Derek Dooley

Derek Dooley (born June 10, 1968) is an American football coach and former player who is a senior offensive analyst for the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Dooley was born in Athens, Georgia, in 1968, the son of University of Georgia coach Vince Dooley and his wife, radio talk show host Barbara Meshad Dooley.

Dooley played high school football at Clarke Central High School in Athens under legendary coach Billy Henderson.

He led Louisiana Tech to its first postseason victory since the 1977 Independence Bowl with a 17–10 victory over Northern Illinois in the 2008 Independence Bowl.

This is where his father Vince Dooley was the athletic director and head football coach who won the 1980 national championship there.

He was a star tight end on the school's 1985 AAAA State Championship team.

Dooley played alongside other notable Clarke Central (and later NFL) players, including kicker John Kasay (Seattle Seahawks, Carolina Panthers, New Orleans Saints), defensive end and former University of Tennessee defensive line coach Chuck Smith (Atlanta Falcons, Carolina) and wide receiver Willie Green (Detroit Lions, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Carolina Panthers, Denver Broncos).

Dooley was a walk-on wide receiver at the University of Virginia.

He earned a scholarship with the Cavaliers following his second season and helped the school to three bowl appearances, including an ACC championship in 1989.

In 1990, he was named first-team Academic All-ACC and participated in the Senior Bowl.

He graduated in 1990 with a bachelor's degree in government and foreign affairs, and went on to earn his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1994.

Dooley started his college coaching career with a one-year stint as a graduate assistant at the University of Georgia in 1996.

Dooley spent the 1997–1999 seasons as the wide receivers coach at Southern Methodist University, while also holding the duties of assistant recruiting coordinator during his final two years at SMU.

In 2000, Dooley was hired by Nick Saban at LSU as the Tigers’ recruiting coordinator/tight ends coach, a capacity in which he served until 2002.

Dooley spent the 2003–04 seasons coaching the Tigers’ running backs and special teams, and in 2004 was named assistant head coach.

In 2005, Dooley left LSU with Saban when the latter became head coach of the Miami Dolphins.

On December 17, 2006, Dooley was hired as the new head coach at Louisiana Tech University.

He replaced former coach Jack Bicknell, who was fired on December 4 after the Bulldogs finished 3–10 in 2006.

He served as the head football coach at Louisiana Tech University from 2007 to 2009 and the University of Tennessee from 2010 to 2012.

In his first season as head coach, Dooley led the Bulldogs to a 5–7 record in 2007.

On March 6, 2008, Dooley was named the Athletics Director of Louisiana Tech University replacing former AD Jim Oakes.

From 2008 to 2009 Dooley was the only head football coach in the country who also served as the university's athletics director.

In the 2008 season, Dooley led Louisiana Tech to a 7–5 regular season record.

In the 2009 season, Dooley led Louisiana Tech to a 4–8 record.

On January 15, 2010, Dooley was hired as the 22nd head coach at the University of Tennessee.

He replaced Lane Kiffin, who resigned to become head coach at the University of Southern California after one season at Tennessee.

Dooley had a challenging three seasons as the head coach at Tennessee.

The 2010 Tennessee Volunteer football team was expected to be one of the worst in school history.

Despite few scholarship players and a very young team, the season yielded some positive, memorable, and controversial moments.

On October 2, against #12 LSU, Tennessee was up 14–10 towards the end of the game.

LSU was driving with little time remaining.

LSU let the time run out in regulation before having a chance to score leaving Tennessee to think they won the game.

Tennessee ended up having too many men on the field for that play.

LSU got one more play after it had looked like the game had ended and scored the game-winning touchdown.

Tennessee started the season 2–6.

However, they won their last four regular season games to finish the season 6–6 and become bowl eligible.

Tennessee went on to lose the Music City Bowl to North Carolina in a controversial ending.

The only in-depth on the record discussion of his tenure was given nearly four years later during a live two-hour televised interview with Clay Travis of Fox Sports Outkick the Coverage in June 2016.

Dooley inherited a program for which he would be the third head coach in three years.

Perhaps due to these coaching changes, a number of scholarship players had left the University.