The CheckerBoard

Very nice preemptive strike! +1

Reds, rednecks...people that think the solution to everything is to FAR(redneck pronunciation of fire) DOOLEY.

i agree as well, but i think 7-5 is acceptable as long as he is competitive in the losses and doesn't lose the team like last year. Small steps will get us there quicker than taking another step backward by firing the coach

I think a lot of the fan base wants to see Dooley coach the vols to a big win( as the good coaches do) a win that we haven't seen since kiffin left. That's my gripe with Dooley, beat someone you shouldn't, Georgia, Florida, bama, USCe, a win against one of them would show that he can coach with the elite coaches in the league, and silence a lot of the critics, if you win 7-8 ball games but lose to bama, Florida, Georgia ect. Then by tenn standards that's mediocrity, and with our facilities, tradition, fanbase and money we all deserve better than 0-20 against ranked teams. I'm not saying "fire Dooley" but at the end of the year I want to see an improved football team to totally get on the Dooley bandwagon.
Go damn Vols! Beat Georgia!

I feel confident that I am not foolish despite what you say. I believe that judging a team merely by its record is foolish. We did the same ole, same ole against Florida that we did against every top tier SEC team that we faced last year - collapsed in the second half and were outscored 27-6 (and it could have been worse). I think this week will tell us whether this team is better than last year. I certainly hope so.

I don't have any influence in the Athletic Dept. Any letter that I send would likely go into a black hole. At the end of the season if I am dissatisfied with the direction of the football program the only effective way that I can express my dissatisfaction is to withhold my annual donation and not renew my season tickets. I don't want to do that but I am really growing tired of paying a premium for mediocracy.

I pay exactly the same as you both in donation and for tickets. I'm sick of being surrounded by bammers at the bammer game. I'm sick of hearing a few poor losers wanting to fire the coach. I'm completely tired of the negative atmosphere brought on the masses by the few. We are in a mess right now. The mess was not caused by Dooley and is not being caused by Dooley. Completely poor and unacceptable management by our former AD created this mess. We have lost a boat load of players with all of this turnover. We hired a new staff on the fly. The way I see it our direction is better than it has been over the past several years but you just cannot snap your fingers and go from terrible to great. How the heck folks think that's possible is completely beyond me. Is 8-4 acceptable? YES, in 2012 it is completely acceptable and frankly it would be a great sign of progress. After 5-7, 7-5 would be acceptable as well to me....THIS YEAR. If we ever reach the top you can rest assured it will not be permanent and one year after reaching the top (we've reached the top ONCE in my 56 year lifetime) repeat will not likely happen and we'll go through this whole fire the coach stuff again. Dang, expectations are just out of touch with reality IMO.

And by the way I'm tired of our own fan base helping our program be Petrinoed. You think 8-4 is bad? What the heck are we going to do when other coaches use our own words to prevent success in recruiting?

I completely agree with you 100% on this checkerboard. +1 good post.