The CheckerBoard

The DC hire and the disaster that occurred on the defensive side of the ball killed Derek Dooley.

The offense was one of the most prolific in UT history. With even an average defense, the Vols would have won 7-9 games.

Hiring Clawson and his disastrous offense cost Phiil Fulmer his job. Likewise, Sunseri cost Dooley his chance to coach a fourth year.

Dooley was not prepared to compete or recuit at the SEC level. Is Jones? WE shall seee. But, given Jones background and his history of winning, compared to Dooley's, well, I can only assume he is ahead fo the game. Only time will tell.

Got to go to my history bag here.

Dooley was our Gen. McClellan from the Civil War. Little Mac, as they called him, inherited a broken and dispirited Army of the Potomac. He refit the army, cleaned up the camps, drilled the troops on the parade ground, provided decent food, and raised troop morale. He had a plan and he looked like a winner.

But he didn't win. Robert E. Lee beat him in front of Richmond and tied him at Antietam, both times with inferior forces.

Dooley was a parade-ground general. No heart, and no testosterone.

Excellent analogy!

1. Bad timing
2. 2010 staff had very little South ties and SEC experience and was put together late and in a hurry no fault to Dooley
3. NC, VA and TN were not focused on enough
4. Bad timing again.......our program was a disaster
5. Not beating KY in 2011 sped everything up and his hotseat
6. Beat LSU or not get screwed vs UNC and beat 1 more on top of the 2011 KY fiasco and all is well.
7. Horrible hire in Sal.........should of hired a top DC or an experienced one with a 4-3 so you dont change in a hot seat year.......but he never saw losing to MSU and Mizzou and Vandy. He was building for 2013+
8. He did need to learn game management more and better run game management with our RBs and CP......we didnt run it many times when we should and only ran it outside the guards 1-2 times a game with our RBs.
9. Get thru to Bray earlier.......maybe impossible.......his injury in 2011 really set back his maturity and learning curve that took place after the FL game (his low point) and we saw what he could be vs USCe
10. Land a top RB in 2011.........this and maybe a top pass rusher and 1 other LB. Lanier, JJ, DaRick and others staying in school would of changed things too if they were better leaders/ teammates too. We lost BBrown and Mike Edwards and others that were flat out talented.

Here's my take on Dooley's tenure:

1. Lack of contact with area high schools really hurt his recruiting. The TFP article explained the lack of contact between the program and those schools in great detail.
2. Unwillingness to change to fit his personnel/situation. When Bray and Hunter went down last season, Dooley kept going as if they were there, and never made the necessary adjustments to the overall game plan to benefit either Simms or Worley. The inability to make adjustments at halftime is something that has haunted Dooley since day one in Knoxville, and continued into this season.
3. Poor game management. Whether it was having too many/not enough players on the field or just deciding to run out the clock instead of trying to score or even using timeouts, that was another constant in his tenure. The moronic decision to go for OT against Missouri was the last straw.
4. Special Teams/kicking game - I have never seen a coach do so little with such highly-rated kickers as Dooley did. For someone whose focus under Saban was special teams, there was no reason for that.
5. Alienation of the lettermen and alumni who helped build Tennessee's reputation over the decades. For someone who spoke a lot about the history and tradition of Tennessee when he was introduced as the HC, Dooley never could recognize or even relate to the very people that helped build that tradition.
6. Stubborness - whether referring to his repeated attempts to keep Janzen Jackson on the team, the Deanthony Arnett debacle, or booting Cam Clear on the first offense, Dooley seemed to always do what he wanted, regardless of what the prevailing wisdom was at the time. I may be mistaken, but I believe it was a similar stubborn streak that led to the end of his father's tenure as UGA Athletic Director.
7. Inability to relate to the players. This wasn't something we really had evidence of until after he was dismissed, but as more and more people talked, the more apparent it became that Dooley was viewed more as a taskmaster. Compare that to some of the videos of Butch Jones and his Cincinnati team - the difference is night and day. In both the 2011 UK game and the 2012 Vandy game, the team basically quit on him. If your own team isn't even listening to you, then perhaps they're not the problem anymore.
8. "Year 0"/Bamboo/Rommel/Shower discipline: I can't think of a term to describe these events with, but it all boils down to the same thing: Dooley has a way of avoiding a direct answer to tough questions - probably developed while he was in law school. If you can't answer the questions, then how can you expect to solve the problems behind them?

Dooley did do some good things while at Tennessee - the VFL program, reducing the number of arrests and player incidents, rebuilding a roster that made an NFL expansion team look strong, and focusing on the game rather than the outside distractions. And while all of those aspects certainly helped this program, Dooley never was able to to the single most important thing: win games.