DRC The downward spiral

[OldTimer]

Football: The downward spiral

What wen wrong in Dickey's last two years at North Texas

09:43 PM CST on Wednesday, November 22, 2006

By Brett Vito / Staff Writer

Not all that long ago, North Texas head coach Darrell Dickey was riding high in the world of college football.

Dickey had a pair of national rushing champions returning, a 25-game winning streak in Sun Belt Conference play and a growing reputation as an up-and-coming college coach heading into the 2005 season. Those days seem like little more than a memory entering the Mean Green’s season finale against Louisiana-Monroe on Saturday that will also serve as the end of the Dickey era at UNT.

So just how did Dickey go from the top of the Sun Belt Conference to being fired with three years still left on his contract on Nov. 8?

There is no simple answer, only a host of factors that culminated the last two seasons when the Mean Green struggled to get over the hump with a young team that never came together despite showing potential at times.

“There is talent on this team right now, but we have many young players who are playing before their time,” Dickey said Tuesday during his final midweek press conference at UNT. “They will do great things. Some of them already are, but young teams have a tendency to make mistakes and be inconsistent.”

Those mistakes have resulted in a slump that cost Dickey a chance to try to return UNT to its glory days in 2001-04 when the Mean Green won four straight conference titles and produced back-to-back national rushing champions in Patrick Cobbs and Jamario Thomas in the final two years of that run.

UNT finished 2-9 last season and failed to rebound this year. The Mean Green is 3-8 with one game left in Dickey’s tenure.

Several factors contributed to UNT's slump, including the loss of multiple players from the 2002 and 2003 recruiting classes, struggles to find a productive quarterback and an offense that has floundered the last two seasons.

The quarterback situation has been perhaps the Mean Green's biggest problem. Former UNT great Scott Hall led the Mean Green to the Sun Belt Conference title in 2001, 2003 and 2004 and finished as the school’s all-time leader in passing efficiency with a 132.26 rating.

Andrew Smith took over for Hall when he was injured in 2002 and led the Mean Green to another Sun Belt title. Smith was expected to compete with Hall for the starting job in 2004 and take over as a senior in 2005, but died in a car accident prior to the 2004 season.

"If you look at last season and what having Andrew Smith would have meant as a senior and what it would have meant to have the other two to watch for another season -- it would have been invaluable," UNT offensive coordinator Ramon Flanigan said earlier this year of Daniel Meager and Matt Phillips, a pair of sophomores who were expected to learn from Smith in 2005.

The Mean Green has used Meager, Phillips and Woody Wilson at quarterback the last two seasons and seen the trio post a 96.01 passing efficiency rating.

Meager and Phillips were thrown into the fire without having taken a snap in a college game last season, while Wilson played just half a season at Coffeyville (Kan.) Community College before transferring to UNT in December.

UNT's offense has suffered as a result. The Mean Green ranked last in total offense in the Sun Belt last season at 271.9 yards a game and is seventh out of eight teams in the league this year at 240.8 yards a game.

UNT's struggles can be attributed not only to the Mean Green's struggles at quarterback but also to signing back-to-back recruiting classes in 2002 and 2003 that produced only a few contributors.

Linebacker Maurice Holman is the only high school recruit from the 2003 class that has received All-Sun Belt Conference honors.

Seven members of the class are no longer with the program.

UNT signed several key players in 2002, including wide receiver Johnny Quinn, offensive lineman Dylan Lineberry and kicker Nick Bazaldua, but didn't land as many contributors as Dickey would have liked.

"We only have one guy who is sitting out this year because of academics, but there are guys who are not here for other reasons," Dickey said. "They didn't hold up their end of the bargain, didn't pan out or gave up the sport. These two years have been affected by some guys who we were counting on not being here, a higher number than we have had in previous years.”

One of those players who left in the middle of his career was quarterback Joey Byerly, who was expected to battle Meager for the starting job in 2005.

Dickey said his philosophy throughout his tenure at UNT was to recruit Texas and Oklahoma high school players and develop them in the program for four to five years. Former Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year Brandon Kennedy and current NFL linebackers Brad Kassell and Cody Spencer are two of the players who followed that path in the Dickey era.

Dickey also said he liked to play multiple players at each position to keep them fresh and motivated. The attrition UNT experienced the last few seasons affected that plan.

