The CheckerBoard

Let me caveat that by saying Dooley inteligence, and likeability is what makes this situation even tougher. Not to mention his sweat equity with the program.

What really gets me is that MOST people expected this at the beginning of the year. The general consensus of Vol fans labeled this season as a 7 or 8 win season. We all knew coming in that Tennessee was going to have an extremely tough leg of games in October. Winning one of the four would've been phenomenal, but these teams are 27-1, and that's nothing to really be ashamed of. Dooley did say that Tennessee wouldn't be kicked around anymore, and with the exception of the Alabama game, he was right. I'm not one to celebrate moral victories either, but this team has shown a great deal of resolve on the field. They could've easily given up on the road in Athens or Starkville, as neither place is an easy venue to steal a win.

Now I couldn't begin to tell you whether or not Dooley is the answer here at Tennessee, but I have seen a complete 180 from a lot on this board. If you check 2 months ago, most agreed this an 8 win team on average, and last time I checked, 8-5 is by no means impossible for this squad.

I agree. There is not a person on the planet that picked Tennessee to be a top 15 team. Each loss has been to top ranked teams (Miss St. is currently ranked 11, all the rest are ranked in the top 10). No one expected the SEC east to be this stacked, so as bad as this is to have lost 4 in conference games, this should not have come as a surprise to anyone.

My hopes were as high as the next guy's, and I drank the Kool-aid as well, but really our team is exactly where most of us expected them to be.

If this Gruden stuff has any teeth and is real then so be it, however I think Dooley deserves a third recruiting class ( I don't consider his first class his since he was hired 2 weeks before signing day).

If we can bring in that Rock star coach and begin another dynasty then pull the trigger and make it happen, otherwise stay the course and give the man one more season.

I think that if Wilcox had stayed, we might have beaten UF, UGA and MSU. The Sunseri hire has, thus far, been a disaster.

Here's my problem with the potential record of our team this year at this point. At the beginning of the year, I felt like 8-4 is where we needed to be, and easily could be, come December. I felt like 7-5 was our floor and 9-3 and was our ceiling. However, whichever record we ended up with, I 100% expected to beat one of our big 4. I could've envisioned us losing to NC State but beating UGA or UF, or losing to MSU and Mizzou but beating UF and USC. Basically, I expected us to have an up and down season with more ups than downs and to this point, it has been a downhill free fall since NC State. Based off what I've seen the last 2.5 years, I have no reason to believe that we will win this Saturday which will make us 0-4 against our big 4 and 0-5 in the conference. That, to me, is completely unacceptable this year. With our talent level, you HAVE to beat one big SEC team this year and we have folded like lawn chairs in every SEC game so far. Dooley is just simply not very encouraging at this point. I love the guy, but he's not ready for our program and expectations.

With the ammount of points we give up, I dont feel like any game on our schedule is a lock, and that includes Troy and Kentucky. I just cant justify getting my hopes up, when the team, as a whole, continue to make the same mistakes. All the rumors of a coaching change will surely make the locker room hard to handle for Dooley as well.

Dooley only has that appeal towards the fans. He is not very well liked among athletic department staffers. He is intelligent no doubt, but from everything Ive heard a nightmare to work for.