FW*Telegram Defiant Dickey defends results

[OldTimer]

Why would another college hire someone who has made such an ass out of himself by his actions...thanks Al Hurley but not Pohl...nearly 30 players who left since 2002 most of whom would be Jr. senior or 5th year sr. Critized money games when most were scheduled by Hurley etc.

TEXAS FOOTBALL NOTESDefiant Dickey defends results during 9-year tenure

By TROY PHILLIPS

Star-Telegram Staff Writer

DENTON - It was Dickey's Last Stand on Tuesday at North Texas.

Outgoing football coach Darrell Dickey, fired on Nov. 8 effective the end of the season, used his final news conference to strike a defiant, combative pose.

Dickey thanked his current and past players, his assistant coaches and their families, UNT board of regents chair Bobby Ray and former UNT President Al Hurley for their support.

Dickey, at times shouting, gave a 40-minute summation/defense of his nine seasons, reading an eight-page list of UNT's accomplishments on and off the field.

"We had a mission here when I arrived," Dickey said in his own prepared statement. "The mission has never wavered. I was hired to build a program that placed academics first, conduct second and football third. That is an order of importance not found at many other programs in the country."

Dickey has been criticized for the nearly 30 players who have left the program, many for academic reasons, since 2002. Most of those would have been juniors, seniors or fifth-year seniors this season.

Dickey cited the academic achievements of those who stayed, including a raised team grade-point average (1.9 to 2.57 in nine years) and a 100 percent graduation rate for the current senior class by May 2007.

At times Dickey aired what sounded like grievances. He said his teams were forced to play "over 30 money games bringing in close to $10 million" for the athletic program, as opposed to only two games against Division I-AA opponents.

Some of those games involved return trips to Denton by UNT opponents or neutral sites such as Texas Stadium, bringing the actual "money game" total to between 20 and 25.

Athletic director Rick Villarreal, whom Dickey did not thank, said he recognizes Dickey's accomplishments, including his four conference titles.

"That should be part of his legacy," Villarreal said.

Donation forthcoming

North Texas is expecting its largest donation to date for athletics -- at least $1.5 million -- to be finalized in the next two days. Villarreal said the school will make an announcement no earlier than late this afternoon and likely on Thursday or Friday.

UNT's previous largest athletic gift of $1.4 million was part of a joint $3 million project with the department of recreational sports for the Waranch Tennis Pavilion in 2005.

The latest gift would be used to spearhead a capital campaign to build a new football stadium. No timetable has been set for the construction.

ONLINE: meangreensports.com

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Troy Phillips, 817-390-7760 tphillips@star-telegram.com

[Evan]

At times Dickey aired what sounded like grievances.

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Sounds like he is ready for Festivus...

[SilverEagle]

You know, this whole situation can't get over with soon enough.

[SilverEagle]

Does Troy Phillips not cover Basketball? The story in the ST about North Texas coming from a 9 point deficit to beat Tulsa 65 to 63 was an associated press story.

[untbowler]

why can he not just leave with some class, instead he has to continue to take potshots. I think the defiance really came about when RV came in and all of a sudden he did not have Helwig and Hurley to step on. He was actually held accountable for his results.

Thanks for the memories, but CYA!!!

Good luck at your next school, whereever it might be hope hopefully you learn some public relations.

[jperg2]

Sounds like he is ready for Festivus...

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I nominate this as the ... response of the week!

That was just priceless.

[the green rokemi]

conduct second? Ha, sure....

[FirefightnRick]

Thank you Troy Phillips for at least trying to correct the number of money games listed and mentioning that many of those games DD is complaining about were returned.

How funny is it that DD was shouting at his last press conference but didn't even so much as raise an eye brow when one of his players committed a late personal foul last year while Johnny Quinn was crossing the goal line for the(would have been) eventual winning TD against Arkansas State 50 yards further up field?

Talk about your priorities out of whack!

Rick

[GMoney]

As I mentioned in an earlier post - adversity reveals the true character of a man.

However, one thing I can't get over is thanking A. Hurley. If ever a man should not be thanked for anything athletic, it's him!

[ntsumgspe]

How funny is it that DD was shouting at his last press conference

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Does anyone have an audio link of the press conference ?

[GoMeanGreen1999]

You know, this whole situation can't get over with soon enough.

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Could not have said it any better.

