How far did Derek Dooley set the Vols back?

Two and a half years after former head coach Derek Dooley was fired, the Tennessee football program is still feeling the effects.

Specifically, Dooley’s recruiting – or lack of it – put the Vols in an unwanted position during the early stages of the Butch Jones era.

So the question is, how far did Dooley set back the Tennessee program?

During his three seasons in Knoxville, Dooley posted a 15-21 record, which includes his 4-19 record against SEC opponents and 0-15 record against ranked teams.

On the recruiting front, the two full signing classes that Dooley was responsible for were ranked 14th (2011) and 20th (2012).

To give Dooley credit, he did bring in some good players while at Tennessee.

Justin Hunter, Da’Rick Rogers, A.J. Johnson, and Cordarrelle Patterson all signed while Dooley was at the helm.

And while Tennessee’s team recruiting rankings were not terrible for Dooley’s two full classes, the players that he didn’t sign were the bigger issue.

In the 2012 class, Dooley and his staff failed to sign a single offensive lineman, which offers part of the explanation as to why the Vols’ offensive line struggled so much over the course of last season.

Another error by Dooley and his staff on the recruiting trail was the recruitment of five-star safety and Chattanooga native Vonn Bell.

Bell was a lifelong Tennessee fan, and wanted to attend UT, but Dooley later admitted that he never made the short trip down to Chattanooga to watch Bell play.

What could have made the Dooley era even more disasterous for Tennessee was the fact that it was close to being more than just a three-year job.

In Dooley’s last season, 2012, the Vols had one of the most talented offenses in school history.

If it weren’t for Dooley hiring unproven Alabama linebackers coach Sal Sunseri as defensive coordinator for the 2012 season, Tennessee would have had at least a respectable defense, which most likely would have resulted in Dooley being retained for at least one more season.

Tennessee athletic director Dave Hart was seemingly open to bringing back Dooley for a fourth season after the 2012 fiasco, if the Vols were able to reach bowl eligibility.

This means that if even one of the close losses to Georgia, South Carolina, or Missouri had gone the other way, Dooley would have been given another season, which would have set back the UT program even further.

All of these problems with the Dooley era faced Jones when he arrived in Knoxville in December of 2012.

While Jones and his staff have suffered the consequences of some of Dooley’s actions (i.e. the offensive line issue), Jones has almost completely separated himself from the Dooley era.

Dooley’s last recruiting class will be entering their senior season in 2015.

A pessimistic fan would point out that Jones’s record through two seasons (12-13) is just one game better than Dooley’s (11-14) over that time span.

But it’s clear that Jones, unlike Dooley, is helping the program, not setting it back.

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