University of North Texas Athletics
Green Gang: Making Things Simple
9/28/2010 12:00:00 AM | Return to Play
By Steven Bartolotta, September 28, 2010, 2:09 p.m.
Mike Canales did not re-invent the wheel on Saturday at Florida Atlantic, but it sure felt like it.
Faced with a skeleton of what he expected to have in terms of a starting lineup just three weeks ago, Canales revamped the North Texas offense to play to the strengths of the talent that wasn't hurt. And that was simple, run the ball.
The game plan going in was to simplify everything for Riley Dodge so to ease him back into playing QB, even though he pretty wrote the playbook with Coach Dodge, he still hasn't practiced at the position on a regular basis in about a year.
Given that Dodge wasn't going to be put in the position of winning or losing the game, Canales drew up a tandem game plan that featured the highly explosive Lance Dunbar and the where have you been James Hamilton.
The results, 54 rushes, 257 yards, and most of all, a win. The numbers showed incredible success on third down for North Texas, 10-for-15. That was all setup by the run. Those third-downs were all setup by first and second down success. The Mean Green had 11 drives against FAU. They started 10 of the 11 drives with a running play.
Of the 30 first-down plays the Mean Green had at FAU, 28 of them were runs and only two were passes. Compare that to the week before against Army when 13 of 22 first down plays were passes.
That's how it's going to be. I see Canales turning Riley into a Scott Hall - like manager of the game and Dunbar and Hamilton will be your workhorses.
Look at it like the running attack of old, just out of the spread offense.
With all the injuries, Canales put together a plan that worked against FAU. It won't work every game because coaches watch film.
But given the set of circumstances, Canales put a square peg into a round hole for one week. The Mean Green offense has been remade from a gun-slinging offense, into a grind-it-out rushing type attack.
This isn't to say North Texas won't pass the ball 30 times a game anymore, but Canales recognized for one Saturday night in South Florida, the best chance for this team to be successful on offense was to put things on the ground.
And now North Texas must find a way to keep grinding out yards and wins starting Saturday.
