North Texas coach questions penalties

mgsteve · October 20, 2005

October 20, 2005

By Jimmy Watson

jimwatson@gannett.com

North Texas coach Darrell Dickey doesn't believe his team has been getting a fair shake from game officials and he's darn tired of it.

Even though the Mean Green isn't the most penalized team in the Sun Belt, they're netting about twice as much penalty yardage per game (68.4-37.4) as their opponents.

"Apparently I don't know how to teach the rules to our players or how to teach my players to get away with things that other people are getting away with," Dickey said on the Sun Belt coaches' teleconference this week. "It's a real concern for me."

Dickey hopes to cut down on the penalties while spending the next two weekends in Louisiana playing Louisiana Tech and LSU. North Texas meets Tech at 3 p.m. on Saturday in Joe Aillet Stadium. The Mean Green visits LSU the following weekend in a makeup of a game postponed by Hurricane Katrina.

"We have two games in Louisiana against two very good football teams," Dickey said. "We're 2-1 in the conference but we aren't playing the way we need to play to give ourselves a chance."

The Mean Green received 15 flags earlier this season in a loss to Tulsa, then was flagged 15 times for 146 yards last week in a 13-10 win over Florida International.

"It's all on me, but I see warnings sometimes and calls on us at others ... and that bothers me," Dickey said. "I don't control how the game's called, so what I have to do is tell my guys to pull off and be a smart football team.

"They will call it on us, but it's been that way for a long time."

Playing back-to-back nonconference games on the road in the middle of the Sun Belt race isn't something that Dickey had planned for, but he's looking at it as a positive. Especially in light of his team's offensive struggles (UNT averages 9.2 points per game).

"We have some improving to do and we have a chance to work on some things that we're not doing well," Dickey said. "We've made some strides, but we have miles and miles to go."

eagle60 · October 20, 2005

Let me see, how much new stuff is in this post above??

When all else fails, blame the refs.

untgirl04 · October 20, 2005

I agree that SBC refs are suspect at times, but this has been going on for years yet this is one of the few times I've ever heard DD comment on it. But what really bothers me is the

"Apparently I don't know how to teach the rules to our players or how to teach my players to get away with things that other people are getting away with," Dickey said on the Sun Belt coaches' teleconference this week. "It's a real concern for me." quote.

Yes, coaches do teach barely legal tactics, but how many of them do you hear talking about it?

GoMeanGreen1999 · October 21, 2005

I might be laughing for days at that article....thanks for bringing that to our attention. I guess ol' Dickey can't control those players of his, so he will just follow in the footsteps of Tom Penders and blame the officials for all of the penalties his teams get. So I guess we are to assume that the league officials have been against him since he came here?

We gotta keep Dickey if for nothing else, but to give us some comic relief.

GDMG · October 21, 2005

For those of you who did not make the trip to Florida last week, the officiating was the most one-sided I have ever experienced in a football game. I won't try to say that we didn't deserve the penalties we received, but I would say that FLorida was commiting just as many holding, blocks in the back, etc., with officials standing right in front of them and they were not called. I think DD is right on with his calling "foul" on this one.