Two things Dickey doesn't control

[medpilot21]

I have some bad news for the DD apologist on here.  It's over.  The tide is turning fella's and I love it.  People are expecting more out of this program than a second rate head coach and a high school offensive coordinator at best.  It's good though.  You can sense it with the fans.  Everytime we criticize DD, you guys try to mask it that we are preaching doom and gloom, well we're not.  We are saying that we expect better and Darrel is not it and has not been it for a while.  Nobody is giving up on North Texas.  We have just raised our expectations.  So before you try to defend DD for everything he does, just realize that there has been a paradigm shift at the way North Texas fans look at football.  Losing is not acceptable anymore, NO MATTER WHICH TU WE ARE PLAYING

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Not so much apologies as explanations. There are NO teams...not even in the mighty Big-XII that win their conferences every year? And want to talk about a sweep of a conference? The odds against that, even in the Slump-Belt, are pretty slim. Darrell Dickey has given us FOUR conference titles and FOUR bowls. Yes, that gets him some loyalty and patience in my book. The simple fact is every team has down years. Dickey can only go with what he has. As a passionate NT fan you must have been at the game. Dickey didnt drop those passes or throw those picks? If Brock Stickler makes that catch and scores, is your opinion the same today? If Quinn doesnt fumble that punt and takes it to the house, are you writing this today? I understand your passion for this program, and I hope we are all as dedicated, But let's be realists. Many of us have been through far worse teams in the years prior to Dickey getting here. No Bowl game in 50 years prior to Dickey...then 4 in a row? I'm willing to give the guy some time to do what he needs to. This team is learning to compete, but there are hurdles left to go. I am on board with trying to win every game, but let's not lose focus. The winning attitude can be taught in a day, being in the right place...or making good reads takes a bit more time. Time we have......patience, that will take a little more effort from all of us.

Just a passing thought from a Dickey apologist...

GMG!!!

[Eagle-96]

Dickey can only go with what he has.

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You make some great points but Dickey is the one who is responsible for obtaining what he has.

[emmitt01]

I have some bad news for the DD apologist on here.  It's over.  The tide is turning fella's and I love it.  People are expecting more out of this program than a second rate head coach and a high school offensive coordinator at best.  It's good though.  You can sense it with the fans.  Everytime we criticize DD, you guys try to mask it that we are preaching doom and gloom, well we're not.  We are saying that we expect better and Darrel is not it and has not been it for a while.  Nobody is giving up on North Texas.  We have just raised our expectations.  So before you try to defend DD for everything he does, just realize that there has been a paradigm shift at the way North Texas fans look at football.  Losing is not acceptable anymore, NO MATTER WHICH TU WE ARE PLAYING

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No apologies, just facts. And, yes, the following are all facts regardless of whether you choose to view them as such:

1)Poor fan support(though getting better). A generous estimate would put us at 4,000 season tickets. Even if you say that 10,000 seats go to the students you are looking at 4,000 out of the remaining 20,500 or about slightly less than 25%...and I don't believe that we have 4,000 season tickets sold. And how many of our "fans" bitch, whine and moan about when the game's start, seat cushions, umbrellas, etc. when discussing whether they will attend games?

2)Second/Third rate facilities. We all know it but we just choose to discount it when looking for stud recruits to come here. Yeah, Fouts has new turf and a Jumbo tron. Great, now the players have a better surface to play on and our fans can get a better view of the game by watching the jumbo tron than they can just looking at the field. And don't begin to talk about the new athletic center, it's been here for a grand total of ONE recruiting class. The benefits of the AC and the other new facilities won't be seen for a good 3 to 4 years if not longer.

3)Teams lose games. I'll say it again, teams lose games...and they lose badly sometimes. Oklahoma hung 70+ on Texas aTm a few years ago. OU has drubbed UT by big point spreads in the past few years. Tech hung 70 on TCU last year and put up 70 on Nebraska the last time they played. Did I mention that the teams on the losing end of these scores also boast multi-million dollar football budgets that dwarf our athletic budget? Seems Dickey should have some esteemed company in the ol' unemployment line. And the Sun Belt streak was going to end sometime. Personally, if you'd have given me a choice I would have picked to have it end the year we had a rookie QB, an O-Line that had yet to gel and a brand new defensive line. Throw into that mix a QB and a potential starting d-lineman who couldn't get their heads on straight in the classroom and I'd think this would be the opportune time to take your lumps in conference. But I guess we should all take the hardline stance of "we won't tolerate losing!"

