OT: Derek Dooley experiment officially ends at University of Tennessee
After getting curb stomped by Vanderbilt last night, AD Dave Hart has pulled the trigger and officially released Derek Dooley as head coach. Dooley turned down the offer of coaching the final game of the season and interim head coach Jim Chaney will coach the Vols against Kentucky.
November 18th, 2012 at 11:27 AM ^
November 18th, 2012 at 11:36 AM ^
November 18th, 2012 at 11:35 AM ^
it's unbelieveable how much they believe it. i talked to a couple last night and one swears about how he knows someone that ran into someone that would know and he said it's a done deal, so it's gotta be the truth. the other tells me about how it was a done deal last week but when you ask why they haven't just come out and said it, this time it's because the MNF deal won't let them announce it until the last monday night game this season, which makes absolutely no sense to at all, but i'm a michigan fan so what do i know.
November 18th, 2012 at 3:13 PM ^
Denial runs deep in Knoxville. Some of the saddest football fans in the nation.
November 18th, 2012 at 11:40 AM ^
November 18th, 2012 at 3:12 PM ^
This makes me laugh. I have many UT fan friends and I can't wait to see the tears flow when he doesn't go there.
November 18th, 2012 at 11:28 AM ^
November 18th, 2012 at 11:30 AM ^
November 18th, 2012 at 12:55 PM ^
Bad coach jokes (best I can do on short notice):
1. He's such a bad coach that MSU fans took him out after yesterday's loss and set him on fire.
2. Well at least Tennessee hasn't had trouble with any of their other recent coaches.
November 18th, 2012 at 11:30 AM ^
Remember when this looked like the stupidest hire in the world a few years ago?
Well it turns out it went exactly like all the raving message board people thought it would. I still don't understand what Tennessee thought they were going to get out of Dooley
November 18th, 2012 at 11:37 AM ^
Remember when Hoke looked like the stupidest hire in the world a few years ago?
November 18th, 2012 at 11:38 AM ^
November 18th, 2012 at 11:44 AM ^
November 18th, 2012 at 11:50 AM ^
He just looked worse than Harbaugh, which he probably was as Harbaugh made Stanford into a good team that's about to win the Pac 12 and then took the 49ers to the brink of the Super Bowl .
The meltdown was that we couldn't convince Harbaugh to come home, not that we were taking a flier on Hoke. Lucikily for us it worked out in the end and Hoke's personality has been perfect.
November 18th, 2012 at 2:35 PM ^
Part of the meltdown was over Rich Rod getting fired in the first place. This website was much more pro-Rodriguez than the average, and also much more anti-Hoke in the beginning. Most fans outside of here liked the Hoke hire a lot.
November 18th, 2012 at 11:51 AM ^
I never thought it was a stupid hire.
I thought Jim Harbaugh was the best candidate but Hoke was my #2.
November 18th, 2012 at 3:18 PM ^
He said #2!
November 18th, 2012 at 12:05 PM ^
November 18th, 2012 at 12:19 PM ^
November 18th, 2012 at 1:59 PM ^
Really? UT has less talent than Auburn? Considering what Auburn has done this year, that's awfully hard to argue.
November 18th, 2012 at 2:14 PM ^
November 18th, 2012 at 2:40 PM ^
I think UT is better than that. This is a program that was consistently in the top 10 in the 1990s and early 2000s, won a national title in 1998 and produced Peyton Manning, and which has a 105,000-seat stadium. They seem to be going through the same kind of instability that Alabama recently did before Saban, but with the right coach they'll be a force again.
November 18th, 2012 at 5:37 PM ^
November 18th, 2012 at 12:29 PM ^
Hoke has a sub .500 career record but he nearly took Ball State to an undefeated season and had built SDSU into respectability.
Dooley had done absolutely nothing. All he had on his resume were 5-7, 8-5, and 4-8 records with Louisiana Tech and a famous dad. That was it. Predictably he went 3-5, 1-7, and 0-7 in SEC play in his time at Tennessee.
November 18th, 2012 at 1:58 PM ^
Hoke never looked like the stupidest hire in the world to informed message board posters. Dooley always looked like the stupidest hire in the world to informed message board posters.
Just saying.
November 18th, 2012 at 2:46 PM ^
People in the know, who had seen Hoke up close (not just Michigan guys but people who'd followed him at BSU and SDSU) raved about him. Ironically, it was Craig James who was trumpeting his candidacy the most in the days before he was hired. The "JAMES KILLED FIVE HOOKERS" meme caught on here after he committed the sin of advocating that we hire Hoke.
November 18th, 2012 at 12:58 PM ^
This was one of the strangest coaching hires I can remember and an obvious disaster from the start. Hoke had won at two places it was difficult to win at (and he left SD ST. in very good shape). Dooley on the other hand had 1 winning season in 3 in the WAC and was coming off a 4-8 season.
