Tennessee has dismissed tight end Cameron Clear following his Tuesday arrest on felony theft charges, the school announced in a release.

Clear had been suspended indefinitely on Wednesday.

“It hurts anytime a player is dismissed from the program, but there comes a time when a player’s actions dictate that his privilege of being a part of this team should be removed,” UT coach Derek Dooley said in the release. “We will continue to support Cam and his family to help him learn from his actions and become the person and player I believe he has the potential to be.”

That potential could be in the NFL. Regarded as one of the top in-state prospects when he signed with the Vols in 2011, Clear was expected to play an increased role with the team this fall after playing in all 12 games as a true freshman last fall.

For the past couple of weeks, the University of Tennessee athletic department has been denying reports from WVLZ-AM and nixing questions asked by WNML-AM/FM in Knoxville regarding Volunteer tight end Cameron Clear.  Word had leaked out that Clear had been caught stealing property from his teammates and other athletes.  A UT spokesperson even told at least one reporter that Derek Dooley was quite unhappy that such claims would ever be made in public.

Well, fast forward to yesterday when Clear was indeed arrested on a felony theft charge.  The Knoxville News Sentinel reports the sophomore was still in jail this morning needing $2,500 bond to get out.  (Charged with theft of more than $1,000, too bad he couldn’t barter his way out.)

Clear was caught by police after using the stolen Mac laptop of Tennessee baseball player Brandon Zajac.  There have been reports that Vol football players have found Clear in possession of their belongings, too.

The same UT spokesman who’d been denying that Clear had stolen anything from his teammates had this to say yesterday: “We are aware of an incident involving Cameron and are in the process of gathering the facts.”

Clear caught only one pass last year but he was a 4-star signee in Tennessee’s class of 2011.

Dooley was in Atlanta last night speaking to a Vol booster club.

The news on Clear certainly shines new light on Dooley’s decision to sign 4-star defensive back Deion Bonner this past February.  Bonner, you might recall, was one of three recruits arrested during a 2010 recruiting trip in Athens for stealing iPods and iPhones out of Georgia’s locker room.

After signing Bonner, Dooley told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

“We do a lot of diligence when we recruit, and we certainly recognize that there are no perfect players and we all make mistakes as young people…

“He kept a great attitude and a great outlook, and I saw someone who made a bad mistake and appears willing to learn from it and to let it make him a better person. So we were willing to take a chance on Deion. Part of character is not saying ‘I only want perfect people.’ We’re all flawed and we all make mistakes. The question is: Do you have the character to learn from it and get it right?”

Readers of this site know that yours truly is big on second and third and fourth chances (in life, if not on sports teams).  And here’s hoping Clear is either cleared of these charges or turns his life around as a result of them.

That said, what does it say about the character of UT’s football coach and his spokespeople when they choose to mislead the press — and therefore their own fanbase — when confronted with questions about things they know to be true?

An on a sidenote to Dooley: If Clear returns to Tennessee’s team, it might be best if he and Bonner not room together.

When a new athletic director arrives on campus, coaches tend to pucker up a bit.  That’s because ADs — like most new bosses — often like to put their own people in place around them.  In the case of Derek Dooley at Tennessee, it would seem he’d have plenty of reasons to worry about the intentions of his new boss, Dave Hart.

Speak to those close to the Tennessee program and you’ll soon learn that even the assistant coaches believe Dooley’s job won’t be safe unless he wins eight football games this fall.  Coming off a 5-7 season, a streak-ending loss to Kentucky, and facing a further decline in season-ticket sales, Dooley’s seat is warm to say the least.

Couple that with the fact that Hart — who came from Alabama (no banjo on his knee, though) — has close ties to new Tennessee defensive coordinator Sal Sunseri and is rumored to be tight with Alabama defensive coordinator/up-and-coming coaching prospect Kirby Smart and you might expect Dooley to be looking over his shoulder these days.

Not so.  At least not according to the coach:

“Dave has had a real re-energizing effect on me in a positive way.  He, of course, has a great background of understanding big-time college athletics.  He was the son of a coach, so he gets coaching.  He gets the day-to-day problems that come with coaching, and he’s just been incredibly supportive of everything we’re doing.

We have a lot of dialogue.  We talk at least every week, and he’s very much in tune with our issues.  My only hope is that we allow Dave to do his job, and that’s the only hope I have.  If Dave’s allowed to do his job, then we’re going to have success as a department…

I think we’re on the same page (regarding expectations), and I think what I appreciate about Dave is that he also understands the world of coaching.  He understands that (there’s) things you can control, and certainly we need to show significant improvement on that. He understands things you can’t control that you have to learn to manage day to day.

