What's laughable to me is that everyone responds with "Spurrier was a proven winner." Okay, fine. If Spurrier was a proven winner and it took him 5 years to turn it around, why does Dooley only get 3? Dooley walked into a tougher situation, yet he's expected to have better results than Spurrier.
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Good point. Dooley was hired with a with a 5 year contract that maintained a very high buyout for the full term because both sides understood that the program was in such dire shape that it would take at least that long to return Tennessee to the point that it was competing for championships.
Championship level programs usually have a couple of things in common -- their starting units have plenty of 4th and 5th year players with elite talent and the difference between the backup players and the starters is a lack of experience, not a lower level of talent. Auburn was an exception to this rule, making it a championship
team rather than a championship
program.
I note that because before the season began, Dooley made a major tactical mistake that now threatens to prematurely cost him his job. In a moment of temporary insanity, he proclaimed that this team was the first time that he felt we could stand toe to toe and be competitive with any team in the country and that for the first time since he arrived at UT he had good depth. By now, it has become crystal clear that he was mistaken in that assessment and the unforced error has already damaged him greatly -- and the damage may already be beyond repair.
The problem with Dooley's remarks are twofold. First, a coach should never proclaim his troops to be winners before the game has been played -- that is just asking for trouble. It is much wiser to wait and praise them after they actually win.
The second problem is that his prognostications were factually inaccurate. Had he limited his enthusiasm to the offense, he would have been ok, but the defense did not measure up. The defense has several positions which are short on both speed and talent, and the depth on defense is woefully inadequate. As if that were not enough, the entire defensive staff is new and they are installing a totally different scheme (the 3/4) that is notoriously difficult to master in the first year. Frankly the transition has not gone well.
When Dooley first uttered those words, they immediately launched the expectations of our victory starved fan base into orbit which guaranteed that the slightest stumble on the field would have negative repercussions wholly out of proportion with reality. Now that we have lost our first three SEC games, a significant portion of our fans are extremely frustrated and angry and all of those emotions are directed at Dooley because he was the one who got their hopes up. The damage to the bond between Coach Dooley and the fans may already be irreparable.
Hart now must make a decision. If he wants to change horses, he has to do it now so the new coach has time to assemble the best staff possible and also for him to hit the recruiting trail hard both to shore up the current recruits and then add as many new elite players possible. If he either cannot lock down a top tier candidate to replace Dooley or if he decides to keep Dooley because he has faith in him, he has to make that decision now -- he cannot wait. To keep Dooley he has to put a final end to "hot seat" question by announcing that Dooley is and will continue to be his man to coach the Vols. It has to be done emphatically so that the fan unrest and coaching rumor mill will be put to bed for good. Unless Hart does that, Dooley will not have any chance to survive and by the end of the season our recruiting class will be decimated and the program could very well take several steps (or more) backwards.
Unless Hart can nail down someone like Jon Gruden, I am in favor of keeping Dooley if the damage to him is not already too massive for him to survive. The decision is all up to Hart right now, and in my opinion he has to make it very soon.
(I apologize for the length of this post)
mlsoft