Fulmer wanted Cut to take the job. Cut loves the University of Tennessee and just about every part of East Tennessee and so does his wife . Their plan is to retire there after Cut is done coaching. That may change now because of all the grandkids.
Cut was a done deal like I said. Coaches were calling wives, girlfriends, etc during a work day telling them to get things in order bc they were going back to Knoxville. People were leaving work early and it was a forgone conclusion. Except it wasn’t
The snag was Kippy Brown. Mike Hamilton gave him such a BS interview to be made full time coach that it was insulting to him. So now Brown is pissed. Hamilton knows the optics will look bad so he tells Cut the job is his but.... Kippy Brown has to be the WR coach. That’s it . He’s on staff no matter what, trying to save his own ass. Cut says he is bringing his entire staff or no one at all. In particular, former Duke player Scottie Montgomery because he believes he is a good young coach with high potential. Cut keeps fighting back because as well know Cut always makes the hiring and firing decisions when he’s head coach. Nobody budges after hours of communication and ultimately the deal falls through.
In the meantime, the guy who started this whole butterfly effect, Pete Carroll is silently courting Kippy to the Seahawks because he knows he’s pissed and available thanks to a certain former coach. Also at the time, Mike Tomlin comes calling for Scottie Montgomery to coach WR/QB’s for the Steelers.
So Pete Carroll goes to Seattle from USC, Kiffin leaves us for USC , Kippy is disgruntled and goes to Seattle gets his Super Bowl ring, Cut stays at Duke and completely turns Duke around into a respectable program, reaching heights it never has seen in modern era and Montgomery goes to the Steelers. We get a coach from Louisiana Tech who has a less than .500 win % and are still in recovery mode a decade later from all of this because of the arguing over position coach.
Most Tennessee **** of all time.
