Dodges trying to protect their tradition

Todd Dodge and his son Riley have much more in common than just a name and a home.

Todd was a record-setting quarterback at the high school level nearly thirty years ago. Riley uses his arm and legs, not a video game controller, to ring up Xbox-worthy numbers today as a high school senior.

Todd and Riley, coach and quarterback (above), helped lead Southlake Carroll to its fourth state championship in five years last December. “Protect the Tradition” is as much an individual creed as it is the football team’s motto.

It’s no surprise that losing doesn’t come naturally to either one.

Yet both have tasted that bitterness this season.

Todd just finished his worst season as a head coach. His first year with North Texas turned out to be one of the worst in the school’s history

The Mean Green’s 2-10 mark tied the school record for losses, set in 1972. Dodge lost only 11 times in his seven years with Carroll. North Texas had won only five games in two years before Dodge arrived.

“When I was offered this job and put all my thoughts and prayers and talked to my family about taking this job, I knew what I was leaving,” Dodge said. “I knew what job I was taking, and I knew turning this around wouldn’t happen overnight.”

Riley had never experienced a loss at the varsity level before this season. As a sophomore backup who received playing time, Carroll went 16-0. Same story in Riley’s junior year, his first as a starter. But Carroll felt the sting of losing twice during his senior campaign.

Carroll had built a state record-tying 49-game win streak heading into September’s nationally televised clash with Miami Northwestern. With more than 31,000 in attendance at SMU’s Ford Stadium, Carroll committed five turnovers and didn’t score in the second half of a 29-21 loss.

“They were a great team,” Riley (left) said. “But we knew what we were getting ourselves into.”

Riley and Carroll had no idea what they were getting into Saturday at Texas Stadium in the third round of the 5A Division II playoffs. Abilene pulled a shocking upset, 22-21. It was the Dragons’ first loss to a Texas team in four years. Carroll beat Abilene in the playoffs in 2004 and 2005.

Carroll’s quarterback could only watch from the sideline for the final three quarters. Riley (below with head coach Hal Wasson) ended his high school career with his right arm in a sling after he suffered a third-degree separated shoulder in the first half. Abilene linebacker Chris Williams drilled Dodge with a clean but fierce hit as Riley uncorked his second touchdown pass of the game to give Carroll a 14-3 lead.

Abilene struck back with Carroll backup Kyle Padron thrust into action. The Eagles held a 22-21 lead with under three minutes remaining and pinned Carroll deep in its own end. But Padron drove the team 83 yards to the Abilene 10-yard line with eight seconds left.

Instead of calling its final timeout to set up a potential game-winning field goal by Cade Foster, Carroll opted to spike the ball to stop the clock. But Padron and center Jared Acton never connected on the snap. Abilene’s P.J. Butler pounced on the fumble to end Carroll’s season.

“I feel like I let my team down,” Dodge said. “We had a chance to win at the end, but things happen for a reason. I’m so proud of this football team, but it’s going to be a tough pill to swallow tomorrow.”

Todd had to swallow a bitter pill with North Texas coming off a loss to Middle Tennessee on homecoming a month ago.

Suspended players Dominique Green and Desmon Chatman, along with former player Gary Oubre filed a complaint with the NAACP claiming racial bias among the coaching staff (see University clears football program below). Dodge said he spoke to his team about the allegations and has moved on.

“It wasn’t a racial issue,” Todd said. “It was a disciplinary issue.”

UNT lost two heartbreakers after the university ended its investigation of the claims. North Texas coughed up an 18-point lead to Navy in a wild 74-62 defeat and lost a 21-point advantage in the final seconds at Arkansas State.

“We don’t want to be a team of coulda, woulda, shouldas,” Todd (left) said. “But you have a choice as a coach – you can throw your hands up and say, ‘this is what we are.’ I don’t believe in that at all. I really want our players to see what my coaching staff sees in them. We’re trying to bottle up the successes that we’ve had.”

