Dooley screwed us so bad

[NashVol11]

Kiffs class is pretty much non-existent. Point blank. So this comparison is tough to use. With that said...when Dooley got on campus his only QB options were 2 EE guys that hadn't been on campus the season prior. 1 kid with 2 mid major Cali school schollys, and a juco transfer that had gotten kicked out of Louisville for pot, but is the kid of a Nfl QB so a positive. That's what Dooley had to ride and hang his UT career on. Kiffin ran off all QBs on campus..Stephens and Coleman. Oh yeah told Taj Boyd to look else where too.

The majority of starters on our offense (which carried our team) were Kiffin recruits. Stephens and Coleman sucked and Boyd didn't fit our offense. We wanted a pro-style system...

 

[sjt18]

Dooley's highest-ranked class was built off of Kiffin's recruits, and it went steadily downhill from there. Now we're 29th and behind Vanderbilt.

The last class was small. They all avg'd about 3.4 stars. This year's class is what you would expect when pretty much everyone knew he was being fired.

Literally any coach in the country should be able to pull top-15 classes here. Dooley was as bad at recruiting as he was at everything else.

Dooley avg'd about the same stars as Fulmer. Fulmer's classes had the illusion of being better because one would be top 5 due to size then the next one would be outside the top 15... a "needs" class.

"Bad"? Really? Maggitt, Hunter, CP, AJ, McCullers, Stone, Jackson, McNeil,.... He got talented players to K'ville. He just couldn't coach on game day.... and he made a stupid choice in Sunseri.

 

[VolsRule]

dooley left a bare cupboard---it will take 2-3 years to build up roster with real talent

 

[SCSmokey]

dooley should have been fired after the UK game last year but hart let him stay. what does that tell you about hart and he picked jones from what it seems was a espn list for dumb AD's to pick coaches from. attendence at neyland after the oregon game will probably hit record lows.

Then don't go. But if you have tickets give em to someone who will give CBJ a chance.

 

[sjt18]

The majority of starters on our offense (which carried our team) were Kiffin recruits. Stephens and Coleman sucked and Boyd didn't fit our offense. We wanted a pro-style system...

When did 3 become a majority?

Bray, Fulton, and James were committed when Kiffin left.

CP, Tiny, Stone, Thomas, Neal, and Bartholomew were NOT Kiffin's guys.

Pro-Kiffin people say JH was going to flip anyway. His mom said that DD closed the deal.

Rivera committed on 1/28 well after Kiffin left... so he wasn't committing to Kiffin.

 

[NashVol11]

"Bad"? Really? Maggitt, Hunter, CP, AJ, McCullers, Stone, Jackson, McNeil,.... He got talented players to K'ville. He just couldn't coach on game day.... and he made a stupid choice in Sunseri.

Hunter really had nothing to do with Dooley, but that's beside the point. It's not that hard to get talented players here, and while people like Maggitt/Patterson/Richardson/AJ Johnson are NFL guys, that's an awfully short list for three recruiting classes.

 

[sjt18]

dooley left a bare cupboard---it will take 2-3 years to build up roster with real talent

Nope. But if you truly believe that then don't complain when Jones loses games.

I think he has a very good foundation to build on. Plenty of DL talent. One of the best OL's in the nation. At least two QB's with talent.

If he can coach, early success is not far-fetched.

 

[NashVol11]

When did 3 become a majority?

Bray, Fulton, and James were committed when Kiffin left.

CP, Tiny, Stone, Thomas, Neal, and Bartholomew were NOT Kiffin's guys.

Pro-Kiffin people say JH was going to flip anyway. His mom said that DD closed the deal.

Rivera committed on 1/28 well after Kiffin left... so he wasn't committing to Kiffin.

I based it off of this.

College Player Database - Depth Chart

Bray/Hunter/Rogers/Fulton/James.

I forgot Neal committed after Kiffin left, so he can be Dooley's even though Kiffin had pretty much zeroed in on him. But like I said, there's a reason Dooley hasn't recruited any elite HS WR prospects since. Hunter and Da'Rick Rogers fell in Dooley's lap.

 

[sjt18]

Hunter really had nothing to do with Dooley, but that's beside the point. It's not that hard to get talented players here, and while people like Maggitt/Patterson/Richardson/AJ Johnson are NFL guys, that's an awfully short list for three recruiting classes.