4)Players have to grow up on the field. When you have inexperience across both lines you don't walk out onto the field and dominate people. I know, I know, Dickey should teach them to block and tackle and be better players...in between holding his players hands in class, teaching them discipline, revolutionizing his playbook, raising his daughter, making time for his wife, being a good-will ambassador to fans and potential new fans, sleeping, and finding time to grab a bite to eat. Jesus, if a man can't do all of these things then we need to fire him yesterday! Or, and I know I'm asking for a leap of faith here but bear with me, could it be that young kids make mistakes in football games and will get better with time. When Danny Meager is a senior, our defensive line has more than FOUR games under their belts, our secondary isn't playing together for the first time, and we're not replacing names like Adrian Awasom, Scott Hall, Andy Blount, Andy Brewster, Jonas Buckles, the list goes on, and if he hasn't recruited somebody to fill in the holes...then talk to me about how the coach should have his team better ready to play.

Hell, what do I know though, I'm just an apologist.

[TIgreen01]

I have zero problem with coaching last night---outside of the way the TJ Covington unsportsmanlike penalty was handled by our coaches. From where I sat (up in section F), EVERYONE watched as one of our coaches patted TJ on his helmet after that ridiculously stupid play. That was bad....but what was worse was when TJ walked back across the field and started shouting at the ref who made the call....he was very animated and at the end of his rant he waved his arm at the ref as if to say, "well I don't care and screw you". To me, that cannot be tolerated. I was shocked that he didn't draw another 15 yarder right there. TJ is supposedly a leader on our defense....the coaches had an opportunity to do the right thing, but chose not to. The grumblings from the fans around me say that I'm not alone in the thought that he should have been put on the bench after that mess.

It is hard for most people to root for teams that have players that behave this way and are seemingly encouraged by their coaches. I'll be honest when I say this....if I was not an alum of North Texas and had witnessed that display, as a sports fan I would promptly begin rooting against NT. I think most of the people around me (in the stadium) feel the same way. It would sure be nice to see these players disciplined from time to time....regardless of how talented they are.

[MeanGreenThing]

Gotta love a game in which our best reciever is turned into a bad quarterback. Sorry Johnny, but that was a DUCK.

[UNTSIG]

Emmitt- I am glad that you have admitted that you are an apologist for DD. All I have to say is that I think that a lot of fans have really missed the big picture that a lot of us are looking at. Over the last few years, you are right...we have won 4 conference championships and we have made it to 4 straight NO Bowls but what has changed since DD has been here? OUR CONFERENCE! People need to stop comparing apples and oranges on here and start comparing apples to apples. Look at the scores against same caliber of opponents that we were playing 10 years ago as to the ones that we are playing today. What's the difference? Nothing. So here is a good question for you that I find funny nobody has ever brought up. If the Mean Green had been in the Sun Belt Conference for 20 years now, how many conference championships would we have won?

[SpaceMonkey]

I wonder what DD's imagination is telling him about when and how he'll be fired if this crap continues.

[eulesseagle]

Eagle-96: Evidently your perception of creative plays and mine are different.

1. Going from 75-80% runs to a 50-50 balance IS being a bit more creative.

2. Your peception of swing passes, going deep, over the middle passes and "dump-off" passes are NOT being creative enough???.....maybe you can explain YOUR perception of creativity because I would like to hear it instead of you being critical without ANY examples. Be specific if you would please.

[meanrob]

are you serious euless? If you run 40 times and it works 40 times then you keep doing it. No creativity needed. So by your logic if we threw it 20 times and ran it 20 times and it didn't work that was still being creative??

Well using your logic we ran 2 times and passed once down at the goalline.

2-1 equals no creativity.

So hey....we do agree.

[Eagle-96]

Eagle-96:  Evidently your perception of creative plays and mine are different.

1.  Going from 75-80% runs to a 50-50 balance IS being a bit more creative.

2.  Your peception of swing passes, going deep, over the middle passes and "dump-off" passes are NOT being creative enough???.....maybe you can explain YOUR perception of creativity because I would like to hear it instead of you being critical without ANY examples.  Be specific if you would please.

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1. Balance DOES NOT equate to creativity. Let's say you run the same 4-5 running plays 80% of the time and the same 4-5 passing plays 20% of the time. That is unimaginative AND uncreative. If you balance those same 4-5 running plays and 4-5 passing plays to 50-50 than you have more balance but the same amount of creativity and imagination.

2. Look at our passing plays:

inside wide receiver screen

quick out

swing pass(and I don't mean the type where the rb is the 3rd or 4th option. I mean the one where that is the designed play.)

straight go by one receiver with max protection then lay it up and hope the receiver can catch it in double coverage.

Where are the mis-direction and crossing patterns.

Where are the bootlegs of the non-naked variety.

Where is the double tight end release out of the jumbo set.

Where are the designed rolling pockets.

Where is the shovel pass.

3. Look at our running plays.

Where are the counters

Where are the trap plays

Where are the short handoffs out of the power I.

Where are the sweeps and naked bootlegs down at the goalline.

We continue to zone block and defenses continue to stunt and blitz which will confuse the zone scheme and leave 1-2 players in the backfiled 70% of the time. We need to go back to straight-up man blocking until we can gain some consistency.

