Catching up with The Great Darrell Dickey and others

[Cerebus]

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.

This is one of those non truths that just get repeated until it's accepted as gospel. Dickey and his staff were able to recruit well for many years. Rivals and other services weren't around then, but if you take a look at the Dallas Morning News State Top 100, which has, then he has out recruited everyone. During the Dickey years we landed:

Booger Kennedy '99

Jonas Buckles '00

Eddrick Gilmore '05

Jamario Thomas '03

Randy Gardner '99

Taylor Casey '99

Cody Spencer '00

Roy Bishop '01

For comparison, Dodge recruited one DaMN ST100, his son. Coach Mac hasn't been able to sign anyone from this list yet. Simon signed zero, and I haven't looked back further than that.

This also leaves out heavily recruited junior college players like Mike Pruitt ('03 and NJCAA All-American) and Darrell Daniels '00 that came in and had all conference impacts AND it leaves out recruits like Patrick Cobbs ('01 Oklahoma) and Shawn Early ('04 Florida) who were highly rated in their own states.

[GrandGreen]

This is one of those non truths that just get repeated until it's accepted as gospel. Dickey and his staff were able to recruit well for many years. Rivals and other services weren't around then, but if you take a look at the Dallas Morning News State Top 100, which has, then he has out recruited everyone. During the Dickey years we landed:

Booger Kennedy '99

Jonas Buckles '00

Eddrick Gilmore '05

Jamario Thomas '03

Randy Gardner '99

Taylor Casey '99

Cody Spencer '00

Roy Bishop '01

For comparison, Dodge recruited one DaMN ST100, his son. Coach Mac hasn't been able to sign anyone from this list yet. Simon signed zero, and I haven't looked back further than that.

This also leaves out heavily recruited junior college players like Mike Pruitt ('03 and NJCAA All-American) and Darrell Daniels '00 that came in and had all conference impacts AND it leaves out recruits like Patrick Cobbs ('01 Oklahoma) and Shawn Early ('04 Florida) who were highly rated in their own states.

Spencer and Buckles were in the same class as Casey, Gardner, and Kennedy; kind of proving the point of one great class. Dickey added some good pieces here or there, but I stand by his success was primarily due to one class.

[Travis]

Spencer and Buckles were in the same class as Casey, Gardner, and Kennedy; kind of proving the point of one great class. Dickey added some good pieces here or there, but I stand by his success was primarily due to one class.

Agreed.

Dickey did great things in a weak conference. He had one great recruiting class with a few good ones here and there after that. Certainly, it was nothing to write home about... We still were ranked close to the very bottom in recruiting year in and year out after that. I struggle calling him great. Always will. We sucked so much at our out of conference games and no one really cared about us. Perception wise, we didn't establish much of anything. And it certainly didn't take long to lose whatever momentum we gained.

Count me as one of those happy to see Dickey go and as one of those who hesitates to call him great.

[Harry]

Spencer and Buckles were in the same class as Casey, Gardner, and Kennedy; kind of proving the point of one great class. Dickey added some good pieces here or there, but I stand by his success was primarily due to one class.

Yeah but Adrian Awasom was from a later class, as was Jamario and Michael Pruitt, Jamel Branch, Dylan Lineberry, Marikeith Knowlton etc etc. So they still landed some good players but not enough of them.

I still say losing Andrew Smith really, really hurt Dickey and the entire program both on and off the field. Here's a guy at the most important position on the team, that just led you to a bowl win as a RS Freshman and he tragically dies. Then you graduate Hall after 2004 and a bowl season and instead Smith or big Joey Byerly you have to restart with Danny Meager. Meager had skills but it was a lot to ask him to win when he was so young and frankly he didn't have the supporting cast around him. It was supposed to be Joey Byerly who was a sophomore that had big time ability but couldn't make his grades. So they start 2005 with a redshirt freshman Danny Meager and all behind him was Cullen Mills, sophomore Jonathan Ieans, redshirt freshman Kellen Haynes, freshmen Steve Warren and Matt Phillips. They added Woody Wilson at December midterm because they knew they needed big help after a 2-9 season. Wilson did lead them to victory against SMU that following season but the still went 3-8 and of course Dickey lost his job later that year.

I am not trying to come up with excuses for Dickey but if you believe QB is the most important position on the team, then losing Smith AND then Byerly left them in a very bad spot in those two post bowl years that ultimately led to Dickey's firing. Of course, Dickey always struggled to land top high school quarterbacks because of the running based offense so that played a part as well.

[KingDL1]

I think it was interesting that in all the bowl years Dickey's teams beat what one maybe two teams with a winning record.

Dan did better than that just last season alone.

[CaribbeanGreen]

Maybe I'm wrong, but wasn't tailgating/gameday experience essentially not a thing under Dickey? Memory is a bit hazy on that, but i seem to recall that having as big a role as anything in upping attendance.

[UNTFan23]

Maybe I'm wrong, but wasn't tailgating/gameday experience essentially not a thing under Dickey? Memory is a bit hazy on that, but i seem to recall that having as big a role as anything in upping attendance.

It was starting to become a thing. My family started tailgating in 2001 and the Fouts lot was a ghost town. Every year after that more and more people started tailgating,

[Travis]

I still say losing Andrew Smith really, really hurt Dickey and the entire program both on and off the field. Here's a guy at the most important position on the team, that just led you to a bowl win as a RS Freshman and he tragically dies. Then you graduate Hall after 2004 and a bowl season and instead Smith or big Joey Byerly you have to restart with Danny Meager. Meager had skills but it was a lot to ask him to win when he was so young and frankly he didn't have the supporting cast around him. It was supposed to be Joey Byerly who was a sophomore that had big time ability but couldn't make his grades. So they start 2005 with a redshirt freshman Danny Meager and all behind him was Cullen Mills, sophomore Jonathan Ieans, redshirt freshman Kellen Haynes, freshmen Steve Warren and Matt Phillips. They added Woody Wilson at December midterm because they knew they needed big help after a 2-9 season. Wilson did lead them to victory against SMU that following season but the still went 3-8 and of course Dickey lost his job later that year.

