As a surprise to absolutely no one, Derek Dooley‘s future at Tennessee is as murky as ever following Saturday’s multi-overtime loss to MIssouri, and rumblings that his days in Knoxville are quickly coming to and end are growing ever louder.
Saturday evening, Wes Rucker of 247Sports reported that it was only a matter of “when”, not “if”, Dooley would officially be shown the door.Not a question of “if,” but “when” on Dooley. Don’t think they’ll announce anything until after a Vandy loss or after UK game, win or lose.
— Wes Rucker (@wesrucker247) November 11, 2012
Sunday afternoon, Volquest reported the exact same thing -- that the primary obstacle for Tennessee was finding a time to make the announcement official, not if it should be made at all.
For what it’s worth, when asked about how yesterday’s loss affected his future with UT, Dooley replied “I don’t know.”
Obviously Tennessee hasn’t announced anything yet, so by no means should the aforementioned reports be taken as such. But if anyone has remotely followed the Vols this year, it’s not hard to see that Dooley absolutely had to win in November to even begin to control the fire placed directly beneath his keister.
There have been calls for Dooley’s job for a while now; yesterday’s loss to Mizzou might -- might -- have been the moment that answered them no matter the cost.