re: Why Do Tenn Fans Hate Dooley So Much?

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Why would anybody hire a coach that just went 4-8 in WAC and has zero credentials?

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I thought it was because of the timing of when you got dumped.

The big question is: why didn't yall promote and interim coach from within or something and hit it hard next cycle?

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Especially when you convince yourself that he's the guy to turn your program back around.



There is the core of my question: how did y'all do that?

I mean, the only experience I have to compare it to is my own. Neither myself nor any Aggie I knew IRL ever thought Sherm could win championships. In fact we got way more out of him than I ever thought we would.


What was that nugget of info, that glimmer of fact, that circulated the Tenn board before his first and second season that y'all clung to?

Because I remember as a non-SEC fan thinking after the hire "I knew they got told no a lot, but 4 wins at Lousiana Tech? How did they even find this guy to interview him?"

The whole affair is strange. It is like a billionaire fricking a transvestite and not knowing it.

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I think a couple of things... We had been a model of stability from 1977-2008 (two coaches Majors and Fulmer). Thirty freaking years of stability and stability that produced very, very, good times. Fulmer had been forced out by Hammy under less than ideal circumstances - despite his slippage he was still the winningest active coach in CFB. The last transition from Majors to Fulmer had been smooth (not politically smooth but smooth for the program).

Kiffin's departure produced a shell-shocked rage because the night it happened one thing ran through our minds: recruiting. Tennessee fans, follow recruiting in a way that other fan bases don't, probably because it's our life blood and always has been. We knew, everyone from fans to media members, that we were fricked the instant that night happened because it happened mid-Jan. Those of us with a longer view even knew that one move would set us back years. You can't lose classes like this or destabilize the way everything was unfolding and not lose years in the SEC.

Yet at the same time we still had a lot going for us - we needed stability. When Dooley was hired people were not happy at all. A losing coach from Tech? How the hell was that happening? But we were told - Tennessee needs stability, give him a chance, his daddy's a legend, we couldn't get anyone better because of Kiffin, yadda yadda yadda. He'll stop the bleeding and rebuild things the right way.

We were willing to put up with a temporary loser on the field if all these looming sanctions we were told of from the Kiffin Era and all this stability we were told was going to happen under Dooley. Besides, the guy's a lawyer, dad's a coach, Saban recommended him, SEC blue-blood BS - he can't possibly frick up the simple things like recruiting and stability. But oh yes, yes, he could and did.

You have to remember how strong our program was before Dooley to truly understand how we were able to fool ourselves.

With Dooley:

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Tennessee recorded three consecutive losing seasons (2010, 2011 and 2012). Derek Dooley amassed the worst record of head coaches with more than two seasons in Tennessee history, and the worst overall since 1906. He also has the worst record of all Tennessee coaches in SEC play.

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He broke every record in a bad way. Even so, we were and are still one of the winningest programs in CFB history. We had never had this happen until Dooley happened so it was quite hard for us to imagine that even with a bad hire that had no business being there he'd actually manage to make Tennessee history.

We saw the decline happen, we saw poor coaching (players that didn't know what the frick they were doing), we watched one of the most talented offenses ever amassed absolutely wasted by piss poor coaching and Hamilton had signed a deal with no way out. If not for that Mizzou OT game, mentioned earlier - where we all saw Derek Dooley quit and he quit that very day - we thought we were stuck with him for another year. You can watch the Vandy game that followed the Mizzou game and see pretty much all you need to know about Dooley (actually watch the end of regulation w/Mizzou - where Dooley gives up even though we could've scored, watch Bray's reaction to being pulled off that field and the looks and words exchanged, THEN watch the Vandy game and you'll see Tennessee players taking their revenge on Dooley - that game was a frick you to Dooley and he got formally shitcanned after it but his job was gone the moment he pulled the plug on the Mizzou game). THEN watch the very end of UK game where Chaney is coaching - watch the celebration at the end of that game (we never once saw those players celebrate like that under Dooley).

