10. Sal Sunseri
Role: Defensive Coordinator
Hired by: Derek Dooley
Year hired: 2012
Coach replaced: Justin Wilcox
Of all the mistakes Derek Dooley made, this is the move that ended up getting him fired. We first have to look at what led to this. After a 5-7 season and a loss to the Kentucky Wildcats in Dooley’s second year, 2011, new athletic director Dave Hart publicly criticized the coaching staff and was firm about not renewing contracts.
Knowing the situation, seven guys jumped ship, and the most notable loss was Justin Wilcox. So Dooley went to find a replacement and would’ve settled on Kevin Steele had Steele not allowed 70 points in a bowl game, a fluke game that was just a mental lapse for an otherwise very good defensive coordinator.
Without much support from Hart, Dooley couldn’t shoot as high as he wanted, so he had to settle on Alabama Crimson Tide linebackers coach Sal Sunseri. Sunseri had no coordinator experience and was only familiar with the 3-4 defense.
So he came to Knoxville to install that 3-4 defense, and it became a disaster. Tennessee football wasted one of its historically best offensive years behind Tyler Bray, Justin Hunter, Cordarrelle Patterson and Mychal Rivera with a historically bad defense.
They put up 44 points against the Georgia Bulldogs, 31 against the Mississippi State Bulldogs, 35 against the South Carolina Gamecocks and 48 against the Missouri Tigers and lost all of those games. A fourth-quarter collapse cost them against the Florida Gators as well. If the Vols keep Wilcox or hire Steele, they likely go 10-2 in 2012. Instead, they went 5-7, and Dooley was fired. It was clearly the worst coordinator hire of the decade.