I know a lot has been said.....

[Screaming Eagle Dad]

regarding Dooley and the need to for him be gone. This is my opinion: he inherited a huge mess and a program that was in so much turmoil and unceretainty. We all know his record and his struggles. But overall the team has improved, just not in the win column. Personally I want ot see the man win, I like him. He has embraced Tennessee's traditions and I do believe that he is doing his very best and all tha jazz. He is trying and he is frustrated too. We all are, but none of us can be as frustrated as he, his staff and the players. I think he needs one more year. I think under normal circumstances a team under a new coach should be rolling on the third year. What Dooley inherited was anything but normal. He needs one more year. If the talking heads higher up are not willing to do that then they better do two thing. First: identtify who they want and it better be a brans name who has proven he can win. and second pony up the money to get him. GO VOLS!!!!!!!!!!!

[Stogie Vol]

But overall the team has improved, just not in the win column.

This is the point that makes me believe a change is now needed. He has, indeed, improved the team; so much so that they should be winning more SEC games.

I'm not going to pull my hair out in anguish if Dooley is retained for another season, though.  As long as he is the coach of the Vols, I'll always want him to succeed.

[SmokeyJoe]

regarding Dooley and the need to for him be gone. This is my opinion: he inherited a huge mess and a program that was in so much turmoil and unceretainty. We all know his record and his struggles. But overall the team has improved, just not in the win column. Personally I want ot see the man win, I like him. He has embraced Tennessee's traditions and I do believe that he is doing his very best and all tha jazz. He is trying and he is frustrated too. We all are, but none of us can be as frustrated as he, his staff and the players. I think he needs one more year. I think under normal circumstances a team under a new coach should be rolling on the third year. What Dooley inherited was anything but normal. He needs one more year. If the talking heads higher up are not willing to do that then they better do two thing. First: identtify who they want and it better be a brans name who has proven he can win. and second pony up the money to get him. GO VOLS!!!!!!!!!!!

^ This! Well said sir. That said, it is out of my control.  Go back & check Johnny Majors up & down first five years! I'm all Vol all the way matter what Dave Hart does.

[SmokeyJoe]

Hart makes a lot of money to make these decisions.  I kind of think 7+ wins will get him another year, for stability if nothing else.   It won't be popular, but jmho.

[Inspector Vol]

This is the point that makes me believe a change is now needed. He has, indeed, improved the team; so much so that they should be winning more SEC games.

I'm not going to pull my hair out in anguish if Dooley is retained for another season, though.  As long as he is the coach of the Vols, I'll always want him to succeed.

Agreed.

[VinnieVOL]

I don't really care either way anymore, to be honest.  I've just about reached a state of complete apathy.  However, it will be useless to fire Dooley for another project coach.  But at the same time it doesn't mean jack shizzle if you allowed fewer rushing yards per game than you did at the beginning of the year if you still aren't beating anyone besides Troy, Ga State, and hopefully Vandy and UK (those two are far from guaranteed).  I won't be encouraged with anything until we step up and beat a real somebody.

[BanditVol]

I don't really care either way anymore, to be honest.  I've just about reached a state of complete apathy.  However, it will be useless to fire Dooley for another project coach.  But at the same time it doesn't mean jack shizzle if you allowed fewer rushing yards per game than you did at the beginning of the year if you still aren't beating anyone besides Troy, Ga State, and hopefully Vandy and UK (those two are far from guaranteed).  I won't be encouraged with anything until we step up and beat a real somebody.

Don't forget Missouri.  We will beat them like a drum IMO.

One point that has not been brought up is the UK loss last year.  That really focused attention on Dooley's record/competence.  In fact, I recall long discussions on this very board to the effect that Dooley was now on a short leash due to losing to UK.  That he would have had to the end of this season if we had beaten Kentucky and gone to a bowl which maybe we win. Instead, suddenly all the doubts about Dooley everyone had all along surfaced, and he was basically on the hot seat before the season began.

I see good and bad in that.  Bad...we lost to Kentucky, which should not have happened last year no matter how bad we were.   

But the good is that Dooley couldn't hide behind excuses anymore.  Suddenly even he realized the jig was up and that he now had to produce.  Now I don't know exactly what happened with all the coaching changes, but that, for better or worse, was at least partially Dooley's response.

Fast forward to this season.  The team is clearly much better, but has a ways to go.  Our offense is playing as well as any in the SEC, period.  Our defense...not so good, but the second half against MSU was promising. Here's my point...either go back to last season, or take away the Kentucky loss, and would anyone be complaining about this year?  Maybe just taking away the Kentucky loss is not enough, but certainly if we had these close games with uga and MSU last year, compared to the 37-6 type humiliations we suffered through, absolutely no one could have complained.

So I see last year as a lost and wasted season, and that this year is where we should have been last year.  FWIW.

And along those lines, I think there is an excellent chance we get Bray back (and we get him back having played more than one tough game - uga last year was the only real D he faced in his entire career until this year and frankly that's part of his problem).  We get back most of what is an outstanding OL, some veteran backs, and maybe even one of CP or Hunter.  Meanwhile our D has had a whole season to adjust to the COMPLETELY NEW ( ) coaching staff and maybe they can get their feet under them and be decent.  Would a new staff eff all that up?  I don't know, but for now I am still hoping Dooley can pull an upset in one of these next two games, win the November slate and have a great recruiting year.  Because, regardless of what I think about his performance to date or suitability as a long term coach, right now that's what seems best for the program. Even 3-3 and halfway through the season, I haven't given up on these kids yet.  It's right there in front of them.  If we could hang with uga, MSU and somewhat with UF to the point that many fans think we should have won those games, then we are ready to compete with bammer and the chinkenz.  Yes, three years is enough.

