Tennessee settled for Derek Dooley. Settled is the only word you can use to describe this cluster of a coaching search. If you are keeping score football powerhouses like Duke and Air Force trumped the Volunteers. When Tennessee asked everyone said NO! Will Muschamp is staying at Texas. Air Force’s coach preferred his present job to Knoxville. What about one of the best Tennessee assistant coaches in recent memory? David Cutcliffe rejected the job too—he preferred the head coaching gig at Duke.

As the pressure mounted athletic director Mike Hamilton wilted, and then he hired the first guy with a name he recognized. If you listen to Volunteer fans the latest move by athletic director Mike Hamilton isn’t popular.

Hamilton replaced the pizzazz (and dysfunction) of a DeLorean with the appeal and stability of a Ford. (The only question is whether the Ford is a Crown Vic or a Pinto.)

The flashy guy cost Tennessee more than it bargained; Kiffin embarrassed the university from the moment he began working in Knoxville. Tennessee was better than Kiffin, and is fortunate Kiffin bolted for USC. Now Tennessee football has opted for something different than flash.

But is Dooley worthy to wear the mantle once worn by legends like General Robert Neyland, Johnny Majors and (yes even) Phil Fulmer?

Dooley has the bloodline.

But if bloodlines were enough then Mike Shula would have won a national championship for Alabama.

Dooley’s career record is 17-20. It isn’t bad for La Tech, but it doesn’t inspire the confidence of a splashy hire.

Unfortunately for Tennessee, the coach will preside over a divided house. The backroom drama over the fate of Mike Hamilton will create turmoil for the new coach. Some at Tennessee won’t accept Dooley because of his lack of credentials or few ties to the program or one of a thousand other reasons that you can find on Gridscape or Volquest message board rants.

The Tennessee family is as divided over Dooley as the Alabama family was divided over Bill Curry. With Hamilton likely to be fired and the coach already unpopular, can this end for Dooley any better than it did for Curry at Alabama?

20 thoughts on “Quick reaction: Derek Dooley is UT’s Bill Curry”

  1. Maybe he will use the lesson of Bill Curry and the recent TN thuggery and throw a brick through his own window during the season!

  2. His mother and father are really great people. From what I can tell, he’s a classy guy. Coach Saban will be cordial with him too because he’s good friends with the Dooleys. Who knows? Maybe Derrick wins a lot of games at UT?

    I would say that he should have beaten Auburn. But then again, almost everyone that played Auburn either beat them, played them close, or in the case of West Virginia and Northwestern, gave Auburn the game on a silver platter. So why bring that up.

    Anybody could beat that hapless bunch from Lee County.

  3. I think that this deal should be viewed for what it is. They made an Interim Hire. Dooley will have an life cycle of 2 years at the most – before the Nols hire the real deal. I would suggest that this is simply an emergency hire – like Mike Shula.
    The Problem is obvious like the Shula Example. He might win just enough to extend his life cycle.
    The Nols are going to feel the pain that the Nation has felt in the Past. That is too damn bad.
    Phat Phil and The Queer from Memphis need to squirm .

  4. Why not read a little of his resume.
    7 years under Saban. Saban believed in him enough to promote to head of recruiting at LSU. Dooley had two #1 recruiting classes. His class won a NC. Saban offered him a job with the Dolphins and then Bama. He chose LaTech. Took Tech to first Bowl game since Nixon (30 plus years). He had Tech up on LSU 13-0 at half time. Played Boise St at BSt as good as Orgeon. Lost to 5 bowl teams by a total of 20 points. He maybe something different, substance. When you look at things only at the surface, as does most media, it makes it easy to be … Informed opinion requires, just that..information.

  5. I think Dooley will do a good job at UT. He was impressive in his tv appearance in front of the vol nation!! He has a kid named Peyton so he will be a legend next year in Knoxville!!
    RTR

  6. I think he will be successful — looking at the UcheaT schedules through 2011 — this guy has problems. It will be two ABYSMAL year at UcheaT — they have got their Mike Shula to “fill the void/time”. They are going to figure out real quick that if you don’t have a big name in head coaching to make a splash and to be able to recruit the high skilled talent — it’s going to TAKE YEARS and YEARS!!! LMFAO — this a big FUCK YOU to TENNESSEE!!!

    You get what you ask for …

    Crystal bitches.

  7. Afortunateone, It doesn’t really matter if Dooley is good or not. Vol fans are going to see 17-20 and many will react like Alabama fans reacted to Bill Curry. Furthermore, the fact that Hamilton will be fired sooner rather than later creates additional turmoil in the athletic department.

    He may be qualified, or he might fail, but he likely will never get the chance because of the situation unfolding in Knoxville.

  8. You nailed it, Cap. Dooley will be the Vile version of Curry and/or Shula. He’ll probably win enough to stick around for 3-4 years, but then Tenn will be looking again. The big question is, how long will Mike Hamilton last? He embarrassed himself again yesterday by claiming that Dooley was his first choice all along. He’s in way over his head. The one good thing I see out of this hire is that since Dooley is a class individual that is close to Saban, maybe Alabama and Tennessee can rebuild the respectful rivalry that Phil Fulmer destroyed.

  9. Yeah alex, La Tech really gave the game away to AU this year. AU only outgained La Tech 550 yds to 245 yds, and the final score was only 37-13. Don’t know how the bulldogs let that one slip through their fingers. I guess Chatanooga should have beaten Bama this year too, huh??

