Tennessee Coaching Search Updates

10:00pm 1/14 – Last update of the day -The longer the Cutcliffe thing goes on the less likely it is that he will be the guy. Evidently he wants to bring his entire staff from Duke and Tennessee doesn’t appear ok with that. I have also heard that Cutcliffe is happy enough at Duke to stay and not budge on bringing his whole staff with him.

According to wes rucker Edsall, Whittingham, Sumlin and Dooley are getting serious attention.

Another name floating around is Lovie Smith, a former Vol assistant.

5:05 1/14 - GoVolsXtra is reporting that Cutcliffe is expected to be hired:

Duke head coach David Cutcliffe will be named Tennessee’s next head coach barring a last-second snag in negotiations, a source told the News Sentinel.

UT athletic director Mike Hamilton declined to confirm an agreement with Cutcliffe, who was an assistant coach at UT from 1983-98 and from 2006-07. Hamilton said only that UT was still in the interviewing process.

5:03pm 1/14 – It’s no surprise that former coach Phillip Fulmer has good things to say about David Cutcliffe:

“He’s the kind of person I described in my release, the type of person and coach that I thought the team needed. He fits those parameters to the ‘T”

4:05pm 1/14 – Wes Rucker of the Chattanooga Times Free Press confirms this list of people contacted about the Tennessee job:

Muschamp, Calhoun, Cutcliffe, Dooley, Kippy. Hearing Golden and Edsall, too.

4:00pm 1/14 – GoVolsXtra is reporting Cutcliffe has not been hired they have also learned that a new coach will not be hired today.

3:40pm 1/14 “There are some conflicting reports–some 10News sources are indicating they don’t think it’s a done deal.”-per WBIR website

3:20pm 1/14 Knoxville’s WBIR is reporting that their sister station is reporting Cutcliffe will be next coach at Tennessee.

2:58pm 1/14 – Hamilton and Cutcliffe have talked according to WATE of Knoxville, TN

Next up David Cutcliffe…. 2:20pm 1/14 according to RockyTopTalk David Cutcliffe expected to release a statement soon

at 1:53pm on 1/14 according to ESPN Troy Calhoun has released a statement that he is staying at Air Force.

“We are more than grateful and proud to be closely involved with the character building of our cadets and the mission of the United States Air Force Academy. We are diligently recruiting and working with our team to prepare for the upcoming season. We look forward to coaching and being a part of the Air Force Academy team both on and off the field in 2010.” – statement from Calhoun

With Muschamp staying at Texas here are the rumored candidates left on Tennessee’s list:

at 11:55am on 1/14 dandbradio and GoVolsXtra report that Air Force coach Troy Calhoun has called a team meeting. According to Clay Travis, Calhoun was the Vols second choice in their last coaching search

Derek Dooley, David Cutcliffe and Kevin Steele have all been mentioned in Chris Low’s latest report. According to Low, Cutcliffe is the new focus for Tennessee which evidently will make some Tennessee fans unhappy.

I think Derek Dooley would be a great hire because like some have said he is “Muschamp-lite”

With Kevin Steele or Derek Dooley you get someone from the Saban family tree if that is something Tennessee is looking for.