If there’s such a thing as being born into football, USC coach Lane Kiffin and Tennessee coach Derek Dooley both fit the bill.Kiffin’s father Monte spent 13 years as the defensive coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he created the famous “Tampa Cover 2″ defense. Dooley’s father Vince coached the Georgia Bulldogs for 25 years and is considered a legend in the state.Personality wise, the two young coaches are polar opposites. Kiffin — bold, brash and unafraid to back down from an opinion — caused quite a stir in the Southeastern Conference before leaving after a season to take the USC job. Dooley, on the other hand, quietly refused to rise to the bait when challenged with questions about Kiffin at SEC Media Days last week, preferring to talk about his vision for the program.None of the coaches at Media Days seemed particularly sad to see Kiffin go. Florida coach Urban Meyer, who Kiffin accused of recruiting violations last season, had only a big smile when asked about Kiffin’s departure.”I’ll let the commissioner handle that one,” Meyer said before leaving the podium, still smiling. SEC commissioner Mike Slive made a point of welcoming Dooley to the league.”The other head coaching change took place at Tennessee when Derek Dooley’s predecessor left to return to his western roots,” Slive said, smiling. “I want to welcome Coach Dooley back to the SEC. And when I say welcome, I mean welcome,” he emphasized.Dooley is no stranger to the SEC, having spent time as an assistant coach at LSU under Nick Saban. Dooley left with Saban for the Miami Dolphins before accepting the head coaching job at Louisiana Tech.Dooley and the Volunteers have their work cut out for them. After 17 years under Phillip Fulmer, Tennessee has gone through three coaching changes in three seasons. “In many ways, teams adopt the personality of their coach,” Dooley said. “We’ve seen it forever in sports. So our players have had three different personalities.”Dooley said the most important thing is for his team to “buy in” to his teaching. Especially important are how his players conduct themselves off the field.Several Vol players were involved in a bar fight earlier this month. In the aftermath, Dooley kicked safety Darren Myles Jr. off the team and gave indefinite suspensions to defensive tackle Marlon Walls and linebacker Greg King. “Now, we hit some adversity off the field, and they adjusted great,” Dooley said. “They believe in what we’re saying, they believe in how we want to represent this place, but we’re going to hit some adversity in the fall, too. That’s when we’re going to find out where we are as a program and how much we’ve embraced the new way of doing things.”Dooley said he wanted a “change in culture” to repair Tennessee’s tattered image. “Well, certainly our image is not where we want it to be now,” Dooley said. “It’s important to do a lot of things internally to try to minimize the risk of those incidents. It starts with the head coach laying an expectation of how we’re going to represent the institution. But as we all know, that’s only a starting point.”A “change in culture” applies to Dooley as well. The former attorney joked that he used to beg for media interviews.His teams at Louisiana Tech often lacked the depth or the confidence to compete with big programs. But now, Dooley has the expectations of fanbases accustomed to winning on his shoulders.”It’s a really different circumstance there,” Dooley said. “We played LSU our first year. We got embarrassed. I felt like we didn’t compete. I was disappointed. We went back two years later, and I felt like we competed really well. At the end of the day they overwhelmed us. They had a good football team, good coaches.”Dooley said in the end his coaching style won’t change with his new team.”What I’m more concerned about is really the intangible values of how we compete,” Dooley said. “That’s what I was saying at Louisiana Tech. It’s no different at any program you’re at.”Playing with great effort, discipline, spirit and toughness — that’s the most important thing, Dooley said. “That’s always going to be the starting point that’s going to lay a foundation for how you compete,” Dooley said. “If you don’t do those things, you really have no chance at any level.”
 
 
 
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