Those have come on offense, where Giovanni Vizza has shattered the freshman school passing record and Casey Fitzgerald ranks fourth in the nation in receiving. The 62 points against Navy were the most scored by North Texas in 14 years.

“You want to make sure that they understand how it works and what it feels like when you’re executing,” Dodge said. “I think it’s important for the progress of this young football team and this young offense that you point out that’s the way it can go.”

Carroll’s offense wasn’t running at peak efficiency in the first round of the playoffs against Flower Mound. Without its leading rusher (Tre Newton, a Texas commit) and its leading receiver (Blake Cantu, an Oregon commit), the Dragons needed a superhuman effort from Riley Dodge.

Dodge responded with 567 total yards and five touchdowns in a 35-24 victory. Riley said after the game the repeated hits he took made his arms look as if he were in a car wreck. The Dragons won their ninth in a row since the loss to Northwestern.

“I told Riley with Tré nicked up that we were going to put the ball in his hands,” Carroll coach Hal Wasson said. “Riley’s a playmaker. He wants the ball in his hands. When we put the ball in his hands, magic’s going to happen.”

Todd understands magic isn’t coming to Denton this year, but as he says, he’s not used to coaching the underdog. At least father and son will be reunited soon. Riley plans to sign with North Texas and join the team in the spring after graduating early from Carroll.

“I feel confident that when my football team steps on the field, they’re going to leave it on the line,” Todd said.

Photo by Tom Fox, Dallas Morning News.

Here’s a photo gallery from Carroll’s playoff loss, its earliest exit since 1999, courtesy of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

http://www.star-telegram.com/news/photos/gallery/335773.html

The tradition continues

Woodrow Wilson in Dallas is known as Heisman High. Southlake Carroll has found its niche as Quarterback High. Dragon QBs have won the last five Class 5A Offensive Player of the Year awards. Carroll is 90-2 since 2002, its first year in Texas’ highest classification. Note: Chase Daniel and Riley Dodge started two years for Carroll, while Chase Wasson and Greg McElroy (right) were first-year senior starters. Here’s a look at the quarterbacks’ complete numbers:

http://www.swivel.com/data_sets/show/1010495

Photo by Brad Loper, DMN

Throwing up…a touchdown pass

Riley Dodge nearly tied a 5A record for single season touchdown passes in 2006. He’s on his way toward becoming the most prolific Carroll quarterback this decade. Yet he’s most known for throwing a touchdown pass after throwing up during last year’s state championship game. Fittingly, it was the game-winner in a 43-29 victory over Austin Westlake. Here’s the clip of Dodge finding an open Anthony Ford to put Carroll ahead.

Riley and the Carroll student TV station had some fun with that in the offseason.

Mom: Riley’s a hugger

By Eric Gay, AP

Todd Dodge embraces his son Riley after Carroll knocks off Austin Westlake, 43-29, in the 5A Division I state championship game at the Alamodome on Dec. 23. Todd’s wife Elizabeth said about her son, “Riley’s a hugger.” Todd began his head coaching duties with North Texas three days later.

Here’s a slideshow from Carroll’s 2007 season, courtesy of The Dallas Morning News.

http://www.hsgametime.com/sharedcontent/dws/pt/slideshows/2007/08/ldr_294_7/

Dodge and survival go hand-in-hand

Todd Dodge looks to his left wristband to check which play to call next.

He looks to his right wrist to remind himself how fortunate he is to even be alive.

Two decades ago Dodge had just married his wife Elizabeth and worked for an Austin electric company while he finished his degree at Texas. One day during a service check, an industrial meter exploded, leaving Dodge’s hands, arms, and face a grisly mess.

Well before Dodge earned a state championship ring for all four fingers on one hand, he wondered if he would lose two fingers on each hand.

“The skin was dripping off my hands,” Dodge said. “I thought to myself, ‘I’m not on fire, but I’m smoldering.’ That ordeal made me a tougher man.”

