Dooley’s Future Rests With New Hires

By Matt Smith
SouthernPigskin.com

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The offseason coaching carousel made a long stop in Knoxville, as Tennessee looks for a spark.

Not much went right for the Tennessee football program in 2011. In reality, not much has gone right for the Volunteers since Erik Ainge’s interception in the 2007 SEC Championship Game sealed the game for LSU.

27 losses and two coaching changes later, things remain fittingly rocky on Rocky Top, and head coach Derek Dooley has made sweeping staff changes after a season that saw the Vols miss a bowl game and lose to Kentucky for the first time since 1984.

The mass exodus out of Knoxville began in December when it was announced that wide receivers coach Charlie Baggett would not return, and tight ends and special teams coach Eric Russell was leaving to join Mike Leach’s staff at Washington State.

Baggett’s position was filled from within, as quarterbacks coach Darin Hinshaw will now transition to receivers. Offensive coordinator Jim Chaney will now work directly with Tyler Bray and the rest of the Tennessee quarterbacks.

The major stunner came in early January when promising young defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox decided to accept the same position at Washington. Linebackers coach Peter Sirmon went with Wilcox to Seattle.

Wilcox and Sirmon were teammates at Oregon in the late 1990s, and wanted to return to their Northwest roots. Both came to Tennessee in 2010 – Wilcox from Boise State, and Sirmon from Oregon.

Offensive line coach Harry Hiestand would leave the following week for Notre Dame, and less than a week later, defensive line coach Lance Thompson was on his way back to Alabama.

Within a month, the Vols had lost six of their nine assistant coaches. Many fans thought it would be addition by subtraction after a disappointing season, but it was now in the hands of Dooley to make hires that could make or break his future at Tennessee.

Dooley’s first move was bringing a former Volunteer home, as South Carolina assistant Jay Graham decided to return to the school at which he starred at running back under Philip Fulmer in the mid-1990’s.

Who would replace Wilcox as defensive coordinator was Dooley’s biggest decision. He turned to his former boss, Nick Saban, and lured Saban’s linebackers coach, Sal Sunseri, away from Alabama. When the new assistants met with the media for the first time last week, Sunseri said that Vols fans may see a lot of their bitter rival in the 2012 defense.

“We’re going to be a multiple-front defense, a pro-style defense,” said Sunseri. “They want to go out and perform like a top SEC defense should.”

Once Sunseri was on board, Dooley looked to sew up the trenches. He turned to former North Carolina assistant Sam Pittman to lead the offensive line. Under Pittman, the North Carolina line helped tailback Giovani Bernard lead all freshmen in rushing last season. Pittman also is known as an excellent recruiter.

“We’ll try and recruit the best players in the country,” said Pittman. “We have resources. It’s Tennessee.”

Dooley filled out his defensive staff with Middle Tennessee’s John Palermo, who will coach the defensive line, and UCF’s Derrick Ansley, who will coach cornerbacks. Palermo’s familiarity with Sunseri should ease the transition to a more complex scheme.

“When Sal was in the NFL and I was in the NFL, I went and picked his brain on some things that would help me,” Palermo said.

Finally, Dooley hired Charlie Coiner, out of coaching in 2011 but a colleague of Pittman at North Carolina in 2010, to coach tight ends and special teams. Coiner’s biggest task will be improving the team’s net punting, which finished 104th out of 120 FBS teams a year ago.

Coaching turnover is common nowadays in college football. It’s a rarity when a staff stays fully intact from one year to the next. However, having six new assistants presents some significant challenges in a crucial year for the program.

A head coach who makes a major staff shake-up is usually one poor season away from being fired. Mark Richt likely saved his job by hiring Todd Grantham in 2010.

On the other hand, Auburn’s Tommy Tuberville tried to modernize his offense in 2008 by bringing in Tony Franklin. The switch to the spread was a disaster, and Franklin was out by midseason. Tuberville would be gone a month later.

Tennessee will open the 2012 season against N.C. State in the Georgia Dome – the same Georgia Dome where the Volunteers’ fate turned on a single interception. There isn’t a better place to stop the program’s slide than the same place where it began over four years ago.