It wasn’t a good year for SMU and UNT.  The two combined for the 2 wins, the same number of losses that TCU had on its own.  SMU’s only win was against a Football Championship Subdivision team, and UNT’s

only win was against a FCS team who is transitioning to the Bowl Championship Subdivision.  Does that make UNT better?

June Jones, SMU’s coach, came in with reputation of turning around a program quickly after his one year turn around of Hawaii.  However, he endured all kinds of problems this year.  Can Jones get this program turned around?  SMU ponied up the cash, and now its time to see if June really do “cometh.”

A lot of people around Denton aren’t sure what to make of the Todd Dodge “experiement.”  However, Dodge had an unusual number of bad circumstances to happen this year.  He lost multiple players to suspension, injury or simply leaving the program.  Many of those players were receivers, a position in which numbers are important to the Dodge Spread Offense.  Dodge recruited extra receivers in his first two classes to get the numbers, and then lost several of those.  More importantly, UNT needs to recruit some good offensive and defensive linemen to begin the process of winning the trenches.  To improve his defense, I would recommend that the UNT coaching staff travel south to Fort Worth and take a defensive coaching clinic from Gary Patterson and Dick Bumpas.

What they are saying

UNT

Brett Vito–DRC

Brett Vito–DRC

Brett Vito–DRC

SMU

Bobbi Roquemore

Bobbi Roquemore

How does the North Texas Mean Green turn around its football team?  If I knew the answer to that, then Athletic Director Rick Villarreal would be hiring me in December to replace Head Coach Todd Dodge.  So, I decided to check the stats for the year to see what I could find out.  I knew that UNT had been running the ball pretty well, therefore, I thought I would see things such as poor Red Zone conversion, poor third down conversions, etc.  I am a big believer in teams needing to run the ball and stop the run to be successful, or at the least, a championship team.  What I found were five areas of major differentiation between UNT and their opponents.

1.  Endzone woes
UNT is actually better than their opponents in the red zone, but where they are losing the battle is getting into the end zone.  While in the Red Zone, UNT gets into the end zone a paltry 57% of the time while their opponents are getting into the end zone 70% of the time while in the Red Zone.  Further, 90% of their opponents’ scores are touchdowns while 57% of the Mean Green scores are touchdowns.  That’s pretty tough when you consider that UNT is actually running more plays than their opponents.

2.  Pass rush
The UNT has gotten 7 sacks for 34 yards against their opponents.  The UNT offense has given up 15 sacks for 109 yards.  That is a difference of 75 yards, three quarters of an entire football field.  That is at least one Red Zone attempt.

3.  Turnover Margin
UNT is sitting at a minus 16 turnover margin.  The UNT defense has forced 5 turnovers while the UNT offense has given up 21 turnovers.

Early & Often
UNT opponents score early and often.

4.  Often
UNT opponents score every 8.89 plays while UNT scores every 23 plays.  That means an opponent scores twice before UNT scores.

5.  Early
UNT gets a slow start to every game.  The Mean Green are being out scored 276 to 66 in the first half this year.  That means that the Mean Green trails at half time by an average of 34 to 8.  They trail 15 to 3 after the first quarter.

These are just some of the areas of UNT woes on the field.  One cannot underestimate the series of bad luck that UNT and coach Todd Dodge has had this year.  First, it was announced yesterday that 15 UNT football players had failed drug tests.  That is almost 18 percent of the team according to the article.  That can’t be good for a team that is already behind in facilities, tradition, and recruiting successes.  UNT has also lost several players to a myriad of reasons some of which you will see here and here including second leading receiver Sam Dibrell.

The news hasn’t been all bad for UNT howerver.  The school and coach Dodge convinced students to vote for an athletic fee that will help pay for a new stadium and necessary facilities to help with recruiting.  If you don’t believe that will make a difference, then you need to go down to TCU and look at the Dutch Meyer Athletic Complex.  It is an outstanding facility with one of the best players’ meeting rooms in the country.  It houses a tutoring center for student athletes and an awesome weight room.  Further, it adds stadium seating and suites above the south end zone.

