Jeff Andrews: Despite last two years

[Harry]

Jeff Andrews: Despite last two years, Dickey was nice to me

11:37 PM CST on Saturday, November 11, 2006

Jeff Andrews My first encounter with soon-to-be former North Texas head football coach Darrell Dickey didn’t go very smoothly.

Fresh out of the music department, I was a rookie news reporter for the North Texas Daily, UNT’s student newspaper, who had a single journalism class under my belt, and my managing editor sent me to football practice to get a quote from Dickey about the possibility of disciplinary action against a player who was involved in an altercation off the field.

Completely oblivious to how media went about getting quotes from coaches -- just like my managing editor -- I barged onto the field after Dickey dismissed afternoon practice.

“Coach, I’m with the Daily. Is there going to be disciplinary action against this player?” I asked him.

Obviously dejected at my blatant but unintentional disregard for media boundaries, Dickey gave me a one-sentence response without making eye contact with me and walked off.

Apparently I was supposed to check with North Texas sports information director Eric Capper before talking to Dickey. Apparently the Daily ’s sports department took it on the chin because of the incident.

Yikes. Talk about a bad start.

But the following fall I covered the 2004 edition of the Mean Green for the Daily when freshman running back Jamario Thomas rescued the team in guiding it to a fourth consecutive Sun Belt title -- and my reporting practices caused far less commotion.

As a member of the professional media, you don’t want to get emotionally involved in the teams you cover, but as a member of the student media covering your alma mater’s football team, that becomes a little more difficult.

So when Thomas’ first carry as a starter went for a 54-yard touchdown against Colorado, I was cheering more than covering. And when the team endured an ugly 0-4 start, my student media colleagues and I were certainly rooting for Dickey to get the season turned around.

And I came to appreciate all the Dickey-isms, those quirks that all coaches have, including the way every sentence seemingly started with “There’s no question,” and the staunch, robotic voice with a slight country accent he used to describe every Sun Belt opponent as a “much-improved football team.”

Dickey was gracious in accepting all my short-sighted, generic questions, despite the fact that I was a jittery, long-haired, unshaven first-timer.

“I’ve never seen a reporter that could recognize a 3-4 defense before,” he told me during one of the first times I interviewed him -- an interview in which I was probably noticeably nervous. “You really know your football.”

Brett Vito, you can’t recognize a 3-4 defense?

He never made the connection between me and the kid who barged onto his field to ask an awkward question on a sensitive subject, or if he did, he didn’t care. And he even gave me a compliment after one of the UNT media luncheons.

I wrote a column defending Dickey and Thomas after an opposing coach said Dickey’s offensive style is to play not to lose and that UNT only landed Thomas because he couldn’t get into bigger schools.

“Hey,” he said firmly after the barrage of questions ceased, staring right at me. Of course, I was bracing for some sort of onslaught in front of the dozens of student and professional media types from around the Metroplex who attend the luncheons. “I appreciate the column. I liked it. Right on the money. You said it, I can’t.”

Thanks, coach. You made walking to my reporting public affairs class a little easier, and I was king among my fellow student media, including those dorky radio kids who make conversation in Rick Renner voices.

Now as I reflect on Dickey’s firing, I don’t feel the usual sports writer urges to analyze whether it was the right move or what UNT should do now, but I remember the D-I coach of my alma mater who was nice to me as I was insecurely trying to launch a career in sports media.

Good luck, coach. Thanks for the championships, and for giving me an excuse to go to New Orleans four times while I was in college.

JEFF ANDREWS can be reached at 940-566-6873. His e-mail address is jandrews@dentonrc.com.