The Name Game: Speculation Rampant on Rocky Top

“The Name Game” at Football Rumor Mill focuses on active coaching searches around the country. The latest edition centers on the Tennessee Volunteers…

Best fit by far for everything UT needs is Butch Davis. Forget his public stance, make the North Carolina coach tell you no. His agent is Jimmy Sexton, agent to the rock star SEC coaches. Hamilton can get a temperature reading from Sexton. A fierce recruiter, disciplinarian. Is a football coach at a basketball school. Could reverse that. If Davis, 56, declines, turn to Minnesota Coach Tim Brewster. Brewster, 48, coached for Texas’ Mack Brown for 13 years and is considered one of the country’s top recruiters. Worked in NFL for Mike Shanahan and Marty Schottenheimer. High energy, demanding, can X-and-O with best, are some of the accolades you hear. Brian Kelly, Cincinnati. Highly thought of coach who runs up-tempo, no-huddle offense. 47 years old. Won two Division II national titles at Grand Valley State. Todd Graham, Tulsa. Defensive whiz. Heavily influenced by Rich Rodriguez while an assistant at West Virginia. He would likely bring former Arkansas assistant Gus Malzahn to orchestrate the offensive fireworks. Hired recruiting director Herb Hand from West Virginia. Hand and Malzahn are co-offensive coordinators at Tulsa. Tulsa (8-1) leads country, scoring 52.0 points a game. – Tennessean

Given where the Tennessee football program is in relation to its biggest SEC rivals (Alabama, Florida, Georgia), an entirely logical case can be made for asking Phillip Fulmer to step aside after 16 years as head coach. But those Tennessee fans who chose to be in a celebratory mood yesterday, when Fulmer fought back the tears at his press conference in Knoxville, are about to get hit with a sober reality: Tennessee, for all of its great tradition and vast resources, is probably not going to get the rock star head coach that so many people want… That is why this is going to be such a tough hire. Let’s put it this way. Alabama, for all its great tradition, had to go through a painful process with some very public turn downs (Rich Rodriguez) before it convinced Nick Saban to come. Saban and his agent, Jimmy Sexton, had all the leverage and were able to extract one of the best contracts in college football history. Tennessee now finds itself in the same situation. But is there a Nick Saban out there who is willing to come to Knoxville? That is the question Tennessee fans must face as they move forward. – Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Two coaches thought to be candidates for the UT job, North Carolina’s Butch Davis and Cutcliffe, have said they’re not interested, and South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier said he’s already in his last job. – Mobile Press-Register

A very reliable source close to the program in Knoxville has just reported that Lane Kiffin is on the golf course with a prominent UT booster. Most speculate that the prominent booster is Jim Haslam. Of course everyone knows how rumors are, and most are just topics for discussion at best. We really only know two things for sure. Lane Kiffin is a candidate for the vacant position, and that he is in Knoxville today. – Knoxville News-Sentinel

If Gophers football coach Tim Brewster were to leave Minnesota before the end of his five-year contract, he would owe the university the remainder of his $400,000-per-season base salary. If Tubby Smith were to leave his job as Gophers men’s basketball coach after this season, his payback to Minnesota would be $2 million. Both insist they aren’t headed anywhere and that they love their Minnesota jobs. But success gets readily noticed. When you coach a football team from 1-11 your first season to 7-2 your second season, you get noticed. By the way, there is a coaching vacancy at the University of Tennessee… Gophers athletics director Joel Maturi plans to consider Brewster’s employment status at the end of the season. – Pioneer Press

John Chavis: The Vols’ defensive coordinator is already familiar with the program and the players on campus and the recruits. But he may not want to replace his old boss and longtime friend, and some may want to totally clean house in the coaches’ office… David Cutcliffe: The Duke head coach was the Vols’ offensive coordinator on two different occasions and led Ole Miss in 2003 to success rarely seen in Oxford. He’s already denied interest in the job, but how many coaches have done that over the years only to take the job in question?… Chris Petersen: Boise State’s head coach has proven he can take a program to levels it has not seen before. The Broncos were the winners of one of the greatest upsets in recent history with the win over Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl. Could he make the transition from the WAC to the tough defenses in the SEC?… Mike Leach: If the Red Raiders win out, he will lead Texas Tech to a BCS title game appearance in January, and hiring a spread offense coach may keep all of the current offensive recruits at Tennessee. Would he want to make the jump to the SEC?… Will Muschamp: He has been regarded as the top assistant coach in the country and has coached some of the top defenses this decade at LSU, Auburn and now at Texas. Would the Auburn alum want to lead one of his alma mater’s oldest rivals?… Lane Kiffin: Proved his college coaching worth during his time at USC as offensive coordinator before taking the head coaching job with the Oakland Raiders two years ago. Does less than two seasons in Oakland qualify him to lead UT? – Jackson Sun

I get the feeling when the announcement is made, the school will go the way of the likes of the University of Southern California and Louisiana State University and go outside the family for its new head football coach. When former UT coach Bill Battle submitted his resignation after the 1976 season, it was no secret Johnny was coming home… The position as head football coach at the University of Tennessee rates as one of the best in the country, and I can see numerous high school players reopening their recruiting process again, even some who have committed to UT. The task becomes tougher because of the number of high profile coaches (Mark Richt at Georgia, Nick Saban at Alabama and South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier among others) in the Southeastern Conference who have closed the borders to their states that used to be fertile territory for UT. Remember, the national signing day is less than three months away, but I can also see UT going through what the University of Michigan is enduring during the transition from Lloyd Carr to Rich Rodriguez. With new coaches comes a new scheme and it takes time, sometimes a lot of it, for a player to adapt to a new play book. Then, there are the alumni and the boosters, better known as the fans, and when 100,000-plus speak, you have to hear. When the number of fans falls well below six figures because Phillip Fulmer has more L’s in a season than his name, the fans have started talking with their wallets. In time, Mike Hamilton will introduce the man who will replace Phillip Fulmer. Mike Hamilton will probably have a lot of help before he makes a decision before he makes the announcement. – Jackson Sun

Last week’s setback to Northwestern hasn’t derailed the love-fest for University of Minnesota football coach Tim Brewster. In fact, the Brewster bus appears to be just warming up. This week several national media outlets listed Brewster among the possible candidates to replace Phillip Fulmer at the University of Tennessee. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m a Brewster backer. Gophers coach, and what he’s done with the program in such a brief time is nothing short of remarkable. But is he ready for this kind of jump? Do we really know if he’s a great coach, capable of leading a team to a national or even conference title? – Post-Bulletin

One of the names almost certainly to be on Tennessee’s short list in its coaching search is former Oakland Raiders coach Lane Kiffin. Clemson and Washington are also possibilities for the 33-year-old Kiffin. One of the attractions with Kiffin is that he would likely bring his father, Monte, with him. The elder Kiffin is the defensive coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and one of the most respected defensive minds in all of football. The rest of Kiffin’s staff could have a distinctive SEC feel to it. He and former Ole Miss coach Ed Orgeron worked together when Kiffin was the offensive coordinator at Southern California, and Kiffin would almost certainly try to bring Orgeron with him as a defensive assistant and recruiting coordinator. Orgeron is now on the New Orleans Saints staff. When Orgeron was at Ole Miss, he hired Kiffin’s younger brother, Chris, to be a graduate assistant on the Rebels’ defensive staff. – ESPN.com