Former Tennessee coach Derek Dooley is running for the U.S. Senate in Georgia for 2026, doing so as a Republican against Democratic incumbent Jon Ossoff. Dooley announced his bid Monday, an idea that’s been in the works for months.
Ossoff was elected in 2021 after upsetting the Republican incumbent David Perdue. Dooley and his family is closely tied to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who has said he will not run for Senate in 2026.
“Professional politicians like Jon Ossoff are the problem,” Dooley said during a launch video. “Lawlessness, open season on the border, inflation everywhere, woke stuff, that’s what they represent. We need new leadership in Georgia. That’s why I’m running for Senate.”
A native of Athens, Georgia, Dooley is the son of former Bulldogs legendary coach Vince Dooley, and coached at various SEC and NFL stops before branching into politics following two years under Nick Saban as a offensive analyst at Alabama in 2023.
Dooley, 57, was on Saban’s staff as associate head coach at LSU in 2003 when the Tigers won the national championship. His first head coaching job came four years later when he took over at Louisiana Tech. He parlayed that three-year stint with the Bulldogs into leading the Tennessee program in 2010.
After consecutive losing seasons, Dooley was fired after starting the 2012 campaign with a 4-7 record. Dooley went 4-19 against SEC competition and had lost 14 of his final 15 league games prior to his dismissal.
“This is a result-based profession,” then-Tennessee athletic director Dave Hart said at the time. “You cannot ignore the results at the end of the day.”
A former walk-on at Virginia, Dooley notched 41 career catches from 1987-1990. He earned a law degree from Virginia in 1994 and practiced briefly before his football coaching career began at Georgia as a graduate assistant two years later.
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