Perspective On Unt's Slide

[Brett Vito]

Mean Green Blog

[SilverEagle]

I'd be interested in knowing how this current "situation"feels to GrayEagleone.

[Guest GrayEagleOne]

Brett Vito is correct that this we have sunk about as deep as we ever have and I go back to early Odus Mitchell. Having said that, I feel that this situation is a little different than the other comparable non-winning period in two ways.

As Brett pointed out, in the first occurrance there were three coaches involved with different circumstances. Jerry Moore was only here two tears and left to go to Tech. He was not disruptive when he left and the players continued on as they were. Bob Tyler was forced to resign so that we didn't receive NCAA sanctions. Most of those players also did not distract from the positive direction of the program. To the best of my knowledge, Corky Nelson had not been a college head coach previously and it took him five games to get his first win.

When Darrell Dickey left, he not only antagonized the fans, but left the players in disruptive factions. Mainly they were divided over whether Dickey should have been fired or not. Whether we want to believe it or not, Todd Dodge inherited the worst possible situation. He inherited a team that had made a travesty of their last game. That may have proved loyalty to their coach but virtually thumbed its nose at our university. So, not only did Todd inherit a team that dropping in talent because of poor recruiting efforts but also one divided.

The other faction is coaching. Football is football from Pop Warner to the NFL. But, at each step up it gets faster and more complicated. For whatever reason, there seems to be little sharing between those steps. You rar4ely see one moving from one step to another. High school assistants become head high school coaches. Ditto for colleges and the pros. Trying to bridge the gap is usually disastrous. How many high school coaches, even those highly successful, have been a top-notch college or pro coach? Paul Brown is about the only one that I can think of and that was decades ago. Gerry Faust didn't make it moving from high school to college and Steve Spurrier didn't succeed moving from college to the pros. I can name countless others. The only ones that I recall that had success a more than one level started at the bottom of the next level and worked their way up. I have to admit that I don't understand this phenomenum.

Coach Dodge has had about as much success at the high school level as any other person in history. Yet, he is struggling at that next level up even though he had a couple of years exposure earlier. He is battling the history of football and right now he is losing.

Along those lines I believe that Todd is going to have to make some character adjustments. He is bright and personable and has coached and knows a lot of football but he hasn't done it at the college level. He made his first mistake by trying to bring along his high school coaches. The exception might be Ford. They work well together and this is Dodgeball, which Todd Ford knows better than any other. He is going to have to rely on his assistants, especially those who have been successful at the college level. Give them the authority to run their area as they see fit as long as they are productive. Don't micro-coach. Don't overdiscipline but do instill enough that each player is under control. Teach them and then let them play their game. It appears that too often players are concentrating too hard on their own responsibilities and have a runner run right past them. When a player is trying too hard not to make a mistake is often when he does. I know, it's even harder to relax when you're losing.

To summarize this long rant, Dodge is a top-notch coach who has yet to learn at the Division 1-A level who inherited a team in disarray. The combination is often lethal. Unfortunately, I'm afraid we'll have to endure another year or two losing seasons.

Thanks, Silver, I guess that you knew that this would be a subject near and dear to my heart.

[SilverEagle]

Brett Vito is correct that this we have sunk about as deep as we ever have and I go back to early Odus Mitchell. Having said that, I feel that this situation is a little different than the other comparable non-winning period in two ways.

As Brett pointed out, in the first occurrance there were three coaches involved with different circumstances. Jerry Moore was only here two tears and left to go to Tech. He was not disruptive when he left and the players continued on as they were. Bob Tyler was forced to resign so that we didn't receive NCAA sanctions. Most of those players also did not distract from the positive direction of the program. To the best of my knowledge, Corky Nelson had not been a college head coach previously and it took him five games to get his first win.

When Darrell Dickey left, he not only antagonized the fans, but left the players in disruptive factions. Mainly they were divided over whether Dickey should have been fired or not. Whether we want to believe it or not, Todd Dodge inherited the worst possible situation. He inherited a team that had made a travesty of their last game. That may have proved loyalty to their coach but virtually thumbed its nose at our university. So, not only did Todd inherit a team that dropping in talent because of poor recruiting efforts but also one divided.

The other faction is coaching. Football is football from Pop Warner to the NFL. But, at each step up it gets faster and more complicated. For whatever reason, there seems to be little sharing between those steps. You rar4ely see one moving from one step to another. High school assistants become head high school coaches. Ditto for colleges and the pros. Trying to bridge the gap is usually disastrous. How many high school coaches, even those highly successful, have been a top-notch college or pro coach? Paul Brown is about the only one that I can think of and that was decades ago. Gerry Faust didn't make it moving from high school to college and Steve Spurrier didn't succeed moving from college to the pros. I can name countless others. The only ones that I recall that had success a more than one level started at the bottom of the next level and worked their way up. I have to admit that I don't understand this phenomenum.

Coach Dodge has had about as much success at the high school level as any other person in history. Yet, he is struggling at that next level up even though he had a couple of years exposure earlier. He is battling the history of football and right now he is losing.

Along those lines I believe that Todd is going to have to make some character adjustments. He is bright and personable and has coached and knows a lot of football but he hasn't done it at the college level. He made his first mistake by trying to bring along his high school coaches. The exception might be Ford. They work well together and this is Dodgeball, which Todd Ford knows better than any other. He is going to have to rely on his assistants, especially those who have been successful at the college level. Give them the authority to run their area as they see fit as long as they are productive. Don't micro-coach. Don't overdiscipline but do instill enough that each player is under control. Teach them and then let them play their game. It appears that too often players are concentrating too hard on their own responsibilities and have a runner run right past them. When a player is trying too hard not to make a mistake is often when he does. I know, it's even harder to relax when you're losing.

To summarize this long rant, Dodge is a top-notch coach who has yet to learn at the Division 1-A level who inherited a team in disarray. The combination is often lethal. Unfortunately, I'm afraid we'll have to endure another year or two losing seasons.

Thanks, Silver, I guess that you knew that this would be a subject near and dear to my heart.

You're welcome. Perspective is one of your fortes (especially historical perspective), and we needed it real bad.

Keep it coming.

[Stan R]

Hmm. Sobering post. Thanks.