Coach Dickey Update

[Harry]

Aggies report: Inside slant

http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball/teams/report/UTST

The defense was dominant during spring drills. That's to be expected, with the Aggies returning all 11 starters and six other players who started at least three games from last year's 1-11 team.

The group is a year older and coach Brent Guy hopes that experience lends itself to a better performance in 2007.

Darrell Dickey was brought in as the new offensive coordinator to get the Aggies' offense, which lost its top quarterback, Riley Nelson, and top running back, Marcus Cross, in gear.

"I'm very pleased with the attitude and ability of the kids we have here," Dickey said. "We have made some progress in the first two weeks. We still have a long ways to go, but I'm encouraged so far about our overall team and especially with the offense."

With Dickey running the offense, one would expect the Aggies to be a bit more wide open. Dickey isn't tipping his hand, choosing first to identify his best personnel before printing the playbook in ink.

Copyright © 2007 The Sports Xchange. All Rights Reserved.

[meangreendork]

"Dickey" and "Wide open offense" in the same sentence? Maybe he's stopped running all 3 downs.

[Smitty]

With Dickey running the offense, one would expect the Aggies to be a bit more wide open.

?

Edited July 24, 2007 by Smitty

[NCMeanGreen]

OK...I totally agree with everyone...WTF are they talking about. DD more WIDE OPEN!??!?!

I am confused on this point...

[meangreendork]

?

It's okay, I'm just as confused as you are. I'm guessing that whatever heavy-passing scheme we briefly saw last fall is now Dickey's new bread and butter offense.

[KingDL1]

You remember the wide open draw play don't you?

[GoMeanGreen1999]

Aggies report: Inside slant <a href="http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball/teams/report/UTST" target="_blank">

</a>

With Dickey running the offense, one would expect the Aggies to be a bit more wide open. Dickey isn't tipping his hand, choosing first to identify his best personnel before printing the playbook in ink.

Copyright © 2007 The Sports Xchange. All Rights Reserved.

I wouldn't be surprised at all to see DD "open" it up more this season than they (Utah St) did last season. That Utah State team last year and really the last two years have been horrible. He loses the best QB and RB they had in an offense that was primarily run and it was horrible, so you take that, with the fact that he probably wants to "get back" at UNT still so he will do things this year to run an offense that has looked nothing like it did while he was here.

[Stan R]

Dickey isn't tipping his hand, choosing first to identify his best personnel before printing the playbook in ink.

Copyright © 2007 The Sports Xchange. All Rights Reserved.

MMmmmm Hmmmm... Let me see here, now where have I heard something like this before? Oh yeah, how silly of me, this is the stealth play book. That sneaky Dickey!

[MeanGreenPOP]

LMAO...the only thing DD had wide open at NT was a can of Beer

[greenminer]

I wouldn't be surprised at all to see DD "open" it up more this season than they (Utah St) did last season. That Utah State team last year and really the last two years have been horrible. He loses the best QB and RB they had in an offense that was primarily run and it was horrible, so you take that, with the fact that he probably wants to "get back" at UNT still so he will do things this year to run an offense that has looked nothing like it did while he was here.

I thought Utah State ran a spread offense last year?

[AnotherEagleFan]

Wide Open? maybe they are talking about their punt formation.

Seriously though, it sells tickets. But boy are they going to be disappointed.

[Dodge2007]

Big daddy DD is going to have a long season. I wish him well but Utah State is in bad shape attracting any kind of talent.

[GoMeanGreen1999]

I thought Utah State ran a spread offense last year?

If so, they didn't run it last year against the Hogs.

[NTPhiKap99]

I know this is a bash Dickey post but don't be surprised if that now that he's only an offensive coordinator he does open up the game a little. He no longer needs to look at managing the whole game and worrying about the defense. I'd expect at least a little more aggressive offense than we were used to now that’s not to say he still won’t run the draw on 3 and 18 but he may throw once or twice on 1^st and 2^nd.

[ADLER]

I think there's a good chance that Dickey will be the interim head coach at USU towards the end of this season.

When your team is bad and you hire for offensive coordinator the person who directed the last ranked offense in the country the previous two seasons, well, it may not be the best formula for career longevity.

Edited July 24, 2007 by ADLER

[CaribbeanGreen]

I think there's a good chance that Dickey will be the interim head coach at USU towards the end of this season.

When your team is bad and you hire for offensive coordinator the person who directed the last ranked offense in the country the previous two seasons, well, it may not be the best formula for career longevity.

Yeah... USU is in BAD shape talent wise, with a HC already on a hot seat...

That being said, what was DD's offense like at SMU? It's been a while, but I don't seem to recall it being as close to the vest as it was at NT ... I agree that he'll call plays differently as an OC, wondering if the SMU offense bears that out at all..

[The Fake Lonnie Finch]

Refresh my memory, but didn't UNT have its top running back and wide receiver during the Dickey Era - Patrick Cobbs and Johnny Quinn? I think so. Check your media guides when they arrive. You'll also see Cobbs, running back, listed first in career all-purpose yards, and Quinn, receiver, listed second.

DD wasn't wide open, though. He just happened to coach the best running back and wide receiver in UNT history. Probably happens to alot of coaches just out of pure luck, though, right? Just like plenty of coaches luck into four consecutive conference titles. They're so easy to win.

[untbowler]

Refresh my memory, but didn't UNT have its top running back and wide receiver during the Dickey Era - Patrick Cobbs and Johnny Quinn? I think so. Check your media guides when they arrive. You'll also see Cobbs, running back, listed first in career all-purpose yards, and Quinn, receiver, listed second.

