Fun with FACTS!!!

Troy Phillips of the Fort Worth Star Telegram just posted a sexy fun blog post listing some interesting facts about Todd Dodge's tenure so far at North Texas.

I just got back from Houston a few hours ago, and I originally intended to share a Travels with Tina trip journal and then a game analysis tomorrow. But I'd like to address some of Mr. Phillips' facts and share a few fun facts of my own.

The first "fact" Mr. Phillips shares isn't even accurate.

1. Dodge inherited a program that lost 19 of 24 games after going to four bowls.

Actually, after going to that 4th bowl, North Texas went 2-9 and 3-9 in the next two seasons. That's 18 out of 23 games. Unless Mr. Phillips is brutally torturing the English language and intends "after going to four bowls" to mean after the 2004 journey to New Orleans ended, but not including the 2004 New Orleans Bowl itself. If you count that loss, then he is technically correct. But I'd recommend he fire his copy editor, and that's coming from a guy who helps run a website where we can't even correctly spell "Villarreal" in our tags.

The second fact addresses players who have left the program with eligibility remaining. Actually, so do facts 4, 5, and 7. I'll save any discussion of these for a post I intend to write up later in the week titled: "A Peek into Darrell Dickey's Bare Cupboard".

Suffice it to say, I don't 100% agree that the previous coach left our roster depleted and bereft of talent.

The third fact laments Dodge's lost scholarships due to APR issues. This doesn't seem relevant to the current situation, though, as those penalties will not be felt until next season. Losing scholarships next year doesn't seem like much of an excuse for terrible results this year.

Fact number six gets into "inherited" players. I don't know that I fully understand what he's implying, but I think Mr. Phillips is trying to hint that "inherited" players are "not very good" players. If I'm wrong, I apologize for getting confused.

Fact number 8 states that Dodge inherited more Tight Ends than any other "specific offensive position". While this is true, Dodge knew very well what the roster consisted of when he accepted the job. I'll also point out that when it comes to offensive skill positions, Dodge inherited a former NCAA leading running back, a wide receiver who would become an honorable mention All-American, another wide receiver who very nearly became a member of the San Diego Chargers, and a Quarterback who would set multiple school single-game records before getting benched.

Oh, and there's also the small problem that fact 8 is also... Well, not really a "fact". Remember when I granted that it was true? It isn't.

Dodge inherited 4 TEs with eligibility remaining: Charlie Brown, David Collins, Victor Gill, and Bryant Seidle. He inherited 6 WRs and 5 QBs (or 4 QBs if you don't include walk-on Stephen Prince).

Again, if you torture the hell out of the English language, you can make a very disingenuous argument that Mr. Phillips is stating a sort of truth. Slot and Outside receiver may not technically be considered the same "specific" position. But Mr. Phillips doesn't distinguish between blocking and receiving TEs, which under that hypothetical sort of linguistic acrobatics would be different specific positions, too.

But even if you grant that Dodge was burdened with a whopping 4 TEs on his initial roster, Gill has shifted inwards to the Offensive Line and started every game this season at Left Tackle. Charlie Brown is currently doing his best to save Mr. Dodge's ass by working like a madman, performing admirably as an undersized Defensive Tackle. And even Seidle transitioned into a role as a reserve LB. As for Collins, I don't remember what happened to him, and he doesn't register on the online roster for Dodge's first year.

So, not only did Dodge NOT actually get stuck with more TEs than any other offensive position, of the four he did inherit, two of them are playing essential roles on this year's team.

Fact 9 is more of a rhetorical question reprimanding fans about complaining even though Dodge decided to hire Gary DeLoach to pick up the pieces left behind by his predecessor at Defensive Coordinator.

(R)emind me: Where is Dodge's gross negligence on that side of the ball?

In short: Dodge's gross negligence on that side of the ball is in insisting on the retention of inexperienced and apparently ill-prepared assistants on defense. More fun with this point in my "Dickey's Bare Cupboard" post, but the brief answer is that at least one coach seems to be as inept at coaching the defensive line as he is at handling the special teams.

