Sigh. Derek Dooley is doing his damnedest to force me to come up with a new Lexicon entry. If you’re a kid with a family hardship who wants to leave Knoxville to be closer to home, you’re going to have to accept a few limitations.
Meet the Dooley Doctrine, as set forth by UT flack Jimmy Stanton:
“We’re not denying him a release to be near his family, get a good education and play Division I football at the same time, but we do have a policy of not releasing players to schools we either play or recruit against,” Stanton said Thursday. [Emphasis added.]
Well, Tennessee recruits nationally… does that come off as bad as it sounds for the player? Not according to Stanton.
“Where he’s from, there are several good D-I schools nearby that would be good options to play football, get a good education and keep him near his family.”
Funny how it turns out all those good D-I schools happen to be in the MAC.
I’m not sure if this qualifies as an expansion of the 8-hour drive rule SOD had previously set in the case of Aaron Douglas, or if it’s merely a refinement. Maybe it reflects the uniqueness of each situation in Dooley’s mind: in Douglas’ case, it was about getting him away from home, while Arnett seeks to get closer to home.
Or maybe SOD is just a prick on general principles because he can be.
And make no mistake about it, he can really jam Arnett up here even if the NCAA grants the kid hardship status.
… If Arnett qualifies for an NCAA hardship waiver, he would be able to play immediately at wherever he landed. Hang-ups with his National Letter of Intent, though, could put that in jeopardy.
Because Arnett signed a National Letter of Intent in February, he is subject to eligibility ramifications if he does not complete a full year at UT. It could, perhaps, be in his best interest to go through spring semester and spring football at UT before signing elsewhere.
“The basic penalty may preclude you from representing the second college until you have completed two academic years in residence at the latter institution and you may lose two seasons of competition in all sports,” according to a National Letter of Intent cheat sheet from the NCAA’s official website.
The situation has gotten pathetic enough for Arnett to post a picture of his ailing dad with tubes running out of his chest in an attempt to gain public sympathy. He’s also released a letter to the media. I doubt any of it will make a difference. Derek Dooley has a principle to maintain, which seems to be making players who no longer wish to be in his program grovel on their way out the door.
One thing you have to admire about the UT program – they never have required their coaches to win any PR battles up there.
Get The Picture 
The UT fans will soon be looking back on the Kiffin Regime with a sense of nostalgia
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This is all just a ruse by Arnett according to some Vol fans. Some have accused his dad of faking it. Just check out some of the comment of GoVolsExtra. Dooley and UT fans deserve each other.
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So I did and found this……”On his Twitter account Thursday, Arnett posted a picture of his father, who opened his shirt to display a package of tubes running through his chest.” If he is faking it that is a pretty intense acting job! Yet, from what I remember about a chest tube one wouldn’t walk around with one in. Ouch!
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Sorry Coach, but your son is a douche. (I hope Mama Dooley doesn’t read this blog, or I’m in trouble)
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Senator, if you wanted to be spare and go all minimalist in your prose, you could have just posted your “maybe SOD is just a prick on general principles because he can be” line and went and had a cup of coffee. I think that description summarizes the situation quite nicely. He is basically turning Knoxville into Pyongyang, sans the charm and sophistication Pyongyang offers relative to Knoxville.
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“Pyongyang.”
Now that is a well thought out metaphor. Knoxville and Pyongyang both have the son of famous warlords as a figurehead, they both have populations of lemming-like followers, and both have a nuclear reactor. Although, if I was a resident of Pyongyang, I would be deeply offended by the comparison; Pyongyang is Paris compared to Knoxville. Nicely played!
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Did I mention before, I got bit by bed bugs on my last trip to Knoxville. New reason to hate it.
Main difference between N Korea and Knoxville – there is clearly no shortage of food in Knoxville.
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Pyongyang takes on another meaning when you mention Paris. It’s the sporting version of the yen and yang, only done on a pogo stick. The Eiffel Tower is the iconic symbol.
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I read the article: so the kid is in the office when Dantonio has his heart attack, signs with the vols 2 weeks later and now probably sees the handwriting on the wall in Knoxville and wants to go back and possibly play there. Then releases that pitiful letter to the media. Dirty business.
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Opportunity is nowhere.
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+1
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Dooley’s transfer rules garbage are just that… garbage. If one kid is going to make that big of a difference to UT after Year 2 or Dooley, then it’s time to fire him now, and he should never, ever be a head coach again. This disgusts me. I have wanted to at least have neutral feelings towards SOD because he is, indeed, the SOD. But screw this crap. It isn’t like this is a player who isn’t getting enough playing time or he just misses his girlfriend. He wants to be close to his dad who is in serious medical distress. And even if he wasn’t, if the kid wants to be gone so badly, why do you want him there? This gives your program a bad name, and it makes you look bad to recruits. And, uh, you want to do everything you can to look good to recruits, SOD, your program missed a bowl game this year and your biggest victory was over Vanderbilt. Those “schools you recruit against”? They’re all filling the media with reports of bowl games and bowl practices. The only thing about your program in the papers during a dead period for communication with the recruits who are the lifeblood of your program is reporting about you holding a kid hostage because his dad got sick. Good luck! Seriously, if they jam this kid up over this new “Dooley Doctrine” which basically means that you can’t play BCS-conference football if you leave Tennessee, then I’ll wish that they lose every single ball game. Every. Last. One.