All five of UNT's second-string offensive linemen this season are freshmen or redshirt freshmen, while all four cornerbacks on the Mean Green's two-deep depth chart are either freshmen or sophomores.

UNT was also hurt by the loss of offensive lineman Josh Alexander and tight end Charles Brown, a pair of potential starters whose injuries were misdiagnosed after the end of last season. Both had surgery late in the summer and are sitting out this year.

"When we were really good on defense, everyone talked about Brandon Kennedy," Dickey said. "But he had a lot of other good players around him."

UNT just never found the right balance of talent under Dickey the last two years and saw a series of close losses mount. The Mean Green lost five conference games by a total of 21 points last season and dropped three games this year by eight points or less.

Dickey believes UNT's roster is full of players who will mature and develop into a team that will rival the Mean Green of old that beat Cincinnati in the 2002 New Orleans Bowl and posted a 9-4 record in 2003.

Dickey just ran out of time to turn the program back around and was dismissed, a move that shocked some of his peers in the Sun Belt.

"Darrell is a classy guy, a good football coach and has contributed so much to North Texas' success," Troy head coach Larry Blakeney said. "I hate to see the trigger pulled so quick. Darrell has done a great job and deserved better from the university."

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

[GreenBat]

Excuses, excuses, excuses.

These are excuses for failure. DD is the reason for the failure.

[emmitt01]

How can a team be "young" every single year? Freshmen become sophomores who become juniors and so on, right?

And if you're perpetually losing players to attrition shouldn't you be signing players who are safer bets? I know, I know, we have to take chances because we're North Texas and just can't recruit against the Rices, ULL's and Texas State's of the world. Isn't this the same guy who said his list of priorities for this program was academics first, character second and football third? Why all the losses to grades and character issues then coach?

[Travis]

Its frustrating reading that article because why he was canned was so much more than he mentioned. This grossly underestimates the reasons why.

He was never any good even during those bowl years save for one season when they went 9-3. Even that is up to speculation.

Emmitt, I was thinking the EXACT same thing. DD has used that "we are a young team" comment every year I can remember. It grew old.

[Guest GrayEagleOne]

How can a team be "young" every single year?  Freshmen become sophomores who become juniors and so on, right? 

And if you're perpetually losing players to attrition shouldn't you be signing players who are safer bets?  I know, I know, we have to take chances because we're North Texas and just can't recruit against the Rices, ULL's and Texas State's of the world.  Isn't this the same guy who said his list of priorities for this program was academics first, character second and football third?  Why all the losses to grades and character issues then coach?

←

Emmitt, this is spooky. Those were very near my thoughts when I read that article.

One other point. He all but ridiculed the fans for criticizing his recruiting but in this article admits to failure to keep signees. It's all Joey Byerly's fault. Oh, well, football wasn't a high priority anyway.

[GMoney]

"Darrell is a classy guy, a good football coach and has contributed so much to North Texas' success," Troy head coach Larry Blakeney said. "I hate to see the trigger pulled so quick. Darrell has done a great job and deserved better from the university."

Because a guy is classy and is your friend does not mean the university did him wrong. As has been highlighted on this board many times, if DD would have shown the same class to the fans as he apparently has opposing coaches, maybe there would be more of an outcry about his firing. Tther than the media, who knows nothing about NT athletics except he lead NT to 4 Conference Championships, there has been very little fan disappointment about this firing. There is only one reason for this, while DD should have owned Denton, he spent his time driving a wedge between himself (with his team) and all those who supported the program. His constant complaining about scheduling, the facilities (which are the nicest ever for the University), the administration, how he has it worse than anyone, etc. finally wore thin on everyone who has followed this team for any length of time.

BTW, triggers get pulled quick when a firing becomes more than just about wins and losses. If you live on a "us vs them" attitude, "us" better be the university as a whole and "them" better be an opponent not your alumni and donors.

[FirefightnRick]

Well said, G.

Question for ya by the way.

Since you played for two HC's while at NT can you give us some insight as to how recruiting is handled with an outgoing coach? It seems that just about every coach's bio say's they became the said school's whatever # head coach on January something? Which to me seems very late into recruiting. Erickson was announced as Idaho's new coach on February 7th, the day after signing day? So who stay's behind to continue to call on recruits? Is it something like having coach Evan's stay behind to call on recruits?

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Rick