David Cutcliffe rejects Tennessee, will stay at Duke

Staff issues have apparently ended any possibility of an agreement between Tennessee and Duke head football coach David Cutcliffe for the former Vol offensive coordinator to be named UT’s next head coach. WNML radio has reported that Cutcliffe has pulled his name from the list of candidates and will remain at Duke. An official release from Duke is thought to be forthcoming. A deal seemed close to materializing on Thursday when Cutcliffe began assembling his staff. However, the Vols still have six current staff members on campus and Cutcliffe would have been required to retain at least some of those coaches. – Knoxville News-Sentinel

Phillip Fulmer says he’s not seeking UT job

Former Tennessee football coach Phillip Fulmer said he is not seeking the Tennessee coaching job. Fulmer made the statement this morning in a release from CBS Sports for whom Fulmer has worked as a football commentator since his firing from UT following the 2008 season. “I am not seeking to be a candidate for the head coaching position,” Fulmer is quoted as saying. In the release, he also talks about sharing the sense of embarrassment UT fans feel over the situation with the football program. – Knoxville News-Sentinel

Fulmer wants Notre Dame job

Phil Fulmer, the longtime Tennessee coach who was forced to step down last season, would like to return to college coaching, and a jobs he covets is at Notre Dame. Whether the interest is mutual remains to be seen as Notre Dame’s coaching search continued Thursday. ”I know he’s interested, and he’s an aggressive, relentless recruiter,” said recruiting analyst Tom Lemming, who works with Fulmer at CBS College Sports. ”He would bring in a real good staff, and he’s a relentless worker.” Fulmer had a 152-52 record during a 17-year stint at Tennessee that included a national championship in 1998. Fulmer has made no secret about his desire to return to coaching and has said he’ll only consider programs committed to winning national championships. The 59-year-old also has been linked to the opening at Louisville. – Chicago Sun-Times

Former Tennessee coach Phil Fulmer met with Louisville AD

Former Tennessee football coach Phillip Fulmer met with University of Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich for half an hour Tuesday regarding the Cardinals’ vacant coaching position, a source tells the Sports Overtime team. Fulmer is reportedly interested in the job after spending the 2009 season away from the sidelines as an analyst at CBS College Sports and as a partner at a local financial management firm. – WVLT

Fulmer Says He’ll be Interviewing Potential Employers

Barnhart asked (Phillip) Fulmer why he would want to coach again? “Well I do because I enjoy it,” Fulmer said. ” I enjoy the competition. I enjoy putting teams together. I feel the same passion right now that I did when I took over 17 years ago at Tennessee. … I’ve got something to prove and I want to get to a point where we’re competing for championships. I love being around it. I’m not ready to retire at all. I think I’ve got 10, 12 good years left of being an active coach. I love recruiting. I can go to any part of the country, you know, to do it, because we’ve recruited all over the country at Tennessee. … But if the opportunity, the right opportunity, presents itself, I’m certainly going to look at it. And I think I’ll be interviewing them as much as they’re interviewing me at this point. – Knoxville News-Sentinel

Tuberville, Fulmer, Bowden on list at Memphis

Memphis fired Tommy West on Monday, two days after an ugly loss to Tennessee and three weeks before the end of the season. Two things we’ve learned from the firing: Memphis wants a big name to take advantage of fertile Southeast recruiting region, and the Tigers will get the first shot at two former championship coaches currently unemployed—Tommy Tuberville and Phil Fulmer. Both had big careers in the SEC, and both know the recruiting region. Terry Bowden, another former SEC coach, is also a possibility if Memphis wants a coach with regional connections. “I would like to move as fast as possible for the sake of recruiting,” said Memphis athletic director R.C. Johnson. The importance of getting the right fit is for more than just recruiting, it’s also a chance for Memphis to show the Big East it’s serious about football—and joining the league, should expansion be on the horizon. The reality is Memphis and Houston should be dominating Conference USA because of their geographical footprints. Houston has made huge strides under coach Kevin Sumlin, but Memphis hasn’t been able to string together consistent seasons. If recruiting is the top priority for Johnson, he could also look beyond the big names to Temple coach Al Golden and Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong. Before Golden left for Temple, he was the architect of those recruiting hauls early in coach Al Groh’s career at Virginia. – Sporting News

Phillip Fulmer Eyeing Louisville Cardinals?

