Darrell Dickey knows New Orleans hospitality

[Harry]

Rebuilding is something Memphis offensive coordinator Darrell Dickey knows a lot about. And for four seasons starting in 2001, New Orleans played a part in that process.

Dickey coached at North Texas from 1998-2006 and led the Mean Green to historic success -- four straight Sun Belt championships (2001-2005) and a 26-game conference winning streak. What also came with that success were trips to four straight New Orleans Bowls.

Dickey said he loved playing postseason football in the Big Easy.

North Texas won one of those four games, beating Cincinnati, 24-19, on Dec. 17, 2002 for its first bowl win in 57 years. In 2003, the Mean Green fell to Memphis, 27-17, in the New Orleans Bowl, a bitter ending to North Texas' first nine-win season in 23 years.

"People wondered if it wouldn't be a good deal to have two bowl games in one city in one year," Dickey said. "We found out New Orleans knows how to host a bowl game and do it right and be hospitable and show people a good time.

"It was a great situation for the Sun Belt and our program ... Had we not had a bowl game to go to for our champion(ships), people wouldn't have known us quite as well."

Dickey said that four-year stretch of championships and New Orleans Bowls at North Texas helped put Sun Belt football on the map, adding that it's advanced "a million miles" since then.

Read more: http://www.nola.com/tulane/index.ssf/2012/11/memphis_offensive_coordinator.html

[UNTLifer]

Yes he does.

[greenminer]

9 wins. Sigh.

[untjim1995]

Why is the New Orleans paper writing a story about a coordinator at Memphis who last saw success in New Orleans in 2004? We can't even get the DFW papers to write a story about one of our coordinators and they are just down the road...

[FirefightnRick]

Mattress Mack probably has an interesting perspective about hospitality in New Orleans too.