From Day 1, I was skeptical. This is the SEC. And we hired the former head coach of a...WAC school? I had never heard of the guy. I was unimpressed. Since that day, I have seen Derek Dooley be clearly outmatched by his counterparts time and time again. Not just outmatched, but outclassed. It's like a movie where the underdog coach who's in over his head uplifts a rag-tag bunch of misfits and, through hard work and believing in themselves - cue Rudy-esqe montage - they stick it to the big dogs in the end. However, in this version, the rag-tag misfits are actually talented players starving for confident management and leadership, while the coaching staff are a bunch of hapless, bumbling idiots who clearly have no authority and no control. Meanwhile, the big dogs come to town, occasionally get out of the way to let Tennessee shit all over itself, and the rest of the time use us as a practice squad for another game that actually matters for them. It's just awful to watch and not fitting for a team that was a perennial Top 10.
The straw that broke the came this past Saturday. I had no expectations. I knew, though, that if we lost, the season was officially flushed down the toilet, while it had theretofore only been circling the drain. I was actually shocked and relieved to see the offense come out and operate with surgical precision. Hell, we were even in the lead! The defense had Mississippi State backed up to a 3rd and 18 - those obnoxious cowbells were quiet for one Goddam second - but MSU made the play. OK, no biggie. It's the first quarter. It's not unheard of to make a play like that. Tennessee obviously got another message. It's like they all looked around and said "Aww, shucks. Welp, this one's over. Let's just mail it in the rest of the game." Which they did. They were in the freaking lead! So MSU made a 19 yard catch! Well, stop them! At least try! And if they score, Offense, you should try to score. And Offensive Coordinator, you should try to call plays that work and are diverse and catch the defense sleeping. Don't run a post pattern for 3 plays and say "Oh, well, that didn't work." 3 and out, 3 and out, 3 and out. Agonizing.
This was, I would say, amounts to about 70% of why I am abandoning this sinking ship. I don't care how much love you have for a team; you can't just sit there for four years and watch a team consistently implode unprovoked. It's why I'm thinking about abandoning the Mets, too, but I will give Sandy Alderson the benefit of the doubt and stick with them through this "Amazin'" year they're supposed to have in '13. What really pushed me over the edge were two metrics presented by ESPN - only too happy to demonstrate Tennessee's shortcomings - during the game.
The first: Derek Dooley is only 14-16 as head coach of Tennessee. Pathetic. But, it gets worse. He was only 17-20 as a head coach at Louisiana Tech - again, WAC School. That's .459. Let's think about this: Tennessee, the ninth-winningest major program in college football, has a head coach who had lost more games than he had won at the time they hired him. Contrast this with Johnny Majors' (.639) and Philip Fulmer's (.745) careers as head coaches at Tennessee. Johnny Majors lost 3 games in 1992 and got pushed out after only 9 games into the season. If Dooley only coached 3 losses in a season, we would think it's a miracle.
The second: as of the game against MSU this past Saturday, Dooley was 0-12 against ranked opponents. He had NEVER won a game against a ranked opponent as head coach of the ninth-winningest major program in college football. While Tennessee was not usually in the Top 5 or contending for a national championship, you could usually count them occupying a slot between 5 and 10. Now, we don't even beat ranked opponents? No, no, no, no, no. That's not the way it is. I will admit this is stubborn pride, but what do you expect from a fan who was raised watching greatness?
So, we have the talent. We have a coach and coaching staff who are literally losers - see above. We see horrible plays, clock mismanagement, and a team who's kneejerk reaction to anything remotely challenging is to mentally meltdown. Sounds like an authority problem. Sounds like a leadership problem. Sounds like a coaching problem.