All of last year's starters on the OL will likely be drafted plus Jackson and maybe others. McCullers may be drafted this year. Couch will be drafted. McNeil has an excellent shot. CP... and some players that have not yet played or have not come into their own.

The list is actually not short at all. I am not saying recruiting could not in any way have been better. But it was good. UT had enough talent to compete for the East this year... they just didn't have the coaching.

I fully expect Jones to build on this foundation and win football games. The roster was wrecked 3 years ago. Now it is about as good as you could possibly expect when the last coach was fired for poor performance.

 

[sjt18]

I based it off of this.

College Player Database - Depth Chart

Bray/Hunter/Rogers/Fulton/James.

I forgot Neal committed after Kiffin left, so he can be Dooley's even though Kiffin had pretty much zeroed in on him. But like I said, there's a reason Dooley hasn't recruited any elite HS WR prospects since. Hunter and Da'Rick Rogers fell in Dooley's lap.

LOL... they took CP instead of the kid from SC last year. Croom? Bowles? Howard? They only took one in '12- Arnett who played as a Fr.

Kiffin may have done this or that. The fact of the matter is that neither Hunter or Neal committed until Kiffin was gone. How can you give him credit for anything other than giving them the tour? Any promotion he did for how they "fit" was gone.


BTW, five.... still doesn't constitute a majority on an 11 man team.

 

[pimo1]

This attitude conveyed by WAY TOO MANY UT fans is part of why the national image of the fanbase is so low... which contributes to top coaching names saying "no".
If so.... you can look forward to another desperate hire when/if Jones is let go.

Like it or not, coaches don't like what they see going on in the UT fanbase. They don't like the idea of fan negativity making an already difficult recruiting situation worse.

If I am a coach considering UT, there's no way I take the job without gauging the fanbase's loyalty and patience (realism). I want a high expectation for winning. I don't want the ignorant negativity when it takes work to get there.

You are firmly among those who do not deserve a better program. Your defeatist, negative attitude deserves to be rewarded with a losing program.

Very well said. I think a large number of our fans have a problem of geography. It is not a problem special to just us but it's a problem all the same. Most people have a bubble around them they don't even realize exists and that bubble extends about 30 miles in either direction from their home. Anything outside of that bubble is evil or imaginary and all goodness and reality lives in that bubble. I have been to 27 countries and 48 states in my time on P.E. and very few places have I seen a place more bubblicious than east TN.

If you took a person and put them in a plane with no idea where they were going and dropped them first in Knoxville then Chattanooga then Nashville then Memphis then asked that person where they were they would have no idea that the 4 places were all in the same state. I was born and raised in Chattanooga, went to college in Nashville and until moving to Atlanta spent and inordinate amount of time in Knoxville. Memphis I have spent a lot less time there and of the 3 have never lived there but the differences culturally are huge.

Beyond all that talent in state even counting Memphis is terrible. First off all the talent is spread out because the 4 major Cities are pretty much the 4 cardinal points of the state (N,S,E,W) and very little in between. Compare that to other southern states that either have a much larger population or a much larger concentration of population in one place.

Example Atlanta. The state of Georgia has a population of 9 million the city of Atlanta has a population of 6 million which is pretty much the population of the state of TN. The difference in population is not really all the huge but the fact that almost all of it is concentrated in one spot means competition levels are high because teams don't have to travel hundreds of miles for games. Teams get to play a lot of other teams and that in an of itself makes competition levels rise. Compare that to here where you pretty much have 1 or 2 teams in each area that dominates for years but mysteriously does not put out much D1 talent.

 

[sjt18]

Hunter really had nothing to do with Dooley, but that's beside the point.

Yes he did and it isn't beside the point. He was committed to LSU. Kiffin pursued him. Kiffin then left. Hunter met Dooley and flipped to UT anyway.

Kiffin leaving was really the only reason he needed to stick with his LSU commitment. If anything it should have made the task of flipping him even harder.

 

[NashVol11]

LOL... they took CP instead of the kid from SC last year. Croom? Bowles? Howard? They only took one in '12- Arnett who played as a Fr.

Kiffin may have done this or that. The fact of the matter is that neither Hunter or Neal committed until Kiffin was gone. How can you give him credit for anything other than giving them the tour? Any promotion he did for how they "fit" was gone.


BTW, five.... still doesn't constitute a majority on an 11 man team.

Croom, Howard, Bowles and the SC kid are elite prospects? The first two will be good, but come on.

