Two Roads Converged: Cutcliffe Declines Tennessee Job

Originally Posted January 15, 2010, 10:37am.

News is coming out from multiple sources this morning that Duke head coach David Cutcliffe has removed himself from the list of candidates to fix the mess at Tennessee. 

For those familiar with Cutcliffe’s long history as a Volunteer assistant and head coaching stint at Ole Miss, you kind of hope Cutcliffe looked Tennessee AD and "dead-man walking" Mike Hamilton in the eye and said, “This is why you don’t poop in other people’s foxholes.”

Depending on which side you take, Cutcliffe either was not a candidate to replace his long-time friend and mentor Phillip Fulmer at Tennessee last year, or he kept his name off the list out of respect for Fulmer and contempt for the manner in which Hamilton fired the Vol coach. 

In turning down the job, Cutcliffe has now shown which side had the most merit.

Cutcliffe, in staying at Duke, has provided all of us a glaring example of integrity in an industry sorely lacking it.  I’m not naïve enough to think Cutcliffe could never have ended up at Tennessee this week, or that it may not happen yet. But today, in this moment, I relish the fact that a man with everything to gain by bolting decided to stay. 

In a very poignant way, Cutcliffe has proven that two things matter a great deal to him—the people he knows, and the things he says. 

I hope every parent of every football-playing son takes notice.

If ever there was an antidote to the snake-oil narcissism of Lane Kiffin, David Cutcliffe could be the poster boy. Unlike Kiffin, Cutcliffe is a sincere man who respects his profession and others who pursue it.  Unlike Kiffin, Cutcliffe kept his word to the school he made promises to.  And unlike Kiffin, Cutcliffe actually has a winning record as a head coach.

Cutcliffe is 53-44 overall, and went 44-29 with a winning conference record at Ole Miss in the late nineties and early aughts.  But when the team faltered to a 4-7 record in the year after Eli Manning (among many others) graduated, Cutcliffe, much like Fulmer, was discarded. Ole Miss then chose the same road Tennesse did 14 months ago: a hot shot recruiting guru with a winning pedigree from USC.

Enter Ed Orgeron.

By the time Kiffin was hired, Ole Miss had already learned the truth of the business axiom, “Great sales people don’t make great managers.” But Tennessee made the same mistake and chose what they thought was the superhighway to prominence. 

And where was Cutcliffe? He was on another road. The one perhaps less traveled but definitely less talked about that led him eventually to Duke. Without the fanfare or  scrolling tickers or burning mattresses, Cutcliffe followed his own path to today—turning down his dream job to find out what he’s made of in Durham. 

I don’t know what everyone calls it, but it sounds like the High Road to me.