Coaching-search mayhem

posted by LW, Friday, January 15, 2010

Given some of the coverage of the Tennessee coaching search, no wonder some of us media folks seemingly have about as much credibility as Lane Kiffin.

We've all made mistakes in this business, and the pressure to not get beaten on a story can be immense. But the thirst to be first increasingly appears to have superseded the most basic journalistic fundamental: to be right.

This story, by Bryan Strickland of the Herald-Sun of Durham, does a good job of chronicling yesterday's developments in Tennessee's coaching search.

Or, more precisely, alleged developments.

Then later Thursday, when the Knoxville News Sentinel reported a source as saying that Cutcliffe would be named Tennessee coach "barring a last-second snag in negotiations," Fulmer told the News Sentinel that Cutcliffe was "the kind of person I described earlier in my release."

The day started with Texas defensive coordinator Will Muschamp, portrayed as the lead candidate, reportedly turning down an offer for the job. In the middle of the afternoon, a report that Air Force coach Troy Calhoun had called a team meeting for Thursday evening prompted at least one Web site to declare that Calhoun had been hired, but moments later Calhoun released a statement via Air Force athletics saying he planned to stay put.

According to this Knoxville TV station, Cutcliffe issued an ultimatum to Tennessee.

And in other news, one of the Volunteers' team-specific web sites reported that the finalists for the job were Derek Dooley, Randy Edsall, Kevin Sumlin and Kyle Whittingham.

A day after its report that Cutcliffe was the guy, the Knoxville paper says Cutcliffe is the lead candidate and that Cutcliffe is forming his staff to return to Tennessee.

Uh ... confused yet?

The guy whose info I trust the most when it comes to Tennessee news, Chris Low of ESPN.com, has reported on his SEC blog only that Cutcliffe and Calhoun were on Tennessee's list.

Here's a name I thought I'd never hear mentioned for the job ... Kevin Steele?

This much we do know ... we think: Skip Holtz will be the head coach at South Florida.

Good for Skippy. He's genuinely a good guy (unlike his dad), and I think he's gonna end up being a heck of a coach.

So who's going to end up at East Carolina?

Here'd be my wish list if I were Terry Holland:

1. Mike Leach

2. Bud Foster

3. Al Golden

Man, you can't find a better fit than Leach. East Carolina's mascot is a pirate, for gosh sakes.

This guy says Foster is also a great fit at ECU, and I completely agree.

Looks like Mike Krzyzewski it taking on his student newspaper for saying Kyle Singler should be benched.

I'm generally not enamored of K's whining and moaning, but in this case he has a point. Saying Singler should be benched after one bad game is pretty darn dopey.

"I thought Kyle played really well," Krzyzewski said. "There were some suggestions in our student newspaper that we shouldn't start him tonight. The first day back (from holiday break) and we read the student newspaper and he's benching our guy. It's welcome back, I guess. Unbelievable."

LW

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