Vince Dooley's Son to TN
Louisiana Tech football coach Derek Dooley, son of legendary coach Vince Dooley, has been hired as Tennessee's new coach, sources close to the situation told ESPN on Friday.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4829107
January 15th, 2010 at 1:35 PM ^
That writeup is fan-tastic! Nice work there, ESPN.
January 15th, 2010 at 1:37 PM ^
Even minimalists will find that brief.
January 15th, 2010 at 1:42 PM ^
Edit: They added another two paragraphs. Still brief though.
January 15th, 2010 at 1:46 PM ^
Well that destroys my comment! Damn you ESPN! I was especially witty for once!
January 15th, 2010 at 1:44 PM ^
I would think it is pretty safe to say that he is not going to go anywhere for a while. At least UT should have that going for them.
Looks like he is a disciple of Nick Saban.
January 15th, 2010 at 2:42 PM ^
Personally, I think Saban has minions, not disciples.
January 15th, 2010 at 1:44 PM ^
Some people say he is a nice guy. He is kind of tall. He wears shorts in the summer when it is warm. I can't wait until Prof. Pryor gives his next Creative Writing lecture....
January 15th, 2010 at 1:48 PM ^
I think it's a good hire. He's done relatively well at Lousiana Tech, which traditionally has been a terrible football school. He's a solid coach that gets plenty out of the lower-rated players, so I think he'll be ok.
Plus, the old man can teach him all about SEC football.
January 15th, 2010 at 1:48 PM ^
I wonder if UT thinks he can salvage what's left of this class? That's a pretty short-sighted approach to hiring a HC.
January 15th, 2010 at 1:53 PM ^
I think's it more of a "let's get a guy with real SEC roots willing to plant long term" type of hire with acceptance of growing pains.
Or it says that UT really has to look at their nepotism hiring policies :)
January 15th, 2010 at 2:18 PM ^
WOTS is that L Tech was going to be a 9-3 or 10-2 team this year and then he would be in the SEC. So maybe they just got their man a year early. The situation in Knoxville just keeps getting more interesting. Lance Thompson gave a great quote about getting what he deserved by working for Kiffin and not being able to wait to get to coach against him in the future.
"You’re tremendously disappointed in the way the events have gone down and in the parties involved," Thompson said.
"From my perspective, in my career, I’ve always dealt with people who did things the right way. I never saw this coming.
"Ultimately, it’s my own responsibility for who I choose to work for. Looking back on the last year, it leaves me in a little bit of dismay."
full article:
http://blog.al.com/kevin-scarbinsky/2010/01/scarbinsky_lance_thompson_t…
a (somewhat) better article about the impending Dooley hire:
http://www.govolsxtra.com/news/2010/jan/15/reports-tennessee-hiring-doo…
January 15th, 2010 at 2:09 PM ^
Seriously guys, will anyone learn? Dooley is not a done deal. Twitter analysts are reporting it's a smokescreen and it isn't set in stone yet. Tennessee has had the worst week ever - Coach Gary Gaines from Permian High is on the phone with Fulmer right now.
January 15th, 2010 at 2:16 PM ^
Check the link again and you'll see that the story has changed to "Dooley is a top candidate." Classic ESPN!
January 15th, 2010 at 2:21 PM ^
If I were Hamilton I would hire B Pearl. He had to suspend 4 players, and then dismiss the best player on the team. After that he beats no. 1 Kansas on national TV and then blows out Auburn on espn 2 a couple of days later. I know he's a Bball coach, but you could do worse!
January 15th, 2010 at 2:14 PM ^
Fulmer may "come back" to UT at the end of this? I get this nagging feeling as this keeps going on that Big Phil just may pull a Dick Cheney and come in on his white horse to "save" Tennessee football after he advises that there's no good qualified people to be Tennessee coach. I know the AD essentially forced him out, but man, if the AD can't get a qualified coach in the house by national recruiting black out day, I could forsee a scenario where the UT President/Chancellor gets "persuaded" to bring back Fulmer.
January 15th, 2010 at 2:35 PM ^
but what the hell did Dick Cheney every save? Except maybe transferring my tax dollars to his bank account.
January 15th, 2010 at 3:08 PM ^
but my reference was to Cheney's action to suggest himself as Bush's VP candidate in 2000. Cheney was appointed by Bush to head a search committee for a VP running mate, and Cheney came to the conclusion that there weren't any other candidates as strong as him for Bush to select. I see Fulmer's offer of assisting to find a coach being a similar play.
January 15th, 2010 at 2:33 PM ^
Who is that dude? Why is he going to be the next coach at TN?
January 15th, 2010 at 2:53 PM ^
Saban disciple...and he isn't the next coach of UT...yet.
January 15th, 2010 at 3:01 PM ^
ESPN might have pulled the trigger a bit early on this one. I don't think it's a done deal yet -- at least that's what the sports talk radio shows down here are currently saying.
January 15th, 2010 at 5:56 PM ^
Dooley's agreed to it, states the re-updated article on ESPN. Good luck to him.
What I want to know is why Cutliffe turned them down. Is there lingering bitterness for the way they treated his old boss?
January 15th, 2010 at 9:13 PM ^
Cutcliff is very loyal to his assistants. An issue that UT is now going to face is buying out the assistants that Kiffin left behind. Kiffin brought in some assistants with some big contracts (for assistants), then left them behind during his exodus. Cutcliff may not have taken the job based on the fact that keeping some of the assistants was a must, therefore not being able to bring his staff with him. Cutcliff was endorsed by Fulmer, so I don't see that being an issue, if Fulmer wanted him to come back and Cutcliff wanted it then it would have happened.
January 15th, 2010 at 9:12 PM ^
...oh wait--wrong Dooley.