Darrell Dickey Deserves An Apology!

[Cerebus]

I agree with that. I personally think of those 4 years as I do the Cowboys of the 90's. Neon Don, Galbreath, all the LBs, of course Cobbs and Thomas, Buckles, Markeith, Jo-el, (yes, even stone hands) Marshall. All of those names even before I get to Booger.

Even though George might have dropped a couple too many passes, he was perfect for DD's play action offense cause you still had to cover him. He was a good run blocker too, I saw him put more than one linebacker on the ground.

[wardly]

One thing I did hear from Dodge after one of (many) recent games we lost with help from a failed kicking game. When questioned by Jub Jub about a blocked FG, Dodge talked about (in so many words) "Knott, bless his heart, we'll have to look at the film to see if the kick was low, yadayadayada". I guess that's a point of view advocated by enough in this forum he could have some defenders of that; I have read and heard from enough people who know something about football that people blocking our kicks are coming way too free. And, not to mention our punts getting blocked, or that our kicking game was no good before Knott came here, and what about the great punter we had when Dodge came here, and whose game got worse. And oh yes, Atterberry was doing great before teams started realizing we couldn't stop their punt block units.

And it didn't sound like from what I read today that RV or Dodge are convinced that anything needs to be done differently, since we're "within a touchdown of winning many games". Is that counting on the PAT kick to be successful, or not?

i assure you that while the same staff will be returning, it is not buiness as usual. rv and td spent mon/tues basically reviewing the season play by play, game by game. i agree that our kicking game sucks, and cost us wins against ulal,army,and a-state just to name a few.my position concern is rilley at qb. he is a good kid who give everything he has of the field. however, he is just not big enough for d1,injury prone, and his arm strength is suspect. we had 27 turnovers going into a-state,most of them his interceptions.how do you coach to improve that? he grew up with td's system. granted he throws a lot of passes, but still.....

[KRAM1]

Play action offense??? You mean DD had pass plays in his game plan?

[Cerebus]

Play action offense??? You mean DD had pass plays in his game plan?

*crickets*

[forevereagle]

I would like it noted that if DD was so good, why did he not get hired after we let him go? He is an OC for a bad team and seemingly has gotten no looks to be a HC again. I appreciate the 4 good years, but if he was as good as has been claimed, why isn't he somewhere else?

[Cerebus]

I would like it noted that if DD was so good, why did he not get hired after we let him go? He is an OC for a bad team and seemingly has gotten no looks to be a HC again. I appreciate the 4 good years, but if he was as good as has been claimed, why isn't he somewhere else?

Why? Probably because of his reputation with fans here. That doesn't mean nothing special happened in his run here.

You think a fan base who has seen 4 home wins in the last 5 years would look at those bowl years as something special.

[TheTastyGreek]

I would like it noted that if DD was so good, why did he not get hired after we let him go? He is an OC for a bad team and seemingly has gotten no looks to be a HC again. I appreciate the 4 good years, but if he was as good as has been claimed, why isn't he somewhere else?

There are only 120 D-1A jobs out there.

Remember the list of guys who are out on the street right now who have histories of building programs that we could have hired tomorrow? Franchione, Bower, John L. Smith, Steve Logan, Chuck Amato, Jeff Jagodzinski... All those guys?

None of them have been Head Coaches since, either.

[greenminer]

Winning 4 Belt titles with minimal OOC success was a heck of a lot more fun than being down by 30 to MTSU by halftime, or letting a Rice team score at will.

Don't discredit DD's field accomplishments. Not right now. Let's just support what we have and hope the best of it.

[Censored by Laurie]

There are only 120 D-1A jobs out there.

Remember the list of guys who are out on the street right now who have histories of building programs that we could have hired tomorrow? Franchione, Bower, John L. Smith, Steve Logan, Chuck Amato, Jeff Jagodzinski... All those guys?

I can shoot a wide open hole in this logic...

[TheTastyGreek]

I can shoot a wide open hole in this logic...

It's not exactly the most airtight argument I've ever put together. My heart isn't really in any of this at the moment. It's pointless and discouraging.

Fire away, though. I'm sure you've got a good point, and I would like to hear it.

