David Cutcliffe turns down Tennessee, will remain Duke football coach

Football coach Cutcliffe to remain at Duke

DURHAM, N.C. — This is something Duke hasn’t been able to claim before: Its football coach would rather be in charge of the Blue Devils than one of the Southeastern Conference’s traditional powers.

David Cutcliffe hopes his decision to withdraw from Tennessee’s coaching search comes with the added benefit of stability for a Duke program that through the years has fired its unsuccessful coaches and lost its good ones to more glamorous jobs.

“As much as my stomach’s hurt the last two days,” Cutcliffe said Friday, “I hope it means a lot going forward.”

After considering the Tennessee opening, Cutcliffe said he would remain with the Blue Devils. His deep-rooted connections to the SEC and the Volunteers’ program, where he twice was an assistant to longtime friend and mentor Phillip Fulmer, made him an obvious candidate to replace Lane Kiffin, who left abruptly this week for Southern California.

“People that think that was automatic just don’t know me very well,” Cutcliffe said.

Fulmer had said he would help Tennessee with its search, but Cutcliffe said he didn’t discuss the job much with him because “I value my personal space when I have big decisions.”

Instead, he wrestled with his options late Thursday before telling Duke athletic director Kevin White on Friday morning that he planned to stay in Durham, in part because “how can you not think about wanting to be a job well done?” Cutcliffe is 9-15 in two seasons at Duke, which won a combined eight games in the five years before he arrived.

Asked about reports that he and Tennessee differed on how many of his assistants he would be permitted to bring to Knoxville, Cutcliffe said: “We’re a group. … We’ve invested a lot in each others’ lives, so wherever we go, we go together.” But he added that even if Tennessee had allowed him to bring his entire staff, he probably would have come to the same decision.

“In following my heart, I had just too many indicators to be here,” he said.

Cutcliffe’s choice kept in the fold the Blue Devils’ highest-profile coach since Steve Spurrier left for Florida after the 1989 season, and saved the school from conducting a coaching search a few weeks before signing day.

“Simply put, we could not be happier or more excited about the future of the Blue Devils football program,” White said.

Cutcliffe was on Tennessee’s staff from 1982-98 and from 2006-07, leaving twice to take head coaching jobs. He went 44-29 with five bowl appearances in six-plus seasons at Mississippi from 1998-2004, and is coming off a 5-7 finish that was Duke’s best since 1994.

This marks the second time in nearly 15 months that he removed his name from consideration for the Tennessee job. When Fulmer was forced out in November 2008, Cutcliffe quickly quashed speculation that he would return to Knoxville.

“It says a lot about the program being on the (upswing) right now, coming into our own,” Duke running back Jay Hollingsworth said. “And it says a lot about his loyalty and commitment to the program itself, so it’s a great honor to have him stay here.”