As preparations continue for the opening of the 2010 college football campaigns for the UTC Mocs and the Tennessee Volunteers, each program sees remarkable challenges ahead. Make no mistake, however, along with these challenges come rewarding opportunities.
For UTC’s program, Coach Russ Huesman enters his second season with a turnaround 6-5 record in 2009 upon which to build. With his success, fan support is building. Last year, attendance doubled, and this year, season ticket sales are already ahead of last year’s level.
In Knoxville, first-year coach Derek Dooley inherits a program which was stunned several months ago with the unexpected departure of Lane Kiffin. Since then, Dooley, the son of legendary University of Georgia football coach and athletic director Vince Dooley, has set forth with determination to rebuild a winning program.
UTC Mocs
For the loyal supporters of Mocs football, the 2009 winning season was something to celebrate. Excitement returned to the program after a 1-11 season in 2008 was reversed. With a 4-4 Southern Conference record, including a significant victory over top-ranked Wofford, Huesman raised the Mocs’ profile in the community, delivering on a promise to revive UTC’s football fortunes.
With the 2009 turnaround season, two Mocs were named to the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Associated Press All-America team. Defensive lineman Josh Beard was named to the third team and also selected as Southern Conference Defensive Player of the Year, while kicker Craig Camay was named to the second team. Eight Mocs received All Conference honors, and 10 were Academic All Conference. Wide receiver Blue Cooper was signed as a free agent by the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League.
“I think the support of the community has been great,” comments Huesman, who played defensive back at UTC from 1978-1981. “I can see the excitement out there. Now, we’ve got to do our part.”
This year, coach Huesman has continued to focus on recruiting talent. Among his list of 14 freshmen and two transfers who committed to UTC are 10 players from Tennessee and six from the Chattanooga area, including running back Keon Williams from Red Bank, quarterback Terrell Robinson from South Pittsburg, linebacker Zack Rayl from Englewood and McMinn County High School, defensive back Keith Mayes of Red Bank, defensive lineman Nick Davis of Calhoun, Ga., and offensive tackle Devin Caldwell from Boyd-Buchanan.
With the community firmly behind the UTC program, Huesman, who was named head coach in December 2008 and co-Southern Conference Coach of the Year following his first season, is pleased with the progress thus far. However, he realizes there is plenty of work yet to be done. Nevertheless, the team’s mission to “Restore the Glory” has heightened the anticipation of the September 4 opener at home against perennial power Appalachian State, which is a consensus pick to win its fifth straight Southern Conference championship.
Reflecting on the season at hand, Huesman says, “Well, to start with, the ‘Restore the Glory’ work is still coming. A 6-5 record is not glory, so we have a long way to go. Last season was rewarding and satisfying because some of the older guys who had no success here did have a chance to experience it. We are not close to where we need to be right now, and I hope the players realize that. I thought we were better coming out of this spring than my first spring with the team, and I feel good about what we have.
“I think we can win,” the coach continues. “We still have some depth issues and not enough bodies on the football team as far as our scholarship numbers. We red-shirted quite a few players last year and this year, and that pays dividends in a couple of years. It may have a bearing on how we play, but we’re going to bite the bullet and build for the long haul. You win championships with fourth and fifth year seniors.”
With 41 returning lettermen from the 2009 season, Huesman has a core of proven players to work with. Among these is quarterback B.J. Coleman, the McCallie School product who started all 11 games last season and continues to show outstanding leadership qualities and progress on the field. Also prominent among the returning players is the entire offensive line, which includes three seniors; right tackle Chris Harr, a second team All-Southern Conference selection last season, center Justin Galyon, and right guard T.J. Hurless, along with underclassmen Omre Harris and Adam Miller.
“I think at quarterback we have one of the better ones in the league in B.J. Coleman. One thing about B.J. is that everybody sees how he plays on the field,” remarks Huesman. “People see him completing passes but don’t always see his leadership qualities. He likes to drag people out with him to throw, and he likes to watch game film. They see B.J.’s work ethic, and it helps them come along.”
Among several notable position changes, Joel Bradford, who played defensive back last season, is returning to wide receiver. Bradford and Coleman played together at McCallie and proved to be a dynamite combination. In addition, running back Bo Dyer has switched to defense and will bolster the ranks at linebacker, while J.D. Dothard moves from free safety to linebacker, and Thomas Green switches to offense, from linebacker to fullback.
“Defensively, we are going to be an inexperienced football team,” Coach Huesman observes, “and there will be guys playing now that haven’t played at all or have had limited playing time for us. But, with that being said, we will have a faster defensive team than last year, and I’ll take that speed over the experience. We are very athletic defensively, and you build championship defenses on speed and athleticism.”