Yes, we need to win some fizzleing games.  And soon.  Like Saturday would be nice.....

[VinnieVOL]

Don't forget Missouri.  We will beat them like a drum IMO.

Sounds familiar: http://volstothewall.com/board/index.php?topic=24961.0

"...I am also pretty sure we can handle them, and there is a decent chance we can flat out rout them."

How you have any confidence in this team is beyond me.

[BanditVol]

Sounds familiar: http://volstothewall.com/board/index.php?topic=24961.0

"...I am also pretty sure we can handle them, and there is a decent chance we can flat out rout them."

How you have any confidence in this team is beyond me.

The alternate is giving up.

Also, as I state above, our offense is good enough to compete in the SEC.  It's the D that's the problem.  And the D is at least partially that bad due to having a complete new set of coaches and a new scheme.  The thing is, when something is so bad, it's possible to improve dramatically.  Have you ever tried running and timing yourself?  A person who starts with a 12-minute mile can hit an 11-minute pace in a week or two, if not a matter of days.  Then 10 is pretty easy to get to, then it gets a bit tougher but not much.  When you get to 6-minute miles in a workout but improvement is much more difficult, you have achieved something.  Early on, great progress comes easily.

I see no reason our D can't dramatically improve as the season goes on, given the extenuating circumstances.  As Dooley said recently, we don't have all the talent we want on D yet, but they are much better than what they have been doing (paraphrasing).   If you're in a situation where you could probably not do much worse unless you actually tried to be bad, we can make rapid progress.

That isn't much, but it's something.  I have no confidence in the team, just a knowledge that they CAN do much better than they have on D, not next year or two years into yet another coach, but now, today and particularly Saturday.    

Will they?  

[BanditVol]

Sounds familiar: http://volstothewall.com/board/index.php?topic=24961.0

"...I am also pretty sure we can handle them, and there is a decent chance we can flat out rout them."

How you have any confidence in this team is beyond me.

Oh and one other thing...Missouri is, at least on paper, far worse than MSU and we play them at home.  So there's that....

[crockettman]

All 3 losses,UT had their chances and were in those games..Yes the defense has given up points and yards..it is Sal's first yr with a new scheme with players getting baptized by fire against 3 teams in the SEC that were ranked in the top 20..at times they have played great and other times not so great but there is improvement on both sides of the ball..IMO this team is taking their lumps and learning and finally have the athletes to compete in the SEC...there is reason to be optimistic for the rest of this season and by next year I think this team will be competing for the SEC EAST but fans were fed up with how sorry the last few yrs with Fulmer went,the hype then the defection by Kiffin and the mess that was left for Dooley to clean up..There is no magic bullet,just have to be patient and let the man get it done..He came in way behind the 8-ball when he started at UT and I think by next year UT will be where we all expect it to be.

[ChattanoogaVol]

The difference in us and Georgia, Florida, MSU, is that all 3 of those teams UNLIKE US.........................HAVE BEEN ABLE TO MOVE THE BALL AND GET A FIRST DOWN, OR SCORE WHEN THEY NEEDED TO..............................................................WE cannot consistently move that ball when we need to.................so i don't think our offense is great by any stretch of the IMMAGINATION, IMPROVED FROM LAST YEAR, BUT NOT AS GOOD AS THEY SHOULD BE!!  Our defense has more HOLES than SWISS CHEESE.....................................alot of the same guys played better last year, but just look completely lost now...........

 

[BanditVol]

The difference in us and Georgia, Florida, MSU, is that all 3 of those teams UNLIKE US.........................HAVE BEEN ABLE TO MOVE THE BALL AND GET A FIRST DOWN, OR SCORE WHEN THEY NEEDED TO..............................................................WE cannot consistently move that ball when we need to.................so i don't think our offense is great by any stretch of the IMMAGINATION, IMPROVED FROM LAST YEAR, BUT NOT AS GOOD AS THEY SHOULD BE!!  Our defense has more HOLES than SWISS CHEESE.....................................alot of the same guys played better last year, but just look completely lost now...........

 

Agree that our offense has a ways to go.  Frankly play-calling is part of it, and I still scratch my head at the lack of rapport between Bray and CP and even Hunter.  They still need to work on timing IMO.

But they still rank 3rd in the SEC in scoring and 4th in total yards, against a pretty tough schedule (those are stats only against uga, uf, and MSU).  In the country, including all games, we are 22nd in scoring and 24th in total yards, which is comparable to just about any year from 1995-2001, ie, the glory years of UT football.

But I absolutely agree our offense could be better, which is actually encouraging.  Because if they get better...

[crockettman]

The only thing that kept UT from running the ball in the 4th qtr against UGA was the play calling..getting 6-7 yrds a pop against a worn out defense and you get across the 50 and start throwing int's..ERRR!!

[PirateVOL]

The only thing that kept UT from running the ball in the 4th qtr against UGA was the play calling..getting 6-7 yrds a pop against a worn out defense and you get across the 50 and start throwing int's..ERRR!!

yeah, we only ran something like 6 straight times to score a TD in the 4th quarter.  Also, we ran at least twice in the drive that ended in a pick when CP didn't aggressively run his route.

[BanditVol]

The only thing that kept UT from running the ball in the 4th qtr against UGA was the play calling..getting 6-7 yrds a pop against a worn out defense and you get across the 50 and start throwing int's..ERRR!!

Yes, but if Bray makes a better throw on his first int, we could have started running the ball from midfield, and who knows, maybe we would have.  We ran the ball so much against MSU that my just today my bud complained about running it too much in the fourth quarter, in spite of the fact that our last possession was a TD.   

You really can't please all the people, all the time.