Anyway, it all adds up to a very cloudy, occasionally inaccurate, not-really-objective attempt to apologize for Dodge's current performance without actually coming out and forthrightly taking a position.

Since the North Texas-loving populace got cheated out of at least some promised facts, we here at TY Sports will try to fill the void left by real journalists with our halfassed internet imitation.

FACT 1:
Since North Texas joined the Sun Belt conference, fourteen coaches (not including Darrell Dickey or Todd Dodge) have had the opportunity to coach their first 16 games (or as many as possible before getting fired/leaving the conference) as either first year members of the Belt, first year Division 1-A football programs, or first year D-1A head coaches.

FACT 2:
Two of the fourteen coaches did not get the opportunity to coach a full 16 games. Despite the reduced opportunity, both of them managed to tally more Division 1-A victories than Dodge has in 16 games.

Joe Hollis got to coach one year in the Belt for Arkansas State in 2001 before he was terminated. He finished the season 2-9, with wins over Idaho and ULL.

Nick Holt of Idaho also only got one year in the Belt, finishing with a 3-9 record. All of his three wins came against Division 1-A programs, too: Eastern Michigan, ULL, and Arkansas State.

FACT 3:
Of the remaining twelve coaches, four of them managed to finish their first 16 games within a game of .500 or better.

Steve Roberts, Larry Blakeney, and Andy McCollum all finished their first 16 games with an 8-8 record. Current MTSU coach Rick Stockstill only managed a 7-9 record in his first 16, but that does include a loss in a bowl game that his team earned a berth to in Stockstill's first season.

FACT 4:
Of the remaining 8 coaches, all but one of them (not including Dodge) managed to tally at least two wins against Division 1-A football teams.

This list is veritable who's who of NCAA Football legends, including Mick Dennehy of Utah State, Tom Cable of Idaho, Tony Samuel of NMSU, and Don Strock of Florida International.

FACT 5:
Since North Texas first joined the Sun Belt, only one coach has gone through his first 16 games and only managed to defeat one D-1A program: Charlie Weatherbie of Louisiana-Monroe.

Weatherbie went 1-15 in his first 16 games, with his lone win coming against ULL.

But Weatherbie's 17th game was the start of a 3 game winning streak and a 5-2 run to finish the season.

Which leads me to...

FACT 6:
If Todd Dodge loses to FIU and head coach Mario Cristobal AGAIN this weekend...

Dodge will have gotten off to the worst start of any coach the Sun Belt has ever known since North Texas first joined the conference.


More fun facts:
Last season, the Rice Basketball team only managed to score 77 points or more in one game: an 88-81 win over Texas State.

Rice superstar Seniors Clement and Dillard were initially recruited to play in a triple-option offense by Ken Hatfield. Then, after one year, their coach was fired. In came Todd Graham, who installed a completely new offense using primarily triple-option personnel inherited from a 1-10 team. Graham led Rice to their first bowl in nearly 50 years. Then, in mid-January, Graham bailed out on Rice and the Owls scrambled to replace him with Dave Bailiff. Bailiff, despite having one less month to recruit than Dodge did in his inaugural season, somehow managed to win more than one D-1A game in that first year. In this, Bailiff's second season at the helm, Rice recently celebrated a FIFTY SEVEN POINT VICTORY OVER NORTH TEXAS.

That win set an all-time Conference USA record for most points scored by a winning team.

The last time Rice scored more points than they put up against North Texas was back in 1916.

The last time Rice won a game by 57 points, it was against Galveston Air Force Base (whatever that is) in 1944. I can only assume that Galveston Air Force Base was somewhat distracted and not 100% focused on the game, as the Air Force was also engaged in fighting World War II at the same time.

FACT:
I still love North Texas, and I'll be there this Saturday to see Dodge attempt to avoid becoming (statistically) the worst starting coach in post-NT Sun Belt history.