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 Oklahoma will play North Texas as they often do in Norman to open the 2007 Season Sept 1. What so interesting about this game and what's the deal with the Abino squirrel?
For starters, what a boost it would be for North Texas, which is headquartered in Denton, to get OU into their stadium. Unfortunately, the Mean Green (or is it the Eagles?) Stadium will only support about 2 middle schools worth of poor fat kids. Even then they'd be rubbing biscuits for 2.5 hours. Even so, don't put it past new head coach Todd Dodge. He's playing by different rules that North Texan fans haven't seen before.
So who is Todd Dodge? Sooner and Longhorns fans may remember him from back in 1984. Texas was #1 in the country, and Oklahoma came into the game #3. A tight game all the way to the wire, Todd Dodge led Texas down the field at the end of the game with a chance to beat OU out-right. Dodge threw a pass into the endzone that was picked off by a falling down Keith Stanberry. However the closest official was blocked from view, and called the play incomplete and out of bounds. Replay showed a clear INT. OU fans screamed in the rain, Texans pooped their shorts and decided to kick the tying field goal. The game ended tied at 15. That's who Todd Dodge was. Lately though, all Todd Dodge has done is take a high school team on a 79-1 run in the highest division in Texas high school football running his version of the spread offense. That's 4 state championships in 5 years and a 98-11 record all-time. South Lake Carroll has even been well regarded across the nation as the #1 high school football team in the nation, says USA Today. Heck even Wikipedia has a page on him so you know he's greatness. As impressive as his record is, to add to the hype, Dodge has done what few other coachs at UNT have. He's got committments from top recruits. Before Dodge, UNT was the 3rd string Dallas-Ft. Worth sister school that no one wanted to go to. Between TCU, SMU and UNT, DFW has had little to get behind college football wise. UNT has been widely regarded for its music program, and the case of the albino squirrel. Still though Dodge made a splash by recruiting 2 of his former players on defense, and 1 JUCO running back. Before then, the biggest recruit to UNT was Dr. Phil, yes, that same Dr. Phil on TV. Though I'm sure he'd have made a great lineman, the game would have slowed due to all the psychological exams between plays. As far as this game goes, history shows that UNT is a doormat, that Dodge doesn't win much in his first year, that OU has not lost to UNT, uh ever?, and that OU's defense is supposed to be among the best this year. However, anyone that thinks Dodge will be intimidated by his first trip to Norman doesn't understand Texas high school football coupled with Dodge's Division 1 background. In Texas, high school football stadiums rival most small college football stadiums. The one shown here is the Mesquite high school stadium. Compare that to UNT's Fouts field, ( http://www.coe.unt.edu/khpr/facility/fouts1.jpg ) and you can see, stadium wise, Dodge hasn't improved much. UNT seats 30k. OU will seat 80K. Although size makes a difference, both UNT and Dodge have been to and played on the big stage before. It's really those newbie freshmen you have to worry about. Plus, a spread offense is something to content with, and Boise St. showed OU last year, that gadget plays level the playing field. If Dodge doesn't bring some with him, it will be a 1984 revenge day for OU. Famous UNT graduates: Dr. Phi, Mean Joe Green (yeah, that one), and a lot of musicians. Namely Nora Jones, Pat Boone, Don Henley, & Roy Orbison. Not even Dr. Phil can save UNT this year though.  7  38
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