Although most would like to forget the Derek Dooley era in Tennessee Football history, it cannot be forgotten. Dooley was the coach with slick hair who had a law degree and some of the most entertaining press conferences in college football. Unfortunately, those things don’t equal wins on the football field.
A season full of shootouts
It was October 9th, 2012 and we were coming off a 51-44 shootout loss with Georgia. We had many shootouts that 2012 season with Tyler Bray slinging the deep ball to Cordarelle Patterson, Justin Hunter, and Mychael Rivera. While Bray had a rocket of an arm, he also liked to throw rockets to the other team. Not to mention, our defense was one of the worst in Tennessee history that year. Dooley’s seat was beginning to heat up. Right when you thought it couldn’t get any worse for him, he had hip surgery.
How Dooley ended up on a stool
The week after Georgia, the Mississippi State Bulldogs beat us 41-31 while Dooley coached from the press box. A solid decision, considering a 300-pound football player running into you after a hip surgery isn’t ideal. Wisdom wasn’t always Dooley’s strength, though. The next week, against Alabama, it was announced he would coach from a stool on the sidelines against Alabama, “because he couldn’t look in his player’s eyes.” Dooley was that ignorant. He thought that looking in his player’s eyes would have given one of the worst Tennessee Football teams ever a chance to beat the eventual National Champion.
That’s where we ended up with our head coach on a stool on the sidelines. He even had an assistant to carry his stool for him. Not only was our football team awful that season, but now our coach looked pathetic and lazy. Although I knew it was because of the hip surgery, I couldn’t help but think Dooley had simply given up. He had decided that standing up for 3-4 hours was no longer worth it, so he sat his orange pants on a stool. To me, Dooley had thought, “you know what – this team sucks. I’m probably getting fired anyway. I’m just gonna sit my ass down on this stool and watch us get our asses beat.” No better way to intimidate Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide than by having your baby-faced coach sit on a stool. Of course, we got absolutely destroyed 44-13 that game.
We’ve come a long way
The reason I tell this story isn’t just for entertainment, but a reflection on where Tennessee football was just four short years ago. We’ve came a long way since then. Butch Jones isn’t perfect, but he has led us to back-to-back 9-4 seasons. Jones is the anti-Dooley to me in a lot of ways. He’s blue-collar, gritty and he doesn’t have fancy hair and orange pants. No matter how this season turns out, we need to keep something in mind: you can quickly go from regular 9-4 seasons, to 5-7 seasons with your coach sitting on a stool.
Smokey covers the Tennessee Volunteers for the SoBros Network. He loves a good backpacking trip, but hates taking a shit in the woods. Follow on Twitter: @SoBroSmokey
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