Tim Couch was nearly a Tennessee Vol, and that possibility was enough for his father to walk out of a meeting with Phillip Fulmer and David Cutcliffe.

Couch was a guest on Kentucky Sports Radio, and recalled that story as Couch noted that he verbally committed to Tennessee, and there was talk of redshirting since Peyton Manning was in Knoxville.

“He wasn’t having it,” Couch said of his father, as he detailed that the Tennessee coach at the time and offensive coordinator were in his living room. “We’re going over everything and they’re telling me, because Peyton was already there, and they’re telling me how it’s going to be: ‘You’ll come in and redshirt, this, that and the other,’ and I’m like, ‘Sounds great. I’m going to go to Tennessee, that’s where I wanted to play.’ And then in the middle of the conversation, my dad gets up and leaves the room.”

Couch said his father went outside and started his old red truck.

“Fulmer and Cutcliffe are in shock, they’re like, ‘This has never happened before,'” Couch said. “A recruit’s parents just get up and leave in the middle of the conversation, they’re like, ‘Should we wait on him?’ I’m like, ‘He ain’t coming back.'”

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Couch and his father had a falling out and that’s when the quarterback went down the street and stayed with a friend for 3 days.

“Finally, after like 3 days, I came to him and said, ‘If it means this much for you for me to go to Kentucky, I’ll go to Kentucky, but if it doesn’t work out, I’m leaving, I’ll give it one year,'” Couch said. “It was the worst year of my life. Coach Curry was there, he got fired halfway through the season.”

That’s when Hal Mumme and Mike Leach came in as coach and offensive coordinator and Couch put up big numbers in the Bluegrass.