What has Dooley TRULY done to make this team better, or rebuild us to where we expect to be??
It's 3 years, so what has he done to get us back??
OK, I'll put my head on the chopping block. Attention sharks, here comes the chum:
1. Produced excellent recruiting classes each year. If you are going to use the "the facts don't lie" argument, check the rankings. You are truly delusional if you expect a man to come in and pull top 5 recruiting classes under the dire circumstances the program was in when he arrived. Yes, Saban did it, but like it or not Saban is the king of college football right now and is approaching legendary status. The fact that Dooley has been able to produce top 20 classes is impressive. He won some major recruiting battles for top Tennessee HS talent and kept some great players in the state. And, this has made the team better.
2. Improved the running game. Call this recruiting, coaching, hiring a good O line coach, whatever you want. If you are going to crucify Dooley and "coaching" because Devrin Young fumbled late against MSU, then give credit to Dooley et al for improving the running game significantly. It is improved by the numbers and the eye test, and this has made the team better.
3. Made us relevant on the recruiting trail again. I know, you would be correct to argue that this has not actually made the team better. But it will. Remember the good old days when virtually every top recruit had Tennessee on their short list? We are close here- we are competing (and leading) for many of the top players in the nation, including the #1 rated RB overall. When Dooley got here, we were not even in the discussion with the elite. Over time, this will make the team better as he lands some of these guys. The corner is turned when we have players like Derrick Green in the backfield as opposed to players like Devrin Young. It seems to be coming.
4. Closed the gap. Yes, we are not there yet. Here's a little newsflash- we are not close to Bama, no one else is close either. But we are competing. As the rankings come out, please realize that our four losses are against 4 of the top 12 teams in the nation, including 2 of the top 3. I want to beat these teams too and I hate losing as much or more than anyone, but outside of Bama we were on the verge of beating UF, MSU, and UGA. It's not enough- we need to beat these teams and there are no moral victories, but did you see what happened to USCe yesterday? Does Spurrier now suck as a coach? These are great teams. We are not great yet. We can be great again, but from my point of view, we are a hell of a lot closer now than when we were 3 years ago. Translation: the team is better, and I choose to give Dooley some credit for that.
Alright, get out your pitchforks and torches and come on after me. But consider this- you may be absolutely correct in an assessment that Dooley is not an elite coach and that we could do better. We probably can. But everyone has to start somewhere, and Dooley came in and started in an absolute debacle and has pulled us a long way out of that deep hole. I'd like to see what he can do if we let him keep pulling, even for just one more year. I think if we approach this topic with less emotion and more objectivity, we can reasonably come to the conclusion that this program and this team is better than when he took the job. I understand we need W's and that is the bottom line. We are not the best, and Dooley may not be the man to get us there. But for as for me, I'm behind him as our Coach and I hope for his sake he finishes this season well. If he doesn't and we can't beat the teams that we are supposed to beat, you got me. It will be proven that I'm dead wrong and I'll admit it openly. But let's see what we can do. I suggest a little experiment- go and ask all your Bama, UGA, and UF friends (if you have any) and ask them if they think Tennessee is improving. My bet is that you'll get a lot of yes answers.
Finally, before anyone *****es about the length of this post, remember, you asked the question.
