Mean Green

The UNT made the key plays down the stretch and hung on for a win over Jackson State tonight at the Super Pit.

This is just a guess, but this win will look a whole lot better at the end of the season than it does right now considering JSU is 0-4. This is a team that could end up winning the SWAC. I don't think it ends up helping UNT's RPI, but it might not kill it either, and that's what matters.

Eric Tramiel and George Odufuwa were great on a night when most of UNT's guards didn't have good days. Josh White and Tristan Thompson combined to make just one shot from the field.

This team is really deep, not that we didn't already know that.

In a side note, Collin Mangrum is becoming a Super Pit favorite. He swatted a shot into the seats and dunked in the open court on a fast break.

You have to feel good for the guy. He has had a ton of medical problems and looks like he is healthy again.

UNT can't seem to put away Jackson State at the Super Pit. Eric Tramiel scored five straight points for the Mean Green, but Jackson state just answered to pull to within four.

Tramiel has 15 for UNT and is the ony Mean Green player in double figures.

Collin Mangrum just picked up a steal and threw down a pretty nice dunk in the open floor. Mangrum has his spring back after going through a whole string of knee surgeries. He is quickly becoming a fan favorite at the Super Pit.

UNT is up six in the second half and can't seem to pull away from Jackson State.

The Mean Green is having a brutal night offensively and us shooting just 37 percent from the field. Josh White has not scored yet.

I had to make the mad dash from football practice to the Super Pit and finish a few things up before I jumped on the blog.

Crowd favorite Collin Mangrum is having a nice game so far. He has five points and came out of nowhere to block a shot.

White men can jump.

Well, at least Mangrum can.

George Odufuwa has seven points and five rebounds.

I thought the screaming from a small faction of UNT fans that Gary DeLoach and UNT's defense is the Mean Green's problem would have died down by now.

No such luck, so here are a couple of -- you know -- facts to think about.

UNT did give up the game-winning touchdown to Army last week, but allowed just 287 total yards and 17 points. Army only had to drive 35 yards for one of its field goals because of a UNT turnover.

The fact that UNT gave up only 17 points on a day its offense turned the ball over five times is pretty impressive.

UNT also only gave up 28 points defensively in its loss to FIU. The Golden Panthers returned an interception for a touchdown and needed to drive only 16 yards for the game-tying score because of a special teams gaffe. UNT only gave up 258 yards in that game.

UNT also only gave up 232 yards in a loss to Ohio.

The Mean Green is allowing 36.1 points a game, which is not good at all, but that is down from 47.6 points a game last year.

UNT has also turned the ball over 28 times this season and that total does not include the three punts the team has had blocked this season.

UNT is clearly on the upswing defensively, despite the fact UNT has spent most of its resources in recruiting on the offensive side of the ball.

UNT has problems everywhere, but I wouldn't lay the blame entirely on the Mean Green's defense.

Just something to think about.

Several people have e-mailed me over the last few days to ask what it would cost UNT to buy out Todd Dodge and his assistant coaches. Now that I have a few minutes and the contracts in front of me, here's the situation.

If UNT decides to go in another direction, it could reassign Dodge and pay him his base salary, plus the benefits that apply to that new position.

That would be pretty expensive. UNT pays Dodge a base salary of $185,000 and gives him a raise of five percent a year. The last time we went through this, there was some question as to whether that five percent is added to the base salary and thus would up the amount UNT would have to pay if it reassigns Dodge. It is my understanding that the additional salary is kept in a separate category in the contract. In that case, UNT would be on the hook for $15,416 a month as long as Dodge is around.

Here's the interesting part. If UNT flat out terminates Dodge, it would have to pay him his base salary for the duration of the contract. The out appears to be a mitigation clause that says that Dodge has agreed to mitigate UNT's financial obligation by trying to find comparable employment as soon as possible. UNT's financial obligation would be "reduced or cease to the extent of such mitigation."

The blog's lawyer friends can probably help me here, but I would take that to mean that if Dodge found a job as a high school coach or college assistant for $100,000, UNT would only have to pay the difference between the $100,000 and what his base salary would have been at UNT, which with be $85,000. Dodge still has two more years on his deal, but that would make the cost easier to cover.

UNT would also be on the hook for some money that would go to assistant coaches who one would assume would be out the door with Dodge. There is always the chance that a new coach would hang on to some of the old guard. I still think UNT would have been smart to hang on to Kenny Evans and Eric Russell the last time around.

The way the contracts are written is that UNT would be on the hook for three months salary for each coach or their base salaries until the end of their contacts that expire on Feb. 28. That leaves UNT pretty well protected. One would assume that a new staff would not be in place and drawing a paycheck until sometime in late December. Let's say for the sake of argument that the school only has to pay the contracts of its old assistants until they expire. The overlap when UNT is paying its old assistants and its new assistants is say two months, which seems pretty reasonable.

UNT's entire staff of assistant coaches makes $721,000 a year. If you pay all of those guys two months salary, that comes to $120,000.

