Derek Dooley’s first trip to Georgia as a head coach saw the Bulldogs trounce Tennessee 41-14 during the 2010 football season. Sixteen years later, Dooley’s first political campaign in the Peach State was less embarrassing but equally unsuccessful.
Mike Collins defeated Dooley in the Georgia Republican primary runoff on Tuesday night. Collins earned the Republican nomination by earning 55.9% of the vote compared to Dooley’s 44.1%. Dooley carried 12 counties, mostly in the Atlanta area, while Collins carried the other 147 counties in the Peach State.
The election went into a June runoff after Collins won 40.5% of the vote, Dooley won 30.2% of the vote and Earl Carter won 25.2% of the vote in May’s Republican primary.
President Donald Trump endorsed Collins late in the race while outgoing Georgia Governor Brian Kemp endorsed and campaigned with Dooley.
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Collins now advances to face incumbent Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff in November’s general election— a key national race as Democrat’s look to flip the Senate.
Dooley’s lack of success as a football coach came up in his campaign for Senate with Collins hitting him with attack ads claiming Dooley “never fights, never wins, never Trump.”
Not even an assassin’s bullet in Butler, PA could get Derek Dooley off the sidelines. He’s no fighter. pic.twitter.com/1Zdan8xDUw
— Mike Collins War Room (@TeamOverhaulGA) August 4, 2025
Tennessee can attest to Derek Dooley never winning. The son of legendary Georgia head coach Vince Dooley, Derek spent three horrid seasons as Tennessee’s head coach from 2010-12. Perhaps the worst of the Vol football coaches in the dreadful stretch between Phillip Fulmer and Josh Heupel, Dooley led Tennessee to a 15-21 record.
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The Vols failed to earn wins over SEC rivals Florida, Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina during Dooley’s tenure while also dropping a game each to Kentucky and Vanderbilt. Tennessee just once made a bowl game under Dooley, losing to North Carolina in the 2010 Music City Bowl.
After his time at Tennessee, Dooley spent five years as the Dallas Cowboys’ receivers coach before returning to college football as the offensive coordinator at Missouri for two years. Ironically, Dooley took over as Missouri’s offensive coordinator after Josh Heupel left to become the head coach at UCF.
Dooley returned to the NFL for two seasons as an assistant coach for the New York Giants before becoming an offensive analyst under Nick Saban at Alabama. Dooley was inside Neyland Stadium in 2022 when Tennessee ended its 15-game losing streak against the Crimson Tide.
