Dodge and his staff are racially biased. An alleged incident on the sideline during Saturday's 48-28 loss to Middle Tennessee apparently precipitated the complaint. Whether the charge has merit or not will have to be determined by the NAACP group and the university.

All complaints of bias, racial or sexual, deserve to be heard, even a seemingly juvenile charge such as this. But for Dodge, the damage has been done.

The headline -- UNT player files complaint of racism -- has already been in newspapers and on TV reports around the nation. When the report exonerates him and his staff, how big will the headlines be?

The most frustrating season of Dodge's football coaching career just got a lot tougher. Just do the math. A coach who won 79 of his last 80 games at his previous gig has a 1-7 record in his first year at North Texas. His spread offense seems to move the football, but not in the style to which he -- and seven years of Carroll fans -- had become accustomed. His defense surrendered 79 to Oklahoma, 66 to Arkansas and has struggled to stop everyone.

Navy goes to Denton next week. Life jackets, anyone?

"I knew that when we hired Todd, coming off 2-9 and 3-9 seasons, and we had lost a lot of kids, that it was going to be tough to come in and win right away," UNT athletic director Rick Villarreal said.

As he traveled and greeted the UNT community, however, Dodge's message was the same: Stick with us. This is not a short-term process.

They tell another story about Dodge's first week on the job, when he gathered his new team and pronounced them his players. Not Darrell Dickey's players. Dickey was fired by North Texas 12 months ago after nine seasons as head football coach.

"You're my guys now," Dodge told his football team that day.

If there were any lines to be drawn, they would be for who deserved to play and who didn't, and for who worked and who wouldn't. But the college years can be preciously impressionable for young men away from home for the first time. When the coach who recruited them leaves, an anchor can feel lost.

Dodge tried his best to avoid that, and Villarreal feels he's accomplished it.

"I've been around transitions before," the athletic director said. "I've been on both sides of the transitions.

"And I've never seen anybody go to the lengths that Todd has to make sure that the players know they're his kids, not somebody else's. The transition here -- the 'buy-in' -- has been as smooth as any place I've ever been."

Dodge, the UNT people have discovered, makes an easy target.

When a young coach lands at the best high school job in America, the coaching fraternity house can gurgle over with jealousy. Hey, the guy didn't go 79-1 in his last five seasons just because of the zip code. And then Dodge gets plucked by Villarreal to become a college head coach?

There are coaching rivals and Carroll opponents, therefore, that I suspect are darkly enjoying North Texas' 1-7 season. He's gone from Carroll High to Humble U., or something like that.

You can chortle at the difficult transition he's had on the football field, but those who know him know that Dodge doesn't deserve to have an NAACP complaint piled on.

"I'm not going to defend Todd Dodge because he doesn't need to be defended," Villarreal said. "I've seen his actions to this point and the way he conducts his business. His whole goal is to develop young men and young leaders.

"His performance speaks for itself."

Dodge's boss put it well. But sadly, it probably won't make the headlines like this week's news did.

http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/story/289035.html