As the 25-yard kick from Andrew Baggett sailed through the uprights Saturday, it not only sealed the outcome of the football game but also the fate of head coach Derek Dooley.
The question is no longer if, but when.
There have been too many things that have gone wrong in the last three seasons and not enough upside for the university to retain Dooley.
Yes, he inherited a program that was in bad shape.
Yes, he’s done a good job in recruiting.
Yes, he’s brought stability back to Knoxville, but the bad far outweighs the good.
After three seasons, the Vols still have personnel issues at least once a game. There is no excuse for the players to not know when they should and shouldn’t be on the field after this long. Sure, there is a new defensive scheme this year and maybe there is a mistake during the play, but to not know if you should be on the field for a certain play is inexcusable and that blame falls on the coaching.
Tennessee has had some tough games where it seems like everything is going against them, but there have been just as many where the Vols have let the game slip through their fingers. Saturday’s game is a prime example of the latter.
The Vols contained Mizzou to just 64 yards of total offense in the first half. It was the best the defense had played all season, hands down. But in the second half, the defense fell apart.
Postgame, linebacker A.J. Johnson said that Missouri just “made plays.” Yes, the Tigers did make some nice plays but the Missouri coaching staff simply out-coached the Tennessee staff. They made the right calls and exploited the Tennessee defense over and over in the second half and the Vols had no answers.
This isn’t a new problem either. Tennessee was leading Florida at the half and was tied with Mississippi State going into the locker room, and lost both.
Then there is the SEC record. In 22 SEC games, Dooley is 4-18. If you exclude Missouri and Texas A&M because this is the first year they are in the conference, the Vols are tenth out of twelve in the SEC. The two teams below the Vols are Kentucky and Ole Miss. Kentucky is 4-19, so they have the same amount of wins but have played one more SEC game already this year than the Volunteers. Ole Miss is 3-19.
The Vols are two wins away from having 800 wins in the program’s history, something only seven other schools have done. But over the past three years, Tennessee has crumbled not only as an SEC powerhouse, but also on the national scene.
With all that said, I like the guy. I won’t claim to know him well because I don’t know his character outside of the realm of football. He is personable, a good interviewee and answers questions as fully as you’d expect an SEC coach to answer them. He just hasn’t gotten it done. It’s as simple as that.
Tennessee expects to be the best, and under Dooley the team isn’t getting any closer to reaching that goal. With that said, the orange pants are not going to grace the sidelines of Neyland Stadium after this season.