November 18th, 2012 at 11:33 AM ^
Just say he got fired.
November 18th, 2012 at 11:34 AM ^
November 18th, 2012 at 12:42 PM ^
I doubt a school that got hit with a NCAA recruiting violation recently will want to try to hire a coach with a 'show cause' penalty that is still in effect for 4 years.
Even for the SEC, this would be nuts.
November 18th, 2012 at 11:37 AM ^
As a Volunteer sympathizer, the only comfort in this comes from knowing that dirty dog Kiffin is in trouble himself at USC. He's the one that set this whole chain of affairs in motion.
November 18th, 2012 at 11:41 AM ^
November 18th, 2012 at 11:46 AM ^
Would Strong go to Tenn? Louisville says they will pay him whatever it takes and if the Mary/Rutgers stuff happens I suspect they will be on there way to the Big12.
November 18th, 2012 at 11:46 AM ^
Dooley ill will. He deserves it. Remember how he tried to prevent Arnett's tranfser to B1G schools in MI?
November 18th, 2012 at 12:16 PM ^
To be fair, Arnett has increasingly come off as a fairly significant head-case. I tend to wonder about Arnett's veracity.
November 18th, 2012 at 12:47 PM ^
November 18th, 2012 at 1:49 PM ^
It hasn't been verified.
November 18th, 2012 at 11:42 AM ^
If Tenn was smart...they throw the bank at Charlie Strong....if not that then they could sell their souls down the river for wins by going after Petrino.
November 18th, 2012 at 5:39 PM ^
If I were looking for a pro-style coach that would be my guy. Seeing him on that HBO show I think that he's a good fit for college. That's if they can't get Strong and wish to keep their soul.
November 18th, 2012 at 11:53 AM ^
from other sec coaches when he was hired......that should have told tennessee all they needed to know.
Will be interesting to see who tennessee hires... I think they go after Kirby Smart........l
November 18th, 2012 at 11:54 AM ^
I think Fulmer may get a call with the success of Snyder, Solich and even Spurrier.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Fulmer, Strong, or even Alabama DC Kirby Smart get the job.
Mark Dantonio would've be another interesting name if MSU wasn't ass this year--- he certainly has the SEC personality.
November 18th, 2012 at 12:17 PM ^
At this point, I think Dantonio is comfortable enough in his program that he wouldn't jump for anybody other than the pros, Ohio or one of those few marquee programs a career college coach couldn't turn down (USC, Alabama, Texas)
November 18th, 2012 at 12:04 PM ^
November 18th, 2012 at 12:08 PM ^
If Narduzzi leaves, it'll be for a head coaching job at a MAC school. Not Tennessee.
I doubt they hire a coordinator unless his name is Kirby Smart --- that's pretty much the beginning and the end of that list.
Dantonio would be a hot name, but MSU sucks right now and UT fans would shit a brick if they hired Dantonio after the season they've had. He'd definitely fit that conference though.
November 18th, 2012 at 12:43 PM ^
November 18th, 2012 at 3:15 PM ^
Based on the performance of Tennessee's defense, Kirby Smart would be a great hire.
November 18th, 2012 at 12:06 PM ^
I may be wrong, but I don't see this having a HUGE impact on his recruitment. Both Tennessee and Auburn (who will fire their coach after 'Bama beats them) are still big time programs. They're going to attract big names as they're top jobs. There's nothing that says if a Charlie Strong went to Auburn that Green would still rule them out. Or say UT got a top coach the way Ohio got Urban Meyer.
Unless he has some huge connection to an assistant coach and that coach isn't retained.
You're not really going to lose ground in those situations. Now if one of them hired a coach who was very specific in his type of offense. Say someone from the Oregon system or Gus Malzahn...maybe he doesn't go there because he doesn't want to play in that system. That to me helps Michigan more than anything.
But it's not like we're talking about Vandy and Louisville. Kids are going to those schools to play for Franklin and Strong --- period. If they got fired, you could count both schools out.
In this situation, I think it could help...but I don't think it being an "end-all/buckle up" type situation.
We'll just have to see how it plays out. I think if Michigan was located in the south. He'd already be blue. I think he likes Michigan the best, but wants to play in the south.
November 18th, 2012 at 1:03 PM ^
Based on Tennessee's last 2 coaching hires I don't think they are going to get a top coach. They are at best 3rd in that division. If your Strong or Smart why not wait for a better job to come open. Oregon may well open this year if Kelly leaves, Kiffin may be on thin ice, Mack Brown is not going to coach forever at Texas. If O'Brien goes to the NFL Penn St. is no longer the dead end job that it looked like it might be.