No, that's not what I'm saying. Dodge was the best quarterback in the state of Washington when I was working as the sports editor of the Ellensburg Daily Record. Dodge was an All-King County guy at Skyline High, a Seattle power. His top receiver, Kasen Williams, was the No. 1 recruit in the country and an eventual Washington Husky. He'll likely be in the league next year.
Dodge had offers from several Big Sky schools, including Montana State. He was scared off from MSU by the prospect of DeNarius being a four-year starter. He just wanted to play. Central Washington was fresh off being ranked No. 1 in the country and making a run in the Division II playoffs. Mike Reilly got a shot in the NFL and is now in the CFL. CWU seemed like a good fit.
Central had a senior quarterback, so Dodge redshirted. He ended up not liking Ellensburg. Craig Howard, Tim Tebow's high school coach, took the Southern Oregon job and told Dodge he could come smash all the college football passing records there was to smash.
As a senior, Dodge completed 66 percent of his 543 passes for 5,178 yards and 49 touchdowns.
Austin Dodge was the first big recruiting scoop I popped as a reporter. He was supposed to be the player that led CWU to the promised land. He throws as good of a frozen rope deep ball as you will see, bar none. He has a better shot in the NFL than any quarterback currently playing in the Big Sky. The kid is the ultimate "fell through the cracks" story.
Last fall, I worked on a project called Hometown Pride, a website and print publication project that covered football across Montana — the Big Sky, the Frontier and all high schools. For our year-end book, I wrote a profile on Dodge for our Southern Oregon story. Here it is:
EYE-POPPING NUMBERS: Raiders QB Dodge rewriting record books
By COLTER NUANEZ
Chuck Morrell has been coaching at the top level of NAIA football for 15 years.
The second-year Montana Tech head coach played at the University of Sioux Falls, then spent 13 seasons as the school’s defensive coordinator. The Cougars played in five NAIA national championship games, winning three titles (2006, 2008, 2009). From 2006-2009, the Cougars were the most dominant program in the NAIA, with a record of 56-1 - their only loss in that span was in the 2007 national title game.
In other words, Morrell has been around this level of football to know a good one when he sees one. He’s not sure he’s ever seen as good of one as Southern Oregon junior quarterback Austin Dodge.
“I’ve been doing this 15 years, 40 playoff games, national championship games and he’s the best quarterback I’ve ever seen in NAIA,” Morrell said. “Andy Evanson from Georgetown. Carroll has had some studs starting with Tyler Emmert, Sioux Falls, we had NAIA players of the year at quarterback. He is, hands down, the best kid I’ve ever seen. He’s heads and tails above everyone in this league.”
Montana State Northern head coach Mark Samson has been in and out of the Frontier Conference since coaching for his father-in-law, Bob Petrino Sr., at Carroll College beginning in 1990. Samson spent a good chunk of the past 23 years as the head coach at Helena Capital, but he’s been up in Havre for the past decade. He’s not sure he’s ever seen a player that rivals Dodge either. Samson mentions Emmert and Montana Western great Jason Truman along with his son, former Northern stud Kyle Samson. None of them could stretch the field like Dodge.
“I’ve talked to coaches all over the league about this and I’m not going to say he’s the best quarterback I’ve seen in this league, although he is certainly one of the best, but in terms of throwing, a kid who can straight throw the ball, I’ve never seen anyone like him,” Samson said. “There have been some darn good quarterbacks. But a kid who can catch a snap and throw that thing on a dime, regardless if it’s seven or 70 yards, I’ve never seen anything like it in this league. There’s nothing you can do about it. They find themselves two good receivers and they terrorize you. It’s a nightmare.”
The numbers are staggering. Dodge wasn’t a sensation right away when he arrived in Ashland, Oregon before the 2011 season. The former Central Washington signal caller threw for 2,195 yards and 13 touchdowns his first year starting for the Raiders as a redshirt freshman.
The last two seasons have been a different story. You almost do a double take when looking at SOU’s offensive output. In 2012, Southern Oregon averaged 52.8 points and an NAIA-record 642 yards of total offense per game in sharing the Frontier Conference title its first year in the league. In 12 starts, the 6-foot-2, 205-pound Dodge completed 66 percent of his passes for 5,076 yards and 42 touchdowns. His average game: 30-for-45 for 423 yards and 3.5 touchdowns.
Last season, Dodge didn’t slow down. SOU finished 7-3 in the Frontier, 7-4 overall in barely missing the playoffs for a second straight year. Dodge and the Raiders’ offense was nearly as prolific. SOU averaged 47.5 points per game and 590 yards. Dodge completed 66 percent of his passes for 4,372 yards and 47 touchdowns. Southern scored at least 50 points in six straight outings, including 56 in a 63-56 overtime loss to FCS Sacramento State and 73 against Frontier rival Eastern Oregon.
