The single-worst decision of the last decade was the panic hire of Dooley after Kiffin left. That was even dumber than hiring Kiffin, because let's be real, nobody saw his departure coming and something like 95% of the fanbase was energized by him. There's a lot of revisionist history in this fanbase about how we "never liked" Kiffin and whatnot.
We were in a bad position no matter what, but the proper course of action at that time was to hire Cutcliffe and all his Duke assistants or appoint someone (Chaney or Kippy Brown were fine candidates) as interim and have a full year to conduct a normal coaching search. Instead Hammy panicked in order to preserve that year's recruiting class and gave the job to a guy who by his own admission wasn't cut out for it. That Dooley hire is truly staggering when you think about it...Dooley hadn't even been a coordinator before taking that job.
Agreed. Thinking back on it, we should have stayed the course with Kippy through the following season.