Todd Dodge
| Todd Dodge | |
|---|---|
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| Sport(s) | Football |
| Current position | |
| Title | Quarterbacks coach |
| Team | Pittsburgh |
| Conference | Big East |
| Biographical details | |
| Born | July 21, 1963 Port Arthur, Texas |
| Playing career | |
| 1982–1985 | Texas |
| Position(s) | Quarterback |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 1987 1988–1991 1992–1993 1994–1995 1996–1997 1998–1999 2000–2006 2007–2010 2011–2012 2012- present |
Rockwall HS (TX) (QB/WR) McKinney HS (TX) (OC) North Texas (QB/WR) Yoe HS (TX) Newman Smith HS (TX) Fossil Ridge HS (TX) Carroll HS (TX) North Texas Pittsburgh (QB) Marble Falls HS (TX)(HC/AD) |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 6–37 (college) 124–46 (high school) |
| Statistics College Football Data Warehouse |
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| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships 4× Texas 5A state championships (2002, 2004–2006) |
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| Awards 2× High School Coach of the Year (Schutt Sports 2003, USA Today 2004) 2005 Southwest Region HS Coach of the Year (PrepNation.com) |
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Todd Dodge (born July 21, 1963) is an American football coach and former player. As of 2011, he was the quarterbacks coach at the University of Pittsburgh, a position he held since January 2011. Dodge was the head football coach at the University of North Texas from 2007 to 2010. Prior to his stint at North Texas, he coached high school football at Southlake Carroll High School, where his teams won four 5A state titles in a seven year span.[1]
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[edit] Playing career
Dodge played quarterback at Thomas Jefferson High School in Port Arthur, Texas, under coach Ronnie Thompson. As a senior in 1980, Dodge became the first quarterback in Texas high school football history to pass for more than 3,000 yards in a season, while he led Jefferson High to the 1980 Class 5A state championship game against Permian High School of Odessa, Texas.[citation needed]
Dodge went on to play quarterback at the University of Texas at Austin under coach Fred Akers. He still ranks ninth on the UT all-time passing list with 2,791 yards and stands ninth in TD passes with 18. His 359 passing yards in Texas' 44–16 win over Rice in 1985 stood as the Longhorn single-game record for 13 years before James Brown broke it with a 397-yard passing day against Texas Tech in 1997.[2] Dodge's passing effort currently ranks fourth on the UT single-game chart, behind Major Applewhite, Colt McCoy, and Brown.
[edit] High school coaching career
| “ | I was very blessed to know when I was 17 years old that I wanted to go into coaching. And that I had the opportunity to play at the University of Texas, where I don't know that you can have a better training ground to be a coach. | ” |
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—Todd Dodge[1] |
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Soon after graduation, Dodge pursued a coaching career at the high school level. His first stop was at Rockwall in 1987, where he coached the quarterbacks and wide receivers. That year, the team made an appearance at the 4A state championship game appearance against West Orange-Stark. Dodge then became offensive coordinator at McKinney, under head coach Ron Poe. By 1991, Poe yielded to Dodge's persuasion and agreed to try the spread offense. Dodge came up with a hybrid between the University of Houston's Run-and-Shoot, the University of Miami's three- and five-step drops and a zone running game. McKinney reached the 4A Regionals in 1991.[1]
After a two-year stint as an assistant coach at North Texas, Dodge returned to the high school ranks and coached at three different high schools the next six seasons. In 2000, he became head coach at Southlake Carroll under coach Bob Ledbetter In 2002, the school was designated as Class 5A, the largest classification in Texas. During his seven seasons at Southlake Carroll, Dodge's teams earned a 98–11 record overall. In 2002, the school won its first 5A state championship with a 45-14 victory over Smithson Valley High School. A year later, Southlake Carroll lost the championship game by one point to Katy High School.
Carroll High starting a winning streak in 2004 that lasted until 2007 and tied Abilene High School's record from the 1950s. Dodge's teams won three consecutive 5A state championships during that span. Each championship squad was recognized as mythical national champions by either USA Today (2004, '06) or National Prep Poll (2004, '05). Schutt Sports named Dodge "National Coach of the Year" in 2004. USA Today gave him the title in 2005. After the 2006 season, Dodge left Southlake Carroll, making a rare jump from high school head coaching to head coaching a FBS college football program.
[edit] College coaching career
The North Texas Mean Green hired Dodge on December 12, 2006 as the new head football coach of the football team, replacing former coach Darrell Dickey, who was fired on November 8 after going 2–9 in 2005 and 3–9 in 2006.[3]
During his first season as head coach, Dodge's spread offense registered 408.4 total yards per game, but only managed to average 24.8 points while giving up 39 sacks.[4] After true freshman quarterback Giovanni Vizza emerged as the starter, the team averaged 28.7 points per game in the last 8 games. A former two-star recruit from San Antonio, Texas, Vizza threw for 2,388 yards and 17 touchdowns in 10 games (leading the nation's freshman passers in both categories) and earned the 2007 Sun Belt Conference Freshman of the Year award.[5]
Dodge brought most of his original college coaching staff from the high school ranks, and the team struggled to compete against non-conference and Sun Belt foes. UNT's defensive squad, directed by Ron Mendoza, gave up an FBS-worst 45.1 points per game.[6] Soon after the season ended, Dodge dismissed Mendoza.[7]
For the 2008 season, Dodge hired Gary DeLoach, who had been UNT's secondary coach (1998–2000) and defensive coordinator (2000–02), as defensive coordinator.[8] UNT's defense was still physically overmatched in 2008, and the Mean Green defense again allowed a huge number of big plays on the way to allowing 47.6 points per game in 2008, the worst number at the FBS level that year.
