What will Dooley's offense look like?
Barry Odom surprised nearly everyone last Friday when he announced the hiring of Derek Dooley as his offensive coordinator. A week later, both coaches explained why the liked the pairing.
“One thing of the many things that stood out about talking to Derek, over the course that we did, he’s got something to prove and so do I,” Odom said. “He’s a determined guy. He’s got a chip on his shoulder, want to go do right and he’s a heck of a competitor.”
“The only thing that matters to me is you look at me and you believe in me and I look at you and I believe in you,” Dooley said. “When you say what attracted me to this program, it was coach Odom. I watched him kind of as a bystander how he led this team this year and had a lot of respect. Anybody can get out there when things are good and lead, but the real leadership showed when their backs were to the wall a little bit.”
While the move has been scrutinized from every angle over the last seven days, it’s now done. Dooley has never been an offensive coordinator and he has never been a quarterbacks coach. He’ll be doing both in Columbia this year.
“I appreciate the confidence coach Odom is showing me. I don’t take that for granted,” Dooley said. “I’ve never been one to just want to coach one position and do it for 30 years. From the day I got into coaching, the more I could take in, the better.
“I’ve been at it 22 years. Hopefully I’ve learned a lot and it’s equipped me to do this job.”
In his new role, Dooley’s star pupil is Drew Lock, who led the country in touchdown passes as a junior and announced on Tuesday that he would return for his final season in college. On the PowerMizzou.com podcast on Thursday, Lock talked about his conversations with the new coach.
“With coach Dooley involved, it’s gonna be awesome. I’m very excited about that and that definitely factored in my decision,” Lock said. “My conversations with coach Dooley have been awesome. You can tell he’s just a football mind. Very intelligent coach.
“He’s asked me a couple of questions about the offense last year, what I like about it and what I would like to keep from it.”
“He plays with a lot of freedom out there and we don’t want to take that away,” Dooley said. “He’ll probably have a little bit more on him mentally than what he’s used to. Hopefully that will translate into more consistency and more versatility to help us win. And I think over time that will end up helping him personally when he leaves Missouri.”
The question is obviously what exactly Dooley will do on offense.
“It’s not mine. This is coach Odom’s vision for what he wants Missouri offense to look like,” Dooley said. “What my background will tell you is that I believe in being multiple and being flexible with your offense.
“Every game doesn’t go the way you think it might go. There’s some games you think you can do certain things well and you can’t. You’ve got to have somewhere to go to win the game.”
While the offense won’t likely be a complete departure from what the Tigers did under Josh Heupel, there are going to be some differences.
“Tempo’s great unless you’re going three and out in 17 seconds. Then it’s not a whole lot of fun when you’re on the other headset,” Odom said. “We’ll have enough creativity in our pace of play, in our formations, in the way that you need to sometimes line up with two backs in the backfield. You’ve got to utilize your personnel with what your roster looks like.”
“Pro style basically means you run everything, I guess,” Dooley said. “I don't even know what pro style means anymore.
“I think there will be elements of the pro-style and there will be elements of the college tempo and spread. What we’ve got to do is have a feel for who our best players are, how we can put them in the best positions to succeed and go from there. I can have a playbook that big, but if it doesn’t fit your personnel it doesn’t do any good.”
Thursday was Dooley’s first day on campus. The rest of the coaching staff was on the road recruiting today and will return to campus tonight. Dooley said he will hit the recruiting trail over the next three weeks as well. Missouri’s players will filter back into town over the weekend and begin off-season conditioning on Tuesday. Dooley will have about two months of prep work before debuting his new offense in spring football.
“Getting back in the crosshairs is a little bit more my personality,” Dooley said. “It’s easy to stay kind of one removed from the firing line. You guys have the ammo and you all are firing away. That’s okay. That’s your job. But there’s a lot of personalities that don’t like that. They’re great coaches, but I guess that’s not mine. I’m a glutton for punishment.”