DRC McCollum, DD last of originals

[OldTimer]

McCollum, Dickey last of originals

MTSU, UNT coaches are only remaining from start of Sun Belt

08:28 AM CDT on Wednesday, July 27, 2005

By Brett Vito / Staff Writer

NEW ORLEANS — North Texas coach Darrell Dickey and Middle Tennessee coach Andy McCollum represented a dwindling breed during the final session of the Sun Belt Conference’s annual media days on Tuesday.

Darrell Dickey

Andy McCollum

The old friends are the last of the original set of coaches in the Sun Belt, a league that fielded a Division I-A football conference for the first time in 2001.

Both have seen numerous changes to the conference over the years and seem to run into each other at pivotal times in their coaching careers.

“As assistant coaches we recruited against and with each other in Texas,” Dickey said. “I have tremendous respect for Andy as an assistant coach, as a recruiter, a head coach and as a person. We are good friends except for one Saturday a year.”

That one Saturday this season — on Sept. 10 in Murfreesboro, Tenn. — shapes up to be yet another key game.

Dickey enters the 2005 season with a chance to lead the Mean Green to a Sun Belt Conference title and a berth in the New Orleans Bowl for the fifth straight season, an accomplishment that would improve his stature as a coach nationally. McCollum comes into the year off a 5-6 campaign and will be under pressure to knock off the Mean Green.

The game will be the first in Sun Belt play for both teams. A UNT win would extend the Mean Green’s conference winning streak to 26 games and could give the team early momentum in its quest for another conference crown.

MTSU’s chances of ending the Mean Green’s reign as Sun Belt champions will hinge on the unusually early conference game.

“Our game with North Texas is always important, whether it is the first or the last game of the season,” McCollum said. “It has always been a good game that has always come down to a play or two. They have made them, we haven’t.”

MTSU returns 18 starters, including junior quarterback Clint Marks who threw for a school-record 2,749 yards last season. UNT features the last two national rushing champions in Patrick Cobbs and Jamario Thomas.

Thomas rushed for 1,801 yards last season while Cobbs had 1,680 in 2003.

While UNT may have the edge in star power, the Mean Green have just 10 starters returning and lack the overall experience MTSU will enjoy.

UNT ran into another tough set of circumstances in 2001 when a Mean Green team that was 0-5 took on a MTSU squad that was 5-0. UNT won that game 24-21 and never looked back, winning 25 straight conference games.

“They played a great game against us and gained momentum from that game that has carried on,” McCollum said.

McCollum named UNT’s ability to succeed in critical situations as the basis for the Mean Green’s success through the years. UNT’s largest margin of victory its the four-game series against the Blue Raiders was 10 points in 2002.

The challenge of turning the tide against the Mean Green might be the biggest obstacle McCollum will face this season. Most of the rest of the challenges McCollum deals with are ones he shares with Dickey.

McCollum named tough non-conference schedules as the biggest obstacle he and Dickey face. McCollum’s Blue Raiders lost to Florida last season, while UNT opened its season with a loss to Texas. Both Florida and Texas were nationally ranked at the time.

The Mean Green’s loss to the Longhorns last year was the first of four to open the season. UNT turned its season around with a win over MTSU in week five.

With a conference game against MTSU looming in the second week of the season, UNT will have to avoid another slow start to extend its winning streak against MTSU in a showdown of the league’s last two founding coaches.

“We are not the fastest starters in the world, at least we haven’t been in the past,” Dickey said. “We are going to have a young team that needs to grow up in a hurry.”

That challenge will be critical this season when UNT takes on McCollum and MTSU, a team that has posted three straight losing seasons.

The Blue Raiders’ skid has left two old friends at opposite ends of a spectrum entering the 2005 season when Dickey will look to continue his roll while McCollum is trying to find his way out of a rut.

BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870. His e-mail address is bvito@dentonrc.com.