Tennessee’s coaching carousel over the past few years has led to some mismatched rosters. The Vols haven’t had a roster comprised of players all signed bye one head coach since 2008.
This year is no different. There’s a heavy mix of Derek Dooley and Butch Jones influence on the roster with, believe it or not, still a miniscule touch of Lane Kiffin still in the mix.
The formula I’ll use is pretty simple and fair. If a player committed to and signed under the same head coach, I’ll assign that player 100% to him. However, if a player committed to one coach and then signed with another, I’ll split it 50/50 between the two. They both deserve some of the credit (or blame, perhaps, in some cases) for getting that player to campus. I thought about combining coaches’ names for this scenario such as Lane Dooley, but thought that might give some readers nightmares, so I stayed away from that.
Not to belittle any walk-ons since there are several who will contribute in 2014, but I’m keeping this to players who committed and signed a scholarship out of high school to Tennessee for simplicity.
Here we go:
Seniors:
Dooley/Kiffin: OL Marques Pair
Dooley: P Matt Darr, TE Brendan Downs, RB Devrin Young, LB A.J. Johnson, RB Marlin Lane, CB Justin Coleman, QB Justin Worley
Jones: TE Woody Quinn, CB Riyahd Jones
Breakdown: 20% Jones (2)/5% Kiffin (.5)/75% Dooley (7.5)
Juniors:
Dooley: DB Geraldo Orta, DT Allan Carson, OL Marcus Jackson, OL Kyler Kerbyson, DT Trevarris Saulsberry, DB Brian Randolph, OL Mack Crowder, DE Curt Maggitt, WR Cody Blanc, DB LaDarrell McNeil, WR Pig Howard
Jones: WR Von Pearson, DL Owen Williams, OL Dontavius Blair, WR Johnathon Johnson, LB Chris Weatherd
Breakdown: 68.8% Dooley (11)/31.2% Jones (5)
Sophomores:
Dooley: WR Jason Croom, LB Justin King, QB Nathan Peterman, K George Bullock, LB Kenny Bynum, DT Danny O’Brien, DL LaTroy Lewis, WR Drae Bowles
Dooley/Jones: WR Josh Smith, DE Corey Vereen, CB Cam Sutton, LB Jalen Reeves-Maybin
Jones: TE A.J. Branisel, DE Jaylen Miller, CB Malik Foreman, QB Joshua Dobbs, OL Dylan Wiesman, WR Marquez North, DB Lemond Johnson
Breakdown: 52.6%Dooley (10)/47.4% Jones (9)
Freshmen:
• All 32 players classified as a freshman in 2014 are 100% Jones with the exception of Brett Kendrick and Austin Sanders, who are Dooley/Jones splits.
Breakdown: 97% Jones (31)/3% Dooley (1)
Conclusions
• Jones is responsible for 61.1% of the roster, Dooley is 38.3% responsible and Kiffin is hanging around for one more year with .6%.
• While over half the roster has been flipped to Jones now, Dooley still has a huge thumbprint on this team. Nearly 70% of the juniors and seniors are his responsibility.
• Perhaps more than anything, this data can be used as an argument for giving Jones time. Barring massive attrition from the Dooley upperclassmen or an absolute flood of junior college players, Jones won’t be responsible for even half of the upperclassmen on the roster until 2016.