Losing those Byerly to grades and Smith definitely hurt our chances at success for the following years. But, I am still not completely sure what we would have looked like after some of those greats on D and O left. it also didn't help that Jamario was never the same player after his freshman year due to injuiries... likely because he was overused as a freshman??

I recall hearing from a well-regarded O-lineman in 2005 (the season just ended and it was in late January) who was rather upset at how little recruiting Coach Dickey and his staff actually did. He cared a lot about the program and knew that it was going to get bad.

[TheWestie]

Maybe I'm wrong, but wasn't tailgating/gameday experience essentially not a thing under Dickey?

Two words:

Lacrosse Bus

[HoustonEagle]

Losing those Byerly to grades and Smith definitely hurt our chances at success for the following years. But, I am still not completely sure what we would have looked like after some of those greats on D and O left. it also didn't help that Jamario was never the same player after his freshman year due to injuiries... likely because he was overused as a freshman??

I recall hearing from a well-regarded O-lineman in 2005 (the season just ended and it was in late January) who was rather upset at how little recruiting Coach Dickey and his staff actually did. He cared a lot about the program and knew that it was going to get bad.

Dickey's inability to capitalize on our successes was his undoing and ultimately the programs. I could never understand how we were not recruiting better back then on the back of the bowl games and conference wins. Still, I was a good soldier and thought we would keep on winning. That of course did not happen. You have to recruit well each and every year. There can be no let downs. You have to build on your success or the whole thing can unravel very fast. The experience with Dickey is what has made me watch with such a skeptical eye on our current recruiting. Thankfully Billysee58 and a few others have talked me off that ledge and convinced me this is a good class. (I still think we could and should do better. Hopefully after next years success?)

[Cerebus]

I could never understand how we were not recruiting better back then on the back of the bowl games and conference wins.

We paid our assistants poorly and we constantly lost the ones who had proven they could recruit. I don't mean to BCS AQ schools, we lost assistants to other programs at our own level and sometimes even to other SBC teams. Dickey spent a lot of off season time finding and hiring new assistants when he and they could have been on the recruiting trail.

Assistant pay is at a much higher level, and while we run the risk of our good recruiters being stolen by P5 schools, we no longer have to worry about Tulsa or ULM taking people.

[Cerebus]

Update:

Matt Simon in fact signed two DaMN State Top 100 in 1996: Brod McGrew (WR out of Hearne) and Jeremy Harris (TE out of Caldwell).

Harris only caught one pass for us, and McGrew had a long and successful career of making me bang my head against the wall.

[Mean Green 93-98]

McGrew had a long and successful career of making me bang my head against the wall.

Huh? He was the leading KR in the nation one year.

[Cerebus]

Huh? He was the leading KR in the nation one year.

Don't remember his nickname?

[GrandGreen]

Yeah but Adrian Awasom was from a later class, as was Jamario and Michael Pruitt, Jamel Branch, Dylan Lineberry, Marikeith Knowlton etc etc. So they still landed some good players but not enough of them.

I still say losing Andrew Smith really, really hurt Dickey and the entire program both on and off the field. Here's a guy at the most important position on the team, that just led you to a bowl win as a RS Freshman and he tragically dies. Then you graduate Hall after 2004 and a bowl season and instead Smith or big Joey Byerly you have to restart with Danny Meager. Meager had skills but it was a lot to ask him to win when he was so young and frankly he didn't have the supporting cast around him. It was supposed to be Joey Byerly who was a sophomore that had big time ability but couldn't make his grades. So they start 2005 with a redshirt freshman Danny Meager and all behind him was Cullen Mills, sophomore Jonathan Ieans, redshirt freshman Kellen Haynes, freshmen Steve Warren and Matt Phillips. They added Woody Wilson at December midterm because they knew they needed big help after a 2-9 season. Wilson did lead them to victory against SMU that following season but the still went 3-8 and of course Dickey lost his job later that year.

I am not trying to come up with excuses for Dickey but if you believe QB is the most important position on the team, then losing Smith AND then Byerly left them in a very bad spot in those two post bowl years that ultimately led to Dickey's firing. Of course, Dickey always struggled to land top high school quarterbacks because of the running based offense so that played a part as well.

Name me one HC that didn't recruit a few good players.

Dodge's recruits looked a lot better with good coaching.

Dickey recruiting style was to wait till most of the players had already committed, than to battle the bottom of the football world for the leftovers. That worked for a while, but soon NT was losing recruiting battles with fellow Belt schools. It was difficult to recruit to NT, when the HC often belittled the school and appeared to rather be almost anywhere else.

[Mean Green 93-98]

Don't remember his nickname?

If you're trying to paint Broderick as a bust, that's a fail all the way. He is NT's all-time leader in yards per catch. He was Dickey's leading receiver in '99 with 601 yards, a total that would not be matched until JQ in '03. He's top 10 all-purpose yards. He was named to NT's all-time team a few years ago. I'd say he was an awfully good recruit.

Edited January 31, 2014 by Mean Green 93-98

[UNTLifer]

Lost in all this DD love/hate dialogue is the comments from Zach Muzzy on our QB recruit Connor Means. Looks like a good pick up on our part.