Derek Who?: Will Derek Dooley Succeed as the Next Coach of Tennessee?

I read a rather good article today on Bleacher Report that applauded the people at Tennessee's decision to hire Derek Dooley as the next coach of the Volunteers.

After slaughtering Auburn for the hiring of Gene Chizik last year and then watching as his team posted great performances against Ole Miss, Tennessee (and in a losing effort, Alabama), I'll shut up and say that Derek Dooley—son of Georgia's great (and retired) head coach Vince Dooley—will be quite the "wait and see" coach for Vols fans.

If the track record's anything to go by, it isn't anything special. At Louisiana Tech, Dooley's was a WAC-mediocre 17-20. He missed two bowls out of three, although in 2008, Dooley's team took the Independence Bowl.

His first job?

He fired Kiffin's assistant coaches David Reeves and James Cregg. He's hired recruiting coordinator Terry Joseph and Eric Russell. Russell has experience with big-time football, after coaching with Mike Leach's Texas Tech team as a special teams coach. And apparently he's pretty darned good as a special teams coach, people.

But get this, I'm unsure about Joseph as a recruiting entity. Sure, he helped to turn around Louisiana Tech, but let's face the fact: he's recruiting in the SEC now, boy.

But Dooley hasn't exactly got appalling experience—having helped to recruit top teams for Nick Saban at LSU before trekking off with Saban to the Dolphins.

Anyway, Dooley's game against Georgia should be a special one on October 11—after all, expect legendary Georgia coach Vince Dooley to be watching. Should be interesting to see who he'll cheer for.