Former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley on Monday announced his 2026 Republican bid for the U.S. Senate in Georgia against Democratic incumbent Jon Ossoff.

The 57-year-old Dooley is backed by Gov. Brian Kemp and has been teasing a bid since June. Kemp turned to Dooley after deciding not to run for the seat himself. Georgia Republicans are looking to topple Ossoff, considered the Senate’s most vulnerable Democratic incumbent seeking reelection next year.

“Professional politicians like Jon Ossoff are the problem,” Dooley said in a two-minute 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.”

Georgia Gov. Kemp and Trump met and said they would try to agree on a preferred candidate. Anyone anointed by both would be stamped as the Republican front-runner. Kemp told Collins and others on July 24 that he would support Dooley. But Trump isn’t ready to endorse yet, and Dooley is moving forward without Trump’s blessing, an indication the joint effort may be faltering.

Dooley has never held elective office before. He says he’ll run as a political outsider, pledging to bring “good, old fashioned Georgia common sense,” and “work with President Trump, fight for you and always put Georgia first.”

Dooley is the son of legendary University of Georgia coach Vince Dooley and was a lawyer before he went into coaching.

Derek Dooley was widely seen as a failure during his three years as head coach at Tennessee, compiling a 15-21 record with the Volunteers before he was fired in 2012. Since then, he has been an assistant coach with the Dallas Cowboys, the University of Missouri, the New York Giants and the University of Alabama.

Dooley would be far from the first football coach to run for office. His late father was frequently discussed as a possible candidate and his mother, Barbara Dooley, lost a Republican primary for Congress in 2002. Former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville was elected to the Senate in 2020 from Alabama and is now running for governor. University of Nebraska coaching legend Tom Osborne served three terms in the U.S. House.

Dooley walked on at the University of Virginia and earned a scholarship as a wide receiver. He earned a law degree from the University of Georgia and briefly practiced law in Atlanta before working his way up the college coaching ladder, becoming head coach for three years at Louisiana Tech before landing at Tennessee.

Information from The Associated Press contributed to this report.