We’re on the same page, and I’m appreciative of Dave’s kind of taking on this role.  I think he’s going to be great for Tennessee.”

Sounds good.  But Dooley better get off to a good start this fall and provide proof of progress if his relationship with his new boss is to remain positive.

As for the coach’s odd comment regarding Hart being allowed to do his job, rest assured that some UT fans will wonder if Dooley might be targeting Tennessee chancellor Jimmy Cheek with that remark.

Earlier this week, Matt Hayes of The Sporting News posted his rankings of the SEC’s 14 football coaches.  Nick Saban was on top, Derek Dooley was on the bottom and second-year coach James Franklin was ranked all the way up at #5.  You can find that list here.

But now The Sporting News — Hayes with fellow writer Steve Greenberg, in fact — has ranked all the college football coaches in the country from #1 all the way to #124.  Some anonymous coaches also weigh in on their colleagues in some of the breakdowns of each.

Below we’ll show where each SEC coach fell in their rankings as well as who is above and below each coach:

1.  Nick Saban, Alabama

Just above him: No one

Just below him: Chris Petersen, Boise State

4.  Les Miles, LSU

Just above him: Urban Meyer, Ohio State

Just below him: Bob Stoops, Oklahoma

8.  Steve Spurrier, South Carolina

Just above him: Gary Patterson, TCU

Just below him: Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech

14.  Mark Richt, Georgia

Just above him: Mark Dantonio, Michigan State

Just below him: Bronco Mendenhall, BYU

25.  James Franklin, Vanderbilt

Just above him: Brady Hoke, Michigan

Just below him: Gary Pinkel, Missouri

26.  Gary Pinkel, Missouri

Just above him: James Franklin, Vanderbilt

Just below him: Dabo Swinney, Clemson

36.  Gene Chizik, Auburn

Just above him: Ken Niumatalolo, Navy

Just below him: Bo Pelini, Nebraska

46.  Dan Mullen, Mississippi State

Just above him: Mike London, Virginia

Just below him: Kevin Sumlin, Texas A&M

47.  Kevin Sumlin, Texas A&M

Just above him: Dan Mullen, Mississippi State

Just below him: Paul Rhoads, Iowa State

59.  Will Muschamp, Florida

Just above him: Dave Christensen, Wyoming

Just below him: Paul Pasqualoni, UConn

74.  John L. Smith, Arkansas

Just above him: Mark Hudspeth, Louisiana-Lafayette

Just below him: Todd Graham, Arizona State

77.  Hugh Freeze, Ole Miss

Just above him: Terry Bowden, Akron

Just below him: Larry Coker, Texas-San Antonio

90.  Joker Phillips, Kentucky

Just above him: Doc Holliday, Marshall

Just below him: Mike MacIntyre, San Jose State

99.  Derek Dooley, Tennessee

Just above him: Norm Chow, Hawaii

Just below him: Garrick McGee, UAB

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.

As we noted last week, the closer we get to football season — especially the Alabama-Tennessee game this October — the more you’ll be hearing about new Vol defensive coordinator Sal Sunseri and his relationship with his son, Tide linebacker Vinnie Sunseri.

Another dose of The Suneris was published today, this time with the father explaining just how difficult it was for him to leave his son in Tuscaloosa for a better job title in Knoxville:


“When I made this decision, I sat in that office down there, and both of us looked at each other, and we both cried.  And it was hard.  It was really hard.  But the bottom line is everybody has to go and do what they’re supposed to do in life and fulfill their dreams.  He’s fulfilling his dream, and I always wanted to be a coordinator, and I’m thankful that Derek Dooley gave me this opportunity to come up here…

(My son and I) love each other to death.  And it doesn’t matter whether you’re wearing orange or you’re wearing crimson and all that — that’s my son… I’m a parent first before I’m a coach on another team.  That’s what everybody has to understand.  That’s my son.  I will got to bat for him.  I’ll do everything I need to do.”


No fans on either side should hold one thing against either the father or the son in this case.  The son loves life at Bama.  The father got career advancement at Tennessee.

Life trumps football.

When Justin Wilcox left for Washington and Derek Dooley hired ex-Alabama linebackers coach Sal Sunseri to head up Tennessee’s defense, the third-year coach said his Vols would be more “multiple.”

Sunseri’s approach this spring has been just that and he hopes it pays off for his team this fall:


“The game of football right now is a bunch of changes, strength, motions, different looks and all that.  You have to give them the tough things early so they adjust to the tough things early, because when the easy things come, it makes it that much easier.

