Get Fulmer Back.com

According to ESPN David Cutcliffe withdrew his name from consideration for the Tennessee Vols coaching job. This came after multiple reports that David Cutcliffe would be the next head coach.

Another report from govolsxtra says that Derek Dooley will be hired as the next Tennessee Head Coach. The report says that Mike Hamilton will still interview Kippy Brown, but it seems it must just be a formality.

The whole state of Tennessee is probably thinking, "Who?" Followed by, "Oh, I've heard of this guy's dad too."

From the national football post, "The 41-year-old Dooley, who coached at Louisiana Tech for three seasons and is the son of Georgia legend Vince Dooley, compiled a 17-20 overall record at the school with a 12-12 mark in WAC play."

I thought upper echelon schools usually try to hire guys with winning records at lower levels, instead of losing records at lower levels. Keep in mind the guy we fired 2 coaches ago (Fulmer) only had one season where his record was below this overall record in his entire career.

Apparently even Kyle Wittingham turned down the job.

According to a report at digital sports daily, Troy Calhoun has turned down the Tennessee head coaching job. He was scheduled to have a meeting with his team at Air Force today, and there was a lot of speculation that he would announce that he would be the head coach at Tennessee. He has now, however, released a statement that he is staying at Air Force.

Update: Speculation is now that Mike Hamilton will focus on David Cutcliffe.

Phillip Fulmer released a statement to the media today, because he has been getting so many calls. I can't find a copy of the actual statement online. From reports on the statement, Fulmer doesn't consider himself a candidate for the head coaching position, but he is willing to help Tennessee find the next head coach.

Fulmer didn't mention whether he would be interested in the Athletic director position.

(Update: WATE in Knoxville is reporting that Mike Hamilton has said Phillip Fulmer "will not return to take the helm" of the Tennessee program.)

The Sporting News is reporting that Tennessee's board of trustees has contacted Phillip Fulmer about being the new athletic director, or maybe even coach. There have not been any reports that Hamilton has talked to Fulmer, so this probably bodes poorly for Hamilton. There are also reports, however, that no trustee has talked to Fulmer in an official capacity.

This comes after rumors that Muschamp and Gruden have turned down the coaching job.

No word on Cutcliffe.

Well it is official, only weeks after his completing his best season ever as a head coach at 7-6, Lane Kiffin is leaving Tennessee for USC. Needless to say Tennessee fans are upset. There are even reports of police using tear gas keep people from blocking Kiffin's exit. Al Davis may be rolling over in his grave. (We know he is not dead.)

Coach Kiffin had done many things to convince recruits that he was building a dynasty. He even went as far as giving his son the middle name "Knox". There is no word on whether or not Kiffin will be changing his son's middle name to "Angel" or "Trojan".

It will be interesting to see how this plays out for Mike Hamilton. It is apparent now that the move to hire Lane Kiffin and fire Phillip Fulmer was a very bad one. It has left the program in more disarray than before. Could Hamilton's job be in question now too?

Of course an even more fun question would be, could it be possible that Tennessee will wind up hiring Phillip Fulmer back? I would think Hamilton would have to be fired first. At least one commentator has suggested that David Cutcliffe could be on his way back to Tennessee. How about John Chavis?

I guess it is time to dust off that list of 5 Reasons why Phillip Fulmer Should Still be the Coach at Tennessee