The CheckerBoard

We're not basing it on one game anymore. Now you can look at the state of the program based on 7 SEC losses this year. Oh my.

It's time.....now that the bowl game talk is history, it's time for Hart to end his silence and announce Dooley's being let go. There are no reasons left to keep the announcement from the team and fans.

Exactly,when change does come to this team. I sincerely hope Coach Graham and Coach Pittman make the cut. I also hope that whoever the coach is has a really strong QB coach one with a Spurrier attitude. Perform or ride the pine. Everything on the field starts with the QB.

I didn't think it was possible to lose 2 in a row to Kentucky. But now........I guess anything's possible.

It seems it would be beneficial to go ahead and do it, and get the process started to get the new coach. I wonder how many of those 4 star recruits James Franklin has committed would come with him ?

Dooley coached scared against Mizzou and it appeared last night like his big F you moment to the administration. The play calling and decision making was counter intuitive all night. We ran the ball well between the tackles early so we abandon it and start throwing. Lane had 108 on 15 carries and we continued to rely on the arm of a petulant child. Bray gets a tipped pass intercepted and we bench him while we have the lead. Fake punt deep inside our own territory? Third quarter Bray looks disinterested and plays worse than before he got benched and Dooley stuck with him. Plus more of the same from the defense. I'm sick right now.
If this coaching staff really wanted to keep their jobs they would have tried taking the air out of the ball, run the rock and chew up the clock and stop exposing a defense that has a hard time stopping traffic. That is what Fulmer would have done.

Lane gashed Vandy's defense for ten yards plus on three straight runs. Vanderbilt does nothing to change their alignment, still keeps safeties back and on second and 5 well deep in Vanderbilt territory, Chaney or Dooley decides it would be a good time to abandon the run and start chucking the rock again. Vandy aligns in 2 deep safety to double Patterson and Hunter and Rivera goes unnoticed all night long. Rogers gets one serious look over the middle for a td and doesn't go over a two deep safety alignment again all night long. I must admit when I say all night I mean for the first three quarters because I left at 34-10 so if we meaninglessly made any adjustments like I say we didn't here in the fourth quarter, then I wasn't around to see it. Since we lost to ND in Neyland after a two td comeback felll short I have not left UT games early, fearing I'd miss an epic comeback. I have left two Florida's two Alabama's and now (God am I typing this?) a Vanderbilt game before the 3rd quarter knowing we had no hope of winning. The lowest point in this fan's 56 years of following the Vols. No other time even close. Not North Texas State, not Rutgers, not Wyoming. Those were aberrations. This is the downward slide toward a trough, not of mediocrity, but of total and complete failure. Hart, the clock is running. Get moving.

God, spoken as if from my own mouth, Huey.

Derek Doodipants is history. Who's the most likely replacement?

Couldn't agree more. I'm pretty sure Bill Battle was quoting from his old ball coach at Alabama that the most important time in a close game was the first five minutes of the second half. Bear obviously knew a thing or two about football. If you would carefully chart the beginning of the second half under Dooley's tenure, Tennessee has has meltdowns of Biblical proportions time and time again. While you still need good players, scheme matters. Good coaches make adjustments, and they anticipate the other adjustments that the opponent would make. Recalling Battle again, a fine man, who just wasn't a good football coach, under his regime Tennessee would get ahead in the first half, then hold on for dear life in the second half, sometimes with enough lead to prevail, sometimes not. This guy hasn't had the luxury of leads to waste, and so, disaster. Not all sons of good coaches make good coaches. And I never thought Vince was an elite coach. Herschel was his horse and he rode him to his year of glory. And Vince coached in an era when fans/alums/boosters were more tolerant. That ship has sailed. DD is proving to be a better negotiator than coach and as such he is set for life, financially. Good, begrudgingly, for him.