DD wasn't wide open, though. He just happened to coach the best running back and wide receiver in UNT history. Probably happens to alot of coaches just out of pure luck, though, right? Just like plenty of coaches luck into four consecutive conference titles. They're so easy to win.

yup having 2 Nat'l Rushing Champs and super receiver really helped out in 2005, then 1 Nat'l Rush Champ and said receiver sure did do a ton in 2006. Nice package for 5 wins. So what did Dickey change??

[GreenMachine]

Refresh my memory, but didn't UNT have its top running back and wide receiver during the Dickey Era - Patrick Cobbs and Johnny Quinn? I think so. Check your media guides when they arrive. You'll also see Cobbs, running back, listed first in career all-purpose yards, and Quinn, receiver, listed second.

DD wasn't wide open, though. He just happened to coach the best running back and wide receiver in UNT history. Probably happens to alot of coaches just out of pure luck, though, right? Just like plenty of coaches luck into four consecutive conference titles. They're so easy to win.

NT would have still gone to 4 consecutive conference titles if Simon had stayed, if Emmitt coached, if FFR was the diet coke boy etc. That had nothing to do with DD, it had all to do with moving into a start-up (football wise) conference at the right time in his coaching career.

[meangreendork]

NT would have still gone to 4 consecutive conference titles if Simon had stayed, if Emmitt coached, if FFR was the diet coke boy etc. That had nothing to do with DD, it had all to do with moving into a start-up (football wise) conference at the right time in his coaching career.

This seems pretty true. If you think about it, the win margins got smaller every year, and if you watched at least the home games, you could see every year that the gap was closing between teams. You could see USU, Idaho and the rest closing, with some doing it slowly, and others like Troy, closing fast and overrunning UNT. The timing was in UNT's favor and it was capitalized on just enough to win the SBC. DD was there at the right time, but I think any coach would've done the same, and many would've done more.

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

---"With Dickey running the offense, one would expect the Aggies to be a bit more wide open. Dickey isn't tipping his hand".

Not tipping his hand... ???? Are they sure he has a "wide-open offensive" to even tip his hand about ??????

---I am sure DD did the best he could here and he had some pretty good years for us....BUT... he tarnished his memory by suiting out the team in black no-name jerseys in his last home game.. We could have fondly remembered him and the success he had even though we often disagreed with his play calling somewhat... now his memory will be the "sour grapes coach" with the black jerseys. It was a classless act that will never be forgotten.

[PlummMeanGreen]

Refresh my memory, but didn't UNT have its top running back and wide receiver during the Dickey Era - Patrick Cobbs and Johnny Quinn? I think so. Check your media guides when they arrive. You'll also see Cobbs, running back, listed first in career all-purpose yards, and Quinn, receiver, listed second.

DD wasn't wide open, though. He just happened to coach the best running back and wide receiver in UNT history. Probably happens to alot of coaches just out of pure luck, though, right? Just like plenty of coaches luck into four consecutive conference titles. They're so easy to win.

So then all of this probably at some point during DD's 9 year tenureship at UNT should have translated to at least one Top 25 ranking for (maybe) even just one week out of 9 years?

DD was hardly the choice of anyone I know who has been connected to UNT in whatever capacity, but he was the choice of one (and one is all it takes with some jobs now isn't it?). Yet he was the choice of one of his fellow Kansas State alums in what (basically) turned out to be a crony hire that (ONLY) kept UNT barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen area (so to speak) of the NCAA Bottom 25 for most all of DD's 9 years. So some of you who were calling that a successful NCAA D1-A football program changed your minds about all that yet? Granted, DD developed a Big Donor who should have actually been discovered & developed by UNT athletic fund-raisers long before DD ever met any of McIngvale's kids (who attended UNT) when he (admirably) played the role of counselor for one of Mat Mac's kids who had been having some problems.

YET...............DIDN'T UNT A.D. RICK V SENSE SOMETHING ABOUT A MEAN GREEN FB PROGRAM LED BY DD POST-ULM LOSS & AS FAR BACK AS THE 2001 SEASON?........................FWIW, there were others posting on GoMeanGreen.com and even on Scottie's board that had concerns about where DD would ultimately be able to take all this well over 2 years ago when I (myself) was still trying to convince myself into thinking this football program under Darrell Dickey would rise above itself; we'd have a Mean Green HFC who would mature with his job; that previously low set SBC goals would eventually be set much higher (a la Boise State & the WAC) and (at least) we'd get one ouf our future bowl teams inside (or at least near) the Top 25. Then as DD public relation skills started getting even worse with what seemed to have become non-stop radio sarcams about our alma mater and its alums, many of us just threw up our hands and came to the conclusion that if all this Top 25 (or even Top 50) business were not going to happen during a 4 year bowl run then it just wasn't likely to happen at all with DD at the helm. BUT THAT WAS YESTERDAY...& YESTERDAY'S GONE!

BRING OUT THE DODGE BALL!

WE OF UNT ARE LONG OVER-DUE FOR THIS STYLE OF FOOTBALL!

IN FACT, RUMOR HAS IT THAT SUCH A WIDE OPEN STYLE OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL EVEN SELLS FOOTBALL TICKETS--GO FIGURE?!?!?!

Edited July 24, 2007 by PlummMeanGreen

[CorinthEagle]

Did DD do some good things here? Yes

Was it time for him to go at the end? Yes

Now that it's settled let's all move on.

[greenminer]

Did DD do some good things here? Yes

Was it time for him to go at the end? Yes

Now that it's settled let's all move on.

My gosh there's never been such closure. I feel confident now that there won't be any more bashing.

[NTPhiKap99]

We can keep being sarcastic about it or we can just let that be the end of it. The vast majority of us on the board agree it was time for Dickey to move on. Did most of us have issues with his coaching style yes but you can’t really argue with the success he had during that four year run of conference titles. So lets wish DD luck and worry and talk about what TD is starting to build here at NT.