After another beatdown at the hands of Alabama, many members of the Volunteer nation are clamoring for head coach Derek Dooley to be fired. However, there is still a large sect that says he needs more time. In this column, I am going to give my opinions on two of the most prevalent arguments I have heard against firing Derek Dooley.
He hasn’t had enough time: In the grand scheme of things, three years does not seem like a long time to build a program. However, history suggests otherwise. As I said in an earlier column, Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, Les Miles and Gene Chizik all won national titles within their first three years.
What I didn’t say was that Bobby Petrino won 10 games in his third season at Arkansas, Mark Richt finished his second season ranked 3rd in the BCS after winning 13 games, and Will Muschamp currently has the Florida Gators ranked 2nd in his second season as head coach. I understand that not all these coaches are still at their SEC schools, but they’ve coached there recently enough to be relevant. The point is, if you aren’t getting the job done by your third season, you probably aren’t going to be. There are too many heavyweights to push you around, and Dooley hasn’t done himself any favors by not winning any games as an underdog in the SEC.
We don’t have the money to fire him: This is probably the most ridiculous excuse I’ve heard yet. As many of you have probably read, the UT athletic department posted a $4 million loss in the 2011-2012 school year. That leaves the department with below $2 million in reserves for the immediate future. First off, we have reserves. This indicates that UT actually has room to maneuver here. It’s not as if they are operating in debt. Second, this number doesn’t take into account the fluctuating donations of boosters that coincide with the current situation.
For example, random wealthy booster X might make a standard yearly donation of $1 million. However, if he is dissatisfied with the coach, he may donate $3 million for one year to help buy out said coach’s contract. Therefore, the numbers of last year correlate very weakly to the giving power of said boosters. In layman’s terms, the fact that UT lost money last year doesn’t mean that our boosters suddenly lost all of their money, too. UT’s largest booster, Jimmy Haslam, just spent $1 billion to purchase the Cleveland Browns. I’m going to write that one more time for emphasis. He spent $1 billion, with a “B.” He probably didn’t offer it all straight up, but still. He’s obviously not hurting. He only BEGINS the long list of major boosters, and they understand it will take an investment upfront to bring a higher-quality product to the field. If UT wants to fire Dooley, they will get the money, no question.
Dooley is never going to trump Nick Saban or Mark Richt on coaching ability. Swap our team with Alabama’s at the beginning of the season, and Saban still runs the score up on Dooley on Oct. 20th. Even if Dooley wins out the season, UT needs to ask itself if it is satisfied with 8-4 seasons and half empty stadiums. If so, Dooley is our man. If not, then it’s time for a change.
Shameless Plug of the Week: If you are looking for a fun, cheap and conveniently located haunted house to go to this Halloween season, hit up the Reese Hall Haunted House on Oct. 29-30 from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. It’s always terrifying, and all proceeds go to benefit Habitat for Humanity.
— Hunter Tipton is a senior in biology. He can be reached at [email protected].
