Jimmy Hyams: “[Dooley] wasn’t ready to be a head coach in the SEC.”
The AJC’s Politically Georgia podcast discussed failed and fired former Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley’s losing coaching record today with Tennessee sports radio veteran Jimmy Hyams, who said “the job was too big for him” and that his “arrogance” had “rubbed some people wrong.”
“Derek Dooley wants us to look at the film — and his film shows a loser with an abysmal record who managed to dramatically increase the chaos and divisiveness of the GOP primary barely a week after launching his campaign,” said Democratic Party of Georgia Senior Communications Advisor Devon Cruz.
See for yourself:
AJC Politically Georgia: From the Gridiron to the Senate?
Greg Bluestein, Patricia Murphy, and Tia Mitchell | August 13, 2025
- [JIMMY HYAMS] The job was too big for him at that time. He wasn’t ready to be a head coach in the SEC.
- He made some mistakes on the field and he got some bad breaks as well. He had a couple of games where he actually celebrated wins on the field and they were taken away by penalties.
- [PATRICIA MURPHY] We don’t know much about Derek Dooley. He is unknown to many Georgians, including all of us at the AJC.
- [JIMMY HYAMS] There were times that he felt like he was the smartest guy in the room, and that rubbed some people wrong. There was a little bit of arrogance that went along with it.
- […] Like if they’re re-doing the football offices at Tennessee, he would be in there telling the designers — the professionals — how to do their job.
- He came in under [Nick] Saban and I thought he tried to act like Nick Saban without the resume. He was pretty bossy.
- One of the all-time great players at Tennessee, a guy by the name of Eric Berry, showed up at a practice and he had not called in advance. So he was asked to leave. You don’t do that. You don’t tell one of your all-time greats to leave.
- That did not go over well with Eric Berry. It didn’t go over well with former players. And so he lost a lot of their support because of the position that he took in that regard.
- I don’t know about any of his political views. I don’t even know what they are right now.
- [PATRICIA MURPHY] What has the general reaction been in UT circles do you think?
- [JIMMY HYAMS] If I were to sum it up in three words, are you kidding?