The Defensive Line: Now a Nose and Two Ears
John Palermo, Tennessee’s new defensive line coach, is a man with a wealth of experience, with coaching stints at places including the Washington Redskins in the NFL and college stops Wisconsin, NC State, Austin Peay, Minnesota, Memphis, Appalachian State, Notre Dame, Miami, Tennessee Tech, and most recently Middle Tennessee State. He takes over a DL that has seen steady improvement over Dooley’s first season in Knoxville (“Year Zero”). It doesn’t look championship quality yet, but the DL should improve over last season’s sack total as well as being a more aggressive unit under Sunseri’s leadership. And, it looks to be physically bigger as well.
The Summitt by the Numbers
Two words in the English language are habitually overused: genius and legend. When speaking of Pat Summitt, the second word definitely applies, and will be used for many decades to come, likely as long as basketball is still played on this planet. The importance of J.S. Bach, Beethoven, Buddy Bolden, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, and The Beatles to their various types of music cannot be overstated. Neither can the importance of Pat Summitt to not only women’s basketball, but Basketball.
Nobody wants to be under a bus
Chris Brown over at Smart Football has posted a letter written by recently-fired Texas A&M head football coach Mike Sherman. The letter is addressed to all high school coaches in Texas. It outlines a philosophy and methodology for relating to players, which, if embraced and followed, will allow a coach to be a true leader. It could apply to a lot of settings, even for office management, or even a family.
Vols coaching mass exodus: recipe for disaster, or necessary change?
Two weeks ago, Tennessee Vols head football coach Derek Dooley officially became an embattled coach. Four of his assistants had left. Charlie Baggett, receivers coach, either retired, left to pursue other coaching opportunities, or was simply not retained, depending on the source of the information. Eric Russell, tight ends and special teams coach, left to join the staff of Mike Leach being assembled at Washington State. The earth-shaker was defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox and linebackers coach Peter Sirmon leaving Knoxville in lateral moves to the University of Washington.
Mark Twain and Marcus Garvey weigh in on the Dooley rumors
There is an impressive list of the premature publishing of obituaries.
In 1897, a journalist was sent to enquire about Mark Twain’s health. Fearing that Twain was near death, the journalist eventually found out that it was Twain’s cousin that was very ill. The subsequent famous (mis)quote of Twain’s response, “The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated” punctuated the humor in the misinformation.
Sometimes, such wrong reporting can have serious repurcussions. After suffering a stroke in January 1940, the African American ‘black nationalist’ Marcus Garvey read his obituary in the a Chicago paper, which described him as “broke, alone and unpopular”. Apparently as a result, Garvey suffered a second stroke and died.
Source: Dooley to resign on Tuesday?
6:44pm EST: The same source of the information that I reported earlier today has informed me directly that Tennessee head coach Derek Dooley will resign on Tuesday (tomorrow) at 1:00 pm.
That’s all I have – a simple message, received from someone I trust that should know: “Dooley is resigning tomorrow at 1.”
If I receive any further news — supporting this or refuting it, I’ll let you know.
Seems improbable, but regardless, hold on to your hats…
8:59pm EST — UPDATE: Source says that the information is from the inside, but that it could well be crap. We’ll see. Wouldn’t be the first time that inside information was crap.
10:15am EST Tuesday — UPDATE: Yes indeed, the information that Dooley would resign on Tuesday was crap. Dooley appeared at a meeting with the press Tuesday morning in Knoxville and made it abundantly clear that the reports of his death were greatly exaggerated. So much for ‘inside’ sources. They are as prone to mis-information as the rest of us. And so it goes. That has been addressed in my Tuesday post [read here]. And, it should be emphasized that numerous stories at other outlets that Randy Shannon would be announced as the new defensive coordinator were not true either. Life in Knoxville with the Vols remains as crazy and rumor-driven as ever. I don’t think it will even change.
The sound of shoes dropping is that of Derek Dooley’s death march
This morning, ESPN reported that Tennessee Vols defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox and linebackers coach Peter Sirmon are leaving for Washington — lateral moves. This is on the heels of last night’s decommitment of linebacker recruit Khalid Henderson, and of course the DeAnthony Arnett saga that is ongoing.
Derek Dooley really is Vince’s son
It comes in all forms. “Yes, I played a little college ball.” Or, “I spent a part of a season in the minors.” Men continue to tell little white lies to inflate their aura, whether to gain a measure of respect from bosses and/or subordinants or mere aquaintances, or perhaps to gain access into a woman’s bed. Anymore, I never believe a word of that type of stuff I’m told until I get home and look it up. That is if I still care by the time I get back home.
Majors as Measuring Stick for Dooley
I’ve been laying low after the Vols’ loss against South Carolina. Sick as a dog. Sick from all of the stupidity flying around the Vol Nation via radio, blogs, tweets, message boards, chat rooms – all modes of communication that render patience, and knowledge, an outdated virtue. The 48 hours since the Gamecocks ‘somehow won’, to paraphrase Steve Spurrier, have been like a plume of contaminants spreading at the rate of a swine flu squared.
I inhaled the airborne poison. Breathed it all in, deeply, and suffered a toxic shock of sorts. But I quickly went into rehab (the ‘off’ button is a wonderful, underused strategy), and now I’m back to my ol’ self.
I’m out of Detox. Now, Listen Up!
Nick Saban: Casting His Own Long Shadow
Four years ago, Alabama head coach Nick Saban was moving from an ugly situation he created (his early exit from the Miami Dolphins) to a big mess at Alabama created by others before him.
Temporary Like Achilles
Achilles, the Greek hero of the Trojan War, was invulnerable in all of his body except for his heel – he died because of a small wound there.
Ah, yes, those deadly weak spots we all have.
Land of the Setting Sun
UT Athletic Director Mike Hamilton simply doesn’t have the qualifications for his job.
Fundraising, Hamilton’s arguable strength, is a large part of his responsibility. But so is representing his university with intelligence and forethought.
Liars Club
No, I’m not going to bash Bruce Pearl again. His players’ performance this season did too good of a job for me to pile on.
Exit Monologue
While catching up on news, I saw a post on RTT that dutifully provided video from You Tube without much explanation or interpretation. It’s a good thing, because trying to summarize the content of Chuck Smith’s monologue on Friday, given to a handful of reporters outside of Neyland Stadium while buses, cars, and motorscooters loudly rambled by, would be a lengthy affair. Lengthy not because of the duration of the video (25 min) but because of the convoluted nature of the content.
