Catching up with The Great Darrell Dickey and others

Harry · January 30, 2014

We will have a story this Sunday on Johnny Quinn, a former UNT wide receiver who will compete in the Olympics in the bobsled.

I talked to a few people who were at UNT when Quinn was on his way to becoming one of the great players in program history.

A couple had a some interesting things to say …

– Zach Muzzy, one of the other receivers at UNT during Quinn’s time at the school, is now the wide receivers coach at Clear Creek in Houston after spending some time on the staff at Alvin, his alma mater.

Cerebus · January 30, 2014

LINK: http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2014/01/catching-up-with-some-of-the-greats-including-the-great-dd.html/

There are a lot of people who deserve a ton of credit for how far UNT has come. Any honest assessment would Dickey and his players from those bowl teams on that list.

+1 trillion.

Mean Green 93-98 · January 30, 2014

LINK: http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2014/01/catching-up-with-some-of-the-greats-including-the-great-dd.html/

+1 trillion.

That's a lot of credit for an incoherent sentence.

NorthTexan95 · January 30, 2014

Dickey's comment about loving the black uniforms at the HoD game is hilarious.

cogido · January 30, 2014

Coach Dickey deserves credit for his accomplishment at UNT, but gets a big "asterisk * " after his name.

UNTMike81 · January 30, 2014

Jim McIngvale..."Matress Mac" for those of us in H-Town owner of Gallery Furniture also donated money to UNT and family of Andrew Smith to come Andrew's funeral arrangements and other transportation costs for the football team to attend Andrew's memorial service, funeral and so forth.

Mattress Mac played for UT and NTSU/UNT. UNT has many wealthy, powerfull, influentical alumni and I don't know why our coaching staff and athletic department don't do more to get these folks to donate, or promote UNT more.

Norm Miller CEO and I believe founder of Interstate batteries is UNT allumni but I don't believe I've ever heard of him manking any kind of donation to UNT. Hard to believe his company spends $20 Million a year with Joe Gibbs Racing. Yes, that's former Washington Reskins coach and Superbowl Champion Joe Gibbs.

On the UNT althetics donation front with all these wealthy and powerfull alumni, zip, zero, nada.

MeanGreenTexan · January 30, 2014

Jim McIngvale..."Matress Mac" for those of us in H-Town owner of Gallery Furniture also donated money to UNT and family of Andrew Smith to come Andrew's funeral arrangements and other transportation costs for the football team to attend Andrew's memorial service, funeral and so forth.

Mattress Mac played for UT and NTSU/UNT. UNT has many wealthy, powerfull, influentical alumni and I don't know why our coaching staff and athletic department don't do more to get these folks to donate, or promote UNT more.

Norm Miller CEO and I believe founder of Interstate batteries is UNT allumni but I don't believe I've ever heard of him manking any kind of donation to UNT. Hard to believe his company spends $20 Million a year with Joe Gibbs Racing. Yes, that's former Washington Reskins coach and Superbowl Champion Joe Gibbs.

On the UNT althetics donation front with all these wealthy and powerfull alumni, zip, zero, nada.

Uncle Charn says he hopes you enjoy his millions upon millions he's donated...

SilverEagle · January 31, 2014

Coach Dickey deserves credit for his accomplishment at UNT, but gets a big "asterisk * " after his name.

Yeah making us "King of the Dipshits".

BUT every time we played a OCC team that the general public (not to mention NT fans and alumni) would take notice of IF we took the game seriously, we get statements like this "When Dr. B. looks up at the scoreboard at the end of the game tomorrow I sure hope she remembers how much money we're getting paid for playing the game".

The not so surprising score the next day Texas 56 NT 7

UNTLifer · January 31, 2014

Yeah making us "King of the Dipshits".

BUT every time we played a OCC team that the general public (not to mention NT fans and alumni) would take notice of IF we took the game seriously, we get statements like this "When Dr. B. looks up at the scoreboard at the end of the game tomorrow I sure hope she remembers how much money we're getting paid for playing the game".

The not so surprising score the next day Texas 56 NT 7

Hated that attitude. Coach Mac is the polar opposite, thank goodness.

GrandGreen · January 31, 2014

Yes, Dickey's us against the world attitude really helped the program. Vito's praise of Dickey and vitriol against Dodge are the hallmark of unbiased journalism.

Dickey was a good on field coach that had a lot of issues. He parlayed one great recruiting class to a great run, but he neither had the vision or passion to sustain that progress.

He may be a future HOF coach based on his great streak in the Belt, but he would never get my vote.

BigDanTeague · January 31, 2014

Dickey won four conference championships at the FBS level.

Regardless of how his tenure ended, he certainly doesn't deserve the hate typically reserved for him on this message board.

Mean Green 93-98 · January 31, 2014

Dickey won four conference championships at the FBS level.

Regardless of how his tenure ended, he certainly doesn't deserve the hate typically reserved for him on this message board.

I don't see that hate is typically reserved for him. He gets a lot of love, a lot of hate, and a whole lot more of "I really appreciate what he did, but..."

El Paso Eagle · January 31, 2014

I appreciate the 4 straight conference championships as much as the other die-hard Mean Green fans. But the perception was, and don’t kill me I’m just repeating what most that were not associated to the Mean Green at that time were saying – UNT was a good team that was playing in the right place (conference) at the right time. There was a strong belief at the time by most that the Sun Belt (outside of UNT) was the worst conference that had been around for a while.

