MeanGreenZen

If I believed that I would be pissed he got canned. But I don't.

Why is Dickey so bitter about getting fired? Refusing to talk about the firing, the black uniforms, the all-black coaching outfit, his buddy Mattress Mac crying to the media … Dickey’s getting paid $500,000 to not coach UNT. He has been mailing it in the last two seasons. I would forgive our record the last two seasons if I thought Dickey was trying to improve the program, but the horrible recruiting classes, the inability to develop the talent he has, the regression of key players, the undisciplined penalties, his negative attitude towards UNT and the unimaginative play-calling convinced me otherwise. You’d think Dickey would be ok with getting paid to walk away.

Darrell probably used some of the money from the recruiting budget he hasn't spent the last couple of years.

How important is him winning a state championship at Southlake Carroll this season? What if his team is upset in the first round of the playoffs? Would that change how you feel about him as a candidate at UNT?

I do not think Mark Cuban will be donating $ to a cause that could eventually take money out of his own pocket. The Dallas Mavericks and UNT football are competing for the same people to attend their events and buy their merchandise. They play many games on the same day. Cuban is way too smart to donate to UNT athletics.

The Ticket is just reading the same old report from the DRC that got picked up by the DMN. Do you think a reporter from The Ticket is calling up USM to verify if UNT has contacted their tight ends coach about the Mean Green vacancy? No. The Ticket is reporting news that RV has already addressed and discounted.

Who cares? RV said this guy isn't a contender. This seems like a dead issue. Let's talk about coaches who may be contenders.

I pray to the Mean Green gods that RV is just doing his boy a favor by putting Butler's name in the mix, but hopefully isn't seriously considering him. You know, just get his friend's name out there. Maybe give him some leverage when it's time to renegotiate that contract with USM. Make his buddy seem in demand or a hot item. Make the USM fans take a little more notice of what Butler does. This coaching hire would suck.

I'll be first in line to do it if it is that spare Randy Butler.

Randy Butler? Ridiculous. Maybe RV has a former pizza delivery driver he used to work with at Domino's that he wants to hire as the head football coach at UNT. That sounds about as attractive to me as hiring a spare Southern Mississippi tight ends coach. Boo!!!

Boooooooooooooooooooo!

The tight ends coach at the University of Southern Mississippi? Are we sure the USM student assistant who does the players' laundry isn't too busy to take the job? Certainly the UNT job can attract a sexier candidate than this. If this is the best RV can do, I'd rather he just bring back Dickey.

Here are the names I'm hearing. Who do you like so far?

That hire would be about as exciting as a draw play on 3rd and 15.

It is easier to switch from a running offense to a passing offense than the other way around. Wide receivers grow on trees. We probably already have the WRs on the roster now to be successful in the spread. Rice made the switch this year and after a brief adjustment has won five of their last six games. Wow! I trust RV will bring in the right coach, Dykes, Nix, Dodge, whoever. I just hope that coach runs the type of pass-heavy offense that a team of UNT's resources needs to be successful playing in Division 1-A.

Jamario Thomas had six carries for two yards against ULL. During his freshman season Jamario looked like he'd break Ron Dayne's NCAA career rushing mark or leave us after his junior year for the NFL. But two years later he's turned into just an average to below average Sun Belt Conference running back. Check out his regression: As a junior, he's averaging 3.6 yards a carry. He averaged 4.1 ypc as a sophomore. AND 6.3 YARDS PER CARRY AS A FRESHMAN!!! That's a huge dropoff. The reasons cited for the slump last season were the extra weight he gained and a lingering injury, but entering this year he was supposed to be at full strength and much lighter. The offensive line can't bear all the blame because Evan Robertson, a guy who is considered to have less overall talent than Jamario, runs behind the same line and is averaging the exact same 3.6 yards per carry. UNT needs Jamario to be a superstar. His individual success brings attention to the program and should help recruiting (The pitch: Come to UNT, win a national rushing title, get on the cover of USA Today and your hometown will dedicate a whole day to you and present you with a key to the city). Why has Jamario's production continued to slip this year? Should he still be the starting running back next week? What does our next coach have to do to revive his career? Can he regain the step he has supposedly lost?

