Darrell Dickey to Texas A&M

[FirefightnRick]

7 hours ago, GrandGreen said:

He maybe now, he certainly was not at NT. 

What?  Every parent I spoke to couldn't say enough nice things about hosting him at their homes. Said the guy was very respectful and convincing and that they loved his visits.

 

Rick

[GrandGreen]

Yes, every great recruiter runs down the school he is trying to sell to recruits.  DD had one great class, 2000 other than that despite winning four conference championships his recruiting was lacking.  

One of his quotes was that he never lost a recruit he made an offer to.   Sounds great, but to me it signals the  non -aggressive recruiting style that DD employed.  Note, he did lose plenty later on in his NT career.   

He did get some great players, but he was here for a long time.   In general, his classes were pedestrian and got worse and worse late in his career.   

Rivals ratings, the most important back then; NT was not in top 99 in 2002, 83 in 2003, 72 in 2004, 94 in 2005 and not in top 97 in 2006.  Also factor in there were 11 less  fb division teams in 2006.   Not McCarney bad, but hardly support he was good recruiter.   

Edited December 12, 2017 by GrandGreen

[JesseMartin]

7 minutes ago, GrandGreen said:

Yes, every great recruiter runs down the school he is trying to sell to recruits.  DD had one great class, 2000 other than that despite winning four conference championships his recruiting was lacking.  

One of his quotes was that he never lost a recruit he made an offer to.   Sounds great, but too me it signals the  non aggressive recruiting style that DD employed.  Note, he did lose plenty later on in his NT career.   

He did get some great players, but he was here for a long time.   In general, his classes were pedestrian and got worse and worse late in his career.   

Rivals ratings, the most important back then; NT was not in top 99 in 2002, 83 in 2003, 72 in 2004, 94 in 2005 and not in top 97 in 2006.  Also factor in there were 11 less  fb division teams in 2006.   Not McCarney bad, but hardly support he was good recruiter.   

Were you rushing that, or is it doing the same weird "delete the word you're typing" thing it does to me when I comment here?

[greenminer]

1 hour ago, FirefightnRick said:

What?  Every parent I spoke to couldn't say enough nice things about hosting him at their homes. Said the guy was very respectful and convincing and that they loved his visits.

 

Rick

I always thought he was a family man on the recruiting trails.  Wasn't there a rumor/story that he pulled an offer during an in-home because the kid mouthed off his mom?

Anyways, getting another class on par with Booger's is something we can certainly hope for and, personally, I wish it happens under SL's watch.

[Aquila_Viridis]

It’s a bargain. He can also diagram some marching formations for the band.

[GTWT]

16 hours ago, Stix said:

When do we play the Aggies?

Not sure, but when we do some of the football experts on GMG will think every Aggie run between the tackles is a 'draw'.

[FirefightnRick]

12 hours ago, greenminer said:

I always thought he was a family man on the recruiting trails.  Wasn't there a rumor/story that he pulled an offer during an in-home because the kid mouthed off his mom?

Anyways, getting another class on par with Booger's is something we can certainly hope for and, personally, I wish it happens under SL's watch.

Yes, it was during an official visit on campus during a campus tour.  A player from Evangel in Louisiana was here with his mother, and during the tour his mom spoke up about something the tour guide had said......and the player told her to "shut up".  This happened in front of one of DD's assistants, and the story goes,....that upon hearing about it later that day DD told the player if he didn't have anymore respect than that for his mom then he'd have no more for his school, teammates and coaches, and DD pulled his offer.

Dickey was huge on family values and loyalty.  I don't hold him responsible for any of the problems that surfaced later on because they were a result of a horrible atmosphere created by his boss.  It was a horrible, ongoing fight that soured so bad that it extended into his coaching staff and affected recruiting, promotion, evaluation, his health personally and just about everything in between.

 

Rick

Edited December 12, 2017 by FirefightnRick

[CaribbeanGreen]

Along those lines:

http://www.commercialappeal.com/story/sports/columnists/geoff-calkins/2017/03/16/memphis-coach-darrell-dickey-wins-following-his-heart/99253398/

[untjim1995]

For his health and those of his family, I just hope the Dickster never calls Aggie fans MFers...they aren’t as accepting as us MG fans. Hell, one of their BOR members openly parks an Army tank in front of his house and is known to call for firings on social media right after a loss.

