Vito's Mean Green Blog

Cr1028 · January 23, 2011

Barkeep: I'll have what he's having.

We all tend to forget that DD the head coach should be judged off of just that, his coaching resume, which stands on it's own merit.

As a matter of DD the person, that's open for debate and is a matter of opinion.

I appreciated the wins and enjoyed many of those seasons as a student and green winged alumni yet in the same breath was glad to see him go and felt it was a time for a change.

I wish him nothing but the best and hold no ill will, he was what we needed at the time and progressed us, however we measure it, one step closer to where we wanted to be.

Now, how far have we come from DD in a coach like Dan Mac? That's what striked me most about this entire thread.

Darrell Dickey had a winning percentage of .396. Only four coaches in the history of our university have done worse. Two, Lloyd Russell and Bob Tyler, only had one season. The other two were Todd Dodge and Dennis Parker, coaches straight out of high school.

If Darrell Dickey had not hit the Sun Belt lottery, he would have been fired in 2001 after his 4th losing season. The man never won more than 3 games in the Big West. He was a poor coach with the good fortune to be dropped in an equally poor conference. He is not the coaching legend some of you make him out to be, he was about the luckiest guy on the planet that the Big West quit playing football.

Odus Mitchell and Hayden Fry were truly great coaches, Dickey, not so much.

Edited January 23, 2011 by Cr1028

rcade · January 23, 2011

If Darrell Dickey had not hit the Sun Belt lottery, he would have been fired in 2001 after his 4th losing season.

If winning the Sun Belt is so easy, why couldn't one of the greatest high school coaches in Texas history do it?

Cr1028 · January 23, 2011

If winning the Sun Belt is so easy, why couldn't one of the greatest high school coaches in Texas history do it?

Because he coached in the current Sun Belt, not in the one lacking Troy and FAU who DD never beat.

greenminer · January 23, 2011

Because he coached in the current Sun Belt, not in the one lacking Troy and FAU who DD never beat.

This is just a nit pick, but DD did beat blakeny and Troy in their first meeting.

I am not sure, but that might have been the terribly boring game with Smith @ QB and their defense putting 11 in the box. Andrew maybe attempted 5 passes?

Regardless, we beat Troy. It was before they were Belters.

NT03 · January 23, 2011

DD was no legend , but to disregard what the man accomplished here is laughable. Conference championships, Bowl births , national rushing championships , beating big XII teams, etc , etc.. He did so with very , very limited resources. You give him what RV gave TD he might very well still be our head coach. I wasn't his biggest fan , but when I have talked to guys like Patric Cobbs & Johnny Quinn , who both loved him , well that counts for a lot in my book.

He wasn't a coaching legend , but some of the things he did were legendary.

UNTLifer · January 23, 2011

CR1028, you are so right. DD was wasn't close to being one of our best coaches. As mentioned, he was way behind Mitchell and Fry and wasn't near the coach Corky Nelson was. Heck, DD didn't even win 40 percent of the games he coached. To have a practice field named after him with nothing named for Fry or Mitchell is a joke.

DD did benefit from a weak Sun Belt, and you are blind if you can't see that.

NT03 · January 23, 2011

DD did benefit from a weak Sun Belt, and you are blind if you can't see that.

SunBelt is still weak

Edited January 23, 2011 by NT03

Travis · January 23, 2011

SunBelt is still weak

Yes, and I think this hurts Dodge's credibility more than it helps Dickey's.

cl_1_2008 · January 23, 2011

CR1028, you are so right. DD was wasn't close to being one of our best coaches. As mentioned, he was way behind Mitchell and Fry and wasn't near the coach Corky Nelson was. Heck, DD didn't even win 40 percent of the games he coached. To have a practice field named after him with nothing named for Fry or Mitchell is a joke.

DD did benefit from a weak Sun Belt, and you are blind if you can't see that.

This could very well just be a rumor, but I heard the reason the practice field was named after Dickey was because one of our major donors was a Dickey fan, and threatened to stop donating if they didn't name it after him.

