How Would You Handle This Situation?

[Charlie NT 73]

I am deeply disappointed in who ever the players are, that have

decided to use "recreational drugs". Geez, all the bad media

reports, our competition making fun of us, the national

attention, how this affects recruiting, and to the Mean Green

Nation.

Coach Dodge is receiving all the blame. It is not fair to the coaches,

or to the kids that stay clean, work their asses off, and

hope to get on the football field, to play for North Texas.

I strongly beleive these kids should be held accountable

for what they have done to the program, how they

have hurt their team mates, and the disgrace these

knuckleheads have brought upon the University of

North Texas.

If I were the HFC, I would run their sorry asses off, period.

There are other athletes that can use the scholarships!

No drug counciling, no special treatments, no passes.

Rules are rules. Period.

[Mean Green 93-98]

Coach Dodge presented his motivation as seeking to help the players. No doubt there were other factors present, but I'll take him at his word that he wanted to help them. I'm not sure kicking them off the team for a first offense helps those players. Most teams in similar situations impose a two-game suspension, and I think that, in addition to extra laps, etc. at practice, would be fair and would send a pretty strong message.

[VideoEagle]

These guys are young and don't always think things through. That's why I think kicking them out for a first offense is too harsh. Suicide sprints till they drop everyday for a week, plus a warning that this is their ONE and ONLY second chance. Basically, try to put the fear of God into them so they don't make the same mistake again. Be sure and tell them if they were in a real job, there are NO second chances for that kind of thing. Insist on some kind of counseling and require their attendance.

On a second violation of the drug policy, then kick them off the team and give the scholly to someone who deserves it.

[Green Mean]

I do not mind the testing and the punishments regarding these actions but I would have never made it public. This is a big blow to Todd Dodge in my opinion as far as future recruits.

[houstonmeangreen]

And our APR is bad now? Kick off 15 players!

Yea...you want to help them...kick them off the team , like they will quit using drugs then...right. Is there a policy in place at this time?

[nautique]

Dodge is out of his league. RV is out of his league.

This athletic dept. is pitiful from the ticket sales, to promotions, to how they treat alumni, etc.

These guys don't have a clue about public information acts or they would have never done it.

[Mean Green 93-98]

Dodge is out of his league. RV is out of his league.

This athletic dept. is pitiful from the ticket sales, to promotions, to how they treat alumni, etc.

These guys don't have a clue about public information acts or they would have never done it.

Do you have to put the exact same post in every thread?

[greeneagle69]

If I were the coach, and had choices: I would chose to drug screen all those guilty on a weekly basis from now on. Off season, spring training, etc. As the coach I would not tell who the players are, they call tell on themselves if they so choose. But I would warn all players (or anyone related to the team) that A permanent schedule of testing would apply to anyone who violates the drug policy. Those that felt this was too strict could vacate the team and their scholarship (if so applied) asap and leave a spot for someone who was truly grateful for the chance. We did not accept this behavior from one of our former coaches, we should not accept it from players either. Coaches and clean players have the right to expect a certain level of morality and trust each other to conform to that code. And the University should demand it !!! We have all made snide comments about the struggles other teams...good teams...t go thru like this. Right now, we are a crappy team and this will follow us around for a long time even after we recover on the field.

[UNTLifer]

Do you have to put the exact same post in every thread?

Copy and paste is easier than posting a well thought out response.

[GrandGreen]

While, I doubt NT is far from the norm in recreational drug use among athletic teams; it is unique in that it has an athletic staff that would leak it out to the world. I don't doubt that TD had the best of intentions, but this was an incredibly naive and foolish move.

Because marijuana stays in the blood stream for weeks unlike most drugs that are flushed through relatively quickly, these drug test results most likely indicates that 17% of the football players had used marijuana within in a couple of weeks of the test. If you think that this implies a rampant drug problem versus the vast majority of other teams than I think you have a very optimistic view of what 1a football has evolved into. Condemning smoking weed and underage drinking which is also illegal is easy but controlling those vices among college students is almost impossible. It is something that most coaches are willing to look the other way unless it directly effects the team. If it does effect the team than I believe most coaches would attempt to isolate the problem and not paint the whole program with the issue.

[risinggreen]

I can just hear the comments that will be directed at our sideline this week and for the rest of the season. Hope this is the beginning of Dodge changing his tune on how to discipline this team. Maybe he's having problems as a head coach relating to adults as opposed to high school kids. Problems may have existed before he got here, but it has been pretty obvious to me that a lot of our players have been lacking discipline both during and after the season since he has been here. Bad conditioning and now it looks like bad lifestyles. Not directiing this at all players, but certainly quite a few.

[shaft]

I think Dodge did the right thing.

It looks like Dodge knew the NCAA test were going to raise some red flags, so he nipped it in the bud and had the whole team tested.

That way he knows the entire scope of the problem, and can address it has a whole.

Would you have rather Dodge played a cat and mouse game, where random students get tested and retested? Then someone screams about due process, and new labs have to be drawn up.

Dodge bold move lets him know exactly what's going on. He has some kids smoking pot, know we can address the issue head on.