So Dickey gets fired and suddenly the team comes out and plays with passion and discipline and gets a win. This proves Dickey and his coaching staff were underachieving all season and deserved the ax. Why wasn't the team playing with passion and discipline previously? Because Dickey and staff weren't willing to do the work to prepare and inspire the team until they were all publicly embarrassed by being fired. But now Dickey can motivate again. He tells the team and hints to the media that he was fired because of a perceived inability to recruit. This makes the players, who were all Dickey recruits, feel disrespected and therefore they practice a little harder this week, they study the gameplan a little harder and maybe they reach down and give a little extra during the game. They are driven to prove their critics wrong. All the coaches are now auditioning for their next job so they had incentive to coach a little harder this week, too. There is a famous quote that goes: "The greatest threat to tomorrow's success is today's success." I know everyone likes to rip his overall coaching record, but Dickey did some wonderful things at UNT. He is no doubt a UNT athletic hall-of-famer. But he's been sleepwalking through atleast the last two seasons. Too bad RV had to fire him to wake him up.

I respectfully disagree with the part of your post I understood.

Oh by the way, Matt Simon did use the race deal when recruiting. He had some good wins at UNT, too. I'm not looking to pick a fight about this issue. But it would be to our advantage to be (again) one of the few D-1A schools with an African-american head coach. It is another way we can differentiate ourselves.

I don't "care" that he is black either. But an African-American recruit might and that would be to his advantage. You can't tell me that's not an issue: remember when Kellen Winslow and his son had a huge falling out because Kellen Sr. wanted Kellen Jr. to go to Michigan State and play for a black head coach but Kellen Jr wanted to go to Miami instead. That issue matters to some people. Maybe it shouldn't, but it does.

I don't have a problem with him hiring a successful person he knows. I just worry about hiring someone without Texas ties. An anonymous assistant from the other side of the country (Nix) is not something that will catch a lot of attention immediately like hiring a big name like Neuheisel (sp?), local hero Todd Dodge or a guy with a name every high school coach in the state knows like Sonny Dykes. Nix is not a "sexy" hire, but that doesn't mean he isn't the right hire. I do like that he is African-American. I think that could bring some positive attention and help in recruiting.

The Johnny Jones hire has not been a rousing success or an utter failure. The softball coaching hire was botched. If RV makes the right call on the new football coach he may be able to finally get one of those AD positions at another school he keeps applying for. If he makes the wrong call, he'll be back to delivering pizzas. This choice will most likely define his legacy here. Good luck RV!!! We're all pulling for you.

If Dunham and UNT ever got too crossways they couldn't work together then Dunham would have his choice of college play-by-play gigs. He could probably leave us for a better paying gig right now, but he stays with UNT out of loyalty to his alma mater. Talk smack about traitor UNT alumni Craig Miller, not the wildly talented George Dunham. I love him more than Todd Dodge and Major Applewhite combined.

South Carolina with a record of 5-4 this season isn't going to be a player in the SEC, so maybe this guy will be able to get started early at UNT (if hired) and bring in a decent recruiting class.

Texas ties aren't a non-negotiable requirement for me. But it sure seems like a good idea. With UNT's small recruiting budget a coach with a lot of contacts in the state has an advantage over an outsider. It is a lot easier to find the 2nd and 3rd tier recruits UNT should be competing for when a high school coach you know and trust gives you information about them. (By the way, Dickey went after 4th tier recruits. UT, OU and A&M get the 1st tier and don't try to say UNT should be actively recruiting those guys.) Ultimately, we all have to trust that RV will do a better job on this coaching hire than he did with the men's basketball coach and the softball coach. There was a reason Norval Pohl hired RV. I trust Pohl so I trust RV will make the right decision.