"The challenge is having that patience and resolve to stay true to your organization and stay true to the values and not get frustrated when you’re not having immediate success," Dooley told The Associated Press. The struggles "are new to Tennessee. It’s new to the fans. The players didn’t come here thinking it would be like this." Tennessee has had only two losing seasons in the past two decades with a 5-6 finish in 2005 and a 5-7 record in 2008. With the firing of Phillip Fulmer after 16 seasons and Lane Kiffin’s abrupt departure after one year, Tennessee was more like a program on probation than one that would compete regularly for a Southeastern Conference title. Because of that, Dooley was tasked with changing the culture of a program with a roster thinned by attrition, low morale and players who were leery of trusting anyone back into a confident, disciplined team like the one Tennessee fans are accustomed to. He learned a bit about the rebuilding process while watching his former boss Nick Saban do it at LSU and through his own efforts to turn around a struggling Louisiana Tech program. It worked at LSU, where the Tigers won a national championship four seasons after Saban took over, and Dooley lead Louisiana Tech to only its third bowl appearance. "You’re having to reshape the whole culture of how the players think. It’s not just running some plays," he said. "It’s developing a team, developing a family of a lot of trust, a lot of belief in what we’re doing and how it’s going to help them. It’s learning to manage the emotions when things don’t go well and how do we deal with each other and how do we work as people together."
To do that, Dooley has asked his team to focus on the small progress they’re making from week to week rather than the final outcomes of the game.
No comments:
Post a Comment