The coaches at UNT have their work cut out, and if Dodge does get it turned around, he deserves whatever he gets paid.  Maybe fans should be patient as a number of the nation’s top coaches had to have time to turn their programs around.

So what teams run the Spread Offense?  Before answering that question, it’s important to know where the Spread came from.  The Spread Offense, by all indications, seems to be a family of football offenses.  Many people credit Rich Rodriguez with inventing or developing the Spread, but he really just invented the version that he runs, an option oriented.  There are many different ways to run the Spread, and for most coaches, it is an attempt to level the playing field against teams with bigger and stronger players.

The beginning of the Spread, or at least a precursor of it, started with coach Rusty Russell of the Masonic Lodge High School football team in Fort Worth, TX according to Jim Dent in his book Twelve Mighty Orphans.  When Russell arrived at the school in the late 1920′s to a begin a football program, he realized his team was undersized and all he had was about a dozen players.  He needed an equalizer.  The offenses he had used previously were not going to work.  Ever the innovator, Russell devised an offense that would help “level the playing field.”  In essence, it was what we call the Spread today.  He utilized space and speed along with an uncommon amount of guts by the small boys to play an offense that did actually depend on power at times.  The Mighty Mites did pass the ball, but not with the kind of frequency you see in many of today’s Spread Offenses.

It is unclear whether anything like the Spread was used between Russell and the Ohio coach that developed what is now referred to as the Run and Shoot.  It is important to note that many years between the 1950′s and 1960′s saw teams use the passing game.  But as the 1960′s began to close, several coaches, especially in the college ranks began to depend on strength and athleticism and settled on strong running games.  They would put their best athletes on defense to stop the other team, and they would control the clock with a strong, methodical running game.  This could seen in such dominant programs as Texas, Alabama, Penn State, Michigan, and Ohio State.  The preferred the “three yards and a cloud of dust” mentality.  In fact, the legendary Woody Hayes was credited with the quote, “There are three things that can happen when you pass, and two of them ain’t good.” That is not to say that teams didn’t throw the ball during that time.  Such “finesse” teams as USC used the pass to be very successful.  It just wasn’t the dominant philosophy.  The 1980′s began to change that.  The option became a popular offense out of either the Wishbone or a I Formation.  While Oklahoma and Nebraska were dominant using an run option game in the 1980′s and 1990′s, it questionable as to whether the option might be considered a Spread Offense.  Even more, the passing game began to re-emerge with the advent of Howard Schnellenberger’s Miami Hurricanes.

Modern day versions of the Spread are very different.  Offensive innovators took key elements from the early Spread Offenses and made them unique.  Coaches such as Hal Mumme (New Mexico State), Mike Leach, Rich Rodriguez and Todd Dodge created various hybrid versions of the original.  The idea of the Spread Offense, no matter what version is used, is to spread the defense across the field using wide splits on the offensive line and spread the wideouts all the way to the sidelines creating big running lanes or space for the players to make plays.  At the popular site theSpreadOffense.com, the site claims as its motto, ” Make ‘em defend 53 yards and 6 athletes every play!”

Mumme was the creator of the “Air Raid” and the father of that tree which includes Texas Tech Mike Leach and Tony Franklin (Auburn).  He developed his offense studying the playbooks of former BYU legendary coach LaVelle Edwards.  While I believe that Leach’s Air Raid looks more like a Run and Shoot, it does try to spread the defense across the field.  It is a more pass happy offense, using little or no Tight Ends or Fullbacks.  This offense depends on backs and receivers.

The Run and Shoot was revolutionized by “Mouse” Davis after modifying Ohio high school coach Glenn Ellison’s offense which was created beginning in 1958.  Mouse had a young QB he could polish his offense with by the name of June Jones (SMU Head Coach).  Jones later took the offense with him when he became a head coach after spending some time coaching with Davis for the USFL’s Denver Gold.