The same mitigation clause is in each assistant's contract. Meaning guys who wouldn't be on the market long would have part of their salaries come off the books when they landed with new staffs.

That clause further cuts into the cost of getting rid of UNT's assistants.

Just for the sake of argument, let's look at it this way: Dodge is a Rick Villarreal guy. I have a hard time believing UNT would flat out fire Dodge and take the risk of torching its bridges with all of his friends in the high school coaching business in the state. I don't think UNT wants to keep him around either, so both sides cut a deal to pay him a parting gift of $250,000 and then is on the hook for $100,000 at the most to assistant coaches who are leaving with Dodge.

That comes to around $350,000.

The other scenario is UNT reassigns Dodge to a fund-raising/lawn mowing position that gives him some time to figure out what he wants to do/wait for the right high school job to open. Say it takes him two months to find the right gig that pays him $90,000, thus leaving UNT on the hook for ballpark $30,000 until he leaves and $95,000 a year for two years to pay the difference between his base salary at UNT and what he is going to make a Podunk High.

UNT is still on the hook for $220,000.

Those totals don't sound that bad, but that doesn't count what it would cost to hire a new head coach. UNT would surely want to go with a proven commodity at that point, and that is going to cost a whole lot more than the ballpark $285,000 it is paying Dodge now. Plus, UNT would probably want to go with experienced college assistants across the board who would run $80,000 to $100,000 each. That could push UNT's assistant coach budget up a hundred thousand dollars or more.

I don't think UNT is sitting on that kind of money, so it would have to get the cash to buy out Dodge and get a proven head coach from boosters or the university until the new athletics fee kicks in during the fall of 2011.

That could be problematic since UNT had to the same thing when it parted ways with Darrell Dickey and a lot of those same people kicked in for the stadium.

Bottom line, if UNT and Dodge part ways, it could be expensive in addition to being painful.

North Texas head coach Todd Dodge said on the Sun Belt Conference coaches call this morning that he is not sure if he will be back next season as the Mean Green's head coach.

Athletic director Rick Villarreal sits down with each of his head coaches after the season to discuss where their program is at. Villarreal met with Dodge last year and a few changes among assistant coaches happened shortly afterwards, including UNT jettisoning another high school coach from the staff.

The two will apparently sit down again after the Arkansas State game.

"I really don't know," Dodge said. "I will sit down with coach Villarreal when the season is over with. At this point I don't know. He will let me know."

In a side note, ASU quarterback Corey Leonard is out for the season with a torn ACL.

One minor development that was overlooked last weekend following the debacle at Fouts that saw UNT blow a game in a loss to Army is that the Mean Green now has some company when it comes to the longest stretch of consecutive titles in Sun Belt Conference history.

Troy wrapped up a share of a fourth straight Sun Belt Conference championship over the weekend after beating Florida Atlantic for its ninth straight conference win. The Trojans can win the title outright with a win over Louisiana-Lafayette this weekend.

Unless Troy doesn't show up, that seems pretty likely.

I think UNT had the more impressive run overall from 2001-04, winning 24 straight conference games a share of the 2001 title and three outright titles after that. UNT stretched its streak to 25 games the next season before its run ended.

You have to give credit to Troy, though, for what it has accomplished while winning at least a share of four straight. Sun Belt coaches make the argument that the league is a lot better now than what it was back then. Even if it isn't, winning four straight is pretty impressive.

It looks like the Sun Belt could have two bowl teams this season in Troy and Middle Tennessee.

I was reading some of the other writers' stuff across the league this week, and Adam Sparks, who covers MTSU was making the argument that parity in the Sun Belt has come to an end.

He has a point. Unless Florida Atlantic regains its form after a down year, it looks like this league could develop into one dominated by Troy and Middle Tennessee.

Here's a link to what Sparks had to say: Is the Sun Belt Troy, MTSU and the also-rans?

At the beginning of the season, I thought there was just about no way that Todd Dodge would be gone at the end of the season.

Now I am not so sure.

This will be a tough decision for UNT administrators, who will have to look at several factors. Here are a few.

1. The stadium, the stadium, the stadium

Did I mention that UNT is building a stadium? Yes, a $78 million stadium.

UNT needs to not only have a decent team heading into that stadium; it needs people to donate a lot of cash to supplement the student fee that will go into place when the venue opens. UNT has drawn under 13,000 for a couple of games recently and a few people have e-mailed me and told me they won't be back until Dodge is gone.

2. A lack of success.

UNT is 5-30 in the Dodge era. This school fired Darrell Dickey, a four-time Sun Belt coach of the year, for a run that was not nearly as bad in terms of an overall record.

3. The way UNT is losing.

UNT isn't just losing, it is having some embarrassing things happen along the way. UNT has looked bad for much of the season, despite some close losses.

The team has also suffered some bad off-the-field publicity over the last few years.

4. The success of SMU/TCU

No matter what UNT does, it is going to be compared to SMU and TCU, and both are having good years, although the Mustangs slipped up over the weekend.

SMU could end up in a bowl game for the first time since the mid-1980s.

On the other hand.