[JayDub]

[PlummMeanGreen]

You know, this whole situation can't get over with soon enough.

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Amen, bro'!

I wonder what part of "winning several more win-able OOC games" and having an NCAA D1-A 4 time SBC conference champion of which (lets say even just one) of those could have been ranked in the Top 25 Coach Dickey just does not seem to be able to fathom?

Didn't some of us see some of these personality traits of DD that have really begun to rear its ugly head big time quite a while back? Hellsbells! Some of our UNT elect who kept telling me all this of which I was relunctant to accept at the time; anyway, many of them saw all this from DD a few years before my own light bulb finally turned on after I finally stepped back away from all this and could really see the trees for the forest.

To Rick Villarreal and Dr. "B":

Please just hire a new coach and sign him to a 6 year contract that if he succeeds with Top 25 Mean Green football teams much sooner than later that it will cost some Big Time U type of school a small fortune to hire said coach away from us. Now that is what most of us at most non-BCS schools would call a pretty good deal for both parties concerned, eh?:rolleyes:

And to re-iterate an email just sent to me by one of our fellow alums:

WHY IS THIS CHARACTER BEING ALLOWED TO COACH ANY GAME FOR UNT THIS SATURDAY? ANY ANSWERS OUT THERE? OF MORE CONCERN FOR MANY IS: WILL OUR SCHOOL CONTINUE TO OPERATE IN THIS KIND OF MODE?

Edited November 22, 2006 by PlummMeanGreen

[ntsumgspe]

Sounds like he is ready for Festivus...

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And for the "Feats of Strength," we will have Coach Dickey and RV wrestle.

[LongJim]

[Mad Hatter]

I'm excited to see the $1.5mm donation mentioned again. It'll be nice when we get several of these a year, but I'll take what we can get. Now we only need to raise $58.5mm. We're practically there.

[adman]

I'm excited to see the $1.5mm donation mentioned again.  It'll be nice when we get several of these a year, but I'll take what we can get.  Now we only need to raise $58.5mm.  We're practically there.

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Anyone know where it is coming from?

[PlummMeanGreen]

I'm excited to see the $1.5mm donation mentioned again.  It'll be nice when we get several of these a year, but I'll take what we can get.  Now we only need to raise $58.5mm.  We're practically there.

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[FirefightnRick]

As I mentioned in an earlier post - adversity reveals the true character of a man.

However, one thing I can't get over is thanking A. Hurley.  If ever a man should not be thanked for anything athletic, it's him!

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Better yet, how about leaving off Dr. Norval and Barbakay Pohl? WOW!

Rick

[untbowler]

As I mentioned in an earlier post - adversity reveals the true character of a man.

However, one thing I can't get over is thanking A. Hurley.  If ever a man should not be thanked for anything athletic, it's him!

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Very funny he thanked him since he and Helwig signed all of those supposed Money Games

RV has put it down to 1 maybe 2 games and everything else should have been winnable.

Guess DD considered all our OOC games $$ games since it was not beating up on the poor.

[good_ken]

Very funny he thanked him since he and Helwig signed all of those supposed Money Games 

RV has put it down to 1 maybe 2 games and everything else should have been winnable.

Guess DD considered all our OOC games $$ games since it was not beating up on the poor.

One of the worst losses this year was at the hands of MTSU.

I didn't realize MTSU was a money game this year.

Oh, DD only wanted to focus on losses where he could try to find an excuse.

[untbowler]

One of the worst losses this year was at the hands of MTSU. 

I didn't realize MTSU was a money game this year.

Oh, DD only wanted to focus on losses where he could try to find an excuse.

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Don't forget the 54-2 loss to the immense powerhouse Tulsa last year.

[Got5onIt]

Sounds like he is ready for Festivus...

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So Dickey is going to wrestle RV, correct?

[GoMeanGreen1999]

Don't forget the 54-2 loss to the immense powerhouse Tulsa last year.

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In 20 years of attending UNT games at Fouts, that game ranks in my Top 5 of "All Time Most Deflating" games.....gosh that was so deflating.

[VideoEagle]

Don't forget the 54-2 loss to the immense powerhouse Tulsa last year.

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We keep saying CUSA is stronger than the Sun Belt. Tulsa won their division in CUSA, then they won their conference Championship. And then they won their bowl. Last year they actually were strong!