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Notes: Dooley reflects on Sunseri

  • http://tennessee.247sports.com/Article/Notes-Tennessee-Vols-coach-Derek-Dooley-reflects-on-Sal-Sunseri-98717

    Tennessee coach Derek Dooley reflected Tuesday on the search earlier this year that led him to hiring Sal Sunseri as the Vols' defensive coordinator.

    Staff writer for govols247 — http://www.twitter.com/RyanCallahan247 — rcallahan@247sports.com

    Ryan Callahan ●

  • I so wish i could go to the games this week and next. Just no cash for it, now the guy at work says he's goign to retire Dec 14th. Well thats after changing it from Oct 19th to Thanksgiving. #retirealready #ineedmoremoney

    Tithulta

  • Tithulta said...

    I so wish i could go to the games this week and next. Just no cash for it, now the guy at work says he's goign to retire Dec 14th. Well thats after changing it from Oct 19th to Thanksgiving. #retirealready #ineedmoremoney

    Not trying to be pessimistic, but there should be plenty of $5 or less tickets floating around the stadium. There may be a ticket swap thread on here you can check. I've seen lots of posts on FB on people trying to get rid of tix.

    bradley86

  • Now if people would just leave him alone and give him time. Poor guy inherited madness, we're on the right track

    endb3309 ●

  • This game will be very Akron like...sal could end the Dooley era with a dud of epic proportions...it's gonna be a barn burner.

    Manndingo ●

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    givethemsix

  • I'm glad to hear Dooley (and maybe moreso the defensive players) finally admit publicly what many have speculated for most of the season: that a large part of the problems with this year's D is the new scheme and all the new things they've got to learn. GA & Bama had trouble with the 3-4 in their first year at it. I really, really hope that we stay with the 3-4 next year and get some return for the investment we've made in it this year -- because the switch this year likely cost us 2-4 losses so far this season.

    ericstubb

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    Staff writer for govols247 — http://www.twitter.com/RyanCallahan247 — rcallahan@247sports.com

    Ryan Callahan ●

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    GDrinnen2

  • Ryan Callahan said...

    I think you're overlooking one of the key sentences Dooley said, which is included in this story:

    “I think there were going to be growing pains no matter who you brought in, because it’s new, even with a 4-3 (defense)."

    In other words, the fact that it's a new defense, period — not just that it's a 3-4 — is what has caused a lot of the problems. I would imagine that may be an issue next year, too, if UT makes a coaching change or even just brings in a new defensive coordinator.

    I disagree. I think it's by in large due to the fact that we switched to this 3-4. We have never seen this type of drop off when switching coordinators. I did some research and found some astonishing statistics. The following is how many spots we moved in the rankings in scoring defense and total defense throughout our last 5 years.

    2008-2009 (Chavis to Kiffin):
    SD: 10th to 37th (-27)
    TD: 3rd to 22nd (-19)

    2009-2010 (Kiffin to Wilcox):
    SD: 37th to 56th (-19)
    TD: 22nd to 69th (-45)

    2010-2011 (Wilcox to Wilcox):
    SD: 56th to 36th (+20)
    TD: 69th to 27th (+42)

    2011-2012 (Wilcox to Sunseri)
    SD: 36th to 104th (-68)
    TD: 27th to 101st (-74)

    I'd say that this is the biggest fail of a defense this program has ever seen and it can be attributed to unfamiliarity of the new scheme w/ players and untimely play calling by Sunseri. It's simply horrific and I would be willing to bet that if you stick with the 4-3, this never happens. Hindsite's 20/20 but this was just a bad decision by Dooley and it's probably going to cost him his job.

    PS. Those numbers in 2008 under Chavis make me want to puke. Didn't realize we were THAT good on defense.

    This post was edited by jcoope16 on 10/31/2012 at 6:09 AM

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    jcoope16

  • jcoope16 said...

    I disagree. I think it's by in large due to the fact that we switched to this 3-4. We have never seen this type of drop off when switching coordinators. I did some research and found some astonishing statistics. The following is how many spots we moved in the rankings in scoring defense and total defense throughout our last 5 years.

    2008-2009 (Chavis to Kiffin):
    SD: 10th to 37th (-27)
    TD: 3rd to 22nd (-19)

    2009-2010 (Kiffin to Wilcox):
    SD: 37th to 56th (-19)
    TD: 22nd to 69th (-45)

    2010-2011 (Wilcox to Wilcox):
    SD: 56th to 36th (+20)
    TD: 69th to 27th (+42)

    2011-2012 (Wilcox to Sunseri)
    SD: 36th to 104th (-68)
    TD: 27th to 101st (-74)

    I'd say that this is the biggest fail of a defense this program has ever seen and it can be attributed to unfamiliarity of the new scheme w/ players and untimely play calling by Sunseri. It's simply horrific and I would be willing to bet that if you stick with the 4-3, this never happens. Hindsite's 20/20 but this was just a bad decision by Dooley and it's probably going to cost him his job.

    PS. Those numbers in 2008 under Chavis make me want to puke. Didn't realize we were THAT good on defense.

    But according to those numbers there was always a drop off, regardless of scheme. Yea this drop is the worst, but there was always a drop off.

    Also, Chavis's last year was good, but if memory serves correctly we were attrocious the year before that. I maybe wrong as those last 3 Fulmer years kinda run together ...

    Jestrad28

  • 'Terrible' numbers for a Chavis defense never reached this kind of low. I hated that Mustang package as much as anyone else but I sure do miss it now.

    polirules

  • Jestrad28 said...

    But according to those numbers there was always a drop off, regardless of scheme. Yea this drop is the worst, but there was always a drop off.

    Also, Chavis's last year was good, but if memory serves correctly we were attrocious the year before that. I maybe wrong as those last 3 Fulmer years kinda run together ...

    What do you mean there was always a drop off? Wilcox improved dramatically in his second year. Yes, there was always a drop off when switching coordinators but this year's drop is almost twice as bad as any drop off in recent history.

    And to your second part, yes our defense was not that good in 2007. The site I used for my info would only go back to 2007 but here are the numbers.

    2007-2008 (Chavis to Chavis)
    SD: 61st to 10th (+51)
    TD: 70th to 3rd (+67)

    However, even with that defense in 2007, we still made the SECCG. And I would say that the improvement from 2007 to 2008 was incredible. My whole point in all of this was that in recent history, maybe even going back to the early to mid 90's, we've never even sniffed being around the 100 mark in the defensive rankings. This 3-4 defense is THE problem, coupled with a bad play caller as opposed to just simply switching coordinators being the problem.

    This post was edited by jcoope16 on 10/31/2012 at 7:17 AM

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    jcoope16

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    Ryan Callahan ●

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    Kevin Ryan ●

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    allwillbeorange ●

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