‘This is our game:’ Mizzou’s Derek Dooley on his return to Tennessee, which fired him

As Tennessee kicked off against Troy on Nov. 3, 2012, Hamp McWhorter sat in the stands of Neyland Stadium to cheer on his childhood friend Derek Dooley, the Volunteers coach at the time. Dooley had been on the hot seat all season, and McWhorter thought a convincing win over the Trojans would help ease fans’ concerns.

That didn’t happen.

Tennessee won 55-48 but gave up over 700 yards of offense to the visitors. The Volunteers nearly lost the game multiple times. McWhorter continually changed seats during the contest, moving closer to the Vols sideline, in case his friend needed him once it was over.

“If he doesn’t win this,” McWhorter thought, “he might not make it off the field before he’s fired.”

Dooley made it off the field on that day but the end was near. He lost even more fan support the following week and after a four-overtime loss to Missouri and was fired on Nov. 17 after a blowout loss to Vanderbilt. Nearly six years to the date, the Tigers offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach will make his return to Knoxville on Saturday when Missouri faces Tennessee.

A lot has changed since Dooley left Knoxville, which is one of the reasons he’s downplaying the personal significance of the game. The Vols have gone through a pair of football coaches and athletic directors, and all of the players he recruited have left.

“I’ll know some people there,” he said. “We didn’t get the results we wanted but that experience there 32 months made me a better coach and made me a better man. They gave me a great opportunity.”

How Dooley will be received really depends upon who you ask. Those close to him think that Dooley didn’t get enough time in Knoxville and was closer to a turnaround than fans realize. But after Butch Jones’ salesman-like personality and underachievement wore on fans, they might not be as angry at Dooley as they are at Jones.

“There is a better understanding of the fact that Tennessee’s program had gone down some,” said Dooley’s father Vince, the longtime Georgia coach and athletic director. “It’s not at the level that some of the fans would like it to be. It certainly wasn’t one individual.”

But Dooley also didn’t do himself any favors.

He once had a recruiting class where he didn’t sign a single offensive lineman. And in UT’s four-overtime loss to Mizzou, he elected to play for overtime instead of driving downfield for a potential game-winning field goal.

Dooley’s final team in 2012 had an offense that ranked No. 18 nationally and a defense that ranked No. 110.

A lot of Dooley’s losses to ranked teams were by very slim margins or featured a second-half collapse or questionable call at the end, like the illegal substitution that ultimately cost Dooley a win over No. 12 LSU in 2010.

“There were so many times he was so close,” said MU offensive lineman Paul Adams, a Tennessee native. “And it didn’t happen.”

Second-half collapses, struggles to beat ranked teams, an offense able to run itself but a questionable defense? The issues that doomed Dooley at Tennessee are very similar to the issues that have plagued Tigers coach Barry Odom during his three-year tenure.

“When he and I had some one-on-one discussions on similar situations that we could relate to, it’s been good,” Odom said. “He’s done a great job building the offense. But also the head coaching side, there’s a great value in that for me.”

When Dooley left Tennessee, he took a job as the Dallas Cowboys wide receivers coach, which he held until being hired as MU’s offensive coordinator in the spring. Vince Dooley said his son took the job partly to stay in the business, but also to give his family some stability after a few tumultuous years in Knoxville.

Dooley enjoyed the ability to focus on football and not deal as often with the media. There were no boosters or recruits to tend to.

“He loved it from a coaching standpoint,” said David Perno, Dooley’s longtime friend and former Georgia baseball coach. “He couldn’t get the stink off that was let from the Tennessee deal.”

Still, after five years in Dallas, he longed to return to the college game. He signed a three-year, $900,000 deal to replace Josh Heupel after he left to become the head coach at Central Florida.

Those close to Dooley said they saw his energy change after joining Odom’s staff. Dooley’s older brother Daniel said the Cowboys job brought him relief, but lacked enthusiasm because he wasn’t in the middle of the action. Since Odom brought him on, Daniel Dooley said his brother has had “renewed excitement.”

He welcomed the challenge of being a coordinator for the first time with enthusiasm and creativity since he knew his NFL experience could make MU’s players more ready for the pros.

For the most part, he’s delivered. The Tigers offense is ranked the top 20 nationally and Odom has found Dooley’s experience as a help to avoid his past mistakes. But Missouri still blew a late lead to South Carolina and didn’t get a first down the entire second half against Kentucky. Both coaches and Drew Lock have been able to address their critics recently with an upset win over No. 13 Florida.

Lock said Dooley has done a good job of keeping his thoughts about this weekend’s game to himself. The quarterback thinks his offensive coordinator will open up about his feelings after the game.

Clearly, though, this is not just another game for Dooley, despite his efforts to downplay the matchup. When Adams visited his office on Monday, the coordinator had a message.

“This is our game,” Dooley told him. “You already know.”

Alex Schiffer

Alex Schiffer covers University of Missouri athletics for The Star.