Who is the innovator of the Spread Option Offense?  Most people point to Rich Rodriguez, Head Coach at Michigan.  The Spread Option is a hybrid combination of the traditional Spread Offense in terms of formation (three or four receivers and QB in the shotgun) and the Option Offense.  The QB runs the option from the shotgun.  The key is to have a “dual threat” QB, one who can run as well as he can pass.  Rodriguez helped to guide Tommy Bowden’s Tulane Green Wave to a undefeated season in 1998.  The main option is usually called the Zone Read, and Texas’s Vince Young executed it perfectly as a Longhorn leading the Horns to a national championship in 2005.  At West Virginia, Rodriguez led the Mountaineers to three BCS bowls in four years with Heisman Trophy candidate Pat White leading his offense.  Rodriguez’s offenses use a no huddle approach, keeping the defense off balance like in a 2 minute offense.  The other guru of the Spread Option Offense is Urban Meyer who led the Florida Gators to a national title in 2006.  Meyer also led the Utah Utes to a BCS bowl and undefeated season in 2004.  Meyer’s present QB, Tim Tebow is the returning Heisman Trophy winner for the Florida Gators.

Often the Spread takes on a more balanced approach.  While some teams (Texas Tech) pass much more and some teams (West Virginia) run the ball more, some teams are more balanced.  Florida under Meyer is more balanced as underscored by Tebow’s famous 20 TD passes and 20 TD rushes in 2007.  Bobby Petrino, the new Arkansas Razorback coach, claims to have a balanced version of the Spread.  Todd Graham’s Tulsa team was fairly balanced, while leaning slightly toward the pass, in 2008 when they rushed 562 times and passed 564 times.  Compare that with Texas Tech who rushed 246 times, but passed a whopping 763 times.  These teams’ coaches are looking for some balance to the offense, and they usually have a QB is capable of running.  Some of these teams such as Tulsa and Todd Dodge’s University of North Texas Mean Green run a no huddle, and in Tulsa’s case, a hurry up no huddle which was crafted by Offensive Co-Coordinator Gus Malzahn while a high school coach in Arkansas.

Another very different version of the Spread Offense is Chris Ault’s Pistol Offense ran at Nevada.  The QB operates out of a Shot gun formation, but the QB is only 2-3 yards behind the line.

Therefore, the Spread Offense has different family trees.  First, there is the “Mouse” Davis tree which has led to the Run and Shoot version of the Spread Offense.  Then, there is the Hal Mumme tree which has led to the “Air Raid” version of the Spread Offense.  Tony Franklin, who is member of this tree is the new Offensive Coordinator at Auburn and will use more run than the other members of Hal Mumme’s family tree.  The Hal Mumme family tree is preceeded by LaVelle Edwards, former legendary coach for Brigham Young University.  Then, there is the Spread Option family tree.  It really is unclear who the real pioneer is of this offenese.  More than one coach has been given credit for using the “Read Option” or “Zone Read” to develop the Spread Option Offense.  Rich Rod, of course, has gotten credit for the Spread Option, but so has Bill Snyder and Urban Meyer.  What follows is a tree of coaches with eclectic Spread Offense Origins.  Coaches took offenses or particular trends and modified and refined their systems.  Coaches such as Bobby Petrino, Chris Peterson, Dan Hawkins, Steve Spurrier (Fun and Gun),  Gary Pinkel, Todd Dodge, and Gus Malzahn all have influences which come from different places like Bill Walsh’s West Coast Offense, Dennis Erickson, and, frankly, each other.

Given the different types of Spread Offenses that prevail and the various family trees from which they come, which teams will employ the use of the Spread Offense in 2008?

We will list the teams in the next post.

According to Phil Steele, UNT’s 2008 schedule is ranked 92nd toughest out of 120 teams.  If you just take wins and losses of the teams on the 2008 schedule from the year before, UNT is ranked 82nd compared to 96th in 2007.  With their 92 ranking in Steele’s magazine, UNT’s schedule is considered tougher than Texas teams Rice, a UNT opponent, and Houston as well as nearby Tulsa, also a UNT opponent.  With that in mind, let’s take a look at the UNT schedule.

