HOOVER, Ala. — The first question first year Tennessee head coach Derek Dooley answered didn’t involve bar fights or starting tailbacks or Lane Kiffin.

It was about his mother – and why Barbara Dooley hadn’t spoken on Knoxville, Tenn., sports radio in recent months.

“Opening question is about my mother,” Dooley said with a sense of disbelief. “She’s become and icon in the state of Tennessee, so much that I had to try to temper her back, but as you know, that’s impossible.

“Everybody loves her because she subscribes to the theory speak first, think second, the exact opposite of my dad. But I’ve been blessed to have someone as special as she.”

Derek Dooley

Dooley has been the anti-Lane Kiffin the Volunteer fans and team have rallied around, since leaving Louisiana Tech after three seasons as head football coach and athletic director. Sure there have been recruiting mistakes and questions involving the roster, but the team have bought in to their new coach’s philosophy.

“It’s been amazing,” senior defensive end Chris Walker said. “The energy that he brings and the discipline he brings. It’s incredible.”

Following a bar fight involving several Vols a few weeks ago, Dooley dropped the hammer, dismissing the ringleaders and calling for “a change in culture.”

“It’s [about] the head coach laying an expectation of how we’re gonna represent the program,” he said. “From there, there’s a tremendous educational component that goes with it, of teaching young people right, wrong, how to act how to make good choices and the consequences of those choices.

“There’s certainly a support and discipline component that comes with it when there are mistakes and that’s never gonna change.”

While some of Dooley’s upbringing may elect the ride the coattails of his father, legendary Georgia coach and Athletic Director Vince, the younger Dooley has paved his own path.

He turned down a chance to attend Georgia, instead headed to Virginia where he turned down a scholarship and walked his way on the Cavaliers’ squad as a wide receiver as a sophomore.

He got his coaching start at Georgia as a graduate assistant coaching the defensive backs, only to leave after one season for a position at Southern Methodist.

“I’m incredibly thankful to [Georgia] coach [Jim] Donnan for giving me my start in coaching,” Dooley said at SEC Media Days Friday.

As for when the Vols head to Athens this season, for Dooley, the game will have no added significance, despite his bloodlines.

“I have a tremendous amount of respect for everything they’ve done at Georgia … and I always will,” he said. “But I did leave Georgia when I was 18 years-old, people somehow forget that. I’ve had a lot of teams I’ve bled blood, sweat and tears for since then. I know people are going to try to make that game a little more nostalgic or personal than it is…

“But to me, it’s going to be no different than any other SEC road game.”

His parents are certainly behind their son, as Barbara wore and orange boa to an “Orange Caravan” event in Atlanta, and while Vince may never wear the orange and white of the Vols, “he is beginning to think orange,” Derek Dooley said.

“He’s all-consumed Tennessee, buts that’s how he does things,” Dooley said. “He’s a tremendous resource… he was running an organization for 40 years as a leader and I’d be foolish if I didn’t use him as a resource from time to time.”