I told you I mistakenly counted Neal as Kiffin's. But either way, he recruited as many offensive starters as Dooley has and did it in a much shorter timeframe.

 

[sjt18]

Example Atlanta. The state of Georgia has a population of 9 million the city of Atlanta has a population of 6 million which is pretty much the population of the state of TN. The difference in population is not really all the huge but the fact that almost all of it is concentrated in one spot means competition levels are high because teams don't have to travel hundreds of miles for games. Teams get to play a lot of other teams and that in an of itself makes competition levels rise. Compare that to here where you pretty much have 1 or 2 teams in each area that dominates for years but mysteriously does not put out much D1 talent.

I think if you mapped the I-85 corridor through GA you would find an even higher concentration in a relatively small geographical area. I would bet that most of the talent in Ga can be found within 40 miles of I-85.

 

[NashVol11]

Yes he did and it isn't beside the point. He was committed to LSU. Kiffin pursued him. Kiffin then left. Hunter met Dooley and flipped to UT anyway.

Kiffin leaving was really the only reason he needed to stick with his LSU commitment. If anything it should have made the task of flipping him even harder.

You can believe all you want that he was firmly committed to LSU and suddenly changed his mind in like five days because Derek Dooley was that awesome, but that doesn't make it true.

 

[Vol8188]

We weren't doing too great at in state recruiting before Dooley. Do any of these names ring a bell:

Randall Cobb, Harrison Smith, Patrick Willis, Barrett Jones, Golden Tate, Don'ta Hightower, Bo Wallace

Those guys could have completely changed the last few years of TN football.

 

[sjt18]

Croom, Howard, Bowles and the SC kid are elite prospects? The first two will be good, but come on.

According to the analysts, they were. Bowles played in the Army game.

And failure to perform as a true Freshman hardly means someone wasn't legitimately an "elite" recruit.

I told you I mistakenly counted Neal as Kiffin's. But either way, he recruited as many offensive starters as Dooley has and did it in a much shorter timeframe.

Even if I give you Hunter, he didn't and call Rogers a starter instead of Bartholomew, he didn't.

And he didn't exactly have to recruit ZR. He even mocked him as a Fr.

 

[sjt18]

You can believe all you want that he was firmly committed to LSU and suddenly changed his mind in like five days because Derek Dooley was that awesome, but that doesn't make it true.

Didn't say that. Bottom line: he did NOT choose UT because of Kiffin because he chose UT AFTER Kiffin left.

I mean this is simple logic. He may have had some other reason to choose UT but it could not have been Kiffin... and would have to have been at least partly Dooley.

 

[Volzilla]

Enough DD stuf...Gruden or anyone else. Time to drop the negative baggage and focus on the future. What is done is done and nothing will change it.

 

[k-town_king]

Yes he did and it isn't beside the point. He was committed to LSU. Kiffin pursued him. Kiffin then left. Hunter met Dooley and flipped to UT anyway.

Kiffin leaving was really the only reason he needed to stick with his LSU commitment. If anything it should have made the task of flipping him even harder.

I see you are still lying and making up stuff to make Dooley look better.

 

[Volfan2012]

When we were successful we always got most of the best players in Tennessee. I hope we can get back to that and recruit well in Georgia and Florida and we'll be back on top of the league.

 

[golfballs]

As opposed to Dooley screwing us real good

 

[NashVol11]

Didn't say that. Bottom line: he did NOT choose UT because of Kiffin because he chose UT AFTER Kiffin left.

I mean this is simple logic. He may have had some other reason to choose UT but it could not have been Kiffin... and would have to have been at least partly Dooley.

Like I said, you can believe what you want but he was giftwrapped.

Maybe he switched because LSU's message boards were too negative.

 

[UTProf]

And he didn't exactly have to recruit ZR. He even mocked him as a Fr.

How/why did Kiffin mock him?

 

[pimo1]

When we were successful we always got most of the best players in Tennessee. I hope we can get back to that and recruit well in Georgia and Florida and we'll be back on top of the league.

No we didn't. GO back and look at the successful years and notice that the names on the roster that pop out at you are NOT from TN. Maybe this was true in the 60's or 50's but not in modern football has it been true. Even when we get in state guys they rarely produce. Recently we have been getting more guys from west/middle TN than normal and some of those guys are contributing or getting kicked off the team...

Seriously do me a favor and you don't have to post it here but go back the last 10 recruiting classes. See how many instate guys are on there. Look at how my contributed compared to how many flamed out dramatically.