It’s been a rough first year for the head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers, Derek Dooley.
Depth issues through either injury or attrition have left the Vols woefully undermanned and struggling through what’s currently a 2-5 season that will likely end without a bowl berth. They have lost games by 35, 31 and 27 points this year, and one of their two wins came by three points over UAB in overtime.
So, yeah, the Vols are struggling amidst what’s obviously a massive rebuilding project.
In an attempt to convey the current state of the Vols, Dooley went bat**** crazy dug deep into the history books for an analogy that, well, take a look. And a listen.
“Right now we’re like the Germans in World War II. Here comes the boats, they’re coming. You have the binoculars, and it’s like, ‘Oh, my God, the invasion is coming.’ That’s what they did, they were in the bunkers. It’s coming, they call Rommel -- they can’t find Rommel. (Pretending to speak into a radio.) ‘What do we do? I’m not doing anything until I get orders.’ (Pretends to look through binoculars.) ‘Have you gotten Rommel yet?’
(Writer’s note: Forget it, he’s rolling.)
“All right, and the Americans were the exact opposite. We hit the beach, and we were on the wrong spot. ‘What do we do? I don’t know, but these guys are firing and we better hide over there and blow some stuff up to get up there.’ They weren’t looking for (help). That’s where we’ve got to make that transition.
“I don’t want the German people to get upset at me. I’m not attacking them, but that’s what happened. You had one group, they weren’t worried about what the plan was and orders and all that. When the war hits, things change. You’ve got to go. You had the other group, and they go, ‘Wait a minute. They told us the invasion was way further north’ where we had the empty tanks and we were hiding Patton out. ‘We weren’t ready for this, now what do we do?’ ‘We better wait until Rommel tells us what to do.’”
Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no, and it ain’t over now, Coach Dooley. Stay the course, up the Lithium dosage and keep persevering.
Oh, and drop the D-Day analogies. When someone like Clay Travis thinks you might have nudged a toe across the line, you probably have.
