04/23/24
October 20, 2010
SportsFilter: The Wednesday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
How to start a sports rumour.
Translation: 'slab of beer' = 'cardboard carton containing two dozen beer cans'.
posted by owlhouse at 08:58 AM on October 20, 2010
Not to use the same insult twice in 5 minutes, but is it just me or does Bryce Harper just look like a giant douche bag?
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 09:43 AM on October 20, 2010
My alma mater has fired Todd Dodge as head coach. About damn time. He was 6-37 over four years and had yet to win 3 games in a season.
posted by rcade at 12:04 PM on October 20, 2010
Why UNT thought Dodge was the way to go is beyond me. He was a high school coach that had success in part due to inappropriate recruiting. He couldn't out-recruit the other colleges and obviously couldn't out coach them as well.
Next year = New stadium and a new coach...time to turn that university's program around!
think they'll spend the money for a top tier coach?
posted by dviking at 05:55 PM on October 20, 2010
Dodge was a Texas prep coaching legend and UNT had only $400K to spend so they took the ill-advised risk of hiring him.
Now that they have a new student service fee building the stadium, they ought to be able to hire a decent experienced college coach with a name who isn't getting BCS school offers -- perhaps a Tommy Bowden type.
The early speculation is they'll hire Jeff Bower, formerly of Southern Miss. Our AD is an alumnus of that school who worked with him.
posted by rcade at 08:04 PM on October 20, 2010
Gareth Bale is absolutely sick. Also featuring Spurs' pathetic defense and review of Inter 4-3 Gareth Bale.
posted by boredom_08 at 11:37 PM on October 20, 2010
And the score with only 10 on the field for Spurs was 3-3...
I'm looking forward to hearing James Richardson cream himself on Football Weekly today.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 07:09 AM on October 21, 2010
rcade, I know that Dodge had a great run at Southlake prior to being picked by UNT, I'm just surprised that they weren't able to see through him. My kids have always played in the same district and it was well known that Southlake would skirt the rules regarding recruiting and eligibility for players. And, even when they didn't actually break a rule, they benefitted greatly compared to other schools from parents moving into the system just to have their son play for Southlake. Very wealthy area, so the school had all the latest, and best, equipment/trainers/etc.
On a plus side for Dodge, it appears that he did raise the academic performance quite a bit while there.
Yes, I've heard the Jeff Bower rumor...Mike Leach is available, what ya think?
posted by dviking at 10:26 AM on October 21, 2010
I don't see how a public Texas school could hire Leach when he's actively engaged in a lawsuit against Texas Tech. I also think he can do a lot better than a Sun Belt school, given his success at Texas Tech.
Dodge was for the most part a good character guy, and his son Riley rejected a UT scholarship to come play for UNT, so there was a lot of excitement when they came in. It just didn't translate to wins, and the biggest reason was that Coach Dodge made a bunch of rookie mistakes -- like bringing his high school coaches with him. If he'd hired college-experienced coaches from the start, it might have been different.
posted by rcade at 11:15 AM on October 21, 2010
the biggest reason was that Coach Dodge made a bunch of rookie mistakes -- like bringing his high school coaches with him. If he'd hired college-experienced coaches from the start, it might have been different.
So you're saying that UNT would have had greater success if he had wickipediad the name Gerry Faust?
posted by tahoemoj at 11:41 AM on October 21, 2010
We didn't even have to do that. We'd already hired Dennis Parker right out of a high school coaching gig and it was a miserable failure.
posted by rcade at 12:32 PM on October 21, 2010
I was kidding about Leach...totally get that given his lawsuit he's toxic material at this point.
Yeah, bringing in his Southlake bunch was a huge mistake, one I'm surprised any university level AD would have allowed.
The new stadium should be nice, the old one was a disgrace...even my son's high school team chose not to use it this year for their intra-city rivalry game. We trucked it all the way down to SMU and used Ford Stadium. Very nice and the right team pulled off the win!
posted by dviking at 05:25 PM on October 21, 2010
Latest rumors have Leach looking at Minnesota...this is one Gopher alum that would be all for it.
posted by dviking at 07:54 PM on October 23, 2010
Not to use the same insult twice in 5 minutes, but is it just me or does Bryce Harper just look like a giant douche bag?