[KRAM1]

OK, let's be kind enough to appreciate the 4 titles won by DD. No member of the Mean Green Nation will forget the fun times in New Orleans and the thrill of winning the SBC crown...and a New Orleans Bowl....but, let's also face the fact the the Sunbelt was a "terrible" conference back during DD's days where most good HS teams could beat several of the conference teams. This is in no way to discredit the players DD had and the effort they gave to win those games and the SBC crown. I am very proud of the UNT team during those conference runs. But, what was the record most of those years entering conference play? Money games...just like today...were lost as were most other Out of conference games. Look, if DD had not stopped recruiting, not gotten cross-wise with the fan base and actually had a half-way exciting offense the last year or so, he might well still be the UNT head coach or a head coach at another university. I agree 100% when one says that if DD was so good as a head coach why has he not taken another head coaching position????? Or, for that matter, the OC position at a much bigger conference school?

DD did some things right during his time at UNT, but the whole thing just soured toward the end...no one is dissing the conference crowns...winning those conference crowns is not what got DD fired! Really, it wasn't.

Anyway, the DD/TD line of thought is just so boring....let's move on. We have 2010 to look forward too...let's get on with recruiting and building for 2010. It's a done deal...deal with it....and get ready to tailgate!

[TIgreen01]

You know why Dickey created the us versus them mentality with people outside of the meeting room? It wasn't an excuse. It's because of what you just said right there. We won 4 straight titles, went to 4 straight bowl games, didn't lose a conference game for several seasons and you still dont feel like that is legitimate success? And dont act like there wasn't criticism of players and coaches when we were winning because there was. Nothing will ever be enough so he chose to side with us as opposed to making the PR move. You dont like us running a draw on 3rd and 15, oh well. The problem is you are okay with it when it works and hate it when it doesn't. Do you honestly think we weren't trying to win the out of conference games? It pissed us off more than anyone else but we still played with pride and won championships. That is legitimate. You will go party in New Orleans and then talk about how bad the SBC is. Screw your variables. I'm proud of my time and can make a brass knuckle out of my conference championship rings. Not may people can say that. I apologize for getting so fired up about this, but it seems like sometimes you all forget that this isn't just Dickey's legacy, it is the players that were involved as well. Players that he cared about and knew how to inspire.

Think about this, if you cant appreciate a team that wins, what is the point of putting in all of the hard work when were losing to get back to winning?

DD was belittling UNT long before the winning streak even started. So I'd have to question your explanation.

That said, I fall pretty much in-step with what Cerebus is saying. I can not understand why we continue to dismiss the accomplishments of the 01-04 teams.

I'd add that the single worst thing about the draw play on 3rd and 15 was not that "we" didn't like the call....but dangit if you ever tried to bring an outsider to a UNT football game in those days---that's tough offensive football to watch if you're not a die-hard. The average joe just isn't going to like watching that brand of football unless there are 80,000 fans packed into a stadium and the energy level, in the stadium, alone makes the experience exciting for them. I give you SEC football (from that same time period) as the best example of that. We were trying to build that energy at UNT, but we didn't have the crowds or game-day atmosphere developed enough to balance out the grind-it-out style of football that we played back then. You could get people to come to games once, but those kinds of calls made it dang near impossible to get them to come back to games if they weren't already affiliated with the school in some way.

Edited December 3, 2009 by TIgreen01

[rcade]

but, let's also face the fact the the Sunbelt was a "terrible" conference back during DD's days where most good HS teams could beat several of the conference teams.

I call BS on that one. Even the best high school team is slow and small compared to the worst FBS teams. You really are working hard to denigrate Dickey's tenure if you think the Sun Belt was a bunch of high school-caliber teams out there.

[CMJ]

I think a year or two ago Tasty had a pretty good argument of how the Belt wasn't really that much worse in say 2002 than it is now. Have that one archived TTG?

[Cerebus]

I call BS on that one. Even the best high school team is slow and small compared to the worst FBS teams. You really are working hard to denigrate Dickey's tenure if you think the Sun Belt was a bunch of high school-caliber teams out there.

Truth. 99% of the "stud" high school players will be luck to every play a down at the FBS level.

[forevereagle]

Why? Probably because of his reputation with fans here. That doesn't mean nothing special happened in his run here.

You think a fan base who has seen 4 home wins in the last 5 years would look at those bowl years as something special.

They were something special. And I appreciate what Dickey did here, but I am just saying that we don't owe him an apology and that he had a good run, but there seems to be a lack of belief in college football that he could do it again.

[TheTastyGreek]

I think a year or two ago Tasty had a pretty good argument of how the Belt wasn't really that much worse in say 2002 than it is now. Have that one archived TTG?

It was called "Building a Better Sun Belt" over on TY Sports. I think I wrote it in October of last year.