David Cutcliffe’s curveball forces Tennessee to make a major change before Fiesta Bowl
By Dave Hooker
Published:
Editor’s note: Welcome to Tennessee Week. Our special series — “Undefeated. Unexpected. Unforgettable.” — celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Vols’ 1998 national championship season.
David Cutcliffe had made countless play calls, chosen hundreds of starting lineups and helped guide six seasons worth of game plans. None of those compared to what he was facing late in 1998.
“That may be the most difficult decision I’ve ever made in my whole life,” the former Tennessee offensive coordinator said recently while reminiscing about the Vols’ championship season.
Cutcliffe was referring to his decision to leave the Vols just a month before the national championship game. As UT’s offensive coordinator, Cutcliffe led the Vols to an SEC Championship and a 12-0 season in 1998, but Ole Miss came calling.
“That was the best answer. It was either me or him. We kind of worked together to do it and he called every play. It all worked out great.”
Phillip Fulmer, on the decision to let Randy Sanders call the plays in the Fiesta Bowl
Cutcliffe interviewed for the Rebels’ head coaching position before the 1998 SEC Championship Game. He was expected to land his first head coaching position after being an assistant at UT since 1982. However, there was one problem. Ole Miss wanted Cutcliffe now. The Rebels were set to play Texas Tech in the Independence Bowl and they didn’t have a coaching staff after Tommy Tuberville had left Ole Miss for the head coaching position at Auburn.
Cutcliffe decided he had to leave the Vols immediately and join his new team in Oxford. Before he left, he had to tell the Vols.
“I cried in front of that team,” Cutcliffe said. “I cried at home, literally cried. I grieved.”
The Vols were fortunate that they had nearly a month to formulate a plan to play Florida State in the Fiesta Bowl. They were also fortunate that they had a capable back-up ready to step in. The Vols turned to assistant coach Randy Sanders.
“That was the best answer,” former UT coach Phillip Fulmer said. “It was either me or him. We kind of worked together to do it and he called every play. It all worked out great.”
Sanders, who played quarterback at UT from 1984-88 and joined the staff a year later, was ready for the daunting task that Fulmer had chosen him for.
“I was hoping what I had one in the previous 10 years coaching had given him reason to think I could do it, but it was still up to him and it was his decision. … I’m just thankful he gave me the opportunity to do it and I’m glad it worked out like it did,” said Sanders, who is now the head coach at East Tennessee State.
Fulmer understood the loss, but he wouldn’t let his team wallow in it.
“We weren’t going to let it be a distraction,” said Fulmer, who is now UT’s athletic director. “We talked about it briefly. David felt like for him that he needed to be with his team there. Certainly we hated it because he wasn’t going to get to be a part (of the national title game and) it could leave us short, but it didn’t.
“You have to give great credit to Randy Sanders and the offensive staff. We all chipped in and nothing changed. In some ways it might have been a little better for us because it was a different style than what Florida State might have been working on. It was a different person calling the plays, but if I’d have my druthers and you could get him (Cutcliffe) to totally commit to him being here, I’d probably druther he stayed.”
Sanders understood the importance of a potential national title because he knew UT so well. He began as a quarterbacks coach, then coached receivers before moving to running backs and becoming UT’s recruiting coordinator from 1993-1998. However, his new Fiesta Bowl assignment was something far different.
The Fiesta Bowl was the first time Sanders would be an offensive coordinator. It was the first time he would handle all of the play calling. It was the first time he was in charge.
“It was definitely the first time I had ever called a complete game and it was the first time I had ever been primarily responsible for the game plan to get to that point,” Sanders said. “I don’t remember it being that nerve wracking. I remember feeling the awesome responsibility to fulfill my role for that football team.”
Sanders, who was hired by East Tennessee State this past December after five years at Florida State, was recently unpacking after his move to Johnson City, Tenn., when he and his family saw a Fiesta Bowl game ball. It evoked memories of, well, not many family memories during bowl week.
“Yeah, that was the week we didn’t see Daddy the whole time,” Sanders recalls his wife saying. “I don’t remember going to one bowl function that week. I don’t remember getting back to my hotel in daylight that whole week. I would wake up before daylight, go to the film room, go to what we had set up as our offensive staff room, work, go to practice, come back, work and then when it came time to go to bed I would just go to bed. I ate almost all of my meals in that (work) room.”
Sanders moved from the sideline to the press box for the Fiesta Bowl. Sitting in that seat with a national title on the line wasn’t daunting to Sanders; it was exhilarating.
“It was fun,” he said. “It was exciting. It was a little bit of a ‘wow’ moment.”
That moment was far different for Cutcliffe. He sat in a rental home watching the game he had worked his entire career to be a part of. Cutcliffe’s family was still back in Knoxville. Alone, he only had his thoughts to keep him company as the Vols won their first national championship in 47 years by beating the Seminoles 23-16.
“Man, I cried and I cried with joy,” said Cutcliffe, now entering his 11th year as the head coach at Duke. “I felt like I was having an out-of-body experience watching that team play. When it was all said and done, I’ve never felt more joy or pride in anything.”
Cutcliffe began calling his former fellow coaches as soon as the game was over. The first person he got on the phone was his replacement. After speaking to Sanders, the phone was passed around the locker room so Cutcliffe could be a part of the celebration.
“I cried in front of that team. I cried at home, literally cried. I grieved.”
David Cutcliffe, on his decision to leave early for Ole Miss
“I stayed up all night,” Cutcliffe said. “There was no way I was going to bed. I just kept thinking of the season, a perfect season and what a national championship meant to the Tennessee fans and people that had gone through the ’90s and (were) so close over again.
“To culminate my time there with a team winning a national championship, I don’t know if I slept the next night. It was an amazing feeling.”
Cutcliffe could have been there in person. Fulmer invited Cutcliffe to come to Tempe, Ariz., after Ole Miss’ Independence Bowl. Cutcliffe declined.
“I just felt like it was going to disrupt,” he said. “It was very hard telling him I don’t need to do that.”
Cutcliffe has more than just rental home memories of UT winning a national title. He has a memento that symbolizes what he meant to the Vols, a national championship ring.
“I earned that,” Cutcliffe said. “I don’t have any qualms. I display that very proudly in my house.”
Seems as if Cutcliffe made the correct decision.
NEXT: The Replacements’ wildly unpredictable, fortuitous journey to perfection
Cover photo of David Cutcliffe, in 1997 with Peyton Manning, courtesy of University of Tennessee Athletics.
Dave Hooker started covering Tennessee in 1998. He hosts an SEC radio show out of Chattanooga and covers the SEC for Saturday Down South.
