There is no quick fix, no easy way out for Derek Dooley.
There are holes on the coaching staff, this recruiting class is dwindling and there is a truckload of unrest and uncertainty in the Big Orange Nation.
The defection of the previous head coach and most of his staff has left the University of Tennessee craving anything resembling good news. At times over the last two weeks, that has been the equivalent of searching for a specific needle in a five-gallon bucket of needles.
The intangibles are alarming. The fan base is dejected. The young players — especially on the defensive side — came to Knoxville to play for the previous regime.
The tangibles are not pretty, either. There’s not a proven quarterback. The guts of the offensive line graduated. The soul of the defense will be one of the first five names called in April’s NFL draft. Dooley and his staff will be the third regime in the last 16 months, and experienced UT offensive players such as senior tight end Luke Stocker will be trying to digest their fourth different system in four years.
Dooley’s task — like that of every coach in every sport everywhere — is to win. Not in four years, not next season, but now. Today.
The good news, though, is Dooley knows this and he embraced the challenge. In fact, he grew up surrounded by it. That more than anything else is the benefit of hiring a coach with his bloodlines. Not the genetics of being Vince Dooley’s son so much as the familiarity of the environment and the passion and the expectations.
Dooley knew all the scenarios and the mountainesque challenges. And still he arrived in Knoxville wearing the customary orange tie and saying the right things and talking about building.
His road is harder because of the timing of his arrival, of course, but there are several hurdles before him that are magnified by past UT mistakes behind him.
The roster is limited in quantity and quality. Not counting the 2009 class, which has promise, the Vols’ recent recruiting classes have been a hodgepodge collection of over-ranked and underwhelming.
The glorious 2007 recruiting class, which was highly touted and ranked third in the country, has been a mixed bag. It was filled with dozens of stars on the rankings but few stars for the Vols. Five players in the class earned five-star status according to Rivals.com, and just one — defensive end Ben Martin — as of right now is on UT’s roster. Eric Berry was in that group, and he certainly met every expectation, but the others — Chris Donald, Kenny O’Neal and Brent Vinson — made little contribution before leaving the program.
The 2006 class ranked 23rd nationally and its top-ranked player was five-star Walter Fisher. The 2008 class was ranked 35th and featured just four four-star players: the mostly forgettable group of E.J. Abrams-Ward, Aaron Douglas, Marlon Walls and Gerald Williams.
Facing daunting odds and a small window of time, Dooley has a chore before him. The path, however, is the same for the Vols as it was for every big-time college football program that has fallen on hard times.
The only way out of the Big Orange quagmire is success, and the first game for Dooley is the final 10 days of recruiting.
Land a big fish or two and let the momentum build. Sway a recruit here or there and let the fan base know brighter times are ahead. Give the fan base a reason to believe and they will love you for it, Coach.
Dooley knows this. He was raised on it, and that’s why he was hired.