By Cathy Harasta, Special for USA TODAY (July 24)

The tiny white marks lacing the heel of his right hand and wrist remind the first-time college head coach of the day his world exploded.

Twenty years after Dodge suffered serious burns in an industrial accident, he has not forgotten the 21 precarious days he spent in an Austin hospital's burn unit. The recovery process equipped him with the mental fortitude that UNT officials sought when they plucked Dodge from his highly successful high school coaching job at Southlake (Texas) Carroll last December to reinvigorate Mean Green football.

In the spring of 1987 the former standout University of Texas quarterback was working for an electric company in Austin while he finished coursework at the university. During routine service, he touched an industrial meter that blew up, propelling Dodge a dozen feet away.

When he regained consciousness, Dodge, who'd been a record-setting passer at Jefferson High in Port Arthur, Texas, and who wanted to coach, worried about his future because he was supposed to start an assistant coaching job that fall.

"The skin was dripping off my hands," he said, tracing the faded scars as he sat in his UNT office on a recent morning. "I thought to myself, 'I'm not on fire, but I'm smoldering.' That ordeal made me a tougher man."

Doctors told Dodge, who also suffered burns on his face and neck, that he might lose his fingers. But he defied their prediction. He wore special gloves as his skin healed, gave self-pity the cold shoulder, showed up for work in the fall season and eventually became a coach who electrified the atmosphere for players, fans and communities. His Carroll teams won four Class 5A state titles.

That's why UNT officials didn't have to go much beyond their own backyard for the high-impact coach who fit their plan.

Historically tough transition

The rare jump directly from high school to heading a Division I-A program has not disconcerted Dodge, who says he feels exceptionally well prepared. But fans nationally will recall the prickly challenges of perhaps the best-known instance when Notre Dame tapped Gerry Faust after the 1980 season.

A decorated coach at Moeller High in Cincinnati when the nation's highest profile program hired him, Faust lasted five seasons with a 30-26-1 record.

There are differences, though. Unlike Faust when he took charge at Notre Dame, Dodge has spent time on a college staff, serving as UNT's passing game coordinator in 1992-93. Also, while UNT is I-A, it's at the lower tier of the 11 major conferences and will not draw the intense spotlight that routinely snares the Fighting Irish.

"If you were gauging deals in Texas, North Texas made the best deal," says former Longhorns coach Fred Akers, who coached Dodge at Texas. "I think Todd Dodge, with his charisma, is going to be exactly what they need."

UNT officials let Darrell Dickey go after a combined five wins in the past two seasons. From the moment Dodge pulled his truck — a Dodge pickup, of course — into the head coach's parking spot, things began to change.

Season ticket sales and contributions to the Mean Green Club athletic support fund increased. And UNT, a Sun Belt Conference member, cornered a rare share of the region's sports buzz, primarily reserved for Dallas-Fort Worth pro teams 35 miles to the south.

When UNT officials turned to a coach at a high school just a 25-minute drive from campus, they did not turn to just any coach or just any high school. They entrusted the program to someone who built a dynasty that raised the already-towering profile of Texas high school football.

Athletics director Rick Villarreal says the reaction to Dodge's hiring has been "phenomenal."

Football season ticket purchases increased 40.5% and contributions to the Mean Green Club rose by 24.1% since Dodge's arrival. In the first half of 2007, season ticket purchases totaled $245,616, up from $174,789 from April 1, 2006, through the 2006 season. Contributions to the support fund for athletic scholarships in that same period went from $296,240 to $367,492.

"Todd is respected by the coaches in this state," Villarreal says. Dodge's contract, which runs until the end of August 2012, would be worth an average of more than $400,000 a year if he meets all incentives, Villarreal says. "The national attention has been unparalleled."

They'll have another taste of the national spotlight when they open Sept. 1 at Oklahoma.

Family matters

Dodge's son Riley switched his oral commitment for 2008 from Texas to North Texas, opting to play for dad rather than dad's alma mater.

Riley, Southlake Carroll's senior quarterback and the 2006 Texas 5A player of the year, has a chance to continue the Dragons' 48-game winning streak — just one of many legacies his father left. Riley, who passed for 4,184 yards and ran for 1,119 yards last season, is Rivals.com's 58th-ranked overall Texas recruit in the 2008 class.

Dodge, who turned 44 Saturday, did not have to uproot his family to take the new job. His wife, Elizabeth, teaches third grade in Southlake. Their daughter, Molly, will be in eighth grade.

"I'm excited to start this journey," Dodge says. "It was one of those opportunities that was definitely meant to be."

Dodge expects to attend eight of Riley's games. "I'll be going as a dad and not as a recruiter," he says.

Riley says he and his father know how to keep their home life separate from their respective football lives. "We switch from one to the other," Riley says. "It's kind of like a light switch."

Another change will be on the field where North Texas had been a ground-oriented team. Mean Green players already have embraced the attacking "spread" offense Dodge introduced at spring practice.

"His presence has changed the whole atmosphere and brought in a new feel," senior wide receiver Brandon Jackson says. "This offense gives us an opportunity to put a lot of points on the board. You will never see us in the huddle. We'll get in our spots, look at what the defense is doing, and then look at the coach."

Senior running back Jamario Thomas, who led the nation in rushing in 2004 (189.9 yards a game), said he still expects plenty of opportunities. "It should be fun," Thomas says.

Share the wealth

The key to the spread offense is unselfish play, says Dodge, a Texas letterman from 1982-85. Dodge's Dragons used four or five receivers.

"The quarterback usually throws for more than 4,500 yards, and the running back is still a 1,500-yard rusher," says Dodge, who had 21 Carroll players sign to play in I-A the past five years, more than any other Texas high school. "To win as many games as we won, you've got to have a lot of people check their egos at the door."

Former Dragons quarterbacks Chase Wasson, enrolled at Oklahoma, and Chase Daniel at Missouri say Dodge fostered a business-like environment.

"He really knows how to connect with the players," Daniel says.

The kind of coach Dodge became mirrored the type of player he had epitomized.

"He was a field general from the start," says Ronnie Thompson, who coached Dodge at Port Arthur Jefferson. "As a senior, Todd just went totally unconscious breaking records."

In 1980, Dodge became the first in Texas high school football history to pass for more than 3,000 yards (3,135) in a season.

"And most of that season, Todd was on the bench by halftime, having already won the game for us," says Thompson, who played on the same Port Arthur Jefferson team as former Dallas Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson.

Dodge's 2,791 yards at Texas put him ninth on the school's all-time passing list. As he tries his hand at college coaching as the head guy, he says he intends to use his grasp of the game to spark a revival. The Mean Green have won or shared four Sun Belt titles since 2001. But they had five total wins in the two seasons before that run and five in the two seasons since. In a poll of Sun Belt coaches released at the annual media gathering Monday, North Texas was picked to finish seventh out of eight teams.

"He wants the best out of all of us," Thomas says. "I just can't wait to see what happens."

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