Derek Dooley playing catch-up

MEMPHIS — When new University of Tennessee football assistant Terry Joseph showed up just across the Mississippi border this week to visit highly touted Olive Branch High offensive linemen Shon Coleman and Damien Robinson, he had to take a deep breath.

Just the week before, he was on Derek Dooley's staff at Louisiana Tech. His weekend plans were recruiting for the Bulldogs while his wife and kids took a long-awaited vacation to Disney World.

By Sunday, Joseph had flown to Knoxville as a member of Dooley's Vols staff.

"His wife called him and asked him what she should do on Monday," Olive Branch athletic director Pete Cordelli said. "He said he told her to have the kids back in school in Ruston (La.) and he would be recruiting in Knoxville."

Lane Kiffin's stunning departure from Knoxville on Jan. 12 after one season as Tennessee's coach seems to be unprecedented in recent SEC history. No other SEC head coach has left after one year of his own accord for another job since the 1940s.

Kiffin's exit came just 22 days before the national signing period begins on Feb. 3, meaning Dooley is scrambling to salvage what was shaping up as a top-10 recruiting class under Kiffin.

Dooley may be getting a boost with Robinson, a four-star rated offensive tackle by Rivals.com, announcing Thursday that his final recruiting visit will be to Tennessee next weekend. The 6-8, 330-pounder will visit Mississippi State this weekend, and has already made trips to Arkansas and Oklahoma.

Robinson, who has had nearly 30 scholarship offers, said he has narrowed it to those four and could add a fifth before he makes his announcement Feb. 3.

"It's been pretty hectic," Robinson said. "But I have a lot of people helping me out through the process. The toughest thing about it is just going everywhere and seeing all the great places. Everybody pretty much has the same thing to offer me. That's what makes this so hard."

A couple of players, meanwhile, have de-committed from the Vols, including Michael Taylor, a four-star rated linebacker from Westlake (Ga.) High who committed to Florida last week after being committed to Tennessee for five months.

"Kiffin left Tennessee in a pickle and blood is in the water in the most competitive recruiting region in the nation," said Jamie Newberg, national recruiting analyst for Rivals.com. "Think about it. Dooley has basically three weeks to hire a staff, evaluate what's on campus, keep the kids committed who have already committed and then go out and close what's left on the board. How do you do that?"

There was a five-day gap between Kiffin's resignation and Dooley's hiring that sent Tennessee's recruiting into the Twilight Zone, such as the case with those Olive Branch tackles, Robinson and Auburn commitment Coleman, both ranked in the top 25 nationally at their position.

They were considering visiting Tennessee when Kiffin quit. When the switch was made to interim coach Kippy Brown, who just joined Kiffin's staff in December before the Chick-fil-A Bowl, they didn't hear a word from the Vols. So Cordelli called Brown, an old coaching acquaintance from Cordelli's many years as a college coach.

"Kippy had never heard of our guys and said he'd call me back," Cordelli said. "When he did, he wanted them to visit a couple of days later. But that was too short of notice and our kids wanted to wait to see who the new coach was going to be."

Now that UT has a coach, Robinson is interested enough to visit the Vols.

Overall, it seems that Dooley, a one-time University of Virginia receiver with marginal speed, has hit the recruiting ground running.

"It's doubly tough when you inherit a roster that's not up to snuff with the big boys in the league. Tennessee's talent is several notches below Alabama and Florida, the teams you have to beat in the SEC," said Bill King, Nashville-based radio host for Rivals Radio, a daily satellite show. "Couple that with a new staff coming in. There was definitely a disconnect with recruits for a few days.

"But I don't think the recruiting is headed for a train wreck. Dooley has a good chance to salvage a pretty good recruiting class of what was set up already by Kiffin, who had a fabulous recruiting staff. I think he's going to hold most of the commitments, but they need three more outstanding recruiting classes after this year just to be able to look Alabama and Florida in the eye."

Perhaps Dooley's biggest challenge, according to Scott Kennedy, national recruiting director for Scout.com, is gaining the trust of returning players who were hurt by Kiffin's here-today, gone-tomorrow career decision.

"Dooley's biggest sale job right now is to a team full of jilted kids," Kennedy said. "There's got to be some mistrust there. It's like being a child in a divorce. Every time your mom or dad dates someone new, you don't want to get too close, because they might be gone. I always think it's more important what a coach is doing with the players that are already there."

After Dooley does that, it's back to recruiting for the 2011 class. And that's where Kiffin's departure could substantially be felt, because most coaches, especially in the SEC, try to accumulate as many commitments as possible from rising high school seniors in late spring and summer.

"Recruiting now is so accelerated, what Kiffin did in leaving after one year puts Tennessee behind the eight-ball for next year, even though Dooley will have a full year to recruit," Newberg said.

Staff reporter Marlon W. Morgan contributed to this story.

The Commercial Appeal's Most Wanted

A look at where the top local prospects have verbally committed:

Ferlando Bohanna, Whitehaven (LB, 6-2, 226), committed to Mississippi State

Jonathan Brown, CBHS (LB, 6-1, 225), Illinois

O.C. Brown, Manassas (OG, 6-2, 312), Southern Miss

Barry Brunetti, MUS (QB, 6-2, 210), West Virginia

Shon Coleman, Olive Branch (OT, 6-7, 275), Auburn

Fred Harvey, White Station (LB, 5-11, 210), Memphis

Harrison Jones, ECS (TE, 6-4, 230), Alabama

Justin Maclin, Ridgeway (LB, 6-4, 227), LSU

Keiwone Malone, Mitchell (WR, 6-1, 165), Alabama

Damien Robinson, Olive Branch (OT, 6-7, 330); considering Arkansas, Mississippi State, Oklahoma and Tennessee

Other commitments: Corey Acosta, CBHS, K (Southern Miss); Al Bonds, Southwind, OT (Memphis); Cortez Bowen, Trezevant, OLB (Southern Miss); Fred Flenorl, Whitehaven, QB (Tennessee-Martin); Brandon Ivory, East, DT (Memphis); Eric Lawson, Olive Branch, OT (Texas Tech); Willie Matthews, Bartlett, RB (Central Arkansas), Steven Stafford, ECS, DE (Dartmouth); Sirgregory Thornton, Germantown, RB (Arkansas State); Bakari Trotter, Horn Lake, WR (Memphis).