Todd Dodge hired as Marble Falls head football coach, athletic director
MARBLE FALLS — Todd Dodge, who guided Southlake Carroll to four state championships in five seasons, will assume the duties of head football coach and athletic director at Marble Falls Independent School District.
The board of trustees approved his hire during the regular meeting Jan. 23.
Dodge, a native of Port Arthur, said he looks forward to the challenges of leading the Marble Falls athletic department and a football program that only has one playoff appearance in the past 12 seasons. His first day is Feb. 1.
“Many years ago when I played at the University of Texas, I always had a real desire to coach in the Hill Country,” he said with a smile. “I’ve had so many texts, ‘You’re finally getting to the Hill Country.’ Frankly I’m just thrilled.”
Dodge was the quarterbacks coach at the University of Pittsburgh this past season.
He said as he and his wife, Elizabeth, toured the school’s facilities, including the fieldhouse, Mustang Stadium and Marble Falls Middle School, he could see the community’s commitment, and he knew Marble Falls was a place he wanted to be.
“I looked at it as an opportunity for all of us,” he said. “I’m thrilled to be back in high school. Frankly, it’s my passion. I want to be a high school coach in the state of Texas in a high school town. I think you really get a chance to make a difference, more so in the high school level.”
Superintendent Rob O’Connor said he looks forward to working with Dodge and seeing a tradition deepen.
“We’re very blessed to have him here at Marble Falls,” he said. “He had plenty of opportunities, so we’re fortunate to have the right pieces.”
Dodge is credited with changing the style of Texas high school football with his “Air-Raid offense,” a system that uses a lot of no-huddles and spreads the field with at least three wide receivers, a tight end or an H-back. Dodge’s Southlake Carroll teams had the ability to both run and pass the football.
When the Dragons won the 2002 state title, they ran 85 offensive plays. Of that number, 72 were plays the athletes had run since the seventh grade.
“I’ve purposefully not done the research on the (Marble Falls) players,” Dodge said. “They get a fair shake in my evaluation. The thing I’m looking forward to is instilling the program I believe in.”
In some ways, Marble Falls and Southlake Carroll have many similarities.
Carroll had been very successful in Class 3A, winning state championships in 1988, 1992 and 1993. But it moved up to Class 4A six years before Dodge was hired.
He remembers going to Southlake in 1999 and thinking he hadn’t seen a worse looking bunch of athletes in a long time.
“But I learned a valuable lesson,” he said. “Don’t be making a bunch of judgments on the freshmen and sophomores.”
In his first season in 2000, the Dragons lost their first three games but advanced to the playoffs. The season ended in the quarterfinals with a 9-5 record.
The following year, Carroll went 10-5 and advanced to the state semifinals.
But during the winter, the University Interscholastic League moved the Dragons up to Class 5A.
The move turned out well for the Dragons as they captured the first of their four state titles and went 79-1 in a five-year span. Their only loss was to Katy 16-15 in the 2003 state championship.
Dodge plans a busy semester. He said he will take over planning the schedule, will evaluate the coaches throughout the department and will make recommendations to the school board in March.
“I will assemble my own staff,” he said. “I’ll take my time on it and get to know coaches. I look forward to getting to know all the coaches and them getting to know me.”
He plans on meeting with each one and performing an evaluation, adding that many coaches across the state have reached out to him to inquire about openings, including coaches from Carroll, Aledo and Stephenville.
“Many championship rings,” he said of those coaches.
Dodge’s former players and coaches remember a two-week period before spring break when Dodge put the athletes through boot camp called “Dragon Maker.”
The athletes would go through an intense form of strength and conditioning complete with mat drills. Dodge also is known to line up his players on the track where they run multiple 200-meter dashes.
“It’s a very intense part of offseason,” he said. “We’ll have something real special for that.”
Dodge and Elizabeth, who has been living in Southlake to allow their daughter Molly to finish her senior year, have already found a house in the area.
“We’ve never lived close to my parents,” said Elizabeth, the daughter of former Austin Westlake coach and athletic director Ebbie Neptune.
Their son Riley is finishing his degree at McNeese State in Lake Charles, La., and will attend several coaches schools to look for a job.
“That’s what’s in his blood,” Dodge said. “We may have the opportunity to have him here someday.”
Dodge said he plans to continue the home-and-home series with the Burnet Bulldogs, assuming the two teams are not in the same district next season.
“I think that’s one of those rivalries that high school football is all about,” he said. “I know a little bit about it. Something like that is important to a people around here.”
He said he looks forward to getting to know his players.
“I want to build a program that gets to the point where you say you’re reloading, not rebuilding,” he said. “It’ll take hard work by 16-, 17- and 18-year-olds. I had a chance to go to Class 5A jobs, but I really want to be in Marble Falls, Texas. I want to be a part of a community where we can get here and build where everybody is a Mustang and everyone is purple and gold.”
Staff writer Daniel Clifton contributed to this story.