Nothing to hide for Vols' Dooley, including whereabouts

Dooley just needs some time to get settled and accomplish a few things before he really starts talking. When he does appear in public though, like he did during a lengthy chat at Big Orange TipOff Club on Wednesday, it can be hard to slow him down.
“There’s this perception that I’m hunkered down avoiding the media,” said Dooley, who was hired Jan. 15 to replace Lane Kiffin. “I told UT sports information officials Bud Ford and John Painter, that I hadn’t done anything. Nothing has happened.
“I know everybody wants to know, ‘What are we doing over there?’ ”
Dooley spent nearly 45 minutes trying to answer that question and many more from the audience during one of his few appearances since taking over the Vols last month.
He addressed everything from personnel issues on the offensive line to his family, cracked jokes about his mother’s affinity for public speaking and made clear that he wouldn’t be wearing any orange blazers on the sidelines. Dooley even fielded a couple questions about his media policy and the availability of his assistants.
That was about the only issue that wasn’t definitively answered, but considering how many areas he’s had to address during his short tenure, it’s also probably not the top priority at this point.
“Everybody says, ‘Well, what have you been working on?’ ” Dooley said. “It’s the same thing they’re doing at every other school.
“No. 1, we’re doing our offseason program, and what we do is we’re working four days a week , Monday and Thursday is speed improvement, Tuesday and Friday is more agility and football movements. No. 2, we’re doing a lot of junior recruiting, which means evaluating and identifying the high school players, who we want to get to know better, putting out offers. No. 3, of course, we’re putting in our new systems, offense, defense and special teams, so there’s a lot of meetings, getting to know the coaches, ideas popping.
“Then, No. 4 is what I’ve really been putting a lot of energy in, getting that support around all this.”