@ Kansas State, August 30, TBA
The Wildcats are known to Texas fans for knocking off the Longhorns the last two years.  In his first year as coach, Ron Prince took the ‘Cats to the Texas Bowl, but last year K State fell apart after a promising start.  The Wildcats return 7 offensive starters and 5 defensive starters and will be relying on some newcomers to get back to a bowl game.

Tulsa, September 6, 6 PM
This will be the home opener for the Mean Green, and it should be rough.  Tulsa had basically the best offense in the country last year with about 543 yards of total offense per game.  This is an interesting match up as UNT Coach Dodge was leading Southlake Carroll High School to the 2005 Texas 5A DII State Championship at the same time that Tulsa Offensive Coordinator Gus Malzahn was leading Springdale High School to the Arkansas 5A State Championship.  Both coaches employ a hurry-up, no huddle, spread offense.

@ LSU, September 13, 7 PM
Mark this down as a nice pay day.

@ Rice, September 27, TBA
Only once did Rice hold a team to less than 29 points, and that was FCS Nicholls State.  Rice will be looking to get better on defense, but the offense returns 9 starters.

Florida International, October 4, 6 PM
Simply speaking, FIU was the worst team in the nation last year winning just one game, but they beat UNT in the last game of the season.  I guess the Golden Panthers were due for a win.  They return 9 starters on both sides of the ball.  FIU was fairly competitive with most of its Sun Belt Conference foes, just don’t get them mad.

Louisiana-Lafayette, October 11, 6 PM
The Ragin’ Cajuns return 8 starters including the QB on an offense that rushed for 252 yards per game.  In fact, ULL rushed for 300 yards against UNT last year.  The Ragin’ Cajuns finished last year 3-9, and, of course, look to build on that toward a winning record.

@Louisiana-Monroe, October 18, 6 PM
The Warhawks return 7 starters on offense and 8 on defense.  The defense struggled last year, but the offense rushed for 209 yards per game.  ULM finished the season winning 5 of their last 6 after losing to North Texas including a stunning 21-14 upset at Alabama in front of 92,138 fans.  UNT is 3-2 against ULM in the last 5 years.

Troy, October 25, 6 PM
The Trojans, the Alabama version, returns 7 starters on both offense and defense.  Troy has a new Offensive Coordinator after OC Tony Franklin left to take the same position at Auburn.  Troy has been one of the most consistent teams in the Sun Belt the past couple of years winning 8 games in each year including a trip to the New Orleans Bowl as the representative of the Sun Belt Conference.  Trivia:  Ohio State plays back to back Trojans, first USC and then Troy (September 2008).

@Western Kentucky, November 1, TBA
UNT won a thriller last year in Denton, but the Hilltoppers who are still in transition from the Football Championship Subdivision to the Bowl Championship Subdivision, will return 7 starters on offense and 6 on defense.  WKU averaged 247 yards on the ground but a meager 162 through the air.  So, who wants to travel to Bowling Green?

@ Florida Atlantic, November 8, 3 PM
The Owls were the surprise champions of the Sun Belt Conference a year ago when they knocked off Troy at the end of the year to earn the trip to the New Orleans Bowl.  This season FAU returns 10 starters on offense and 8 on defense.  QB Rusty Smith may be the best QB in the state of Florida not named Tim Tebow.  Smith passed for 463 yards in their upset at Minnesota.  For the year, Smith threw for 3688 yards with 32 TD’s and only 9 INT’s.  In 2008, FAU begins the season in Austin against the Longhorns.

@ Middle Tennessee State, November 22, TBA
The Blue Raiders have flirted with the Sun Belt Conference Championship in each of the last 2 years with their best chance in 2006 when they were upset in the last game against Troy to lose the title.  MTSU returns their top QB’s Dwight Dasher and Joe Cradock.  The Blue Raiders return 6 starters on offense and defense.  Despite injuries at the QB position all year in 2007, the Blue Raiders averaged 336 yards per game including 202 yards passing per game.