I will always give DD credit for seizing the opportunity and winning the Sun Belt and give all of the credit to our players on those team for stepping up and taking care of business during the conference games. However our OOC records during this time and DD’s attitude to those “not in the inner circle” did not do a damn thing to help build the program outside the die-hard fan base.

emmitt01 · January 31, 2014

Uncle Charn says he hopes you enjoy his millions upon millions he's donated...

Yeah, about that...

GrayEagle · January 31, 2014

Coach Dickey deserves credit for his accomplishment at UNT, but gets a big "asterisk * " after his name.

If Cerebus can do it so can I. +1 trillion

UNTFan23 · January 31, 2014

I appreciate the 4 straight conference championships as much as the other die-hard Mean Green fans. But the perception was, and don’t kill me I’m just repeating what most that were not associated to the Mean Green at that time were saying – UNT was a good team that was playing in the right place (conference) at the right time. There was a strong belief at the time by most that the Sun Belt (outside of UNT) was the worst conference that had been around for a while.

I will always give DD credit for seizing the opportunity and winning the Sun Belt and give all of the credit to our players on those team for stepping up and taking care of business during the conference games. However our OOC records during this time and DD’s attitude to those “not in the inner circle” did not do a damn thing to help build the program outside the die-hard fan base.

This pretty much sums it up.

GTWT · January 31, 2014

I was amazed how many UNT fans - at least on this board - hated Coach Dickey, even to the point of denigrating the success of the program. In my opinion those fans soon got what they deserved.

Mean Green 93-98 · January 31, 2014

You know Vito calls him the "great DD" just to get us riled up.

Wait . . . are you saying Vito is a troll on his own blog?

The Fake Lonnie Finch · January 31, 2014

Sam Moon ('89)

SilverEagle · January 31, 2014

I was amazed how many UNT fans - at least on this board - hated Coach Dickey, even to the point of denigrating the success of the program. In my opinion those fans soon got what they deserved.

Let me be clear about something I don't hate DD. Every personal conversation I've had with him (and one was pretty long) has been very pleasant. I just think he was damn lucky he got the core group of players that he had from 01 to 04. My main complaint about him was that, when playing OCC games, instead of wearing his "I didn't come here to lose" t-shirt under his regular attire, he wore a "I'll just get out of this alive and collect the check" t-shirt.

GrandGreen · January 31, 2014

I appreciate the 4 straight conference championships as much as the other die-hard Mean Green fans. But the perception was, and don’t kill me I’m just repeating what most that were not associated to the Mean Green at that time were saying – UNT was a good team that was playing in the right place (conference) at the right time. There was a strong belief at the time by most that the Sun Belt (outside of UNT) was the worst conference that had been around for a while.

I will always give DD credit for seizing the opportunity and winning the Sun Belt and give all of the credit to our players on those team for stepping up and taking care of business during the conference games. However our OOC records during this time and DD’s attitude to those “not in the inner circle” did not do a damn thing to help build the program outside the die-hard fan base.

I am far from a Dickey fan, but I take great exception to the sentiment stated above. The 2002 and 2003 teams were as good as NT has had in three decades. A lot of people believe that winning streak was wholly because of a weak Belt. However, overlook the facts that NT has never come close to that conference winning streak in the Southland, Lone Star, MVC or any other conference. Yes, I doubt NT could have done it in any other FB conference; but the Western Division of CUSA last year was not exactly the SEC.

I think four trips to New Orleans was great for the program, but overall I don't think Dickey's NT years were a plus. I also believe that McCarney inherited a much better program from Dodge than Dodge did from Dickey.

Edited January 31, 2014 by GrandGreen

emmitt01 · January 31, 2014

I am far from a Dickey fan, but I take great exception to the sentiment stated above. The 2002 and 2003 teams were as good as NT has had in three decades. A lot of people believe that winning streak was wholly because of a weak Belt. However, overlook the facts that NT as never come close to that conference winning streak anywhere close to that in the Southland, Lone Star, MVC or any other conference. Yes, I doubt NT could have done it in any other FB conference; but the Western Division of CUSA last year was not exactly the SEC.

I think four trips to New Orleans was great for the program, but overall I don't think Dickey's NT years were a plus. I also believe that McCarney inherited a much better program from Dodge than Dodge did from Dickey.

And yet, strangely, Dodge played a whole lot of Dickey recruits throughout his tenure.

People like to point to the attendance number spike after Dodge took over...yet conveniently forget that the base that Dickey built through four years of winning is all that remained after Dodge was exposed for what he was. An entire class of kids (their freshman through senior years) knew only championships and bowl trips. And a great many are still around today for this very reason.

Mean Green 93-98 · January 31, 2014

People like to point to the attendance number spike after Dodge took over...yet conveniently forget that the base that Dickey built through four years of winning is all that remained after Dodge was exposed for what he was. An entire class of kids (their freshman through senior years) knew only championships and bowl trips. And a great many are still around today for this very reason.

Do I understand you correctly to be saying that Dickey deserves all the credit for attendance numbers we were seeing in 2009 and 2010?

In Dickey's last year (2006), we averaged 15,650 per game--and that was with only 5 home games.

In 2010, we averaged 17,718 per game, spread out over 6 home games. We averaged 18,228 in 2009, also with 6 home games.

Edited January 31, 2014 by Mean Green 93-98