    Kinda funny that a fan of a team that just won a big game after the opponent’s All American starting qb was injured on the 4th play and replaced by a true freshman would make cracks about another team having a game “handed to them on a silver platter.”

    Now quick, respond with a misogynist statement filled with obsence references! That’ll put me in my place!

  10. The only thing necessary to put you in your place is that by any count, Alabama is several times BETTER than Auburn.

    Now go cry in your AU pajamas under an AU blanket and try to avoid the media coverage of Alabama’s 13th National Championship Celebration. Pausing for Julia to say, “nuh uh, it’s only 8 titles, we don’t count ’em from the 1920s…” OK Julia. Alabama is still 7 times better than Auburn.

    Yes, fucknut, La Tech was definitely in the game. And the idiot West Virginia coaching staff called for passes when Noel Devine was crucifying the AU “defense”. You don’t get any more giving the game away than that.

    As for the McCoy injury, I will say this.

    Why don’t you try to take a hit from Marcel Darius and let’s see if your pussy ass can throw for the rest of the day, or week, or month, or year for that matter.

    WE KNOCKED MCCOY OUT OF THE GODDAMN GAME, FUCK YOU JULIA AND YOUR NO TALENT TEAM AND YOUR GODDAMN MOUTH RUNNING BITCH ASS WHINY BULLSHIT MUTHERFUCKING EXCUSE FILLED ASS.

    Auburn is a fucking joke and so are you you fucking pussy.

  11. alex, have you noticed that ITK, cappy, myself, and ballplay can have spirited, intelligent discussions here without making obscene references every other word?? You truly are so dim-witted and classless that you can’t even formulate a response without cursing or making a an obscene reference to the female anatomy, can you?? You really should have listened to your teachers and stayed in school rather than dropping out in he 8th grade, alex. It would have worked wonders for your vocabulary. (Oh yeah, I forgot…alex claims to have graduated with honors from UA. Yeah, and I’m the freakin’ tooth fairy.)

    P.S. You say “WE knocked McCoy out of the game”? See, there’s that delusion again. Just because you were watching the game on tv while sitting on the couch in your double-wide doesn’t mean that you are a part of the team.

  12. Yeah but it’s so much more fun to cuss. Big sophistocated words feel like you’re trying to cough up a hairball, while profanity rolls over the tongue like milk and honey, strawberries and cream, peaches and – well you get the picture. Ha ha ha. Besides, it is more colorful, generally more appropriate and to the point, more specifically descriptive, and really pisses people off. RTR!

  13. Although I try not to use cussing — cuss words to serve a great purpose in society including the Internet. They are short and to the point and work. Plus I get lazy on blogs and cussing is just plain faster.

    Crystal bitches…(hoisting)

  14. Good call DAMAGE INC. only a real wordsmith can work properly in profanity. Julia can’t seem to do anything other than make vain attempts to make you feel “less” than her. This is because she feels less than even the poorest Bama fan, I mean lets just face it, being an aubie is hard work. How many of us can even formulate excuses in the blinding speed of an aubie. Hell being an aubie and bitchin’ about being less than human go hand-in-hand, just like the farce of a team they root for. In effect, fuck ’em they’re all shit chewin’ hairy backed, dog faced cow fuckin’ inbred, no drivin’ mush-mouthed, fart sniffin’ cock smokers anyway. How’s that for profanity Julia, I still have more IQ points below my belt than you do in that empty head of yours. Case and point, Roll Tide and fuck you.

  15. You sir ‘Big red A’ — I am proud to have you represent.

    This is also a BIG FUCK YOU to Aubarn and UcheaT.

    Crystal bitches (Rick James…the hand)

    )hoisting crystal(

  16. Thank you DAMAGE we Bama fans will stick together. Lets make fun of some lee county rejects (see the film “Wrong Turn” for visual reference). On my first posting, someone claimed that I didn’t graduate high school, this is inaccurate. On a factual note, however, I also didn’t graduate “suma-cum-numbnut” from fucktard-U. You see, animal husbandry was not my idea of an “education” like the one julia is so very proud of, but had I majored in “goat-fuckin'” I would definitely be as sensitive as julia and all of her same-sex partners. They say our players are dumb too, but our QB is a friggin rhodes scholar. When Bama fans say WE it’s a passion thing, you wouldn’t understand. WE as fans help fund that university so WE will say whatever the hell WE want about it. As the tooth fairy you would suck since you have no idea what the fuck a tooth looks like, and you would probably loot the kids’ rooms anyway. I amglad to have the comfort of knowing that even when you guys win, you’re still losers. Alabama is the benchmark Auburn will never stretch to reach in college football. These are FACTS not opinions, and that paints a mile wide grin on all of our Crimson Tide faces. We know that whatever tree AU claims to have pissed on, Bama has already done that bigger and better. Auburn is the college football equivalent of Ricky Rudd, a shitload of wins but no championships. If one examines history Bama is so far ahead of AU that they will never catch up. Enjoy chasing the lead dog for all eternity aubies that’s just the way it is. The future holds for AU exactly what the past did, a few close calls, some wins here and there, but no signifigance.

    This has been an official beatdown of the auburn faithful. A CRYSTAL pimp slap of epic proportions (backhand of course). Come on back aubies when the swelling goes down and I’ll swat that ass again. The future is Crimson.

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