We’re going to prepare them for every situation.  That’s our job as coaches.  We’re going to get them right, and they’re going to fly to the football, and they’re going to know what they’re supposed to do.”


With his neck most likely on the line this season, Dooley’s squad is switching from a base 4-3 defense to a base 3-4.  How well his players pick up Sunseri’s system could decide both men’s fate.

1.  Mike Gillislee is ready to be the running back at Florida this year.

2.  Recently arrested and charged tight end AC Leonard is back at practice with UF, but Will Muschamp isn’t sure about his spring game status.

3.  Georgia O-line coach Will Friend says his unit has be more physical.

4.  South Carolina has found a top receiver, but what about a backup quarterback?

5.  Derek Dooley said his Tennessee team had the “Monday morning blues” yesterday.

6.  Vanderbilt is looking for more help at the receiver position.

7.  As we suggested this morning, it seems a lot of Missouri faithful enjoyed Kentucky’s win over Kansas last night.

Transfer?  What transfer?  What’s a transfer?

Last week, mercurial Tennessee receiver Da’Rick Rogers stirred up a controversy by tweeting: “Georgia State.  Wasup?”  He was absent from practice the next day, but Panthersville.com quoted Rogers as telling that site that “Georgia State would be the only place I’d look at” should he transfer.

Over the weekend, Rogers returned to practice after doing some things Derek Dooley told him to do.  The coach would not elaborate on what those things were, but he did say Saturday that Rogers was good to go and that a transfer had never come up in any conversations between the two.

Today, Rogers spoke to the media and said all’s well:


“Oh, man, no controversy.  Just had some little things to handle off the field, got those handled and now we’re looking forward to becoming a championship-contending team. … If I was a distraction, I really wasn’t trying to be a distraction.  It was a situation that we got handled, and everything is good now.

No transfer for me, no consideration.  Maybe I need to do a little better job with my tweets, letting everybody know what’s really actually going on so next time it won’t be misinterpreted.”


Maybe he needs to make sure what he tells websites covering other programs isn’t misinterpreted either.  Or maybe he could have straightened things out via Twitter when the story blew up last week.  Funny that he didn’t.

Or maybe Derek Dooley needs to simply ban his guys from Twitter.

Rogers went on to praise the chemistry on Tennessee’s team before stating: “Sometimes you just come to a point in your life where you have to be strong about things.  I had a little weak moment, and that’s gone behind me and behind the team now.  We’re ready to go.”

Judging by the tweets sent out by some of his teammates last week, it seems that some Vols might be ready for Rogers to go.  Or maybe those tweets were misinterpreted, too.

Either way, Knoxville is still Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood for now.  We await his next episode.

Tennessee receiver Da’rick Rogers — an All-SEC selection last year — is in the news again.  And that’s got Vol fans worried.

First, some background.  Rogers was initially committed to Georgia until Derek Dooley — who’d just taken over at Tennessee — flipped his commitment late in the process in 2010 by signing a package deal with Rogers’ high school quarterback buddy and Vanderbilt target Nash Nance.

By July of that year, Rogers had been arrested for his role in a bar brawl involving a number of Tennessee teammates.  Since then, his attitude has come into question repeatedly.

Reporters saw him yelling at former UT receivers coach Charlie Baggett on the sideline of the Vols’ loss to Kentucky last fall.  Shortly after that game, Baggett retired (but was paid a severance package as though he’d been dismissed).

This offseason Rogers missed two weeks of workouts with Tennessee’s training staff.  It was reported at the time that he had had multiple altercations with the Vols’ strength and conditioning coaches.

During a pre-spring press conference on Sunday, Dooley said that Rogers had had a good offseason but he refused to discuss his suspension from workouts.  “He’s like the rest of the team.  He’s shown a lot of progress, he grew as a player emotionally, but he has a long way to go.”

The mercurial wideout was on the practice fields Monday and Tuesday of this week.

But Volquest.com — the Rivals site covering Tennessee — reported that Rogers was not expected to be at practice today.  InsideTennessee.com — the Scout site covering the Vols — confirmed that he is not on hand.  (That’s all behind paywalls, folks.)

All this follows two mysterious tweets from Rogers last night:

“Georgia State.  Wasup?”

And…

“I cannot wait to talk to the media tomorrow.  It finally comes out.”

Dooley is expected to address Rogers’ status with the Volunteer squad this morning after UT’s practice.  Until then, Vol fans must once again wonder if the player who had 67 catches for 1,040 yards and nine touchdowns last season will indeed be wearing orange this fall.

Tennessee’s coach can’t afford another season of internal chemistry issues on his football team.  But with his job likely on the line this fall, Dooley might not be able to afford the loss of one of his most talented players, either.