Entering his senior year, Dodge has thrown for 11,643 yards and a jaw-dropping 112 touchdowns. Dodge needs 1,745 yards and nine touchdowns to become the NAIA all-time leader in both categories. SOU has scored at least 50 points 12 times in the last two seasons, have surpassed 60 seven times and have scored more than 70 on two occasions.
“Being able to put the ball anywhere down the field whenever he wants to on the field is an incredible advantage,” said Rocky Mountain College head coach Brian Armstrong, the 2013 Frontier Coach of the Year. “He’s big, strong-armed and durable and he can literally put it wherever he wants whenever he wants.”
So how did such a prodigious talent end up in Ashland?
As a senior at Skyview High School in Vancouver, Wash., Dodge threw for 3,277 yards and 35 touchdowns. He was a 2009 first-team all-league selection and was named one of the top 100 prospects in the state of Washington by the Seattle Times.
He received interest from FCS powers Eastern Washington and Montana State, along with fellow Big Sky member Portland State.
When EWU landed Bo Levi Mitchell — a transfer from Southern Methodist University who would lead the Eagles to the 2010 national title and win the 2011 Walter Payton Award — the Eagles pulled off of Dodge.
Portland State was in the midst of a coaching change as Nigel Burton took over for Jerry Glanville, so Dodge got lost in translation.
Dodge was left to decide between Montana State and Central Washington. He had already given his verbal commitment to CWU, but Montana State’s full ride was still on the table.
“I thought he was a Big Sky player from Day 1,” former CWU head coach Blaine Bennett told this scribe on National Signing Day in 2010 while I was the sports editor at the Ellensburg Daily Record. “He is one of the gems in this class, a can’t miss type kid.”
Dodge was part of Bennett’s 2010 recruiting class, but it was a closer decision than most people know.
“I had both papers from Central and Montana State in front of me on Signing Day,” Dodge said. “I was close. After talking with coaches, I felt like the better spot for me was Central. I wanted to go somewhere where I’d get the opportunity to play and play as many years as I could and enjoy college. It was closer to home. I’m close with my family.”
In the fall of 2010, DeNarius McGhee won the starting quarterback spot at Montana State as a redshirt freshman. Four years later, McGhee is the winniest quarterback in school history and holds almost every major passing record at MSU. Dodge likely wouldn’t have gotten a chance to start until the 2014 season.
At Central, Dodge sat behind third-year sophomore Ryan Robertson as a redshirt in 2010. By 2011, it looked like he would again be the backup, so he decided to see what else was out there.
“In the end, Central just wasn’t the right fit,” Dodge said. “It wasn’t really anything specific, I just didn’t think it was the right fit for me for the four years I was going to be in college.”
Still, it’s amazing to Samson that Dodge fell from a sure-fire Division I recruit into the lap of Craig Howard at SOU.
“It would be really hard for me to believe that Central Washington has a better quarterback than him,” Samson said.
Howard took over at SOU in February of 2011. By the time fall camp rolled around, he’d made a huge splash with a stellar recruiting class of 34 players, including Dodge. Howard also signed former Skyview wide receiver Karl Graves, one of Dodge’s high school best friends.
Prior to landing in Ashland, Howard spent eight seasons coaching in Florida, including a five-year stint at Nease High where he coached future Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow.
He brought a similar up-tempo attack to SOU, an offense that Dodge has thrived in.
“It’s unbelievable to learn from him,” Dodge said. “It’s night and day for me as a player and growing as a man and a leader. Off the field, he’s a great role model, easy to talk to. You can come to him with any life problems or any questions. On the field, being able to have a coach who’s available 100 percent of the time to talk and watch film, learn more about the intangibles of playing quarterback is huge.
“This offense fits me extremely well. To be able to have 95 plays in a game and throw the ball 45 times a game, it’s a blast. We are winning games and putting up numbers to go along with it.”
If Dodge would have committed to Montana State, he might have toiled in obscurity for the past four seasons. If he had stayed at Central, he would have had to endure a coaching change; Bennett was fired following the Wildcats’ 2013 campaign.
Instead, Dodge has gotten the chance to smash records and throw the ball all over the field. He sometimes plays the what-if game within his own head, but at the end of the day, he loves the path life has led him down.
“I do, but at the same time, God has a plan for everyone. That was my plan, to go to Central. I ended up here and I’ve loved every second of it,” Dodge said. “Being able to have one more year left is awesome. Hopefully I can get through another season healthy. I mean, four years of playing college football is a blessing in itself.”
Colter Nuanez is a freelance journalist living in Southwest Montana. He’s the senior writer for Bobcat Beat (bobcatnation.com), a website covering Montana State athletics. He can be reached at
[email protected] and followed on Twitter @Bobcat_Beat.
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