The countdown and questions have begun and it looks like the end of “Dodge Ball” will conclude at the end of the season. North Texas can no longer be Southlake Carroll, Denton Campus.

There has been a lot of money put out by the students and North Texas Fans to build a new stadium and for it to start off with a losing program would not be a welcome sight. North Texas is under the gun when it comes to conference realignment and having a losing program is not acceptable or attractive to any new conference.

It is clear either North Texas Head Coach Todd Dodge can not recruit or can not coach at the college level. Some say if Dodge leaves it would hurt North Texas’ pipeline and association with high school coaches. It looks like the “pipeline”  to high school is a garden hose and there is no top notch talent being sent to North Texas by the high school coaches.  

People are afraid of change and some North Texas fans are already afraid of the move. They wonder who North Texas will get for the funds available. Some think there aren’t any good college coaches available, ones with proven records. The answer is there is. There are established coaches who have gotten caught up in situations and there are up and coming coaches at the offensive coordinator or defensive coordinator level.

The problem with up and coming coaches is they have a tendency to get in, be successful and move on to where the money is. Thus every four or five years North Texas would be looking for a new coach. While this may sound bad it may not be. Every time a new coach comes in there is new excitement, new system, new thoughts and if they are a good coach the winning ways will continue. If you give the coach four years and he doesn’t pan out he is gone. The downside is this sometimes affects recruiting. However, look at the recruiting going on and ask if it could it be any worse?     

Seasoned coaches, with a proven record and money, generally do not need to work. They are in it for the ego or the love of the game.  They are out there, some are working and some are not. The question is if they are comfortable will they be willing to coach again?

There are some that have mentioned Mike Leach formerly of Texas Tech.  Former NFL and college coach Jerry Glanville wants to get back to coaching.  A lot of the experienced coaches like them come with baggage.  

However, there are others that do not. Let’s start with one coach with ties to Rick Villarreal. The former Head Coach at Southern Miss Jeff Bower. He knows what it is like to recruit against the big boys. He recruited against Alabama, LSU, Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Tennessee along with instate SEC members Mississippi and Mississippi State. He was a former college quarterback at Georgia and Southern Miss. He was the receivers and quarterback coach for Southern Miss, 1978-1981; quarterback coach at SMU, 1982-1986; quarterback coach at Wake Forest, 1987; offensive coordinator at Southern Miss, 1988; offensive coordinator at Oklahoma State 1989 and Head Coach at Southern Miss from 1990-2007.

As head coach at Southern Miss for over 17 years he acquired 15 winning seasons. While considered the head coach in 1990 he actually coached one game, the All-American Bowl.  He took the Golden Eagles to ten bowls in eleven years. North Texas fans are familiar with his style of coaching, he was guided the Golden Eagles to two wins over North Texas in the New Orleans Bowl. North Texas actually had better teams in the bowls.

While an offensive guy his teams were actually known for their defensive play. Under his command, Southern Miss sent between 30-40 players to the NFL, CFL or Arena Football mostly on the defensive side of the ball.

He has ties with Conference-USA being one of the original coaches at the beginning of CUSA. He would make North Texas attractive to become a member of CUSA and it could be an exciting match-up to have him fighting against his former team and former colleagues in the conference. Almost immediate built-in excitement.

His teams were solid running teams and known for their defense. His games were not offensively exciting because of the style of play. He was let go because fans wanted the spread offense and he refused to go that way. His wife is an extremely successful Mary Kay Cosmetic Dealer. The question is would he want to spend a lot of time away from his family.

Former Memphis Tigers Head Coach Rip Scherer could be a possibility. He was the Head Coach at James Madison. He built it into a winning program and was hired by Memphis to do the same thing. He recruited players from Texas to play for Memphis.

He took over a program which was not attractive to many parents because of its history and parents were afraid to send their sons to the school. There was little fan support. He cleaned house and started to bring in players to make the program successful but was let go because he was not moving the program forward fast enough. His successor started to win with his players but once the new coach got his players in Memphis they have fallen on hard times and resigned. It proves Scherer knows talent. If fans would like more interest in him, they can get to know him better by reading the quarterback instruction book he has written.

As head coach he got involved with the community to garner support for Memphis to turn their image around and it worked. He gets active in the community even sacking groceries to raise money for charity. He will visit tailgating parties after games whether the teams win or lose and will take the heat for the team if they lose.

In 1976 he was the NC State quarterback coach; from 1977-1978; the running back coach at Hawaii; 1979 the running back coach at Virginia; 1980-1986 the offensive coordinator/quarterback coach; the offensive coordinator at Alabama in 1987; offensive coordinator from 1988-1990 at Arizona; Head Coach at James Madison from 1991-1994 before becoming the head coach at Memphis from 1995-2000; in 2001 he went to Kansas as co-offensive coordinator; moved to Southern Miss 2003-2004 as the offensive coordinator (under Jeff Bower); became the Cleveland Browns Ass’t Head Coach and is now the Carolina Panthers quarterback coach.

He coached in CUSA and would be another exciting coach fighting against his former team and former conference members if North Texas was invited to CUSA.  

Close by in Commerce, Texas is a former NFL football player, NFL ass’t coach and head college football coach Guy Morriss. He was named interim head coach at Kentucky in 2001 when the program was hit by the NCAA later to become head coach the same year. As head coach in 2002 he took the team from 2-9 to a 7-5. After housecleaning by Kentucky he took over the Baylor program from 2003-2007. In 2008 he was the offensive line coach for Kentucky State before taking over the Texas A&M-Commerce in 2009.

Morriss is from Texas, loves Texas and wants to stay in Texas. He already knows a lot of the players in the state and has established contacts with high school coaches. Since he is familiar with the high school coaches in the eastern Texas areas he would know which players are true upper tier players close to home.

He has coached in the Big 12 so he has coached against the big name teams.He has recruited against all the schools he will recruit against at North Texas.

His one year full year at Kentucky he took a team under investigation which and made it a winner. Something hard for any coach to do when the NCAA is in every corner of the program and no one knows what is going to happen. His coaching record at Baylor is not stellar but not many coaches were successful there.  He was named coach Lone Star Conference Coach of the Year after winning the North Division in his first year at the helm of Texas A&M-Commerce and nearly knocking off the #2 in the nation. 

So there are good experienced coaches out there.  The question is would they be willing to take over the North Texas program and the answer is yes. Especially with the brand new stadium.