DMN DD influenced by K-State

[OldTimer]

UNT's Dickey influenced by K-State

11:04 PM CDT on Monday, September 19, 2005

By BRETT VITO / Denton Record-Chronicle

DENTON – Most of Jim Dickey's assistant coaches thought he was crazy when he made a decision that changed the course of not only his career, but that of his son, Darrell, in 1981.

With his team coming off its 10th straight losing season, Kansas State's coach essentially conceded the year by redshirting eight of his top upperclassmen in an effort to build for his son's final campaign as Wildcats quarterback a year later.

The plan paid off with a winning season and an appearance in the Independence Bowl.

Experiences along the way to that breakthrough still influence the coaching philosophy of Darrell Dickey, who is in his eighth season as coach at North Texas. Dickey returns to Kansas State on Saturday, when UNT meets the Wildcats at KSU Stadium in Manhattan, Kan.

"What I remember most from Kansas State is going to the first bowl game in the history of the school," Dickey said. "It took a lot of hard work and imagination by my father. When we went to that bowl game, all the people who doubted us turned around and were our buddies. That was fun and satisfying."

Dickey's UNT teams have won four consecutive Sun Belt Conference titles. He attributes his success with the Mean Green in part to his experience at K-State, from the team's struggles early in his career to a memorable senior season when the Wildcats finished 6-5-1.

"Kansas State prepared me for this job more than anything I have ever done," Dickey said. "A lot of the same things I went through as a player, these kids have gone through here."

As coaches, Dickey and his father each had to find a way to turn around a downtrodden team. K-State had posted seven straight losing seasons when Jim Dickey arrived in 1978, while UNT was coming off its third straight losing season when Darrell took over in 1998.

Each program's turnaround can be traced in part to the unorthodox decision Jim made before the 1981 season.

"I grabbed a press book from Nebraska that summer and figured out that we were not only playing kids 50 pounds bigger, they were also two years older," Jim said. "That summer, I started talking about redshirting a bunch of our returning starters. When I mentioned it to my coaches, they thought I was off my rocker."

Jim stuck by his plan, and the Wildcats went 2-9.

"Darrell took a lot of grief in those early years," said Mark Mackey, one of Dickey's teammates at K-State. "He handled it with grace and composure, which helped us through that season."

Enduring that dreadful year proved to be worthwhile. The redshirts returned the next season, and Dickey threw for a career-high 1,225 yards. The Wildcats beat in-state rival Kansas before falling to Wisconsin in K-State's first bowl game.

"The downfall of playing for my dad was I caught a lot of flak, my dad caught a lot of flak and my mother caught a tremendous amount of flak," Dickey said. "When we finally had our winning season and went to a bowl game, the pride she had was as satisfying as anything I have experienced in my career."

That season provided the model for Dickey's first few years at UNT.

"We have not had to go to the extreme my father did when he redshirted all those players, but what it taught me is having numbers of players who can play across the board is the key to having a successful team," Dickey said. "I also learned that if everyone doubts you, bad mouths you and tells you that it can't be done, if a group of people pull together and work for a common cause, it can be done."

Dickey initially struggled with recruiting, and his first three UNT teams had losing records. But the Mean Green turned the corner in 2001, winning its first Sun Belt title.

Mackey and other former teammates of Dickey will be at KSU Stadium for Dickey's second trip to his alma mater as UNT coach. The Mean Green lost to K-State in 2000, 55-10.

"We are all still great friends," said Steve Willis, another former teammate. "It goes back to that season when so many of the guys redshirted. I was a kicker, and he was nice to me when no one else was. That shows why he held us together."

E-mail bvito@dentonrc.com

[the green rokemi]

Dickey's UNT teams have won four consecutive Sun Belt Conference titles. He attributes his success with the Mean Green in part to his experience at K-State, from the team's struggles early in his career to a memorable senior season when the Wildcats finished 6-5-1.

Enduring that dreadful year proved to be worthwhile. The redshirts returned the next season, and Dickey threw for a career-high 1,225 yards. The Wildcats beat in-state rival Kansas before falling to Wisconsin in K-State's first bowl game.

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Anybodyelse think this is all kind of ironic?