A Rebuttal to Clay Travis

I wish I had a twitter to “break this news” like Clay Travis does with his opinionated articles.
Clay Travis recently wrote an article on Derek Dooley being on the hot seat. He wasn’t wrong about everything, but he wrote the article out of pure emotion (and possibly intoxication).  The game was not the best coached game for Tennessee. The game was not executed well. Derek Dooley has not proved himself in any “big” game. He is right on all these accounts, but he is dead wrong on Dooley being on the hot seat. Or I guess his crystal ball where he is counting the next three games as losses. Let’s breakdown his article a little bit.

Here  is the original article from this athletic specimen.

“It appeared that Tennessee’s defensive gameplan was to allow Georgia receivers to run past them and then hope that Aaron Murray couldn’t complete deep passes to wide open receivers.”

Our secondary needs to get better, no doubt, but guess how many passing plays went for over 15 yards. Two. One was a 71 yard killer (mentioned by Travis) and the other was the next possession for 17 yards to Chris Conley. You know who Georgia’s best receiver is. Their TE, Orson Charles, who we held to one catch for 10 yards.

“But why should Tennessee fans expect anything else from Derek Dooley? He’s a .500 coach.”

 “He wins half his game and loses half his games. (And by the way, it’s not Louisiana Tech was being built for success, they’re bad now too).”

You mean he hasn’t come in to the worst situation in the history of Tennessee (and maybe all the NCAA) and being in the hardest football conference in the country and instantly start winning? Are you telling me that went 12-13 the previous 2 years with no solid foundation of starters on either side of the ball didn’t compete for a National Championship one or two years after that? I can’t believe that! I’m sure he is the only coach to leave a program (which was 3-10 the year before Dooley) to go .500 at a school and then that school return to sub .500 record when he leaves. (Also don’t regard the schedule La. Tech played Dooley’s last year. Their opponent’s record they lost to was 69-36 with 7 bowl teams. He went 4-8!)

“or pounding the football into a line of scrimmage with as little success as the Situation had throwing himself into a concrete Italian wall,”

Bill Simmons called, he wants his Jersey Shore “I’m hip and trying to be funny” reference back.

“Tenneseee insists on hiring coaches who haven’t won anything. That’s the mantra in football and basketball now — it’s the reason the Vols are the only program in the conference with a football and basketball coach who have just one bowl win and no NCAA tournament appearances between them.”

The Baller Vols have gone to 6 straight NCAA tournaments! We have a shot at hiring Coach K! Oh wait, we are on probation for ball? We only have one player from our top 6 returning? Clay wants to go out and hire a big name anyways. Let’s stay on subject of football.  Our program was in bad shape when Fulmer got bounced, which Clay wishes we still had. It was in awful shape when Baby Kiff jetted. Not only are big time names not wanting to risk coming into that situation, we were looking for someone who wouldn’t take our program to be on probation for the next 5 years (no Ohio State). But if we could have gotten Gruden we would probably have gone 7-5 last year, so there’s that.

“Again and again Derek Dooley returns to youth as an excuse for why his team isn’t good enough, but the SEC East teams that are beating Tennessee are young too. News flash, Georgia and Florida are bad this year. Do you know what year the running back is who gouged you? Freshman. Do you know what year the wide receiver is who your corners couldn’t cover? Freshman.”
Couple things I disagree with. Georgia’s freshman had great games, but which Florida freshman was really impacting our game? You know why we don’t have freshman impacting like Georgia, because we have sophomores and juniors. Florida is going to lose Brantley and Rainey next year and they aren’t going to get worse? Georgia is losing 3 OL and probably Orson Charles and there isn’t a chance they won’t improve? I guess we have to take Clay’s crystal ball as factual.

“Derek Dooley’s been watering for two years (five years if you count Louisana Tech), and his bamboo looks no different than when he started.”

Clay, the 2 years are not complete yet, and when you leave a program to go to a new one, just pretend you bought a new bamboo in the analogy.

“Is Tennessee going to suddenly leapfrog over teams that are just as young and already better than them?”
When you ask a fan to rank Tennessee’s top players this summer, it would look something like Tyler Bray, Justin Hunter, Janzen Jackson, Da’Rick Rogers, Herman Lathers, Tauren Poole (in some order). Even though the Bray injury did not make Tennessee lose against Georgia, losing 3 out of 6 of you top impact players should affect you quite a bit. After Blackmon for Oklahoma State and maybe DUI Floyd, Hunter was probably the next best receiver in the country.  Losing your top 2 defenders, especially with a lack of depth will also change things up. Bray is ranked the best pro style QB in his class. I wouldn’t say leapfrogging Georgia or Florida is too farfetched.

“The reality is, whether his momma wants to believe it or not: Derek Dooley will be on the hot seat by the time Halloween gets here. In a season of costumes even his orange pants can’t disguise that fact.”
The reality is he isn’t. I know Travis has more sources than me, but why does he think he can state something as a fact when no one associated with the future of UT football would claim that Dooley will be on the hot seat after the South Carolina game? Then again Travis is a Fulmer guy (you guys know he wrote a book during Fulmer’s last season at UT). I get the Skip Bayless act. Say something absurd, back it up with some emotion and say it loud enough where some people actually think it’s true. In my opinion, if Tennessee wants to get back to competing for a SEC title, they need to show they have some stability, give their coach a chance to develop a young team, and continue to bring in solid recruiting classes. Clay Travis is of the opinion if we hire a big name and we will instantly compete for a National Championship (I hear Tressel would give up his instant replay job for a head coaching gig). In a conference as tough as the SEC, where teams rise and fall every few years, Tennessee has a chance to rise to the top in the east next year. Also, I would wait and see how things go next year before we fire a guy that will have arguably the best WR and QB in college football. Clay doesn’t have to wait, he has a crystal ball (no homo).