Former Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer is multitasking. First, the CBS gig keeps Fulmer busy. Second, it maintains a link to the game he loves. And it keeps him in the public eye while he’s looking for his next job. Fulmer is making no secret that he wants to get back into college coaching if/when the right situation develops. Those closest to him say he has interest in a handful of jobs, some of which could come open after the ‘09 season. Fulmer isn’t alone. Ousted Auburn Coach Tommy Tuberville is watching and waiting. Like Fulmer, he’ll be on TV this fall, working as a co-host on ESPNU’s Inside the Polls. The availability of veteran coaches like Fulmer and Tuberville will ratchet up the pressure on at-risk coaches who need strong seasons to keep their jobs. Among the attractive jobs that could be looking for new leadership are Notre Dame, Texas A&M, Virginia, Wisconsin, Colorado, Indiana and Louisville. Of those, Louisville would appear to be the best fit for Fulmer. – Tennessean

Fulmer wants return to coaching

Phillip Fulmer plans to spend this football season working for an investment firm, doing some television work and even taking a few weekends off. By next season, the former Tennessee coach expects to be back on the sideline and back in the spotlight. He’s already spent time at Ohio State and Duke, where his good friend and longtime offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe is now the coach, and plans to drop in on Mack Brown and Texas later this month. – Associated Press

The Name Game: Leach Could Land at Tennessee

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

Texas Tech coach Mike Leach falls into the category of a successful coach at a program with fewer resources. In the most competitive conference outside of the SEC, he has made headway against the likes of Oklahoma and Texas. And his team plays in a stadium with about half the seating capacity of Neyland Stadium. A source told me that Leach is “very, very interested” in the UT job. Of course, Leach isn’t going to say that. In case you haven’t noticed, he’s currently preoccupied with trying to win a national championship. He’s also on the verge of having his contract renegotiated. So he’s probably happy where he is and committed to building a championship program at Texas Tech. But don’t cross him off your list – Knoxville News Sentinel

A source with knowledge of the search told ESPN.com that among the candidates on Tennessee’s preliminary list are Minnesota coach Tim Brewster, Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly, former Oakland Raiders coach Lane Kiffin and Texas Tech coach Mike Leach. Contact has already been made or will soon be made with representatives of all four coaches. Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton confirmed Thursday that the Vols’ initial list had already been forwarded to Chuck Neinas, who’s been hired to lead the search and will make the initial contact with coaches through their representatives. Hamilton said he would neither confirm nor deny any specific candidates. Neinas, who runs Neinas Sports Service, has been involved in several high-profile searches over the years, including Urban Meyer to Florida, Mack Brown to Texas and Butch Davis to North Carolina. Texas defensive coordinator Will Muschamp is another name that has been connected with the Tennessee job. Hamilton said someone with head coaching experience makes it easier to document that person’s success and record, but that it wasn’t a requirement… Some of the other names that could end up on the Vols’ list include Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio, TCU coach Gary Patterson, Air Force coach Troy Calhoun and Illinois offensive coordinator Mike Locksley. Others will emerge as well as the coaching dominoes start to fall around the country. – ESPN.com

Mike Locksley, the Illini’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, is considered a possible candidate to replace Fulmer at Tennessee and is also a possible replacement for Syracuse coach Greg Robinson, whose firing has been long rumored. Locksley has been a part of Zook’s staff at Illinois and Florida since 2003. Zook said that Locksley’s departure for a head-coaching job of his own is only a matter of time. “I don’t think there’s any question, Locks is going to get a job. I think that’s something we all expect, and we all look forward to celebrating with him,” Zook said. “Do I want to lose him? No, I don’t want to lose him. But it makes you feel good knowing you had a guy the caliber of Locks, and he deserves that opportunity.” – Daily Illini

A little birdie says Tennessee could end up using the same football coach search firm that Minnesota did in finding Tim Brewster. – Pioneer Press

North Carolina football coach Butch Davis says he’s happy in Chapel Hill and committed to building a championship program there. His agent, Jimmy Sexton, also downplayed the Davis-to-UT rumor. So you immediately crossed Davis off your University of Tennessee coaching candidates list, right? Of course, you didn’t. Davis was hardly as emphatic in dismissing speculation connecting him to the UT vacancy. In fact, he might be the most reasonable rumor of all the high-profile candidates. A source told me weeks ago that “UT representatives had expressed an interest in Davis.” – Knoxville News Sentinel

