This Saturday when North Texas takes on the University of Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin Cajuns there will be a game within the game.

When North Texas hired Dan McCarney to take over the program there were strong rumors former Southern Miss Head Football Jeff Bower was in contention for the slot. Swirling in the back ground was if Bower was hired he had contacted some of his former coaches to fill out his staff. Two of those coaches were Jay Johnson and Mitch Rodrigue

Johnson is now the offensive coordinator for the Cajuns’ and Rodrigue the offensive line coach. 

New UL-L Head Coach Mark Hudspeth has stated as the head coach at North Alabama he visited and soaked up football ideas from the two when they were at Southern Miss.

Here is the rundown on Johnson at Southern Miss, 2003 he was the tight ends coach, 2004 the running backs coach and the OC from 2005-2007.

When he took over as OC the year before the offensive line simply struggled and the offense sputtered. After taking over as the OC and with the help of Rodrigue coaching the line, the Golden Eagles scored four more points per game. In addition they improved in passing yards a game, passing efficiency and over all yards per game.

In his five years as coach, Johnson saw Southern Miss going to five bowls, earning a 3-2 record including two wins over Sun Belt members North Texas, 2004 New Orleans Bowl 31-10 and Arkansas State in the 2005 New Orleans Bowl 31-19.

Rodrigue spent nine years at Southern Miss where he started out as the running back coach in 1999, moving to tight end coach 2000-2002 and then the offensive line 2003-2007. In 2006 he was named one of the top ten recruiters from a non-BCS conference.  In nine years he helped coach the team to nine bowls going 5-4 including the same wins over Sun Belt teams as Johnson.

In addition, in the 2000 GMAC Bowl a 6-4 Southern Miss team faced heavily favorite TCU, 10-1. It was the first game for Gary Patterson at the helm of the Horned Frogs after the previous coach accepted another position. TCU was led by Running Back LaDainian Tomlinson who ended up winning the game MVP. In the end, it was the Southern Miss offense led by the coaching of Johnson and Rodrigue taking down TCU 28-21. Southern Miss ended the season 7-4, TCU dropped to 10-2 but ended up the season ranked #18 in the nation.  

Here is a rundown of the nine bowls Rodrigue was involved with at Southern Miss;

PapaJohns.com Bowl (2007) - Cincinnati 31-Southern Miss 21,
GMAC Bowl (2007) - Southern Miss 2hio 7
New Orleans Bowl (2005) - Southern Miss 31-Arkansas State 19
New Orleans Bowl (2004) - Southern Miss 31-North Texas 10
Liberty Bowl (2003) - Utah 17-Southern Miss 0,
EV1.net Houston Bowl (2002) - Oklahoma State 33-Southern Miss 23,
GMAC Mobile Bowl (2000) - Southern Miss 28-TCU 21
Liberty Bowl (1999) - Southern Miss 23-Colorado State 17
All-America Bowl (1990) - N.C. State 31-Southern Miss 27

Johnson and Rodrigue and North Texas Offensive Coordinator Mike Canales have faced each other one time before. In 2000, as OC at South Florida, Canales took his unit to Hattiesburg, Ms to face the Golden Eagles. In the end USF was pounded 42-7.  The Bull score came in the third quarter on a nice drive that started on their own 33 yard line.

This Saturday North Texas fans will get to see the offense North Texas would be running if Bower was hired. Look for a lot of different formations because Johnson has been known to be “way out there” when it comes to offensive schemes. He loves to use tight ends, is not afraid to throw the ball but tempers it with the running game to control the clock. He understands the need to keep the defense fresh for the fourth quarter so he doesn’t try to strike quick all the time.  

The use of many formations is to confuse the defense. The offense is patience but will snap the ball at a moment’s notice if the defense is not ready on any play. Sort of what happened in the Indiana game when the North Texas defense was confused about coverages and the Hoosiers got a couple of wide open touchdowns.

Rodrigue has always gotten the most out of his players and offensive line. Rodrigue always had undersized offensive linemen at Southern Miss but he had them believing in themselves through what he teaches. What he teaches confuses and frustrates defensive linemen. He tells his players they physically can’t go toe to toe with bigger and stronger defensive linemen but using his techniques, they can be effective against them. It is why Southern Miss could give SEC school fits and it is why UL-L is atop the Sun Belt Conference.  

What is great for UL-L is they have two coaches who have coached together for years, understand what each one wants from the players, know each other coaching philosophies and have been extremely successful in the past working together. They have a head coach who learned from Johnson and Rodrigue, buys into what they taught, used it at North Alabama, believes the system works and doesn’t have to worry about the offense.  

The game within the game, if Johnson and Rodrigue were at North Texas, would they be the Sun Belt Conference leaders at this point in the season? Would North Texas have more wins?

Each year when these two teams meet with the same coaching staff, the game within the game will continue.