Each week during the football season, former Tennessee assistant coach Doug Mathews joins us to share his thoughts on the Vols. Join The Coach each Saturday morning at 9 a.m. EST for a Big Orange-slanted look at the day's action on Forklift Systems Football Saturday, and again each Sunday morning at 9 a.m. E.S.T. for Big Orange Sunday, presented by Superior Seed & Supply on WGFX FM, 104.5 in Nashville, for a look each week at the state of Tennessee football, what just happened, and what lies ahead.

Well coach, where to start this week? Why don't you just share some of your thoughts from Dave Hart's press conference on Sunday? I know talking with you that you felt it was both a powerful statement and a revealing one.

I hope every Tennessee fan either had a chance to listen to it or watch it. If not I hope they take the time to watch it.

I thought it was ingenious in how he presented things and as fine a press conference as I've ever seen. It was 'Doug Dickey-esque', expect probably better from a public relations standpoint.

If you really dig down into that thing, there's so much in it that's meaningful for a Tennessee fan and helpful in assembling a picture of where this program's at.

To start with let's just address that portion of his comments that dealt with coach Dooley. I think there were a couple of things that were very clear coming out of that press conference.

Dave Hart was very specific in stating that the environment he was faced with, on and off the field, was a hindrance to coach Dooley getting the job done. As I think he said, 'he was fighting with a short stick.

Secondly, what was very apparent to me--and this I've said this before--but coach dooley wasn't prepared for the job when he got it. The combination of his inexperience, but also the environment, again that's the word that Dave Hart used, that environment is made up of all those things we've been talking about in this space for the last several weeks.

It was apparent to me that he really wanted Derek Dooley to win enough games to give him another opportunity. I can almost assure you that if Dave Hart is here a year from now, that will mean that a lot of those issues we've been discussing have been taken care of.

I don't think there's any question that if they aren't addressed, then we will have a new athletic director at the University of Tennessee. Because, he clearly understands. He's spent 13 months digging into all that stuff. That's one of the reason I don't think we've heard from him too much.

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