Like MM were the players showing they

[El Paso Eagle]

I know this is all guessing (and this is just to get some what if's going) .... Could this have been a way to show their support is for DD over their University? If so how shpuld this be viewed after DD is gone?

[Cr1028]

I know this is all guessing (and this is just to get some what if's going) .... Could this have been a way to show their support is for DD over their University? If so how shpuld this be viewed after DD is gone?

←

Edit: I'm an idiot and that was an impolite comment to make.

Edited November 20, 2006 by Cr1028

[VideoEagle]

They should apologize to the University and the fans or lose their scholarships.

←

Oh come on! You're really going to convince them that showing loyalty is bad?

Give it a few weeks and everything will be fine. Let the kids blow off steam.

Being punitive to students who are being loyal to their coaches will pour gasoline onto the "NT is ungrateful and vindictive" press coverage. The story is NT fired the only coach to ever get them to multiple bowl games. The people on this board know there is another story, but no one else does. Making that story last longer only hurts the school more. It will blow over in a few weeks.

Besides, you can't get the scholarships back! It's not as though you could take them away and turn around and give them to another kid. You can only give so many in a year, no matter the circumstances.

[MGW]

I agree with VE on this one.

The Dickey era will be over soon. Pitting the student athletes against the alumni, sutdents, and other fans who support UNT will be over soon.

We will all be one again soon.

Dickey will be gone, and hopefully the disdain shown for our fans and school will go with him.

So long, Dickey, so long.

[ADLER]

C'mon guys, the majority of the kids were wearing black jerseys because they were going along with their team leaders. Those people are leaders because they are personally close to their coach. (Remember, to most of these kids Dickey is that nice man who came into mommy's livingroom and said he would pay for their college when nobody else would)

I think it's almost fitting that Dickey lost to a bad team during his "childish antics" game.

The black shirt thing really doesn't bother me at all.

Now, the young men dressed in those uniforms that sprinted to exit before the Brigade played the alma mater is another matter. Freshman Marquis Sykes, Freshman Tyler Bailey, Freshman Bryant Seidle, and Sophmore Casey Fitzgerald, well, they will have some explaining to do if they pull that crap in front of a college coach that actually gives a damn.

[MeanGreen61]

They should apologize to the University and the fans or lose their scholarships.

←

What a knee-jerk reaction

[untbowler]

I think any players who want DD back can take a leave and play elsewhere. Hopefully the new coach will create some discipline which has been sorely lacking in the DD regime. Maybe force some of the stars of tomorrow to actually make their grades so we are not fretting upto the kickoff of the 1st Game.

[Cr1028]

I guess I overreacted but I still don't think it is right to choose a coach over an alma mater. Coaches will come and go but North Texas will always be.

[Greenmom]

What makes any of you think this was the player's idea. They may have wore them but they didn't purchase them as has been suggested on this board. There were other things that happened in the locker room at half time that should be of more concern than the uniforms they were wearing.

[rcade]

What makes any of you think this was the player's idea.  They may have wore them but they didn't purchase them as has been suggested on this board.  There were other things that happened in the locker room at half time that should be of more concern than the uniforms they were wearing.

←

Like what? I'm almost afraid to ask.

[untbowler]

What makes any of you think this was the player's idea.  They may have wore them but they didn't purchase them as has been suggested on this board.  There were other things that happened in the locker room at half time that should be of more concern than the uniforms they were wearing.

←

Not enough happened as DD came out to coach the second half. I feel for the players being manipulated by a lame duck coach who took advantage of an opportunity close out his early career with 3 wins, then basically gave a Big F'U to the fans and school.

[UNTFan23]

What makes any of you think this was the player's idea.  They may have wore them but they didn't purchase them as has been suggested on this board.  There were other things that happened in the locker room at half time that should be of more concern than the uniforms they were wearing.

←

It's posts like this that me make me happy that Dickey is leaving.

I do wonder what happened though.

[Cr1028]

Couldn't a player refuse to wear the jersey?

[Greenmom]

I know several of the players like the black but also commented these looked like Jr. High Jerseys. If they would have been approved jerseys they might have looked a little classier, once again the players were used as scape goats to say he was doing something nice for them when really that was his way to get back at RV and the alumni. Do you really think any of these players are going to tell the coach no, I won't wear that jersey? I know my son wouldn't because like or dislike the coach he is your superior and that is how we raised him!

[Zeke]

Couldn't a player refuse to wear the jersey?

←

Sure, but would you be the one that took that sort of stand? I know it would be easy to say you would, but until you get in that situation, you can't quite say.

Edited November 20, 2006 by Zeke

[Cr1028]

Sure, but those would you be the one that took that sort of stand?  I know it would be easy to say you would, but until you get in that situation, you can't quite say.

←

True.

[Zeke]

Word on the street is Ramon reacted the usual way when he hears about his coaching. Thats right, he went Silver Eagle on someone.

[untbowler]

Word on the street is Ramon reacted the usual way when he hears about his coaching.  Thats right,  he went Silver Eagle on someone.

←

to bad he has an ACE up his sleeve. Maybe Buffalo would want him as their OC.

