The CheckerBoard

The fact that the entire coaching staff outside of Chaney jumped off Dooley's bandwagon like rats off a sinking ship does not somehow excuse the team's performance this year. The fact that Dooley knew he HAD to win this year and still hired an unproven LB coach who had never called plays to install an entirely new defense does nothing to make me think he deserves more time. If anything it makes me question his judgement even more. It was a stupid hire, at a stupid time, for a head coach who couldn't afford to make a mistake. I don't really see how you can view it any other way at this point.

I think Hart assured Dooley he would get this year and next to implement the new D. He had to be involved in these hirings to some degree, and seemed to be heavily involved in Sal coming to KVille. My belief is that Hart gave Dooley two more years at that point, especially since he gets paid $5,000,000 if he is fired before signing day 2013, and because I'm sure he had to agree to multiple year deals in order to get a staff in this year with all of the uncertainty in the media about Dooley's seat. JMHO, but Dooley is not stupid. Don't think he would have changed schemes if he wasn't sure he would be given time to see it through.

What DC was avaliable? Who was going to come to UTK and work? CDD had to do a heck of a deal selling this to CSS.

I believe everyone had the same thought that changing the D was going to be an issue, learing the D would be hard, and really when you watch what CNS and CKS do at bammer there are a lot of items that have to be done over and over and over (10,000,000 times) to become habit. We are still learning and this is the only fact we have for sure.

I Like the Staff, all the staff, and believe we are better today than we were 3 years ago, believe that we will be better next year than we are this year with one condition we can't keep chanign coaches at any position to get the players to give 100% for a coach and then have a different coach ask for it and a different coach just does not work.

Plus, wasn't Sals contract guaranteed for 3 years at 700-800k? That's 6.5 million just for 2 coaches buyouts

Either Hart knows he is stuck with Dooley for another year or he has/had the cash already promised if needed.

Here's my issue. Why wait till this year to implement a 3-4 D? This was supposed to be THE year. I vast majority of people acknowledge that this was a crucial year - perhaps do or die - for Dooley. We were going to have Bray, D Rogers, Hunter, a shot at five star JUCO receiver, and a solid O line. We were going to have an offense that would put up points. An offense that would be strong enough to contend for the East. Why does Dooley decide to make a switch that everyone knows takes a year or two to adjust to? If he wanted a 3-4, why not make the switch in his first year when everyone expected the team to suck? Or why not make the switch in a year or two after you've put together a few good years and have developed a bit of job security?

Good points. I prolly should add that part of allowing proficiency to kick in would include recruiting better speed and talent as was done on offense the last 3 years. I sort of took for granted that was understood.