1. Dodge hasn't had a ton of time.

UNT officials have said over and over that Dodge took over a terrible team with a ton of problems. One could make a case Dodge hasn't had the time to right the ship.

One could also argue that UNT would torch its bridges with a lot of high school coaches by firing one of the best to ever coach in Texas before he had a chance to get the program going.

2. The talent of some of Dodge's recruits.

Lance Dunbar and Riley Dodge never set foot on UNT's campus if Todd Dodge isn't UNT's head coach. Both were highly rated recruits.

One could argue that UNT's talent level is better now that it has been in a while. UNT just isn't seeing that talent translate into wins.

3. The money

UNT would have to reassign Dodge and pay him his base salary if it decided to go in another direction or cut a deal to turn him loose. It's hard to imagine Dodge walking away from that kind of money until he sits for a while and decides what he wants to do. I don't have the contracts in front of me, but I am almost sure UNT would also be on the hook for two months of salary for each assistant. That would add up to quite a bit of money at a time UNT is putting all of its resources into a new stadium.

We should find out in the next few days which way UNT decides to go.

It's been a long day, but after writing about UNT's groundbreaking for a new stadium and covering the debacle at Fouts Field tonight, I am back with some thoughts.

First off, I can't help but think back on what head coach Todd Dodge said before UNT's game against Florida International a couple of weeks ago. He said UNT had three more games this season and that one really couldn't judge if this was the season the team turned the corner until after those three games.

Dodge had a good point. At that point, UNT had a chance to finish 5-7, which would be a pretty good season by Mean Green standards.

UNT is now looking at 3-9 at best, and that's if it can go to Arkansas State and win on the road. That seems like a stretch to me.

Here's another thing that I had to question after the game. UNT didn't go to Lance Dunbar much until the fourth quarter. Dunbar sounded a little disgruntled about the whole situation after the game. Dodge said that UNT was not going to run the ball into a stacked line with eight guys in the box. The passing game was working and UNT was moving the ball. UNT just turned the ball over too often.

Dodge is right, but I don't see how you can't at least give Dunbar the ball here or there just to keep Army honest or at least get it to him in the passing game. He is UNT's best player. And for the love of God, give it to Dunbar in short yardage situations at the end of the game. It only makes sense.

If I am a defensive coordinator, and my choices are stacking the line to stop Dunbar and have Riley Dodge running at my guys before sliding or ducking out of bounds and being bubble screened to death, that is a whole lot more appealing than seeing Dunbar running all over the place.

I am also going to take my chances with Dunbar on that short yardage play before the ill-fated field goal attempt at the end of the game.

Dodge said it was his call to go for the field goal, but Dunbar said he thought UNT was going to go for it. I really wonder if someone didn't talk Dodge out of it.

By blowing it at the end, UNT clearly squandered another chance to get something going the right direction under Dodge, who is now 5-30 at UNT at a time the school has more to work with than ever.

UNT is heading into that new stadium soon, and I am sure the school is not going to want to be terrible going in like it is now.

UNT has some good young players, but it needs some help. There were a lot of recruits on hand today. You just have to wonder how much help UNT is going to be able to land in a season when nothing is going right.

UNT has the ball at its own 32-yard line with 7:21 left in the fourth quarter. Army is up 10-7.

The Mean Green hasn't done much of anything offensively, but it won't matter if UNT can do something here late.

Riley Dodge threw another interception after UNT had driven into Army territory.

I have a feeling UNT is going to win this game. At some point, UNT is going to take advantage of having the ball in Army's end of the field.

The odds just seem stacked in UNT's favor.

And just as I write that, Army picks up 19 yards on a pass to its 6-10 wide receiver.

Here comes the fourth quarter.

A crowd of 23,647 fans showed up for today's game. That will rank among the biggest for a UNT game in Fouts Field history. I will have to look up where it ranks later.

Just when it looked like UNT was going to drive for the go-ahead score, the Mean Green turned the ball over when Riley Dodge lost a fumble at the Army 20-yard line.

UNT has really shot itself in the foot today.

Army went 14 plays on its first drive of the second half and scored on a Patrick Mealy run to go up 10-7.

Riley Dodge was sacked on the last play of the first half, killing yet another scoring chance for UNT's struggling defense in the first half.

UNT is in this one because its defense has been great early. The Mean Green has also benefited from a couple of key drops by Army wide receivers.

UNT has had just as hard a time hanging onto a lead as Army has had hanging onto passes. We will see how this one goes in the second half.

Army intercepted a Riley Dodge pass and went on to score its first points of the game on a long field goal.

UNT is up 7-3 and really isn't giving up much defensively.

UNT has given up just one first down so far in the first half and is playing really well defensively.

The Mean Green has taken away the running game by stacking the line of scrimmage and Army's wide receivers have dropped two passes that would have gone for at least 20 yards.

UNT took advantage of a huge break when Army wide receiver Alejandro Villanueva dropped what looked like it could have been a touchdown pass.

UNT drove right down the field on the ensuing possession and scored when Jamaal Jackson caught a 4-yard touchdown from Riley Dodge.