Before we get started: This is a one-time only thing. No amount of journalistic hackery will distract us back from our military mission in Bolivia again. If this sloppiness hadn't been published on a Sunday morning while our little brown brothers are all at Mass, we wouldn't even have the time for our quick post.
Being a local beatwriter is a very tough, thankless job. You work long, unpleasant hours. You have to travel a lot. Your paycheck is usually smaller than if you had chosen an exciting career in fast food management.
But that's no excuse for doing a half-assed job. As loyal readers may recall, we've had to scold Fort Worth Star-Telegram beatwriter Troy Phillips for his inaccurate, sloppy, dishonest, and downright deceitful writing before.
Training a Latin American paramilitary revolutionary force takes a lot of time, and I don't really have the time to go through and dissect this full article at great length.
Phillips reports that the NCAA restricted North Texas to 77 scholarships due to APR violations. But the NCAA's most recent APR report says that North Texas is only restricted to 80. When did this change, what caused the additional penalty, and when did that story get reported?
As for the claim that Dodge's first recruiting class was assembled in a mere 15 days... I'll only say that that doesn't jibe with the difference between his hiring date and national signing day. That "15 days" figure may have something to do with NCAA mandated dead periods... Again, I don't have much time to research, but I would love an explanation. Preferably, one that mentions how Dodge chose to stay at his old job (understandably) until the high school playoffs were over. Also, one that points out that even with this self-inflicted (and again, totally understandable) delay, Dodge had more time and more scholarships for recruiting than Middle Tennessee coach Rick Stockstill did in his first year, among a lengthy list of others.
There's some other stuff, like listing deep snappers and kick holders as "starters" to prove that Dodge isn't benching Dickey recruits, and a comment about how many graduating seniors were walk-ons at some point. That walk-on list would include Casey Fitzgerald, but I'm not sure if it includes Latif Nurudeen, who was a Baylor walk-on before coming here as a Dodge scholarship player. Again... I don't have a ton of time for research on any of those questions.
But one thing I DID take the time to research is an analysis of this statement:
No other Bowl Subdivision team in Texas would want to field a team with UNT’s 2008 roster configuration.
More than 60 percent of the 101 players were sophomores, redshirt or true freshmen. The outgoing senior class, 17 players, had nine current or former walk-ons.
That's a lot of Sophomores and Freshmen! Over 60 percent! And just 17 Seniors! That's a mere 16.8% of the roster!!
Indeed, no team in the state of Texas could POSSIBLY want to field a team with that sort of roster configuration. But it does make a fellow wonder... What sort of roster configuration did all the other teams in Texas have?
Don't worry, we already did the research. Here are the numbers:
(Note: all numbers for Seniors also include once and current walk-ons, just like North Texas)
Texas: 116 players on roster
21 Seniors (18.1%), 74 Freshmen or Sophomores (63.8%)
Texas Tech: 123 players on roster
16 Seniors (17.7%), 75 Freshmen or Sophomores (61%)
Texas A&M: 124 players on roster
22 Seniors (17.7%), 72 Freshmen or Sophomores (58.1%)
Baylor: 109 players on roster
20 Seniors (18.3%), 60 Freshmen or Sophomores (55.6%)
TCU: 111 players on roster
20 Seniors (18%), 71 Freshmen or Sophomores (64%)
SMU: 113 players on roster
13 Seniors (11.5%), 81 Freshmen or Sophomores (71.7%)
UTEP: 113 players on roster
13 Seniors (11.5%), 72 Freshmen or Sophomores (63.7%)
Rice: 95 players on roster
15 Seniors (15.8%), 58 Freshmen or Sophomores (61.1%)
Houston: 105 players on roster
19 Seniors (18.1%), 63 Freshmen or Sophomores (60%)
So while no team in Texas may have wanted to field a roster like UNT's... Every school in Texas did. The only schools that didn't have at least 60% of their roster in the Freshman or Sophomore classes were Baylor (5 players short of the 60% threshhold) and Texas A&M (2 players short).
And as for those Seniors? Well, the biggest Senior class in the state was just 1.5% bigger than the one at North Texas. To put it in perspective, if we were losing just less than one and a half more Seniors this season... It would be the largest group of Seniors (relative to roster size) of any FBS school in the state.
What does it all mean? Well, it means that actual research trumps blind acceptance of Todd Dodge excuses.
Mr. Phillips, the entire Dick Joke Armey begs you: Please do a better, more honest job. We can't police you all the way from South America... You'll have to be honest in your own writing.
Please. Do it for the children.
As for us... Viva la revolucion. We've got work to do.
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