Football coach Derek Dooley is threatening to shake up the Republican race for U.S. Senate in Georgia, but aside from his athletic resume and the fact that he is the son of legendary University of Georgia coach Vince Dooley, he is not well-known in political circles.
Dooley, 56, doesn’t have a background in state or national politics, but like his father, who weighed runs for governor and U.S. Senate in the 1980s and 1990s, he’s now considering entering politics. Dooley is deciding whether to enter the race against U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff in 2026.
Here’s what to know about Dooley.
He’s a Virginia grad and a lawyer
Dooley, an Athens native, was a walk-on wide receiver for the University of Virginia, where he completed his bachelor’s degree in government and foreign affairs in 1990.
He earned a law degree in 1994 from the University of Georgia and began a brief career as a practicing attorney. Dooley practiced law for two years in Atlanta at the Nelson Mullins and Scarborough firm.
The State Bar of Georgia currently lists his law license as inactive.
He’s been a coach in college and the pros
Dooley has had a long football coaching career as a head coach, coordinator and analyst, starting in 1996 when he followed in his father’s footsteps as a graduate assistant at Georgia.
He climbed the college football ranks, going on to coach at Southern Methodist University, LSU and the NFL’s Miami Dolphins before taking the head coaching job at the University of Tennessee in 2010. He was fired before the end of the 2012 season after amassing a 15-21 record over three seasons.
Dooley headed back to the NFL to coach for the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants. In between, he was the offensive coordinator for the University of Missouri.
Most recently, he served as a senior offensive analyst for the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Kemp ties
Dooley, a Republican, has long had close ties to Gov. Brian Kemp, who is also from Athens. In 2022, he contributed $5,000 to Kemp’s reelection campaign. And as a child, Kemp vacationed with Dooley’s family and roomed with Derek’s brother, Daniel, at the University of Georgia.
He’s a longtime history buff
Like his father, Dooley is a history buff. He told the Columbia Missourian that his obsession began as a child during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, when he couldn’t tear himself away from the news coverage.
Dooley was criticized for comparing his Tennessee team’s struggles to disoriented German soldiers on D-Day and once quoted Winston Churchill at a pregame news conference when he coached the Missouri Tigers.
Family life
Dooley has a wife and three children. His wife, Allison Dooley, is an OB-GYN who practices in Rabun County, where the couple has a mountain home.
Staff writer Rosie Manins contributed to this article.
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