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It strikes me that long term this policy of SOD has to be counter-productive. No kid in his right mind should be willing to go to Tennessee if he’s going to be treated this way if/when something happens that causes him to want to transfer.
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I’m sure the recruits will be hearing about this shortly. This will do more damage long term.
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I hope they keep SOD around rocky top for a long time.
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I’ve seen the terms of his contract regarding dismissal. Very expensive buyout and a h/t on the lawyering. I don’t think it (firing) happens for a few more years. Not until they save up enough money from sitting out bowl games to pay him off. Of course the bamboo could start to grow and all the hot seat talk goes away.
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This sort of we-write-our-own-rules BS is totally fine under current rules, but it would place an unacceptable burden on schools to permit multi-year offers or to give kids a stipend so they could go to Five Guys with their girlfriend.
Anyone who thinks that athletes aren’t getting exploited under this system is being obstinate. It’s just like modeling, acting, or any other talent-based pyramid which comes to a sharp point – except in the case of NCAA athletics, the kids aren’t even allowed to receive the starvation wages of a beginning fashion model.
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I really hope other kids read this crap before they sign with this guy. What was it last time, no school within 500 miles? “Where do you want to transfer kid? Well we’ll just have to make up another rule against that! No schools that have a ‘T’ in their name. Or use white in their uniforms. No school with ‘University’ in its name.”
I love that Tenn is imploding…but this is getting hard to watch. I’m getting embarrassed he is an alum.
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At this point I think he actually needs to worry about recruiting against those MAC schools moreso than Michigan and Mich St.
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+1
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When I read this, I thought of John Grisham’s, “The Firm.” Come to Tennessee where you play for us…or nobody.
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I have to tell y’all that I’m a little disappointed that nobody’s caught the pun in my header.
These things take work. 😉
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Well done. Bit of a stretch though, even for a guy like me that grew up with Zod.
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It was obvious. There was no need to comment. Jaded by your witty headlines.
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I picked up on it. And my first thought was that I wish SOD could be put into one of those flat glass thingys and sent out to space.
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Stay classy SOD. If someone doesn’t want to play for you, then let them go. The way SOD is handling this, he is making himself look really bad to every other recruit out there.
BTW, I vote we change SOD to SOB (Son of Barbara).
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Junior will enunciate a new condition whenever he needs it. I don’t think he’s a competent coach (see record even with these tactics), but he’s even worse at telling the truth. This is all about what’s good for junior, cloaked in rhetoric to try to avoid the inevitable finding that he’s a self- serving little punk.
Now back to regular programming….
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These coaches look so petty when they try to prevent kids from playing elsewhere. I might feel different about it if the players had guaranteed four year scholarships. Doesn’t seem fair that the players are bound but the universities are not.
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What about a player being dismissed for sins against the coach and another coach who competes with him says that that is “OK”? Sorta twisty, eh? Two words: Mettinburger.
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I am trying to recall a situation where a transfer came back and bit his former team on the playing field. Anyone remember any examples? Even Mettenberger is riding the pine has not hurt UGA. The odds seem pretty low, so it just seems like the publicity in denying a kid a chance to play somewhere else is just going to hurt you with current recruits. I suppose the reason might be to discourage current players in the program from even thinking of transferring?
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How short our memories are. Jon Dewberry was a QB at UGA. Dooley told Dewberry he was going to move him to another position. Dewberry felt he could play QB and told Dooley he wanted to transfer and asked for a release. Dooley refused. Dewberry transferred to Georgia Tech, paid his own way to school, walked on and made the team as a QB. He became the first team QB at Tech and went on to lead Tech to victory over Georgia. BTW, Dewberry is now a mega-millionaire commercial real estate developer. I met him once. I liked him and thought he was a really good guy.
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…..nice catch Mayor. More trivia. Ted Roof was on the Black Watch D at lb during part of Dewberry’s career. Dewberry later played some Canadian ball.
😉
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Scam newton comes to mind, though I don’t recall if aubie played fu in 2010. Of course, Quincy signed with gtu, but never attended.
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The Dooley Doctrine- “Walk Hardly and carry a Big Schtick.”
I’m surprised you lawyers/historians didn’t jump all over that.
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Sheriff Buford T. Pusser was a bad ass in that movie.
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So was Monroe in an earlier version.
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Anyone see the trailer film, “Walk Hard”? C’mon, DIF. I know you have it.
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Pingback: Is There Another Side to the DeAnthony Arnett Transfer Situation? « Tide Bits
Just so everyone doesn’t participate in the hanging offenses published about SOD, I wish to point out the positive aspects. I have it on good authority that if anything happens to Arnett’s father and he won’t be near him, then a present will be made of the stature of an orange dog to keep him company. I don’t want to see anymore disparaging remarks toward a young coach trying to emulate an older father image nearby – Paul Johnson.
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