North Texas fans struggling to explain Todd Dodge's rough start have been loudly and emphatically arguing that Coach Dodge inherited the least talented, most depleted roster of any coach in NT history. According to some, nobody in NT history has ever had to work with a team this bereft of talent.
The cupboard is bare! The cupboard is bare! Never before has the cupboard been so bare!!
I don't believe it, because I believe this is actually a pretty damn talented team that was terribly coached last year and is splitting apart and completely unmotivated due to how they've been run this season. I think this team has some amazing talent on it, both the young guys and the upperclassmen, and I'm frustrated to see their abilities going to waste.
But just for the sake of comparison, I decided to go through the North Texas media guide and find all the lettermen from 1998. As you may recall, previous head coach Darrell Dickey was hired after national signing day and everyone from his inaugural season was an inherited player.
Here's the list of everyone I could find in the North Texas media guide who received a letter in 1998:
- Chance Adair
- Hut Allred
- Ramone Archie
- Phillip Armour
- Jason Attaway
- John Baker
- Starsky Banks
- Scott Blank
- Richard Bridges
- Chris Coit
- Tubby Coleman
- Chase Corley
- Zeb Cornist
- Garret Courtney
- Dustin Dean
- Lawrence Ellis
- Brian Futrell
- Tony Gates
- Derek Gordon
- Jeff Harris
- Darren Hester
- Kendrick Hollie
- Joe Johnson
- Brad Kassel
- Laymonde Lee
- Phillip Littlejohn
- Andy Lott
- Jarrod Martin
- Broderick McGrew
- LaDarrin McLane
- Andy Milum
- Corbin Montgomery
- Heath Moody
- David Morgan
- Ron Paris
- Vince Patterson
- Corry Pertile
- Fred Pertile
- Andre Phillips
- Jeff Rodgers
- Scott Rollins
- Kendrick Sapp
- Ron Sterling
- Brian Waters
- Robert Whitehead
- Ja Quay Wilburn
- Darrell Williams
- Brad Winn
- Detrion Woodson
- Carlos Yearwood
- Shane York
- Jay Young
There are two names that immediately jump off that list. One is NFL offensive lineman Brian Waters, who played on the defensive line and graduated in 1998. The other is Brad Kassell, who saw his first action in 1998 and went on to All-Conference honors in 1999, 2000, and 2001 before advancing to the NFL.
There are some other names on that list that Mean Green fans have fond memories of, to be sure. But I don't think that anyone can reasonably make the case that the roster Todd Dodge inherited in 2007 was less talented than the one listed above.
I don't say that to insult the contributions of the men listed above. I'm not trying to denigrate their abilities; I only picked the 1998 lettermen because they were the most recent inherited roster available for comparison.
But I don't think I'm out of line when I say that I believe any coach who had to choose between the 1998 roster and the 2007 roster would pick 2007.
7 comments:
So your rebuttal on the 'cupboard' issue is to post a list of letterman from 10 years ago? Completely not addressing this group of individual players? Just "here are some players that you probably don't remember very well except the three that played in the NFL" (you neglected Jon Baker)? How many off this roster, or any roster, will we remember in 10 years?
You can do better.
blue lou expected better. How about a entry disputing the opinion that Dodge inherited a roster that was barely able to execute Dickey ball, much less an "air raid" style of play.
This is school all over again: Another report card saying I'm not realizing my potential...
To your point:
It's tough to address this group of players because a lot of them haven't had a chance to play out their careers yet or even really fully develop. Sykes, Owusu, Robertson, Ross, and the rest... We can't even gauge their talent because they haven't had the chance to develop and demonstrate it.
This isn't my "rebuttal" on the cupboard issue so much as it is a point of comparison for those who would argue that Dodge inherited the most depleted roster in school history.
Last week, I held off on citing some of the defensive players we had and lost last season and those still on the roster in 08 so I wouldn't come off as too much of a deranged Dickey fan (which I still contend I am not). In the meantime, a lot of what I had to say was brought up on Go Mean Green.
So rather than repeat what others had said about the players who were horribly wasted last year, I decided to take a different tack and bring up the most recent inherited roster to address the other side of the argument.
Did Dodge inherit an unskilled or untalented roster? I think others have made a pretty convincing argument that he didn't.
Did Dodge inherit the most depleted roster an NT coach has ever had to deal with, as several have claimed? I don't think you can compare 07 and 98 rosters side by side and argue that he did.
That's all this particular post was supposed to be about.
Much of this is my fault for promising an assessment of the current stock of players and then thinking twice after a week of heavy NT writing. I can see where someone who's been expecting a post I promised over a week ago on this sort of subject would read this and think it's a very half-assed, unfocused and lazy post.
I didn't mean to neglect Baker, I just thought that Kassell and Waters stood out more. Baker was great, an All American and an All Conference guy in the Big West... But he was a punter. I don't mean to diminish the value of a good punter, but there's a reason that they're usually college walk-ons and NFL free agents or late round draftees.
And again, I didn't mean to imply that 98 was a year bereft of talent... Phillip Armour was a pretty salty player that was still around for 98. Littlejohn and McGrew had pretty good seasons that year, too.
I think you were all expecting (and understandably so) something way more complex than what I intended to address when I posted this.
I do think that Dodge inherited a pretty talented roster, I just didn't choose to cover it in this post.
I apologize for the misunderstanding. And I love you.
Shane Lechler doesn't like you
Uh...the roster Dodge inherited is not even close to the level of talent that Dickey inherited. Bad point.
MG Insurance Pro = air tight rebuttal
Post a Comment