I know many on this board arent open to rational thought (or long posts), but the consternation over what has transpired since Wilcox and Sirmon left compelled me to offer a little perspective.
Yesterday marked Dooleys two-year anniversary on the job. When he was hired on Jan. 15, 2010, he had 18 full days before NSD to put a staff together and salvage his first recruiting class. By all accounts, he did a solid job with the recruiting class. He assembled the following staff of nine in that short time as well: Chaney OC, Heistand OL, Baggett WR, Russell TE/ST, Hinshaw QB, Wilcox DC, Smith DL, Thompson LB, Joseph DB/RC. Of the nine, he had previous experience working with two of them Russell and Joseph.
After one season, he kept the staff intact with the exception of Smith, which regardless of his status as a former Vol, was the absolute right thing to do. One season was all Dooley needed to endure to know he made a mistake. Replacing him with Sirmon was a huge upgrade on the recruiting side and sliding Thompson to DL was an easy transition.
Fast forward to this season which, record wise, played out about the way most thought it would. The need for two coaching changes was readily apparent over the course of the season: 1) Heistand couldnt teach his line to run block and he didnt recruit; and 2) Russells Special Teams were anything but. So within the last month Baggett, Russell, Wilcox/Sirmon, Heistand and Thompson have left. Of those six, the only one Dooley didnt want to see leave was Sirmon because he, along with Wilcox and Joseph, was one of the top recruiters on the staff. Heistand and Russell had to happen. Dooley knew Wilcox would eventually go back West and may have pulled the trigger himself this offseason. And while the whole Baggett thing is mystifying, it appears he may have just said Ive been doing this too long to put up with this s***.
The DC and OL hires have been homeruns, as was adding Graham to coach RBs. And by all accounts Dooley has Bisaccia lined up to coach ST. Replacing Baggett with Hinshaw made perfect sense hes coached the position before and is a stud recruiter.
That leaves Thompson. Thompson hasnt gotten a chance at a DC gig for a reason well several reasons. Dooley never considered him, and knew when he hired Sunseri that it was likely Thompson would leave. Whats interesting, and even further confirmation of the strength of the Sunseri hire, is that Saban is so pissed Dooley lured Sunseri away hes gone and hired Lance back to return the favor.
So two years after assembling a staff in what could only resemble a round of speed dating, Dooley has added three new faces Graham RB, Pittman OL and Sunseri DC all of whom are upgrades, and the likelihood of another upgrade with Bisaccia TE/ST. That leaves the DL and LB spots to fill with Sunseris input.
Dont forget four pretty good NFL staffs just became approachable over the weekend and two more will be next Monday. I look forward to seeing how much more this staff improves.
