Dooley's Vols come to Athens

"It's family first," Vince Dooley said, "but I'm certainly not going to be pulling for anybody against Georgia in Sanford Stadium."

Meanwhile, Derek Dooley plans to try to be one of the few people in the stadium oblivious to the most compelling storyline in this meeting of two struggling teams.

He watched many games from the Georgia sideline as a kid and often attended his dad's postgame news conferences. And now he returns to his hometown as an SEC head coach to face the school where his father coached for 25 seasons (1964-1988) and won 201 games and six SEC championships and also served as athletic director (1979-2004).

"I've been removed from the [Georgia] program for a long time, and I've worn a lot of colors since I was there," Derek Dooley said. "It doesn't mean I don't have great memories and great friends down there. But I think I've been removed enough from the football component that it hopefully should be just another football game."

It won't be his first game in Sanford Stadium as an opponent. After graduating from Clarke Central High School, he played football at Virginia, where he was a freshman walk-on receiver when the Cavaliers lost to his father's team in Athens in 1987. And as an assistant coach to Nick Saban at LSU in 2004, he was on the losing side of a game in Athens.

Dooley graduated from the UGA Law School and practiced law for two years in Atlanta before entering coaching -- against his father's initial advice -- as a graduate assistant on Jim Donnan's Georgia staff in 1996. His career moved rapidly from there: assistant coaching jobs with SMU, LSU and the Miami Dolphins, then the head-coaching job at Louisiana Tech for three years. He was hired in January to succeed Lane Kiffin as Tennessee's coach, whereupon Saturday's game took on a new dimension.

Vince Dooley, 78, moved to diminish the spectacle by deciding to watch from home, out of range of the TV cameras, which he knew would focus on capturing the emotions of a father pulling for his son against his team.

"Coach Dooley absolutely loves the University of Georgia; there is no doubt about," UGA coach Mark Richt said. "It's such a big part of his life, but I think he loves Derek more, which he should."

Vince Dooley has attended three Tennessee games this season in Knoxville, where he can openly root for the Volunteers.

"I think every one of my games has been rough on him emotionally. ... That's part of being a dad. I know what it's like," said Derek Dooley, himself the father of two sons and a daughter, ages 6 to 11.

The teams' records -- both Georgia and Tennessee are winless in SEC play -- have kept Saturday's  game from commanding any sort of national focus. The Vols are 2-3 (0-2 SEC) and coming off a last-play-of-the-game loss at LSU. The Dogs are 1-4 (0-3 SEC) and on their longest losing streak since 1990, when they also lost four in a row under Vince Dooley's successor, Ray Goff.

Georgia's record notwithstanding, it turns out that Derek Dooley can talk up an opponent just as his father famously used to do.

"It's just a big challenge," he said, "going in and playing in another great environment and playing a great football team that has had their issues. They'll be starving for a win, and I know they're a great coaching staff and have a very talented team. It's a very prideful program, so we expect them to be at their best."