GMG podcast #112

just getting started

Was this podcast ever put up?

Not sure how we missed it, but here is the link

http://www.gomeangreen.com/forums/podcast/gmgpod112f.mp3

This post has been promoted to an article

You lost me when, regarding selecting the coach of the All-Century Team, you stated that you had to go off of results...and you picked Dickey. He was 20 games under .500 for his career.

You lost me when, regarding selecting the coach of the All-Century Team, you stated that you had to go off of results...and you picked Dickey. He was 20 games under .500 for his career.

Agree or disagree, I think they are basing it off the bigger picture which includes the titles/bowl trips.

I'm with ya on the record though, Dickey's black eye.

I have to go with Odus Mitchell. Led the team through integration way before any other schools, had a winning record, great teams in the late 60's with players that succeeded in the NFL and were some of our greats and coached here for two decades. Put him at any other powerhouse school and he would be a legend.

DD couldn't keep his foot out of his mouth, had the aforementioned record, has a practice field named after him because we were held hostage by a self promoting furniture salesman and whose success was really a testament to the leadership of players like Scott Hall, Jonus Buckles, etc...

Scott Hall and Jonas Buckles were fine young men.

This is all "century" team, therefore you consider all the players not just the one that played during your fandom. If not just give it to all the recent players, because obviously they would have the edge. I certainly understand the bias for players during your time, plus it is hard to talk about players you know nothing about. However, some players should be obvious just by their accolades The Dickey teams were great by recent standards but they were not close to the sixties and mid seventies Fry teams. .

Also IMO, the picks should be based on their play at NT not in the pros.

Greene played here his whole career not two years. NT had three straight years of first round draft picks. Greene, Hardman, Dunlap. By the way, NT had 14 players drafted from the 67-70 teams.

D Dickey for coach, you got to be kidding? Fry responsible for the spiral in NT football until 1994 because he left? I have never heard anyone express that. Some weird conclusions there. Fry was a great ambassador for NT when he was here. DD should have wore a muzzle.

Despite my commentary, I enjoy your broadcasts; but disagree with your viewpoint on a lot of this one. Keep them coming.

Joe Greene played 3 years at North Texas, not 2.

And it was Matt Simon who made the Safeway comment, not Dickey.

And if you're going to go by results, you don't have to have seen someone coach/play . . . just go by results.

I enjoyed it, though. I appreciate the time you put into it.

I have often wondered about Odus Mitchell myself. He was one of the first, if not the first, to integrate a division 1 school in the entire south (of the 11 states of the old Confederacy) and he did it almost 10 years before Hayden Fry or John Bridges (sp?} did it in the Southwest Conference, He took us to the Sun Bowl and recruited both Joe Greene and Abner Haynes. He also took us from division 2 to division 1 in football. It has always been a mystery to me why he has not been recognized more on this campus with his name on some recognizable building or field or something. He was a successful coach here for a long long time.

Hands down...Odus Mitchell. The rest pale in comparison when everything is considered...everything.

And to top it off, he was a great man. I don't think I ever heard anyone say anything bad about Coach Mitchell.

Hands down...Odus Mitchell. The rest pale in comparison when everything is considered...everything.

Agree. Mitchell had some great teams, especially during our early Div. 1 College Football days. And some great assistant coaches. The man should be given more recognition for what he accomplished during his tenure at North Texas.

I know this will tick some people off, but I picked individuals that played during those Div 1 days mostly. I don't think we were Div 1 at the time, but how could you not pick Ray Renfro? And I didn't see him play or follow college football back then!

I knew this one would be a bit controversial. I totally agree that most would be biased with the years you attended NT. As we said, we just weren't around to see or be part of the teams these players played for and its hard to judge by a 3 sentence summary. A lot of these players and coaches contributed in a time without as many awards/bowls and as much media coverage and recognition.

DD's record is always a glaring spot, but as I said in the pod, there are a newer younger generation of followers that are still fans because of the DD years. Those years were big in helping the program grow. I'm not discounting the Fry years, they were a huge and provided our biggest wins, just sad how they ended and what came next. I can see the call or Mitchell as well.

Thanks for the feedback and listening.

You can knock the Belt as much as you want, but winning 4 consecutive conference championships is a major accomplishment, don't care who you are.

That was the conference we were in at the time which was not Dickey's fault.

I respect very much what Odus Mitchell accomplished while he was here. But let's look at this honestly:

The playing field at that time was much more even than it was in the Dickey era. The facility arms race had not yet begun. Programs like Texas weren't generating a billion dollars in revenue. Recruits couldn't fly all over the country. You didn't have television or at least to the extent you have television coverage like you do now.

Part of me wishes we still had those days where everyone had a fair shot to be successful on the gridiron. Dickey inherited a program mired in a move down to I-AA, had a crap stadium and crap facilities and a bottom tier conference to sell recruits. Every year he had to rebuild his staff because we wouldn't pay our assistants. What he was able to accomplish in four years with those significant roadblocks is pretty amazing.

We don't have any coach that unanimously (across generations of fans) holds the title of "best ever" at UNT.

Good or bad?

You can knock the Belt as much as you want, but winning 4 consecutive conference championships is a major accomplishment, don't care who you are.

That was the conference we were in at the time which was not Dickey's fault.

I respect very much what Odus Mitchell accomplished while he was here. But let's look at this honestly:

The playing field at that time was much more even than it was in the Dickey era. The facility arms race had not yet begun. Programs like Texas weren't generating a billion dollars in revenue. Recruits couldn't fly all over the country. You didn't have television or at least to the extent you have television coverage like you do now.

Part of me wishes we still had those days where everyone had a fair shot to be successful on the gridiron. Dickey inherited a program mired in a move down to I-AA, had a crap stadium and crap facilities and a bottom tier conference to sell recruits. Every year he had to rebuild his staff because we wouldn't pay our assistants. What he was able to accomplish in four years with those significant roadblocks is pretty amazing.

I appreciate your thoughts on Dickey and what he accomplished, but he was poor at representing our school and Mitchell was a class gentleman.