Edited October 5, 2005 by Eagle-96

[SpaceMonkey]

I'd like to have someone who wants a more "creative" game plan define their use of the word creative. If you mean using trick plays like flea flickers and circumstantial plays like reverses and such then tell us how often you want to see those. I'm good with doing those once or twice per game depending on the talent level of everyone involved, and it was a good call to have JQ throw that pass (even though he might as well have been throwing a bean bag) but there's a reason no successfull team builds a game plan around such plays, because they only work in the right moment.

[ipEAGLE]

Excellent post Eagle-96....

Zone Blocking.

Edited October 5, 2005 by ipEAGLE

[emmitt01]

Emmitt- I am glad that you have admitted that you are an apologist for DD.  All I have to say is that I think that a lot of fans have really missed the big picture that a lot of us are looking at.  Over the last few years, you are right...we have won 4 conference championships and we have made it to 4 straight NO Bowls but what has changed since DD has been here?  OUR CONFERENCE!  People need to stop comparing apples and oranges on here and start comparing apples to apples.  Look at the scores against same caliber of opponents that we were playing 10 years ago as to the ones that we are playing today.  What's the difference?  Nothing.  So here is a good question for you that I find funny nobody has ever brought up.  If the Mean Green had been in the Sun Belt Conference for 20 years now, how many conference championships would we have won?

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Obviously we'll have to agree to disagree but here's the question that I don't think you've asked yourself. For all the "sucess" the other teams in the belt have had against non-conference competition (Troy's win against Mizzou, MTSU's several wins against Vandy, etc) which program has the hardware to show for it and the better perception nationally? Want a clue, cuz you need one....North Texas. Look at the preseason prognostications, look at the national media attention, look at the common perceptions. We are the "big" game when we roll into many SBC towns...our SBC brethren are still met with "who?"

And another thing. How many times has ANYBODY said they would be satisfied with this production in a year when we actually return a team with games under their belt? Or, how many times have we said we'd be satisfied if we look the same in game 8 or 9 as opposed to game 3 or 4? The answer...none. The problem with many of our fans is we whoop and holler about our national rushing champions and how we're "going to the next level" but then bitch and complain when those same schemes, those EXACT same schemes, don't produce with different talent running them.

And I find it cute that you chose to respond to the last sentence of my previous post, the statement made entirely with a sarcastic tone, as opposed to acknowledging that Dickey's playbook alone does not make or break our football fortunes. Figures. Hell, by your logic Idaho should have won several national championships the last few years or at least the Sun Belt title. Their offense was "creative" and fun to watch.

Edited October 5, 2005 by emmitt01

[meanrob]

Obviously we'll have to agree to disagree but here's the question that I don't think you've asked yourself.  For all the "sucess" the other teams in the belt have had against non-conference competition (Troy's win against Mizzou, MTSU's several wins against Vandy, etc) which program has the hardware to show for it and the better perception nationally?  Want a clue, cuz you need one....North Texas.  Look at the preseason prognostications, look at the national media attention, look at the common perceptions.  We are the "big" game when we roll into many SBC towns...our SBC brethren are still met with "who?" 

And another thing.  How many times has ANYBODY said they would be satisfied with this production in a year when we actually return a team with games under their belt?  Or, how many times have we said we'd be satisfied if we look the same in game 8 or 9 as opposed to game 3 or 4?  The answer...none.  The problem with many of our fans is we whoop and holler about our national rushing champions and how we're "going to the next level" but then bitch and complain when those same schemes, those EXACT same schemes, don't produce with different talent running them.

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I guess it's too much to ask for a coach to adapt to a change in his talent.

[Stan R]

Obviously we'll have to agree to disagree but here's the question that I don't think you've asked yourself.  For all the "sucess" the other teams in the belt have had against non-conference competition (Troy's win against Mizzou, MTSU's several wins against Vandy, etc) which program has the hardware to show for it and the better perception nationally?  Want a clue, cuz you need one....North Texas.  Look at the preseason prognostications, look at the national media attention, look at the common perceptions.  We are the "big" game when we roll into many SBC towns...our SBC brethren are still met with "who?" 

And another thing.  How many times has ANYBODY said they would be satisfied with this production in a year when we actually return a team with games under their belt?  Or, how many times have we said we'd be satisfied if we look the same in game 8 or 9 as opposed to game 3 or 4?  The answer...none.  The problem with many of our fans is we whoop and holler about our national rushing champions and how we're "going to the next level" but then bitch and complain when those same schemes, those EXACT same schemes, don't produce with different talent running them.

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..sigh... yes, I'll grudgingly admit that you are right, emmit about the wins, conference success etc.. But can you honestly tell me that DD shouldn't open the playbook up to some more mid-range 5-15 yard passes? That's all I'm asking for is to give us some more options to keep drives going that don't involve home run 40 yard passes exclusively.