SEC Talk

Good Luck at Duke, you’re gonna need it.

With the ongoing college football coaching carousel making its rounds, Tennessee Volunteer’s Offensive Coordinator David Cutcliffe is reportedly headed to Duke. Apparently, Cutcliffe contacted South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier for advice and Steve Spurrier told him to take the job, because the dookies were ‘enthusiastic’ and ‘hungry’. According to some sources, the ripple effect has already hit the fan, as the nation’s top quarterback prospect, Terrelle Pryor, has demoted Tennessee to ‘maybe’ after Cutcliffe’s departure.

Apparently, Terrelle and Cutcliffe had quite the relationship going and with Cutcliffe going to Duke, Terrelle is not longer really interested in Tennessee. In the world of football recruiting, relationships are everything. The head coach himself actually does little of the actual recruiting himself, all the assistant coaches are assigned territories and are responsible for the recruits in their territory. The problem is, when that coach leaves, so do many of those recruits he was tracking.

Back to Cutcliffe, it certainly is an odd place for him to end up. Last time I checked, Duke was dead last in the piss poor ACC and I haven’t checked but I don’t think they’ve won a game in over six years. Now, if it had been Steve Spurrier himself that accepted the position, that would be something different, Spurrier is a Duke guy, coached at Duke, in fact he was the last coach that had a winning record for Duke. The Cutcliffe move is perplexing. Though he wasn’t the head coach, football in Tennessee means something, and with Phil Fulmer probably retiring in 2-3 years, there was a strong possibility of Cutcliffe taking over.

Oh well, Fulmer and the Vols now start the search for a new offensive coordinator. With all the shakeups in coaches being fired and hired, I’m sure they will find someone. In fact, names like Tulsa’s Gus Malzahn or Georgia Southern’s Chris Hatcher have already been thrown about.

David Cutcliffe, Tennessee