NT03 · January 23, 2011

This could very well just be a rumor, but I heard the reason the practice field was named after Dickey was because one of our major donors was a Dickey fan, and threatened to stop donating if they didn't name it after him.

Not a rumor

Denia Park Pedro · January 23, 2011

This could very well just be a rumor, but I heard the reason the practice field was named after Dickey was because one of our major donors was a Dickey fan, and threatened to stop donating if they didn't name it after him.

Not only not a rumor, but a full page ad in the D-RC demanding that the field be named for him. The fact that he "threatened" to give the money to the College of Music if they didn't still strikes me as odd.

FloMoGrad · January 23, 2011

This is just a nit pick, but DD did beat blakeny and Troy in their first meeting.

I am not sure, but that might have been the terribly boring game with Smith @ QB and their defense putting 11 in the box. Andrew maybe attempted 5 passes?

Regardless, we beat Troy. It was before they were Belters.

To play 6 degrees, that was the same year Troy beat Marshall at Home the week after Marshall knocked off Kansas State on the road, when K State was #6 in the country. I attended all 3 games that yr (Marshall vs K State, Marshall vs Troy & UNT vs Troy) and was shocked at how good Troy was that yr. And it wasn't pretty, but yes, we did beat them that yr.

forevereagle · January 24, 2011

To play 6 degrees, that was the same year Troy beat Marshall at Home the week after Marshall knocked off Kansas State on the road, when K State was #6 in the country. I attended all 3 games that yr (Marshall vs K State, Marshall vs Troy & UNT vs Troy) and was shocked at how good Troy was that yr. And it wasn't pretty, but yes, we did beat them that yr.

Maybe I am wrong, but I could swear that the first time we played Troy was 01 in the final game of the season. Troy was a provisional D1-A and we played at Troy. As I recall that was to get us a winning record and we lost. I didn't look it up, but I don't think we win our first meeting.

Edited January 24, 2011 by forevereagle

NT03 · January 24, 2011

Maybe I am wrong, but I could swear that the first time we plated Troy was 01 in the final game of the season. Troy was a provisional D1-A and we played at Troy. As I recall that was to get us a winning record and we lost. I didn't look it up, but I don't think we win our first meeting.

We lost that game 16 - 18 in Troy,AL.

Troy wasn't a bad team back then ,they went 7 - 4 w/ a win over Miss State that year

UNTLifer · January 24, 2011

Trust me, the Belt was weaker then, and yes, Mattress Mac threatened to pull his money even though it had already been spent. I bet he hasn't given a dime since and won't in the future even though he played under Fry. Mac is buddies with DD and his dad, and Mac has no other loyalty to NT.

NT80 · January 24, 2011

Trust me, the Belt was weaker then, and yes, Mattress Mac threatened to pull his money even though it had already been spent. I bet he hasn't given a dime since and won't in the future even though he played under Fry. Mac is buddies with DD and his dad, and Mac has no other loyalty to NT.

He has given to UH and other programs I've heard. Our program needs money, but not money with strings attached like his did. If he can't donate to the program just because it's where he went to school AND PLAYED FOOTBALL, then we don't need it that badly.

FloMoGrad · January 24, 2011

Maybe I am wrong, but I could swear that the first time we played Troy was 01 in the final game of the season. Troy was a provisional D1-A and we played at Troy. As I recall that was to get us a winning record and we lost. I didn't look it up, but I don't think we win our first meeting.

And that could be the case, but I'm talking about '03, Troy was a full fledged D-1 school. We beat Troy at home 21-0. Our defense absolutely shut them down. This was right after Troy beat Marshall, and right after Marshall beat K State. It was weird for me to be at all 3 games and have it play out the way it did, having ties at both marshall and UNT.

forevereagle · January 24, 2011

And that could be the case, but I'm talking about '03, Troy was a full fledged D-1 school. We beat Troy at home 21-0. Our defense absolutely shut them down. This was right after Troy beat Marshall, and right after Marshall beat K State. It was weird for me to be at all 3 games and have it play out the way it did, having ties at both marshall and UNT.

The comment was that we beat Troy in our first meeting, which is not true. May not have been your comment, but that was my point.