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Derek Dooley Allows More Access For Reporters He Deems "Exemplary." Whatever That Means.
by MaconDawg on Sep 1, 2010 10:09 AM EDT
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I honestly thought this was a parody of Dooley's criteria for denying Bryce Brown's transfer request over the summer. But it is apparently as real as a heart attack. Derek Dooley has actually compiled a group of favored media members (the "Irons Vols of the Media", no I'm not making that up) who he's granted extended access to.
The problem of course is that Derek Dooley is not only a football coach, but as Knoxville News Sentinel editor Jack McElroy notes, a public official. And he is now reserving the right to grant extra access to reporters he deems to have been, among other things, "respectful." Which, let's face it, probably involves not repeatedly asking questions Dooley indicates that he does not want to answer. Even if Dooley doesn't include that in the criteria, that's the appearance. Truly, I'm not sure anyone has ever developed a bunker mentality this far ahead of actually being bombed.
Coaches have used all sorts of gamesmanship to control press access for as long as the press has cared to cover college football. Coach Paul Bryant famously summed up his policy on reporters as "give 'em a bottle and don't tell 'em anything." But Dooley's policy strikes me as unbelievably counterproductive. If you want the Volunteer State's reporters to turn on you quickly, the best way to make it happen is probably to keep the ones who criticize you at arm's length from the program.
I've said from the beginning that Dooley would do good things in Knoxville. But I'm really starting to think he may be laboring above his pay grade at this point.
Until later. . .
Go 'Dawgs!!!
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UGa fans seem as confident in Derek Dooley as UT fans
I don’t get it. I think he’s in over his head, but due to his name and familiarity with the conference, likely to stick around long enough to do serious damage. I whole-heartedly endorse his tenure on Rocky Top.
by GwinnettGamecock on Sep 1, 2010 12:45 PM EDT reply actions
I'm a dawg fan who agrees with you.
I think that after the whole Kiffin fiasco, the UT Athletic Department desperately plucked Derek Dooley to a. save face, and b. restore some dignity back to their program. And I have no doubt that he’ll do that. I don’t, however, think he’ll win many football games. I agree that he’s in over his head.
I thought he did fairly well at La Tech with what he had.
But more and more he seems to have the public/media relations skills of a bloody claw hammer.
I'm sorry, but I don't see the overlap
between media relations and winning football games. As Urban Meyer has proven extensively, it is possible to suck at the former and excel at the latter.
I’ll reserve my snark for Dooley for when he calls for a spike on 4th down or with 00:00 left on the clock. His mishandling of the 4th Estate appears largely the 4th Estate’s problem.
Ask Jim Donnan about how poor media relations can affect a coach's longevity.
Fans carry pitchforks and torches. Media members go a long way toward convincing the villagers to pick up them up in the first place. As the saying goes, never start a war of words with people who buy their paper by the truckload and their ink by the barrel.
With 2 crystal footballs in his office, Meyer could have given Jeremy Fowler a wet willie and gotten away with it. But the 5-7 to 7-5 crowd need all the PR assistance they can get. Just ask Rich Rodriguez.
And when you say it’s the 4th Estate’s problem, are you implying that you’d be OK with Coach Richt deciding that he likes Tim Tucker’s efforts better than Seth Emerson’s or Marc Weiszer’s and therefore not letting them cover the team to the same degree? While I’m the first to jump on lazy media members (still looking at you, Terrence Moore!), I prefer for everybody to have an equal opportunity to cover the Dawgs then choose the ones I wish to follow. This is perilously close to Derek Dooley deciding who wins the media battles.
Believe me, as a former Fourth Estater, it pains me to admit this.
Yes, every media member should have equal access, even embarrassments to the profession like Terrence Moore and Clay Travis. Not because Dooley’s a public official (which, as an employee of the UT AD, which is private, he’s not), but because it’s the fair thing to do, something he should have some awareness of as a lawyer. Dooley’s and Meyer’s media handling borders on Putin-esque. But this is all inside baseball and it matters very little in the general scheme of things.
All Richt’s coziness with the media gets him is 175,000 results in a Google search for "richt" and "hotseat." Maybe it would be an even bigger number if he went the Donnan route, but so what? Losing to Tech got Donnan fired, not his treatment of Loran Smith. If Donnan were beating Tech on his way to 10+ wins a year, we’d happily let him give Loran atomic wedgies after every game.