Beyond that, it’s up to Hamilton to identify and hire Fulmer’s successor. He can’t afford to get this wrong or he’ll be the next person out the door. Personally, I’d gravitate toward Tim Brewster at Minnesota because of his live-wire personality and relentless recruiting style. If you can sign blue-chip recruits at Minnesota, you should be able to one-up that at UT. Meanwhile, UT figures to make richer men out of some of the names on its wish list. Because he now is perceived to be in play, Davis will cash in at North Carolina without having to switch conferences to the tougher SEC. Likewise, Mike Leach should parlay his success and the interest of other schools into a lucrative new deal at Texas Tech. – Tennessean

Tennessee athletics director Mike Hamilton has a long list of qualities he’s looking for in the next Tennessee coach but no timeline on which to hire him. “I’m more concerned about hiring the right candidate than I am about how quickly we get it done. I do think that we need to be expedient and go about our business as quickly as is possible,” Hamilton said in his last public comments before hiring someone to replace Phillip Fulmer. The right candidate, Hamilton said, is one who has a lot of integrity, is a proven leader, is good at recruiting and building a staff and can work as a salesman to promote Tennessee. – The State

What does what happened with Phil Fulmer at Tennessee say about the college football world right now? A: Well you know it’s sad for the profession, when a guy gets a new contract like that and then gets let go. Really it questions the leadership there when a guy is handling the money of the university and then five or six months later, not only do you have to pay him off, but the assistant coaches. You’ve got an $8 million payout. But at the same time, I can see the AD’s part, too. They’ve had a hard time winning against the teams they’ve got to beat and they’ve got to look to the future. But why give him that new contract? – Athens Banner-Herald

On Tuesday as voters flocked to the polls, coaches David Cutcliffe of Duke and Butch Davis of North Carolina took to the podiums. Their message? Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton shouldn’t waste a phone call gauging their interest in the Vols’ head coaching vacancy that’s effective at the end of the season. “So to put an end to any speculation, I’m staying at Duke,” said Cutcliffe, the former Vols offensive coordinator who was lame-duck coach Phillip Fulmer’s right-hand man for most of Fulmer’s career. “(Tennessee) is not even a thought process.” And Davis? “The long and short of it is that the administration and I are completely, firmly committed to building a championship football program at North Carolina,” he said. “And my family and I are very happy in Chapel Hill.” – Commercial-Appeal

The Name Game: Cutcliffe & Davis Deny Interest; Brewster Looks for Leverage

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

After more than three decades in coaching, North Carolina’s Butch Davis has gotten used to having his name linked to other jobs when they come open. So he didn’t seem particularly surprised when he was asked Tuesday evening whether he had any interest in the Tennessee job, which became vacant when Phillip Fulmer was fired this week. Davis’ response: “The long and short of it is that the administration and I are completely, firmly committed to building a championship football program at North Carolina. And my family and I are very happy in Chapel Hill.” – Charlotte Observer

Defensive coordinator John Chavis isn’t holding out hope that he’s a candidate to be Tennessee’s next head football coach. “To be honest with you, I don’t think there’s a better candidate out there,” Chavis said Tuesday on the News Sentinel’s radio show, The Sports Page. “But I’ll tell you this, I don’t think I will be one (a candidate). “I understand the dynamics. I understand my role. I understand where we are.” Chavis, who is in his 12th year as the Vols’ defensive coordinator, said he and UT’s other assistant coaches met with athletic director Mike Hamilton on Tuesday, a day after head coach Phillip Fulmer’s ouster. – Knoxville News Sentinel

Word in Knoxville, Tenn., is that Gophers football coach Tim Brewster is being mentioned for the University of Tennessee coaching vacancy. Look for Minnesota to extend Brewster’s contract, which has three years remaining, before long. – Pioneer Press

Taking a break from coaching his team and reassuring future recruits, Duke football coach David Cutcliffe on Tuesday killed speculation that he might be interested in replacing former boss Phillip Fulmer at Tennessee. Cutcliffe ran the Volunteer offense under Fulmer during two stints totaling 19 seasons. – Charlotte Observer

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