Depending on if you believe the reporting/rumor mill at the time, Cutcliffe could have been had after Kiffin left, provided he could bring his entire Duke staff over. Hamilton reportedly quashed that idea, wanted him to keep Kippy Brown (potentially among others) from the previous staff. Cutcliffe then said no thanks.
There's revisionist history about how the fanbase reacted to the Kiffin hire at the time. The mood the day he was hired certainly wasn't "Well, there are other proven coaches we could have had." Unless you were a Phil loyalist no matter what, most people were juiced about the hire, particularly at the fact that Monte was going to be the DC. That dude came straight from the NFL to Tennessee, was paid over $1m (almost unheard of for an assistant at the time), and wasn't all that far removed from a Super Bowl. These people in here now talking about "old Monte Kiffin" or poo-poohing how big a deal that was are doing some historical revisionism. Monte was the highest paid assistant in CFB at the time and the staff as a whole was paid the 4th most in the SEC, behind only Saban, Richt, and Urban. That's also a shot to the "we suck because we're cheap" narrative. Kiffin + staff was not a cheap hire, and ever since then we really haven't been in a position to pique a big-name coach's interest who would command a very large salary.
