Derek Dooley to Tennessee?

Yeah, on the other forums I'm reading, all the SEC fans like this hire, except for the Bama fans (imagine that, Bama fans trying to belittle every other team to make themselves feel better).

Some of the Georgia fans seemed a little jealous with all the love he was getting for his work with Saban and LSU.

I like how Dooley said in the presser that he and Saban are good friends that have a lot of respect for each other, but that, come gameday, he plans "to whip Saban's tail" just like Saban plans to whip his tail as well. He compared it to two best friends growing up and playing ball against each other in the neighborhood, how it doesn't get any more competitive than that.

 

Definitely. Even used the sacred word "process," which I'm sure will irritate a lot of Bama fans being that they fell so much in love with the term. But yeah, you could tell that Saban's philosophy rubbed off on him a lot from what he said, but I also like how he said he still has his own style and still does things his way and even gave examples of it: like how he went to UVA instead of Georgia, like how after he became a lawyer everybody told hin not to go into coaching but he did anyway, like how when he had the chance to go with Saban to Alabama he decided to take a risk and go to La Tech instead, etc.

 

I would like to speak on behalf of all of Bama Nation, I have their proxy, "We Approve".

What Dooley needs to learn about the rivalry will be provided there are plenty of educators in Knoxville who have their Master's in Crimson prejudice.

Did Dooley tell everyone it was Saban's ball. I understand coach has never lost a game of pick up against his assistants.


I wonder how he feels about moral victories?

 

He hit a home-run with his presser. Made me feel good to be a human being. Young, handsome up-and-coming coach with great credentials. Beautiful wife, beautiful children. Great program with "a ridiculous tradition of winning," like Dooley said. Did a great job with his press conference--he would have been a great lawyer. At one point, after he gave this great answer to one of the questions they asked him, he even got a huge round of applause from the media. It was great. We'll see if he can coach as good as he can give press conferences, but based on that press conference, you can't help but like the guy. And I'm sure recruits and their team will like the guy, too.

As for coaching 1 and 2 stars at LA Tech, Dooley made a good point about how that was tougher than had he stayed with Saban at Bama--even though if he had stayed at Bama with Saban, he'd be more popular of a candidate now (look at Muschamp... that guy has zero head coaching experience). Like Dooley said, by getting his feet wet as a head coach at Tech, that even makes him a better coach for Tennessee. And as the Tennesee AD pointed out, Dooley just wasn't the head coach of Tech, he was also the AD and was rebuilding that school's facilities. That's tough doing those two jobs at once. I read that Dooley was the only coach in the NCAA that was both the head coach and the AD. That's pretty impressive.

 

Maybe.

To put it in the perspective I'm thinking of:

He just left the regional manager job for 10 states of Target stores to become Target's corporate COO.

I think he'll eventually do fine. I just don't know how long eventually is. Because that is not an insignificant jump and he's taking it all in one step.

AD at La Tech? While be a HC of a football team? That should tell you all you need to know about how different Knoxville is than Ruston.

 

Yeah, but he's going to get cut a lot of slack for coming in after Kiffin dumped them like he did. Like I said, it was the perfect job for an aspiring coach, and Dooley is the one that got lucky enough to get it. The Tenn AD said Dooley was one of the 3 or 4 names he had on his original list. And like Dooley said, as soon as he got the text message asking if he was interested, his first thought was that he wanted to get an interview as soon as possible so he could explain why he was the man for the job.

 

We’ll be sure to pass it along to the Vols. I am sure they have been waiting for your stamp of approval.


:rofl:

 

After that press conference, it has shot up to 71% who approve of Dooley as their new head coach (7,800 voters).

 

Now, after 15,100 votes, it is:

75% approval of Dooley being hired as new head coach.

 

What do you expect, he is their new coach. I would expect most to fall in line and support him, they don't have much choice. However the poll numbers given right before the hire would give you a truer indication of what Tennessee fans really thought of the hire. A large percentage on their boards thought Kippy Brown would be a better hire. That's right Kippy "fricken" Brown. Remember how Vol fans rallied around that great hire they had 14 months ago? I would expect the spin to continue with quotes like "Dooley was our 1st choice", "Dooley the next Vince Lombardi" and "there wasn't a better candidate out there". What else can Vol fans do? The fact remains that no one else wanted the job and Dooley is what they settled for. I believe he is a great up and comer, but not ready for a gig like Tennessee just yet.