Arkansas State, November 29, 1 PM
2008 marks the first year as ASU will be called the Red Wolves changing it from Indians per the NCAA.  The Red Wolves returns the dynamic duo of Corey Leonard and Reggie Arnold.  QB Leonard accounted for 3057 total yards of offense for ASU in 2008 for an average of 254 total yards per game.  Arnold was a 1000 yard rusher for the second year in a row, and when he and Leonard are healthy the Red Wolves are dangerous and never out of a game.  However, the Red Wolves lose a lot from a defense that included Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Year Tyrell Johnson who was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in the second round with the 43rd pick.

This is UNT Preview week at Collegefootballtopten.com.  We will review the offense today and the defense and special teams tomorrow.  Finally, we will conclude with a look at the UNT 2008 Schedule.

After just averaging 12.8 points a game in 2006, Todd Dodge brought “Dodge Ball” to North Texas and the Mean Green picked up the pace with an average of 24.8 points per game.  The transition wasn’t easy as UNT scored more than 20 points just once in the first four games in 2007.  By the time that the Green played the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, Dodge had turned to true freshmen QB Giovanni Vizza to run the offense, and the points began to rise along with yardage.

Of course, no performance had garnered more passing yards than the performance by QB Daniel Meager against SMU.  Meager passed for a staggering 601 yards against the Mustangs, but UNT failed to score enough points and lost the game 45-31.  Meager threw eight interceptions in four games, and Vizza became the starter.  Vizza had a huge performance in the late season shootout with Navy.  Vizza passed for 478 yards as the Mean Green lost 74-62 in the highest scoring regulation game in NCAA history.  Vizza went on to earn Sun Belt Freshman of the Year honors.  What makes Vizza so potent in Dodge’s Spread Offense is his ability to run.

Vizza had options at the wide receiver spot, and most of those return.  At the top of the list is Casey Fitzgerald whose performances in 2007 earned him an Honorable Mention All American from SI.com.  Fitzgerald tunred in a dizzying performance against SMU when he caught 18 passes for 327 yards.  Overall, Fitzgerald caught 111 passes for 1322 yards and 12 touchdowns.  UNT also returns Micah Mosely at Running Back.  Mosely had 461 yard rushing and 5 touchdowns and should be called upon to be the leading rusher with the departure of Jamario Thomas.  Helping out Mosley will be Cam Montgomery.  Montgomery took a Medical Redshirt last year after coming from Northeast Mississippi Community College.  Rivals.com listed Montgomery’s 40 time at 4.4.

The Offensive Line is a more uncertain area of the UNT Offense, but it seems to be in better shape than it was last year.  The Mean Green return 4 starters and at least 7 lettermen which should provide better depth.  UNT will hope to improve on the 39 sacks it gave up last year.  The UNT line will be anchored by Junior Center Kelvin Drake and Sophomore Right Guard Esteban Santiago.  To help strengthen the Offensive Line, UNT signed a couple of JUCO players.

The X Factor for the UNT offense is Freshman QB Riley Dodge.  Will Riley play as a true freshman or redshirt?  Will Riley take over the starting job at QB?  How will coach Dodge use his son?  Dodge is a great athlete who could be used on the field in certain situations or in other posistions such as a WR or some kind of H Back.  However, as good as an athlete as he is, college football takes time to get accustomed to.  If Dodge can adapt to the speed of the college game and adjust to college life, he might be playing on Saturday.  If QB Giovanni Vizza continues to improve, then  there should be no pressure on Coach Dodge to throw his son into the fire early.  Then, he would have the option to ease Riley into college football.

I expect to see UNT’s offense be even better in 2008.  The Mean Green played a lot of young players last year and now everyone is in their second year of “Dodge Ball.”  The Offensive Line may be slow to improve, especially with early games against Kansas State and LSU.  However, by the time conference play rolls around, they should be better able to protect the QB.

