15-21 (4-19 SEC)
On the field, Derek Dooley is slightly below Jeremy Pruitt. However, he inherited a bigger mess than Pruitt, and he left Tennessee football in much better shape. It may be safe to say that Dooley inherited the most difficult situation of any head coach in school history.
Remember, when he took over, he was the third head coach in three years, as Lane Kiffin bailed after one year to take over the USC Trojans. That resulted in a wave of attrition that, combined with underwhelming and overrated recruiting classes in 2008 and 2009 respectively, gave Dooley nothing to work with.
Dooley showed promise his first year, throwing in all the freshmen after a 2-6 start to finish 6-6 and reach a bowl game. However, the team then went 5-7 in back to back years, falling to Kentucky in 2011 and Vanderbilt in 2012. He was fired before the last game of 2012, and Jim Chaney coached against Kentucky. To be fair, Dooley had the worst luck.
In 2010, his team was cost a shot at upsetting the LSU Tigers by a meaningless substitution infraction with no time left that gave Les Miles’ team a chance at a last-second play. They then lost the Music City Bowl in overtime by North Carolina, who took advantage of no runoff to spike the ball and commit a substitution infraction for a game-tying field goal in regulation.
Then there’s the fact that entering 2011, his roster was still depleted, and they were set to play the toughest schedule in history. Oh, he lost his go-to receiver and his quarterback in the process. Combine that with an NCAA investigation into Kiffin’s violations that hampered his recruiting and the switch to an athletic director who didn’t support him, and he had a disaster on hand.
Now, it’s fair to say Dooley didn’t help matters. Those two 2010 losses were a reflection of his lack of good coaching in crucial situation to avoid them, he admits he didn’t set the standard for his players in 2011, and he hired Sal Sunseri to run the defense in 2012, which did Tennessee football in. That keeps him down here, but he gets a bit of a pass for what he was working with.