Dodge worried that he would never be able to throw a spiral again. He played four years for UT. After a three-week stay in the hospital, Dodge learned his hands, though scarred, would remain in tact. He wore full-length protective gloves and long-sleeve shirts during recovery.

Just months later, Dodge was on a practice field in Rockwall with his first coaching job as an assistant under Ronnie Thompson, his high school coach at Port Arthur Jefferson.

“That was the biggest gut check I’ve ever seen in my life on another
human being,” Thompson said.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/sunbelt/2007-07-23-focus-ntexas-dodge_N.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/sports/othersports/20hsfootball.html

Denton special to Dodges

Denton was kind to Todd Dodge and his family well before last December when he became the head coach at North Texas.

Dodge was the team’s passing game coordinator from 1992-93. That job led to his first hire as a high school head coach at Cameron Yoe.

“Throughout [my first time at North Texas], I met some of my best friends here,” Dodge said. “It seems like yesterday, but it set the tone for where I was headed, and I always kept my family in mind.”

During that time, Todd’s wife Elizabeth earned a degree from UNT, and his daughter Molly was born in Denton. Todd’s son Riley, not even in grade school, stayed at the campus daycare.

North Texas has changed since the Dodges moved. Two years after the coach left, North Texas joined then-Division I-A as a major college program. And two years before Dodge returned, the Mean Green was coming off four consecutive Sun Belt championships.

Dodge said at his introductory press conference that he envisions North Texas as the Metroplex’s college team. The coach remembered a recruiting visit from Euless Trinity’s Jordan Scoggins in January.

“He said he had no idea we had these facilities,” Dodge said. “As a football coach, you have to believe you can win. I know we can win because North Texas has won before.”

Scoggins signed his letter of intent the next month.

Photo by Elizabeth Lavin, D Magazine

University clears football program

While the NAACP continues to investigate claims of racial bias among the football coaching staff, the university concluded its own probe.

Administrators and the Division of Institutional Equity and Diversity cleared head coach Todd Dodge and his staff of wrongdoing on Nov. 7, nine days after one suspended player filed a complaint.

“The investigation revealed no discriminatory behavior, nor any pattern of racial bias in the decision-making and communication of the UNT football coaching staff, nor any within the football program as a whole,” university president Gretchen Bataille said.

Dodge suspended defensive back Dominique Green (right) following a sideline incident during a loss to Middle Tennessee on Oct. 28. Green said, “We are from the hood” near the Mean Green bench before assistant coach Clayton George admonished him. Green made his allegations the next day.

Suspended teammate Desmon Chatman and former player Gary Oubre, who quit the team last month, joined the complaint.

Dodge said in addition to the sideline incident, Green’s “insubordination and the accumulated instances of poor attitude” merited the suspension.

http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/drc/sports/college/stories/DRC_UNT_proble_clears_1108.1ebb89735.html

Grandfather impacts college choice

Riley Dodge’s decision in late June to change his oral commitment from Texas to North Texas seemed simple.

The move would reunite Riley with Todd, son with father, quarterback with coach in Denton.

Yet Riley’s maternal grandfather might have influenced the switch even more than his own father.

Ebbie Neptune, a renowned former coach and athletic director at Austin Westlake, suffered a stroke shortly after rooting his son-in-law and grandson to a state title win over his former program. Neptune is recovering in a McKinney facility close to Denton.

“I am very, very close to him and I wanted him to get a chance to see me play college football,” Riley said.

Neptune served 26 years at Westlake before his induction into the Texas High School Athletic Director’s Association Hall of Honor in 2004. At Westlake’s Chaparral Stadium, the field bears Neptune’s name.

Riley grew up thinking he would play for Westlake. Todd was a student-teacher at the school when he played at Texas. Riley’s mom and Todd’s wife Elizabeth graduated from Westlake.

Riley was a ball boy for the team, and his idol is New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, a Westlake alum.

http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/drc/sports/stories/DRC_RileyDodge_7-1.2e385867.html