With the leadership of Coleman and an experienced offensive line, the offense is expected to be strong. “Offensively, we do feel pretty good,” says the coach. “Our offensive line is all back. We have five or six wide outs that can play anywhere in the league. Garrett Hughes is one of the best tight ends in the league. I don’t think we got the ball to him as much as we should have in the fall, but that will change.”
Building on the successful 2009 season, UTC fans will be watching and supporting this year’s team with great anticipation for the “return to glory.”
Tennessee Volunteers
When Coach Derek Dooley took the reins of the storied Volunteer football program just a few months ago, the task was rather daunting from the beginning. Gaining the confidence of players, fans and supporters was an immediate need, while shoring up a recruiting class, which had been shaken by the abrupt departure of Lane Kiffin, was a must. Dooley tackled those tasks head on.
“How can you ask for anything more than the University of Tennessee?” he asked a gathering of media. “Everything we are going to do is going to be done with a foundation of integrity with every aspect of the program. We’re going to represent this institution with class on and off the field.”
Dooley’s coaching pedigree is outstanding in itself. Aside from being the son of Vince Dooley, who coached the Georgia Bulldogs to the 1980 national championship, he has developed a reputation as one of the top recruiters in the nation. As recruiting coordinator for Nick Saban’s staff at LSU, his classes ranked first in the nation in 2001 and 2003, while the Tigers won two Southeastern Conference titles and the 2003 national championship during his tenure. Dooley was also a member of Saban’s staff with the Miami Dolphins of the NFL. He became head coach at Louisiana Tech in 2007 and later added the responsibilities of athletic director in 2008.
Despite a highly publicized off campus incident in July when several players were arrested and one was dismissed from the team, and concerns about the academic eligibility of some other players, Dooley remains steadfast in improving a mediocre 7-6 performance in 2009, which concluded with a 37-14 drubbing at the hands of Virginia Tech in the Chick-fil-A Bowl.
“There are going to be bumps along the way. There always are,” Dooley told a press conference recently. “But I can assure you we are going to forge ahead. We’ll always be growing and developing as a program, and I’m excited about what the future holds at Tennessee.”
Addressing the future began when Dooley took over the drifting Vols’ program last January. Immediate concerns included filling some notable gaps left by senior running back Montario Hardesty, who was a second-round NFL draft choice, and quarterback Jonathan Crompton, who was a fifth-round NFL draft selection. All-American defensive back Eric Berry chose to forego his senior season and was drafted fifth overall by the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2010 NFL draft.
Currently projected as the starting quarterback is Matt Simms, son of NFL great Phil Simms and brother of Tennessee Titans quarterback Chris Simms. “There is not one player on our team who has made more of an investment and put in more time to being a good player,” comments Dooley on the progress Simms has made.
Perhaps the most challenging area for the Tennessee offense is that only four of the season’s starters return from 2009. Two of these are key receivers Gerald Jones and Denarius Moore. With the departures of Hardesty and Bryce Brown, experience at tailback is less, although returners David Oku and Tauren Poole are extremely talented. An inexperienced offensive line could also limit the establishment of a solid running game and provide anxious moments during pass protection.
Returning only six defensive starters, the defense will be starting the season lacking depth. Fans, however, may be surprised to find this team to be an area of strength, particularly with the expected contributions of several young players. Defensive end Chris Walker is still recovering from off-season surgery. Wide receivers Marsalis Teague and Ted Meline have moved to defensive back to bolster the secondary, while talented safety Janzen Jackson and cornerback Art Evans are expected to play key roles.
“We obviously have some depth issues in the secondary,” Coach Dooley told the media recently. “I don’t ever believe in making players move positions, but I had good talks with both Ted and Marsalis. They want to give it a shot, and we’ll get them over there and evaluate them and see where we are after a certain period of time. I do think they both have the physical skills to get over there and help some.”
One of Dooley’s most significant early accomplishments, within three weeks of taking the head coaching job at Tennessee, was to finish with a recruiting class ranked in the top 10 nationally. Among his highly touted recruits are Tyler Bray of Kingsburg, Ca. at quarterback, wide receiver Da’Rick Rogers (a five-star pick out of Calhoun, Ga.), Meline who came in as a receiver from Miami, Fla., linebacker Ja’Wuan James of Suwanee, Ga., and offensive lineman James Stone of Nashville, who chose the Vols over Alabama.
This year’s schedule for the Vols is as challenging as any in the country. While uncertainty exists, Dooley brings confidence, integrity, stability, a track record of success, and a family legacy of winning football games to the Knoxville campus.
As both the Chattanooga Mocs and the Tennessee Volunteers enter the 2010 season, speculation and conjecture will give way to real results. For the Mocs, a new era continues with great momentum. For the Vols, a new era begins. For both, these are exciting times.