[GMoney]

I know several of the players like the black but also commented these looked like Jr. High Jerseys. If they would have been approved jerseys they might have looked a little classier, once again the players were used as scape goats to say he was doing something nice for them when really that was his way to get back at RV and the alumni. Do you really think any of these players are going to tell the coach no, I won't wear that jersey? I know my son wouldn't because like or dislike the coach he is your superior and that is how we raised him!

First, if this is true (players being used as scape goats) that is pure sorriness. The character of a man is generally exposed in times of adversity. If this is the response of a man who feels wronged then his actions are inexcuseable and should carry with him where ever he goes. Conflicts with employers are normal, using impressionable 18-21 yr old young men to get your message across is sorriness at its best.

Greenmom is 100% correct about one thing, there is no way a player would not wear the uniform that is given to him or question a coaches decision to do so. That's just not the way 99% of athletes are brought up. You respect your coaches, you run through walls for your coaches, and you abide by their decisions whether you like them or not.

[Cr1028]

First, if this is true (players being used as scape goats) that is pure sorriness.  The character of a man is generally exposed in times of adversity.  If this is the response of a man who feels wronged then his actions are inexcuseable and should carry with him where ever he goes.  Conflicts with employers are normal, using impressionable 18-21 yr old young men to get your message across is sorriness at its best.

Greenmom is 100% correct about one thing, there is no way a player would not wear the uniform that is given to him or question a coaches decision to do so.  That's just not the way 99% of athletes are brought up. You respect your coaches, you run through walls for your coaches, and you abide by their decisions whether you like them or not.

←

You're right, I guess I just have Varsity Blues on the brain, lol. I'm losing it.

[Guest Aquila_Viridis]

Couldn't a player refuse to wear the jersey?

←

Yes and they call that play the 'naked bootleg'.

[Cr1028]

Yes and they call that play the 'naked bootleg'.

←

Haha, I like it.

[Monkeypox]

Okay, here's the deal. I don't know how many of you played sports, or particularly football in Texas, and admittedly,I didn't play it a whole hell of a long time....

By the time you're in junior high (though it starts earlier), there are your parents and your coach. The sad reality is that for many, the absence or unsuitability of the former means there is only the coach. I saw things at the age of 13 that would make your skin crawl, but I didn't (and don't) go outside of the locker room and chat about it because the team is a family and it is a tribe and it is as important to you as anything else. Right or wrong, it is the nature of the beast, and without that, you will not HAVE a team.

Now, that doesn't mean that everyone will always have a good relationship with their coaches, just as you don't always have a good relationship with your parents, and, in the end, blood is thicker than water.

But THAT is the coach. THAT could be your future. And if you're a smart player, you put that jersey on, because you know sometimes in life you have to do things you don't wanna do. You are a part of a machine.

So the decision-making here doesn't fall on these kids (and trust me I have no qualms being critical over play). The choice isn't theirs. They never should've been given the option of black jerseys, because the second they said they liked the idea, the coach, an adult and superior and theoretically intelligent being with leadership qualities should've explained to them what many alumni believe... that it isn't right.

Again, this team, the university it represents, and all the alumni and students it extends out to... is your family and your tribe, and you don't go changing the colors of such a thing on a whim. Silly as it sounds, it has meaning. It is your identity. It is your battle flag, and somebody wanting you to wear something other than some variation of the green and the white should come as a slap in the face to you.

But I can't expect a bunch of 18-22yr old kids to get that. It is, however, one of the critical responsibilities of a head coach at my alma mater.

[gksmith]

Well put Monkeypox.

When the chief of the tribe/father figure/leader of the pack (or what ever leader title you want to put on the head coach) says "this is what you do" that is what you are doing.

[Cr1028]

Okay, here's the deal.  I don't know how many of you played sports, or particularly football in Texas, and admittedly,I didn't play it a whole hell of a long time....

By the time you're in junior high (though it starts earlier), there are your parents and your coach.  The sad reality is that for many, the absence or unsuitability of the former means there is only the coach.  I saw things at the age of 13 that would make your skin crawl, but I didn't (and don't) go outside of the locker room and chat about it because the team is a family and it is a tribe and it is as important to you as anything else.  Right or wrong, it is the nature of the beast, and without that, you will not HAVE a team.

Now, that doesn't mean that everyone will always have a good relationship with their coaches, just as you don't always have a good relationship with your parents, and, in the end, blood is thicker than water.

But THAT is the coach.  THAT could be your future.  And if you're a smart player, you put that jersey on, because you know sometimes in life you have to do things you don't wanna do.  You are a part of a machine.

So the decision-making here doesn't fall on these kids (and trust me I have no qualms being critical over play).  The choice isn't theirs.  They never should've been given the option of black jerseys, because the second they said they liked the idea, the coach, an adult and superior and theoretically intelligent being with leadership qualities should've explained to them what many alumni believe... that it isn't right.

Again, this team, the university it represents, and all the alumni and students it extends out to... is your family and your tribe, and you don't go changing the colors of such a thing on a whim.  Silly as it sounds, it has meaning.  It is your identity.  It is your battle flag, and somebody wanting you to wear something other than some variation of the green and the white should come as a slap in the face to you.

But I can't expect a bunch of 18-22yr old kids to get that.  It is, however, one of the critical responsibilities of a head coach at my alma mater.

←

I love it.