The CheckerBoard

Thanks Ryan. That's one well-written article. Nice insight about having the recruiting office separate from the coaches. First off, I was a little surprised that it wasn't already that way, and secondly, it hints that Dooley foresaw some assistants leaving.

Great article. I really like Dooley. I hope his team performs well this year allowing him to continue leading our beloved Vols!

Great article Ryan and I agree OrangeNC on at least 4 years and in Dooley's case as I expressed in another thread recently maybe even 5 years to turn this around and get us back.

Just think of the recruiting obstacles Dooley faced from day 1 when he walked in Jan 2010:

2010 was Dooley's 1st class that he had about 3 weeks to retain the EE's, evaluate the rest of the class, recruit and sign them.......all with a new staff he had to hire in a matter of a few days/weeks.

2011- Dooley's 2nd class maybe should be considered his 1st real class with guys like Couch, Lanier, B. Moore, AJ Johnson, Maggitt, Lane, Clear, Randolph and Tiny. What makes that class so impressive for Dooley was he was 1.5-2 years behind other programs bc he only had a chance to evaluate the 2011 class, recruit and host them from mid February 2010 to NSD 2011 (approx. 11 months). As we see now, Dooley is not only recruiting the 2013 class but we are well on our way evaluating and offering kids in the 2014 class which is 1 yr and 8+ months away. Dooley didnt have the luxury of hosting/recruiting these players while they were JRs during the prior season/fall of 2009 either since he was not here yet. He was way behind and at a disadvantage even on his 2nd class of 2011.

Dooley's 3rd class in 2012 was the first class he was able to evaluate, offer, recruit and host JRs in the fall of 2010 and then recruit them as SRs and host them during the prior season (of 2011). JMO bc this you could also say that this the 1st class Dooley had a fair shot and was on level playing ground with our competition from a recruiting perspective but then add in that our program was not winning due to the reasons in this thread and really how much time in the summer and fall of 2010 did our staff have to recruit JRs for the 2012 class when they were so far behind on the 2011 class and focused on SRs and Jucos (only having 11 months to secure the 2011 class after only 3 weeks to finish the 2010 class). Dooley closed this class losing 7 coaches too.

Its unbel how good of job recruiting Dooley has done considering the above then factor in he had to put a staff together quickly in Jan and Feb of 2010 and then our programs performance of 5-7,7-6,6-7 and last year of 5-7. The kids he recruited in the 2012 class have never seen UT win (or at least they were not in high school during the 2007 season when we went 10-4....5 long years ago).

Relationships with recruits take time to build. We should start seeing these payoff in the near future. If we could ever get some coaching stability, I believe the payoff would be greater. That's JMO though.

They may have had more time to get out in front of this years recruits, but I still dont think we can get "Over the hump", so to speak, unless we put a much more competitive product on the field this fall. The good news is I think we will with a much easier schedule, maturity, and depth.

great article Ryan as usual , thanks

totally agree with you dad starting with the wins ; really excited about how well Coach has been able to recruit given the circumstances and winning 7 or 8 games this next year will only help the cause