The past 8 months in Dallas/Fort Worth have been about the new era that will dawn in Denton at the campus of the University of North Texas. The Mean Green hired Todd Dodge, the mastermind behind the local high school powerhouse, Southlake Carroll. His Dragons had mopped up the top classification in Texas High School football- winning 4 5A titles in the past 5 years. He was to be the next coach that made the jump directly from high school to D-I college.
However, Dodge and his North Texas squad were on the receiving end of a 79-10 blowout by OU, giving Dodge that bitter taste that he gave many opposing high school coaches. Perhaps it's karma--although it wasn't a shock.
Dodge's hype has been tempered by the comparisons to Dennis Parker--the former Texas high school coach that lead Marshall to the state title, then signed on with UNT in 1991 as the head coach. Ironically, he brought Dodge to Denton as an assistant coach on his staff. Sadly, that staff only lasted 3 seasons.
The other great name that is bandied about? Gerry Faust and his trip from running Cincinnati Moeller and jumped to Notre Dame in 1981. He only won 30 games and resigned in 1985.
Of course folks forget that Faust won his first game after taking over for Dan Devine-- upsetting LSU 27-9 and then it fell apart for the Irish who finished 5-6.
Perhaps the opposite will come true for UNT-- the Eagles play two games in which they are bringing the proverbial knife to a gunfight(road dates at OU and Arkansas)-- before settling into the Sun Belt. Their other two nonconference games are against Navy and SMU.
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