Spring Football - Defense & Special Teams

MeanGreen61 · April 10, 2008

DENTON, Texas (4/10/08) –

There were probably some unrealistic expectations placed on Dodge by fans who had witnessed his unprecedented success at nearby Southlake Carroll High School. After all, in the five years before becoming the head coach at North Texas, Dodge had only experienced defeat one time. And while there was an optimistic outlook on how his high school success would translate at the collegiate level, history was not on his side. Of the five coaches before him that made the jump directly from high school to major college football programs, only one had a winning record in his first year. Legendary Ohio State head coach Paul Brown went 6-1-1 in 1941 - his first year with the Buckeyes after a successful high school career at Massillon (Ohio) High School.

Many of the improvements were blatantly obvious. Dodge had an immediate impact on the offense, which showed a dramatic advancement in nearly every statistical category. North Texas improved from being ranked 117th in the nation in total offense during the 2006 season, to 47th in the nation in 2007.

The defense, however, didn’t keep the pace. North Texas finished last in the nation in scoring defense, allowing an average of 45.1 points per game. The Mean Green allowed three opponents to score more than 60 points, which had only happened five times in the history of the program prior to last year. The two times that North Texas held its opponent below 30 points, it won the game. It was a tall order for a young offense learning a new system to match its opponents scoring production. Dodge recognized the problem and offered a solution in the way of Gary DeLoach. DeLoach was hired as the Mean Green’s defensive coordinator in late January with the hopes of restoring the success that he had while leading the North Texas defense from 2000-2002. In his last year at North Texas before taking a job as an assistant coach at UCLA, DeLoach had North Texas ranked No. 3 in the nation in scoring defense and No. 9 in the nation in total defense. In four of his five years at UCLA, his defensive unit ranked in the top 50 nationally.

FULL ARTICLE

http://www.meangreensports.com/ViewArticle...;ATCLID=1436473

Edited April 10, 2008 by MeanGreen61