Dooley is being spotted a three-year mulligan. After that, 5- and 7-win seasons will get him fired no matter what his media relations are. He knows that. And so, presumably, does Mike Hamilton.
Bottom line, the media needs Dooley more than he needs the media. The media needs the UT traffic now (particularly the grim economic realities of the news business), whereas Dooley may or may not need the media’s support at some indeterminate time in the future. Unlike Fulmer, Dooley, ever the Sabanite, is willing to exercise that leverage in order to head off jeremiads by the KNS’ John Adams.
by aproposdenada on Sep 1, 2010 4:41 PM EDT up reply actions
I disagree about the bottom line
The reporters won’t get fired nearly as quickly as Dooley could. Far more coaches lose to beat reporters than beat reporters lose to coaches.
No media support = dead program. And we’ll see about the mulligan.
by first and thom on Sep 1, 2010 4:53 PM EDT up reply actions
It's not about who gets fired first
(because, let’s face it, one year of Dooley’s salary is worth more than a lifetime in the news business.)
The point is, you win 10 games and you can treat the media like your doormat See: Meyer, Urban and Saban, Nick. Lose five games and Google autofills “hotseat” after your name, no matter how nice you are to the media. See: Richt, Mark.
by aproposdenada on Sep 1, 2010 5:15 PM EDT up reply actions
"All Richt’s coziness with the media gets him is 175,000 results in a Google search for "richt" and "hotseat."
It also gets him a reputation as a supremely nice guy, which makes him harder to fire. But I’m just glad that we can agree that everybody should have equal access.
I’m also not entirely certain that it’s as simple as saying that the athletic department is private. It’s headquartered on a campus constructed using state tax dollars (this discussion’s been had before under more sleep-deprived circumstances). The head coach’s team is composed of students empowered to play for him only because they are enrolled at that public institution. But in the end this is more about perception than it is about legal realities. Dooley is telling certain folks who cover the Vols that they aren’t among his chosen favorites, and in the process is disadvantaging them economically. Is it legal? Quite possibly? Is it a jerk move? Clearly.
Ray Goff was a nice guy and, yes, that probably bought him a year.
Not sure whom besides Goff was well served by that, but there it is.
I guess what this boils down to, from a pragmatic perspective, is that, if you think Dooley at full strength will be mediocre, then, yes, his media policy is unwise to the extent that it would further curtail a career in Knoxville that was bound to end prematurely anyway. My point is that, on the other hand, if he outperforms or craps out, this won’t matter a whit. He’ll either get a street named after him or be fired, and what they think of him in the newsroom really won’t play a role either way.
The other thing to consider is what lapdogs the Florida and Alabama media have become under similar management by Meyer and Saban. Again, as a former reporter, I’m appalled to see the Florida media shamelessly decked out in Gator gear and asking Meyer-approved questions, but Meyer probably sees it differently.
Anyway. Yes, it’s unfair to reporters. I would immensely resent both the policy and my colleagues’ spineless compliance to it. But I don’t think it’s as dumb as it seems either.
Here’s my question to you: Will you link to the Dooley-approved reporters’ stories, thus rewarding the policy by sharing your traffic?
by aproposdenada on Sep 1, 2010 11:14 PM EDT up reply actions
Ask Les Miles about it, too.
I mean, the guy did win a National Championship just 3 seasons ago, and could be hoping the Michigan job comes open again at the end of the year.
Completely understand the reaction . . .
. . . and shared the concern. But Dooley apparently said yesterday on the radio that he meant the whole thing as a joke. The problem is, nobody got the joke because it wasn’t funny. It wasn’t funny because it was too close to UT’s actual reputation with regard to media access. Anyway, just thought I’d share that.
by Joel Hollingsworth on Sep 2, 2010 9:28 AM EDT reply actions
Thanks Joel. Like I said in the post that was my initial reaction, but . . .
no one in Knoxville seemed to be laughing about it. So after giving the joke bomb several hours to detonate, I just assumed he must be serious.
If that’s the case I owe Coach Dooley an apology. He’s not a control freak. He just has an oddly deadpan sense of humor. I can’t imagine where he would have gotten that from.
Note to self...
…first amendment jokes are not funny. Monkeys riding dogs, on the other hand..http://www.nbcactionnews.com/dpp/news/local_news/water_cooler/video%3A-monkey-rides-a-dog-to-promote-state-fair.
by first and thom on Sep 3, 2010 5:19 AM EDT up reply actions
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