When a head coach loses seven of his nine assistants in one offseason — an offseason heading into what many view as a make-or-break season, for the matter — it’s hard to put a good spin on the turnover. But that’s what Derek Dooley has been faced with at Tennessee since last November. And with each coach who’s left for a lateral job elsewhere the mass exodus has been viewed more and more as a case of rats scurrying to find an exit from a sinking ship.
But don’t tell that to the Vols’ third-year coach:
“Is it normal to have seven coaches transition in a year? No, it’s very rare for something like that to happen. But I kind of view it as sort of a correction. When you start a company, when you start anything, you always have that little initial correction to kind of fix all the things maybe you didn’t get right in the beginning.
I think it was a good correction for me, and I think it’s going to be for the team…
I think some left because the fit wasn’t right. I think some left because they maybe allowed the fear… the fear made the wolf a little bigger than it was. I think some left just because professionally they thought it would be a good growth situation.
Each coach was unique in why they left, and it’s part of the profession.”
Uh, sort of.
Yes, coaches move. But not in droves as they did from Knoxville over the past few months (as Dooley freely admitted). Part of the problem for Dooley’s staffing issues might have resulted from a miscalculation — or a signal sent — on the part of his boss, new AD Dave Hart.
Several of Dooley’s ex-aides were looking for some type of contract extension this past offseason to insure that they wouldn’t be left without a seat in the coaching game should things go poorly for UT this fall. But Hart wasn’t interested in giving extensions to coaches who had led the Vols to an 11-14 record in two years and who had just blown a 26-game winning streak over Kentucky.
Several of the ex-coaches realized it was better to make a lateral move for a two-year deal than to stay in place on a “you-could-be-done-at-year’s-end” type of pact. Heck, that’s just smart business. The bad part for UT, however, was that the school found in order to hire new assistants — many from smaller schools like UCF, The Citadel, and MTSU — Hart and Tennessee wound up having to offer multi-year contracts anyway.
Whether this was a miscalculation on Hart’s part or a message to Dooley that he’d better put things together quickly is anyone’s guess. In fact, a bit of both could be true. But the bottom line is this: Dooley’s heading into a key season with seven new assistants and he’s implementing a new 3-4 defense as well… a move that usually works better in Year Two than in Year One of such transitions.
At this point, Dooley’s not willing to compare his last staff to his current one. He told The Chattanooga Times Free Press that “it’s a little premature” for that kind of call. He did say, however, that he believes “this group has a real good understanding of Tennessee, the SEC and what it takes to be successful in this league.”
For his sake, he’d better hope so.
