Beaumont Enterprise/Riley Dodge

[50's PONY]

07/16/2006
Texad gridiron guru
By CHRIS DABE , The Enterprise

COLLEGE STATION - Ronnie Thompson of Port Arthur Memorial hoped to catch a glimpse of Southlake Carroll's quarterback during the 7-on-7 football state tournament Saturday. If he had, it might have felt like 1980 all over again.


That was the year Thompson coached Thomas Jefferson High School to the Class 5A state title game. The quarterback on that team was Port Arthur native Todd Dodge. The current quarterback at Carroll is Dodge's son, Riley.

"He has ice water in his veins, just like his dad," Thompson said.

The Thomas Jefferson team that lost to Odessa Permian in the 5A state final 26 years ago was the first to use a virtually pass-only offense in Texas. Now Thompson is coaching football in Port Arthur for the first time since the early 1980s, and the wide-open passing game he introduced to the state is about to be operated by a passer from the next generation.

Riley Dodge, a junior, is a protégé to his father, just as he was to Thompson.

Todd Dodge, Carroll's head coach, became the first high school quarterback in Texas to throw for more than 3,000 yards, as he regularly passed as many as 30 times per game.

"It was something different than the three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust plays like what you'd normally see," said Thompson, who quit coaching in 2001 but returned to Memorial as the school's football coach and athletic director in February.

Todd Dodge played quarterback at the University of Texas and has since put together a coaching resume that includes three 5A titles in the last four years at Carroll. Riley Dodge was a backup quarterback on last year's title-winning team.

Thompson said he saw Riley Dodge play a handful of times on television and thought the younger Dodge looked a lot like his father.

"He's a little taller than Todd was," Thompson said. "But they're alike in so many ways. He throws a good ball and he's a good communicator, like his father."

Unlike his father, however, Riley Dodge has the freedom to make something happen with his feet. His freedom to run with the ball when the situation warrants is what makes today's offenses different than the type Thompson unleashed on the state more than a quarter-century ago.

"Ronnie never asked me to run with the ball," said Todd Dodge, one of two Thomas Jefferson quarterbacks groomed by Thompson now coaching high school football in Texas. "What we do with Riley is ask him to be a dual-threat guy."

West Brook coach Craig Stump also played for Thompson before going to Texas A&M.

Todd Dodge said the spread offense he ran in high school called for two running backs and three wide receivers. That offense has since shifted toward having just one running back and four wideouts.

The elder Dodge said the quarterback nowadays is considered the second running back and a tight end can be shifted to be a fifth wide receiver, creating more formations for the defense to read.

But even with all the differences in the passing game, Todd Dodge said the system is fundamentally the same as it was when he played for Thompson.

"The biggest similarity is we practice the philosophy of getting the ball in as many people's hands as possible," he said. "That's what we did in Port Arthur. Ronnie instilled that in us."

This season is among the most talent-rich for quarterbacks in the state, as three have been invited to the Elite 11 quarterback camp in California. The camp is later this month and is considered the most prestigious national camp for young signalcallers.

Thompson watched one of those three, Brenham senior Jarrett Lee, play Saturday against Memorial.

Thompson credited the nine-year 7-on-7 state tournament with the development of polished passers such as Lee, who will play at Louisiana State.

"Every ball he throws is catchable," Thompson said.

The other quarterbacks from Texas invited to the camp are Michigan-bound Ryan Mallett of Texarkana Texas and Cal-bound Brock Mansion of Dallas Episcopal.

Riley Dodge said his main collegiate options include Southern Methodist University in Dallas, which he said was a 10-minute drive from his house. He said UT and Clemson are also high on his list.

Dodge said he sometimes watches game film from when his father played. And like Thompson, Dodge said he looks a lot like his dad did in high school.

"Our throwing motion is the same," said the 6-foot, 175-pounder. "We run the same. It's almost scary how much alike we look."