8. 2012
5-7 (1-7)
Sal Sunseri (DC)
Some coordinator hires on this list were simply part of a trend already happening in the program. Others can be pointed to definitively as the reason for why a season happened and how it affected a head coach’s career.
This one is the latter. Derek Dooley had a very rough start his first two years as Tennessee football’s head coach, and 2012 was supposed to be the season he finally had the Vols return to prominence. The problem was one year before, after a 5-7 season and loss to the Kentucky Wildcats, he and his staff were put on notice that they were in trouble.
That turmoil resulted in seven staff members deciding to leave, most notable of whom was defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox. Dooley then had the worst of luck since his replacement choice, UT graduate Kevin Steele, had just allowed 70 points with the Clemson Tigers. So he had to nix that hire, and he didn’t get the public or financial support from Hart to shoot higher.
As a result, Dooley had to bring in linebackers coach Sal Sunseri from the Alabama Crimson Tide. Sunseri had never been a coordinator before, and he immediately began throwing everything at his defense as he tried to force the switch to a 3-4 too quickly on them. The results were disastrous in the season.
Despite the fact that Jim Chaney’s offense had arrived with Tyler Bray throwing to Justin Hunter, Cordarrelle Patterson and Mychal Rivera, the defense kept collapsing. UT scored 44, 31, 35 and 48 points in four SEC games that year and lost them all. The result was a 5-7 season that got Dooley fired, but with a decent coordinator, they easily could have gone 9-3 or 10-2.