The West Georgian

Issue date: 1/16/08 Section: Sports

While students were studying hard for their final exams last semester, Athletic Director Ed Murphy was hard at work searching for a new football coach. Just before the end of the semester, he named Daryl Dickey as the Wolves new head football coach.

"I'm very grateful to President Beheruz Sethna and to Coach Murphy for the opportunity to be part of the West Georgia family," said Dickey. "This is an outstanding institution in an outstanding community. My family and I are looking forward to being a part of this atmosphere."

After former head coach Mike Ledford's resignation, Murphy vowed to move swiftly in finding a new coach. After a month of interviewing potential candidates, Murphy found his man in Coach Dickey and is excited about his new era as the head football coach.

"I'm ecstatic to bring a coach of Daryl's ability into our program," says Murphy. "He brings a great deal of experience and talent to an excellent job. We are confident that he will lead this program back to where we need to be."

Dickey has 25 years of coaching experience and spent four seasons as the head coach of Presbyterian. He turned the program around during his tenure, posting a 9-2 record for the Blue Hose in 2000. He later moved on to Florida State and spent six years as the quarterback coach under Bobby Bowden.

Dickey also served on the coaching staffs of Johnny Majors at Tennessee and Bill Curry at Kentucky. At Kentucky, he served as the offensive coordinator and quarterback coach for the Wildcats. He spent two seasons as the offensive coordinator and quarterback coach at Georgia Southern.

Moreover, Dickey inherited his coaching skills from his father, Doug Dickey, who served as the head football coach at the University of Tennessee and University of Florida. His father also retired as the Director of Athletics at Tennessee in 2002.

During his official introduction to the university as the new coach, Dickey expressed his gratitude to be the new coach and his commitment to turning the program around and back to the level it once was at.

"Our goal each year is to make the NCAA Playoffs," says Dickey. "When you do that, you're either winning or contending for the championship in the Gulf South Conference and winning 10 or 11 games. Our goal here is to return this program to that level."

However, Coach Dickey was more specific and up-front when he addressed his players for the first time on last week. He stressed the importance of achieving the team's priority on the field but off the field as well.

"The main priorities on this team are family and personal faith, academics, and making a championship caliber football program," said Coach Dickey. "These will be the priorities we live by and I will continue to make football decisions in order to reach these goals."

Coach Dickey has already added a new defensive coordinator and linebacker coach to the team, but is unable to announce the names due to university regulations. The Wolves football team has already began offseason workouts and look forward to a very productive spring practice.

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