The offense also regressed in 2008, averaging only 20.0 points per game and allowing 25 sacks.[9] UNT's young special teams units in 2008 and were among the worst in the country in most categories.[9] During the year, quarterback Riley Dodge, Todd Dodge's son, joined the team.[citation needed]
Dodge focused heavily on upgrading the team's defensive talent with recruits from junior colleges in 2009. The defense improved slightly in 2009 giving up an average of 36.4 PPG, including 28.8 PPG in the last 4 games. Ineffectiveness and breakdowns at key moments in the offensive and special teams units rendered the defensive improvements moot. Although the offensive line held opposing teams to 12 sacks all season, the offensive had 21 fumbles and 17 interceptions during the season. Though special teams play improved in 2009, the kicking game suffered from several blocked field goals. The team finished the 2009 season 2-10.[10]
UNT opted to retain Todd Dodge for the 2010 season. In the Spring of 2009, it became apparent that Riley Dodge's passing strength had been compromised by series of injuries, and the coach moved his son to receiver. Senior Nathan Tune emerged as the starting QB, beating out sophomore Derek Thompson. Tune went down with a dislocated hip at the end of the Rice game. Thompson went down with a broken leg early the next week in the game against Army. On October 20, 2010, UNT athletics director Rick Villarreal fired Dodge after the coach compiled a 6–37 record.[11] Mike Canales, the offensive coordinator, took over as interim head coach.
Dodge was named the quarterbacks coach at the University of Pittsburgh on January 18, 2011.
[edit] Personal
Dodge is married to Elizabeth Neptune, daughter of Ebbie Neptune, longtime athletic director and football coach at Westlake High School of Austin, Texas. The couple has a son, Riley Dodge, who played wide receiver and quarterback at North Texas, and a daughter, Molly.
[edit] Head coaching record
[edit] High school
| Season | Team | Wins | Losses | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Cameron Yoe | 3 | 7 | |
| 1995 | Cameron Yoe | 5 | 5 | |
| 1996 | Carrollton Newman Smith | 4 | 6 | |
| 1997 | Carrollton Newman Smith | 5 | 5 | |
| 1998 | Keller Fossil Ridge | 2 | 7 | |
| 1999 | Keller Fossil Ridge | 5 | 5 | |
| 2000 | Southlake Carroll | 9 | 5 | |
| 2001 | Southlake Carroll | 10 | 5 | |
| 2002 | Southlake Carroll | 16 | 0 | 5A Division II state champions |
| 2003 | Southlake Carroll | 15 | 1 | lost title game 16-15 to Katy |
| 2004 | Southlake Carroll | 16 | 0 | 5A Division II state champions |
| 2005 | Southlake Carroll | 16 | 0 | 5A Division II state champions |
| 2006 | Southlake Carroll | 16 | 0 | 5A Division I state champions |
| 13 | Total | 124 | 46 |
[edit] College
| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl/playoffs | Coaches# | AP° | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North Texas Mean Green (Sun Belt Conference) (2007–2010) | |||||||||
| 2007 | North Texas | 2–10 | 1–6 | 7th | |||||
| 2008 | North Texas | 1–11 | 0–7 | 8th | |||||
| 2009 | North Texas | 2–10 | 1–7 | 8th | |||||
| 2010 | North Texas | 1–6 | 1–3 | 8th | |||||
| North Texas: | 6–37 | 3–23 | *Dodge was dismissed October 20; Mike Canales coached the remainder of the season. | ||||||
| Total: | 6–37 | ||||||||
| #Rankings from final Coaches' Poll. °Rankings from final AP Poll. |
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[edit] References
- ^ a b c "Todd Dodge - University of North Texas Athletics Bio". University of North Texas. 2006-12-13. http://www.meangreensports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=1800&ATCLID=723249. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
- ^ Wade, Harless (1985-10-06). "Texas goes to the air, beats Rice as Dodge sets school record". Dallas Morning News. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=DM&p_theme=dm&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0ED3CDAC43F5E387&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D.
- ^ Fetterman, Debbie (1992-04-23). "UNT's Dodge draws praise as a coach". Dallas Morning News. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=DM&p_theme=dm&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0ED3D234E2BE553A&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D.
- ^ "Dodge's offense turning heads at North Texas". ESPN. 2007-09-27. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=ncf&id=3038350.
- ^ "Giovanni Vizza Bio". http://www.meangreensports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=1800&ATCLID=923472. Retrieved 2011-04-28.
- ^ "2007 UNT stats". https://admin.xosn.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=1800&ATCLID=1206325. Retrieved 2011-04-28.
- ^ Vito, Brett (2008-01-05). "Dodge fires defensive coordinator". Denton Record-Chronicle. http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/drc/sports/stories/DRC_untmendoza_0105.ef646f5.html.
- ^ Vito, Brett (2008-01-24). "DeLoach set to lead UNT defense". Denton Record-Chronicle. http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/drc/sports/stories/DRC_untdeloach_0124.51712fbe.html.
- ^ a b "2008 UNT stats". http://www.meangreensports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=1800&ATCLID=1572450. Retrieved 2011-04-28.
- ^ "2009 UNT stats". http://www.meangreensports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=1800&ATCLID=204788005. Retrieved 2011-04-28.
- ^ Vito, Brett (October 20, 2010). "University of North Texas fires head football coach Todd Dodge". Denton Record-Chronicle. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/stories/102110dnspododge.1ab08fce9.html.
[edit] External links
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