What's Wrong With Tennessee Football Has Nothing To Do With [ddiapos] - Rocky Top Talk This is a pretty good article that puts some things in perspective. I still don't know if Dooley is "the guy" for Tennessee but here's three reasons why he's struggling and none of them are his fault. The 2007, 2008 and 2009 signing classes were full of massive busts or guys that couldn't stay in school.
The guy is exactly right on how we got into this mess. He seems to skip right over this little gem: And I have nothing to suggest that [ddiapos] is a good coach. And point to this: Tennessee still hasn't lost a game they weren't supposed to lose under [ddiapos] http://www.rockytoptalk.com/2011/10...-and-results-an-unnecessary-defense-of-dooley as evidence that we are in the right "process," which I think is a little misleading. Overall, though, it's not a bad piece.
He got a few details a little mixed up and seemed to mix up the credit between Kiffin and Dooley for some things. Neglected to mention that Greg King hasn't been playing much lately because he's had consecutive season-ending injuries. I've always said that while the 2009 class has been a big disappointment, I think a lot of that falls on the guy that screwed up the 2007 and 2008 classes. We can all argue for hours over who is responsible for getting this guy or that guy, but ultimately most of those guys are the result of the man that spent over a year building the class. Look at what became of the class Fulmer started and Kiffin finished. Then, look at the one Kiffin built up and Dooley capped off. There's a definite difference. I think it had a lot more to do with who laid the foundations of those two classes.
Wonder if coaching has anything to do with players, highly touted, being properly developed... Nahh. We had busts. There are probably three possibilities. Of the three, which is most likely? 1. They were all badly, badly misrepresented, where all [or most] the others ranked, developed well. 2. We were unlucky enough to land all the flops. 3. They were not coached up.
I think we all know and understand where we are as a program and why we're there. The issue folks have is Dooley hasn't convinced the fan base he's the man for the job yet. Now, if we take away the injuries this year and were sitting at say 5-3 instead of 3-5 would people feel better about him and his staff? Probably, because that would mean 8 wins would be a great possibility this year.
There have been some that were straight up flops like Chris Donald. There were also some that could have been productive with better coaching, like Crompton. There've been a few that have barely contributed due to injuries and some that got kicked off for behavior. I think the number of guys that are crappy due to crappy coaching is a lot lower than it was a few years ago.
It's a little of all three. Look what happened to the OL when a competent coach was brought in. But, look at a guy like Chris Donald, who was massively over hyped (no fault of his) and just never got it. Some, like Mike Edwards or EJ Abrams-Ward, couldn't stay out of trouble. Some, like Ben Martin, have been snake bit with multiple injuries.
Maybe the Vols are just cursed. It might have been moving the rock that did it. I think we should lobby to move it back.
This much I know. We will either be winning this time two years from now, or we will be about to hire a new coach. No misplaced loyalties. No big donor bullying. I'm good with that.
Given the injuries and to expect us to be 5-3 is ludicrous. I don't see how there's any reasoning and any pleasing for those ridiculous expectations. Pure fantasy land.
That's exactly where I'm at. I'm not going to sit around and gripe that Dooley isn't the guy, don't know. He will either put together acceptable 2012 and 2013 records and get an extension or he won't and he won't.
I don't want to get into a he said she said about Kiffin's class. We'd be screwed without Bray, and if Kiffin's ass WANTED to be in Knoxville (and stay there), UT would be much closer right now. That being said...Bryce Brown laid a turd, and Dervin Young has been better than Nu'keese. My problem with this coaching staff is that they seem consumed with what they don't have rather than using what they have. Get Marlin and Neal the ball in space. Play Tiny Richardson. Find a better way to get Arnett to the "second receiver" level. Act like you can win with what you've got. That is what I miss about Kiffin.
I just don't like the fact that we lose Justin Hunter and apparently it's alright to be on the same level as Vandy. Lose Bray and it's OK to actually be worse than the SEC's worst program coming off a ten loss season with a first year head coach. It isn't OK and staff changes need to happen.
vandy's coach last year was a joke. its equivalent of having trooper taylor take over for a year after fulmer got the boot. vandy has a pretty decent qb. now with simms being our qb we were way way worse than we are with bray or worley.
We've done next to nothing with Worley at QB and weren't exactly killing it with Bray since Hunter went down. I don't think James Franklin is the best coach in the world, but he'll have them fired up for UT and will pull all the stops out of the bag. We seem poised to let Poole gain 50 yards on 50 carries en route to a 17-3 loss.
It's not a very good sample size for Bray without Hunter. The entire team packed it in for a half in Gainesville after Hunter went down, they demolished Buffalo and played pretty bad against UGA.
Exactly. Played like crap in the games that mattered. And because of that, we now have to play an Arkansas team that actually has a chance to win the SEC for Dooley's final shot at a meaningful win inside 2 years.