North Texas hiring adds twist to the SEMO-McFerren debate
It made for good message board fodder at the time, but opinions back in March and April ran heavily against the idea of Lennies McFerren replacing fired coach Gary Garner to lead the men's basketball program at Southeast Missouri State.
The biggest knock against McFerren, whose teams won nine state championships at Charleston and New Madrid County Central, was that he was a high school coach who knew nothing about the college game, nothing about recruiting, nothing about the complexity of NCAA rules. Even though he expressed interest in the job, McFerren never made it to the interview process, and SEMO finally narrowed the field to Rod Barnes, Jay Spoonhour and the school's eventual choice, Scott Edgar.
Whether you were for McFerren's hiring or against it, this news out of Texas might make you wonder if the people at North Texas know something about hiring coaches that we don't know.
The Sun Belt Conference school on Tuesday hired a high school coach to lead its Division I football program. The coach: Todd Dodge, who led Southlake Carroll High School to three state championships. He's a former Texas quarterback and has led Carroll to a 77-1 record over the past five seasons. He's also a former USA Today coach of the year and was an offensive coordinator at North Texas in the 1992 season.
His hiring already has message boards and the media buzzing throughout Texas, some against the idea, others for it. He's expected to bring along his son, a star QB on the Southlake Carroll team, after he graduates in 2008. He also coached Chase Daniel, now the QB at Mizzou.
The fact that Dodge can win at the high school level is proven. He's 96-11 at Southlake Carroll and has his team poised to win another state championship this month. He's also likely to draw fans with an exciting style of offense.
But opponents of McFerren's hiring at SEMO didn't doubt his credentials, nor did they question his ability to draw a crowd - they simply argued from the start that a high school coach can't handle a move to the college level. Period. North Texas, a school bigger than Southeast, doesn't agree.
And that leads us back to the original question: Does North Texas know something about hiring coaches that Southeast doesn't?
7 comments:
Todd Dodge has held a college coaching position in the past. He was Offensive Coordinator at No Texas. Lennies McFerren has no college coaching experience.
Todd Dodge is 43 yrs old, McFerren is 58.
Todd Dodge has had teams ranked in the Top 5 in the entire NATION, and has won a USA Today National Championship. McFerren has won Class 3A state titles in Missouri.
Todd Dodge has been a head coach in Texas's largest classification, in a metropolitan area. McFerren has been a small school HC in the bootheel his entire career.
Todd Dodge's teams play in front of 30,000 fans at home and often tens of thousands of people on the road with regularity, and their school has season ticket holders that number in the thousands that have to pay PSL's for the privilege of having those tickets. McFerren's teams regularly played in front of about 700 people. Southlake Carroll played a game in front of 46,000 people this year.
Todd Dodge's Southlake Carroll program, quite frankly, is at a higher level than alot of D1-AA schools - both in attendance and funding. Todd Dodge coming to Semo would be a step down and probable pay cut, not so with McFerren.
Todd Dodge played high-major Division 1 football in college, at the University of Texas. McFerren played Juco and Division 2 ball.
10,000 tickets were made available to SLC fans for one of their playoff games this season, the tickets sold out in 1 day. 10,000 fans bought tickets to their playoff game in 1 day!
To make a comparison to Dodge and McFerren as simply being HS coaches and equating them to being on the same level is assinine (or just uniformed).
Apples and oranges anonymous. Apples and oranges.
Of course they're different situations, but the point is this: Much of the opposition to McFerren going to SEMO was based on him being a high school coach, that he had no recruiting skills, that he didn't know NCAA regulations, and he didn't know how to play the college game. The fact that Todd Dodge was an offensive coordinator at North Texas for one season might make him only marginally more experienced in those areas than McFerren, and the fact that his high school program draws fans and is well-funded isn't a factor at all. The fact is that if North Texas had been closed-minded to the idea of hiring a high school coach, they'd still be looking right now.
So, people that disagree with hiring HS coaches with ZERO college experience to college level head coaching positions are "closed-minded".
Please, open my mind for me oh enlightened one.
When it comes right down to it, McFerren and Dodge aren't that dissimilar. McFerren has no college coaching experience, and Dodge's college coaching experience as an assistant one season is barely a blip on the radar. And call it what you want, but if a school is 100 percent against even considering a coach with no college experience, that means they're closed-minded to the idea. By no means am I saying McFerren should have gotten the SEMO job, but lack of college coaching experience -- whether it's McFerren or Todd Dodge -- shouldn't immediately disqualify a candidate at a school the size of Southeast.
If you're not saying that McFerren should have gotten the job, then what is the point of the article? Was it just to take a shot at Semo? For doing something that you yourself aren't sure was the best idea?
What was the point of it?
When was the last time you ever stated anything positive about Semo? Who really is "closed-minded" here?
Nothing in my comments was "a shot at SEMO." I've never been anti-SEMO, but I don't wear rose-colored glasses, either. Scott Edgar is a good coach and might very well have been the best candidate in the field that was available. And when his team wins the OVC championship, I'll be among the first to congratulate him.
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