When Todd Dodge became the new head football coach at The University of North Texas, few people doubted that he would put up big offensive numbers. Some even believed he would be successful leading the Mean Green to be a top program in the Sun Belt Conference. Others, however, doubted his ability to be successful at the college level. Dodge’s previous stop was at the high school level, head coach at Southlake Carroll High School in Southlake, TX.

Dodge proved both sides right, and wrong. Dodge’s offense was good. Freshman Giovanni Vizza was Freshman of the Year in the Sun Belt Conference. He threw for over 2300 yards with 17 touchdowns as a starter in 8 games. Wide Receiver Casey Fitzgerald was a 1,000 yard receiver for UNT, including a game against SMU where he caught 18 passes for 327 yards and 2 touchdowns. The Mean Green moved the ball well, but struggled to score a lot of touchdowns in the red zone. The big problem was their defense. Dodge and his Defensive Coordinator, Ron Mendoza, seemed to be overmatched at the college level.

At the end of the season, Dodge made a defensive coaching change. Dodge brought former UNT Defensive Coordinator Gary DeLoach. DeLoach’s defenses at UNT were spectacular. During the spring practices, it seemed as if the UNT defense is already making progress. This move may have been a college level move by Dodge. If DeLoach can make the UNT defense significantly better, then UNT will be a dangerous team in the Sun Belt Conference.

For the Mean Green to be successful, Dodge, DeLoach, and UNT has to put the mean back into the Mean Green. They have to force turnovers like they did against UL Monroe, their lone conference win in 2007. They will need more depth at the defensive line. There is enough talent in the DFW area to recruit and find the defensive skill players, therefore, it is the defensive line they have to find talent to help make the front 7 better. If we remember Terry Bowden’s characteristics of a champion, we will recognize the need to stop the run. A good, a better, defensive line is key to stopping the run. The highlight of UNT’s ineptness against the run was against Navy when the Mean Green gave up 572 yards on the ground.

Keep an eye on UNT this fall to see if they put the Mean back into the Mean Green.

In a metropolitan area which is home to two of the largest airlines in the country, three NCAA Bowl Subdivision football teams will take the field in 2008 logging as many air miles as any team in the country. It’s an exciting brand of football for the fans to be sure, and with signing of June Jones to be the new head coach at Southern Methodist University, the tickets just might sell. Texas Christian University, Southern Methodist University and the University of North Texas are neighbors in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex.

If anyone throws the ball as much as Jones did at the University of Hawaii, it would be Todd Dodge out of his no huddle Spread Offense at UNT (University of North Texas) known as “Dodge Ball.” Last year Dodge’s team averaged 46 passes per game for 3476 total yards on the season.

Jones’ Hawaii team averaged 51 passes a game for a total of 5713 yards on the season. In case you are wondering, that’s about 476 yards per game (12 games). Jones uses the old “Run and Shoot” offense that was used so well at the University of Houston in the 80′s. Jones has the services of two year starter Justin Willis, if he can pull it together and get himself back on the team.

UNT, of course, is located in Denton, TX, just north of Dallas, and SMU is located in Dallas. In Fort Worth, Gary Patterson is the head coach of TCU (Texas Christian University), where the passing game has always helped balanced the usually stellar running game. In the past, TCU has used dual threat Quarterbacks to complement such running backs as LaDainian Tomlinson, Lonta Hobbs, and Robert Merrill. However, in QB Andy Dalton, TCU is starting to benefit from a strong, accurate arm. TCU averaged 34 passes per game for a total of 2881 yards on the season, up from 27 passes per game in 2006 and 29 passes per game in 2005. With a more confident Dalton, will the Frogs throw the ball more? The Frogs have never been afraid to throw the ball when it needed to. In recent years the TCU QB has had big passing games. TCU is not a one dimensional team.

DFW college football may be exciting in the 2008 season. While watching a game, you might look to the skies. However, it may not be just to see the airplanes.