College Station is basically the 180 degree opposite of Denton in every way imaginable...

[UNTLifer]

21 hours ago, greenminer said:

There was one or two great classes, but he seemed to really struggle to capitalize on the NO Bowl momentum.

Looking back, I think DD just grew tired of RV's B.S.  Couple that with his health concerns at the time, and he was totally beat down.

[untjim1995]

1 minute ago, UNTLifer said:

Looking back, I think DD just grew tired of RV's B.S.  Couple that with his health concerns at the time, and he was totally beat down.

I agree here. Dickey worked for a truly worthless leader and the administration openly backed RV and his budget over financing anything decent for the program...after years of believing he’d get hired away for the SBC championships, he simply gave up.

[TheColonyEagle]

1 hour ago, CaribbeanGreen said:

Along those lines:

http://www.commercialappeal.com/story/sports/columnists/geoff-calkins/2017/03/16/memphis-coach-darrell-dickey-wins-following-his-heart/99253398/

Great Article....

I hope anyone that wants to know what Darryl Dickey is about....takes the time to read this.

And yes @FirefightnRick....100% agree with your take on his last few years here.

 

[TIgreen01]

2 hours ago, untjim1995 said:

For his health and those of his family, I just hope the Dickster never calls Aggie fans MFers...they aren’t as accepting as us MG fans. Hell, one of their BOR members openly parks an Army tank in front of his house and is known to call for firings on social media right after a loss.

College Station is basically the 180 degree opposite of Denton in every way imaginable...

This story still just doesn't make sense to me, and I do wonder who he was actually talking about.  I wasn't there for the MFer incident, but having attended a few of his open practices as a student and new grad, he'd walk out and talk to us in the stands;  thank us for supporting the team.  And this was when I was a kid who couldn't possibly be mistaken for someone with deep pockets who a coach/admin might want/need to schmooze.  He was a pretty genuine dude from what I could tell.

[Cerebus]

14 minutes ago, TIgreen01 said:

This story still just doesn't make sense to me, and I do wonder who he was actually talking about.  I wasn't there for the MFer incident, but having attended a few of his open practices as a student and new grad, he'd walk out and talk to us in the stands;  thank us for supporting the team.  And this was when I was a kid who couldn't possibly be mistaken for someone with deep pockets who a coach/admin might want/need to schmooze.  He was a pretty genuine dude from what I could tell.

He said "those MFers out there don't care about you" pointing outside of the huddle of the players surrounding him.  

What I believe he meant is that they are a family, that they need to rely on each other.  He went on to talk about how people outside of the team will double talk you, talk you up when they want something, ignore you when they don't need you.  I have thought that from the first day of the controversy, I was 10 feet from DD when he said it.

What some decided to believe, the majority of who were not even there, is that he was talking specifically about the fans in attendance.    Which is 100% the opposite of the way Dickey acted.  

You can ask @Harry about this.  We worked with him a lot.  The board raised money to send kids to football camps, and to do other fundraisers.  Dickey was always 100% gracious and considerate every single time I ever interacted with him.   The vast majority of Dickey's assistant coaches shared this attitude.  Though I believe DD was too loyal to some of them.  

What people need to remember is the DD/RV conflict was RAGING inside the athletic department at the time.  IMHO pro RV people whipped up a firestorm in order to try and turn the fans against Dickey. 

We all know what Dr. Smatresk's consultants found.    

[UNTLifer]

Hindsight is 20/20, and I didn't see FFR's post above when I posted my thoughts, but as Cerebus notes above, Coach Dickey was always gracious and nice to those that reached out to him.  He worked well with the group that used to put together the flag football games, came out and watched, etc...  The further we get away from his tenure here, the more impressed I am with what he accomplished.  If you have ever worked for someone difficult, then you know what a beat down that becomes over time.  I wish him well.

Oh, and the story linked above about him staying at Memphis makes me feel old.  His daughter was just a little girl when they were in Denton.