The Rumor Mill just got officially interesting for Butch Davis and David Cutcliffe:
 ESPN.com: Sources: Fulmer To Step Down
Phillip Fulmer, who a decade ago brought Tennessee its first national championship in 47 years, will not return as the Volunteers’ coach next year, multiple sources told ESPN.com.
Questions immediately come to mind:
- Will Butch Davis not officially express an interest in the job, and get a big raise either way? Jimmy Sexton, his agent, says Davis is very happy where he is, but truth is, schools like UT and others will be asking, and those questions could prove very expensive for UNC. If they want to remain relevant in football they will likely need to keep the Chief at pretty much whatever price it costs. This could be an annual thing for a few years for Carolina.
- Will David Cutcliffe leave Duke after bringing back their program from the dead in less than a year? Cutclife has big ties to UT, and of course his mentoring of a pair of brothers at QB who turned out to be a pretty good pros…Eli and Peyton someone-or-other.
- Will Tom O’Brien’s name be mentioned in the flood of rumors for big-time jobs? After all, in the eyes of the national media, we are “just NC State.” Not that anything says O’Brien wants to leave Raleigh — but he is still thought of as one of the best coaches in the game.
- Will Auburn fire Tommy Tuberville sooner rather than later, so as not to be left with picking through coaching leftovers? Arch-rival Alabama is #1 and is absolutely dominating the region in recruiting. Auburn needs to shake things up or will become an afterthought in their own state.
- How many different schools will Jim Grobe turn down this year?
- Will Tommy Bowden get another marquee head-coaching job in the sure-to-be-crazy coaching carousel?
- Will ECU be able to keep Skip Holtz, even though the Pirate Captain’s team has underperformed this year?
- Has Steve Spurrier gotten tired of playing golf in Columbia — and will he pack up his sticks and go someplace else for an even bigger payday? It’s safe to say that SoCar has yet to scare many important teams in the SEC, but still the Offensive-Genius-That-Is-Spurrier still has a lot of credibilty, right now anyway, and it might be tempting to go for one last major payday before he hits the links for good.
After the little matter of the national election tomorrow (in which we hope you’ve voted), things are going to get very, very interesting in college football between now and the bowl games.