But it all goes back to prior to Dooley not much of this could've been imagined. We had over 100 years on our side telling us he couldn't possibly frick up this bad. But he did and what he did internally was worse than what he did on the field. Dooley left us with a roster that you would expect from a program that had gotten Penn State style sanctions - only I think PSU is in better condition.

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The big question is: why didn't yall promote and interim coach from within or something and hit it hard next cycle?

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I think it's obvious, because Mike Hamilton is a doofus

Thank you that was a great explanation.

Thanks.

It was very appreciated. For some reason the Tenn program fascinates me.

Good luck to yall next season!

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It was very appreciated. For some reason the Tenn program fascinates me.

Good luck to yall next season!

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Any time. I love the traditions of all our SEC teams and am looking forward to learning more about A&M. We do have a great history, and sadly our recent history is fascinating in that it provides an example of modern day implosion of such a big program.

Tennessee and A&M actually have a lot common military wise and a bigger connection than you what you already know (taken from our military program history):

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The military program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, pre-dates that of any other state university in the country, having been introduced in 1844. In that year, Professor Albert Miller Lea, a United States Military Academy graduate, organized an infantry company. With the outbreak of the Mexican War, the entire company, as well as thousands of other Tennesseans, volunteered for service in the war. Thus, Tennessee became known as the Volunteer State.

When the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, reopened after the War Between the States, a system of military discipline was adapted. A code of military regulations was drawn up and a copy was provided each student when he matriculated. The whole institution was put under regular United States Military Academy discipline. The student body was organized into a battalion of cadets, which consisted of four companies fully officered, armed and equipped under the command of the commandant and his staff of cadet officers. UT Knoxville remained as a military garrison for a period of six years, until 1877. Military Science continued to be taught since the university was a Land Grant Institution and the 1862 Act of Congress required instruction in military science.
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From 1928-1930, Major (later Brigadier General) Robert R. Neyland was the Professor of Military Science and football coach at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

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Neyland also was an Aggie for a semester or two before transferring to West Point. And good luck to y'all as well.

Didn't know the depth of Dooley's antics, but he did seem like an arse. Like someone else said, he was a Saban protege, and he acted like Saban... but didn't win like him.
I still remember the way he acted like a jackass during the 2010 LSU game. Sure, LSU was bumbling around trying to lose, but the penalty was legit; there were 13 players on defense. That wasn't a BS home-cooking call. You take the penalty (and loss) like a man, shake your opponent's hand, and deal with it.
Dooley acted like a drama queen about it, and refused to meet Miles at mid-field. That's just classless. As an example of the right way to handle it, Miles shook Saban's hand both times in 2012 (after the humiliating BCS game, and after losing in the last minute in the revenge game the following season).

Not to sidetrack this, but

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As a UT fan in 2009, after kiffin bailed, we were only 2 years removed from a Berth in the SECC game. At that point, we were still relevant, and the debacle that has been the past few years hadn't happened yet, so we were blissfully ignorant. We had the feeling that yes we were in a slump, but we just needed to throw a fresh mind in there, get some stability back, and we'd go right back to competing for the east every year. It doesn't matter who we bring in, as long as he's competent. There's no way a team like ours, with our tradition, talent, faculties, etc, could ever fall from the upper echelon of cfb, right? Well no, we were wrong. We made a bad hire, and it set us back at least 5 years

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this post should be required reading for the anti-Miles crowd at LSU

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I remember when that recruiting article came out. One of the most damning things I have ever read, just blatant incompetence and apathy.

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Which is really weird because he was regarded as a pretty good recruiter before his time at UT. Strange that he would suddenly fall off so much and also in such a fashion.

It's uncanny, tbh. Almost like he was sent there on a mission to just torpedo the remainder of the UT program that Kiffin had left afloat. Like some entity was infiltrating all their surrounding rivals and trying to weaken them from the inside out.

Odd.