Derek Dooley

I don't know if you saw the news or not, but the University of Tennessee has a new head football coach, 42 year old Derek Dooley. Dooley is the son of former Univ. of Georgia head coach Vince Dooley. You can read more about him in his bio on Wikipedia here.

The reason I'm blogging about Derek is to set the record straight. You see, some people think Derek got his coaching licks from his father. Others think he got them from being an assistant coach for Nick Saban (first at LSU, then at the Miami Dolphins). But the real story behind Derek's success is a little-known coach he had when he played pee wee football at the Athens YMCA way back in 1976-78.

Yes, you guessed it. I was Derek's coach back in the day. I worked at the "Y" for two very happy years when I was a Junior and Senior in school at UGA. Actually, there were a trio of really good young players at the Athens "Y" then: former UGA quarterback Zippy Morrocco's son Chris, who went on to play for Clemson, John Kasay, who went on to fame at UGA as a kicker and who is still kicking for Carolina in the NFL (his father was UGA's strength and conditioning coach back then), and of course, Derek Dooley, who was Vince's son.

I must admit it was a little intimidating when Vince and Barbara would come to the "Y" to watch Derek play and I was his coach. Ah well, the job was fun, it paid a whole $2 an hour back then, and I got to use all the facilities at the "Y" for free.

Best of everything Derek - I know you will be a success!!