Derek Dooley is now entering his second full day at Tennessee. Friday night was obviously a whirlwind and I’m certain Saturday was more of the same.
We now know that three more coaches are gone from the previous staff (Kippy Brown, James Cregg, and David Reaves). As I type this, it’s likely that phone calls are being made and interviews are being scheduled for potential replacements.
There still is quite a bit of news flowing from the university, but by contrast of what’s happened this week, it seems almost calm.
As we wait for news on Coach Dooley’s staff and more updates on recruits, I wanted to take a minute to look back at the hiring process. There were a lot of reports being tossed around by local media and I think it’s important to look at what actually went down during this coaching search.
Derek Dooley wasn’t Mike Hamilton’s top choice, but just how far down the list was he?
According to Chris Low’s latest article, here is what we know.
Will Muschamp was Mike Hamilton’s primary target. We don’t know if the rumored 7-year $21 million dollar contract was true, but Low says Muschamp turned down a ‘lucrative offer’.
Next up was Troy Calhoun. We don’t have any insight as to whether or not he was offered the job, but we do know that he was a serious candidate and we know that he pulled his name from consideration shortly after Muschamp passed.
At one point, according to WBIR, David Cutcliffe was named Tennessee’s coach. While those reports didn’t turn out to be accurate, the talks with Cucliffe were escalated to the point that Peyton Manning was led to believe his former mentor had the job.
Many of the interviews Mike Hamilton conducted were reportedly done over the telephone. But in the case of Kyle Whittingham, the interest was serious enough that Tennessee officials flew to Salt Lake City on Thursday evening. Whittingham turned down the job on Friday morning.
Temple’s Al Golden and Houston’s Kevin Sumlin both received consideration, but it’s unclear if either were serious candidates for the job.
Finally, we know that Mike Hamilton offered the job to Derek Dooley around 4pm on Friday and he accepted.