Rodgers has my vote

New Tennessee head coach Derek Dooley has his hands full as the clock is quickly ticking away with National Signing Day looming. As I stroke these keys he has 12 days remaining.

Dooley's logged plenty of frequent flyer miles trying to get his first recruiting class up to snuff with Southeastern Conference foes. Reportedly, he's already been in Florida, Georgia, Texas and Virginia.

His staff has been all over the place as well. While retaining the services of Jim Chaney, Willy Mack Garza and Lance Thompson, Dooley added Charlie Baggett, Terry Joseph and Eric Russell.

Dooley's a pro-style offense guy and keeping Chaney on staff as offensive coordinator made sense given his advanced knowledge on that side of the ball, coupled with Chaney's limited relationship with former coach Lane Kiffin, who's burnt every bridge from Knoxville to Los Angeles en route to taking his "dream job" at Southern California.

However, the vacancy at defensive coordinator at UT has some of the orange-blooded folk curious. Names like TCU's Dick Bumpas, Alabama's Kirby Smart and Clemson's Kevin Steele have been tossed about. Perhaps a college guy like one of these three is indeed in the fold, but they don't want to abandon their current employer just yet with NSD right around the corner.

Perhaps not.

In the professional ranks, coordinators are typically on the cusp of being head coach candidates with a few years of production. So, making a move to college football is likely out. But, a position coach in the NFL making a move to a coordinator slot at a high-profile program like Tennessee could be viewed as a promotion, especially when the Vols are willing to offer $750-800,000.

Since Dooley is an offensive-minded guy, he'll likely only hand the reigns to the defense to someone he can trust.

Ability to recruit shouldn't be priority No. 1 out of a DC. Coming up with a game plan to slow down Florida coach Urban Meyer's spread, for example, should be much higher on the checklist.

Having respect for the SEC and the minds that coach some of the most high-profile programs in college football should also be a prerequisite. I can see a guy dropping down to college ball and thinking, "If I can schematically slow down Maurice Jones-Drew, then holding Mark Ingram in check shouldn't be much of a task."

Not to be too picky, but it'd be nice to hire a guy with some sort of ties to either UT or who worked with Dooley in the past.

In my opinion, all signs point toward Miami Dolphins defensive line coach Kacy Rodgers.

He has seven years NFL coaching experience with defensive whizzes like current Miami head coach Tony Sparano and legend Bill Parcells. While recruiting is not the most vital hat Rodgers would wear, wouldn't be nice to have a coach on staff who's been living in the talent-rich Miami area the last two years?

He's already coached in the Volunteer State with stints at Tennessee-Martin (1994-97) and Middle Tennessee (1999-2001). He also has time coaching in the SEC (Arkansas, 2002).

Here's the music to the hearts of Vol Nation: Here's a soldier of the South who loves you, Scarlett. Rodgers played at Tennessee as a linebacker and defensive end (1988-91) under former coach Johnny Majors. A guy who's sported the Power T already should have a leg up on all other candidates.

The stem to the cherry on the whip cream on top of the ice cream on the cake is that he's a native of Humboldt, Tenn.

While Dooley is down near Miami trying to get prospects Calvin Smith and Delvin Jones to recommit, he should swing by the Dolphins' facility and seek out Rodgers. He won't even have to rent a car or seek out a real estate agent initially as he can hop a ride with Dooley to secure some south Florida pledges before clearing out his office for a return home to Rocky Top.