Derek Dooley Faces His Toughest Opponent Yet: The Tennessee Fan Base

Tennessee head football Coach Derek Dooley has faced some incredible adversity this year. Before the T’s were sewn into the game jerseys this September, Dooley lost arguably the best player on the team in Janzen Jackson and the best player at a position of need in linebacker Herman Lathers. A week after blowing the doors off of a ranked Cincinnati team, he loses his most dynamic play maker for the year in Justin Hunter. Two weeks later, he loses what is sure to be a Heisman candidate in his quarterback, Tyler Bray, also for the year.

So, for those keeping score, that is 4 of arguably his top 5 players on his roster out for the year. Take any football team in America, erase 4 of their top 5 players, and go play LSU and Alabama. I will bet the website that the team comes out 0-2.

Toss in the fact that Dooley is working with one of the thinnest teams in college football thanks to previous staffs, and most objective human beings would agree that he is fighting a, while temporary, uphill battle.

Yes, Coach Dooley has had more than a few breaks not go his way. After getting through Florida, Georgia, LSU, and Alabama, most would assume that it now begins getting a bit easier for the 2nd year coach. Wrong. Dooley still faces an opponent that is on the schedule every day of the year. You see, not only did Derek Dooley inherit an incredibly thin football team, he also inherited an incredibly ignorant fan base.

Need proof? Just head to a handful of Tennessee message boards on the internet or tune in to your local Tennessee call in show. For instance, take this post from a Tennessee message board. There is a human being who is a Tennessee fan who believes, and I quote, that “from what I gathered from watching the (Alabama) game, it all came down to a lack of adjustments on both sides of the ball that caused the second-half meltdown.“ What makes this post even more hilarious is that it is followed with another human being agreeing with him – “Don’t bother with it. Most people on the board are blind and blame it fully on depth. Depth doesn’t cause a meltdown like that in the beginning of the third when you have a game tied at halftime. I want to see things get better just like everyone else, but you can’t put what happened yesterday solely on depth.” Note from the writer – Yes you can you ignorant redneck.

That not do it for you? Let’s skip over to another Tennessee message board. Allow me to set the table a bit for this one, as it is a personal favorite. Tennessee has lost Tyler Bray, a top 3 quarterback in the nation. He was replaced with a backup in Matt Simms, who struggled mightily against perhaps the best two defenses in the country. In comes Justin Worley, a true freshman quarterback from South Carolina. Worley has yet to place his hands on a game ball in a NCAA sanctioned football contest. He is a 3rd (three, 3, number after two, 2+1) string quarterback. “I would compare Worley to Tom Brady. He is accurate with his passes.”

Listen, I know every fan base has the fringe, subhuman morons who expect annual undefeated seasons. We are talking about a fan base, however, that has a significant portion of fans beginning to play Derek Dooley on a coaching hot seat. This is by far the most laughable notion in the history of history.

If you cannot listen to Derek Dooley speak, and know without a shadow of a doubt that he is the man to get the job done, I hate you. If you cannot see the depth he is building at positions we as fans have been begging for, I hate your spouse. If you cannot see the talent that is building, and that this team is near being a very, very competitive football team again, I hope you rot in message board hell for eternity.

While Dooley has just played the Tide from Tuscaloosa, I fear his biggest opponent may be ole’ Tex from Tazewell.

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