Ole Miss Football Press Conference Transcript

Dec. 1, 2004

CHANCELLOR DR. ROBERT KHAYAT
Opening Remarks
Thank you for coming today and being interested in Ole Miss. I would be less than honest if I did not tell you that this is a difficult day for us. We wanted David Cutcliffe to be our football coach. We are very grateful to coach Cutcliffe and what he has brought to this program. David is a fine person as you all know. We've had some wonderful years during his time here. The program is beyond question with regard to integrity. It's been exciting to watch what took place. The concern and the compassion he has shown for the well-being of his players has been a national model. He has a wonderful family. The University is profoundly grateful to David Cutcliffe, the leadership he has shown as our head coach. For all those reasons, we say thank you to him and we treat this as the sad day that it is. We are sad that David is not going to be our coach anymore.

For the last several days, Pete Boone and to some extent me, had been in conversations with coach Cutcliffe. We tried together, to reach an understanding about the future of Ole Miss football. Everybody understands how important college football is in Division I-A. College football is an important part of a university's culture across the country. We've seen the level of commitment that the university has made with regard to competitive salaries, competitive facilities and enhancing opportunities for our players and coaches to be successful. It's essential that this football program be competitive, not on a now and then basis, but every year.

We view the athletic department in much the same way we view the College of Liberal Arts, or the School of Education, and any other program on campus. We expect our programs to be outstanding, to be competitive, to be nationally respected and to be moving forward. We will not except in the School of Education or in women's soccer, mediocrity. We will always be working to get better. There are different ideas about how you do that. In this particular situation, coach Cutcliffe, whom Pete and I have the utmost respect and admiration for, could not come together on the same page. We could not see where we were going in the same direction.

As difficult as this is, and as much as we regret this event, it's something that had to occur. We are going to be respectful and grateful to David Cutcliffe for his work here and the investment that he made of himself here. For the wonderful things that his family has brought to this community and what they mean to all of us, there is nothing but gratitude.

This is a university, and a university transcends time and people. We are going to move forward immediately.

ATHLETICS DIRECTOR PETE BOONE
Opening Remarks
I concur with everything that the Chancellor said in regards to our feelings toward coach Cutcliffe, all the staff, and everybody that is in the athletic department. I would like to express my appreciation for the job he has done, and there was not one time that I had to question the integrity of the program. That is something Athletic Directors should expect and really appreciate when they have that kind of coach.

The challenge of SEC athletics is to improve everyday, every week, and every year. From that extent, it is important for me to watch and listen and analyze all of our programs, especially to programs that I would call the bell house of our whole financial system, and everything that we do. The one program that gets the most nationwide attention, with our run last year, with Eli's fame, people all over the country knew about Ole Miss because of that, is the football program. That is my job every year and I do that. In banking, I found out that the bottom line is important but just as important is what makes up the bottom line. So it is important to me to know how things are working as much as are they in fact working, or appear to be working.

I did feel that over several years that there where several concerning trends. Not any one, that in any one capacity, would be detrimental to a program. There were some trends that I saw in different times with regard to motivation, and general decision-making in several different areas.

You need to know that it not about the wins and losses this year. It is important to win; there is no question about it. But even the best coaches don't win every year. It is not about that and I think I would be very superficial if any decision was made based on just this year. I would never allow that to happen.

I asked Coach Cutcliffe after the Auburn game; there were a couple of weeks there in which I had developed an evaluation sheet and forms and some opinions backed with facts and figures and some statistics. And I wanted him to start thinking about, which I would assume that he would and I think that he was, about the program, strengths and weaknesses of the program, his analysis of the program, and develop a plan that he and I could look over and address any of those concerns that he and I may have at that time, and how he would address those concerns.

In the end, we could not agree on the solution to some of the problems that we thought were there. He preferred a status quo, keeping things as they were with a greater challenge to the players and coaches. I felt like that approach was not the long-term solution we needed to have.

He made a comment, and it was certainly a trying time between us, and you know Coach Cutcliffe has a very gentlemanly like approach with never raising voices, but sitting there listening to each other, obviously disagreeing on a few things, but always done in a very professional way. But his comment was that `I have to be true to my heart. I need to make decisions based on how I feel.' And I respect that. That tells you a lot about the man. It also made me think too. This not about Pete Boone, it is not about David Cutcliffe - This is about Ole Miss. I have got to make decisions based on my heart, and my heart is red and blue.

The decision I make is for Ole Miss to be better tomorrow than it was today. So those are the issues and philosophies that we have come up with.

At the end of the day, he felt true to his heart, and I felt true to mine. At that point, we shook hands and we parted. I'm sorry that it got to that point. But, I think that as he said, it's best for Ole Miss, it's best for him, and it's best for all concerned that it came to that point.

For all the wonderful things that he has done, he knows that I am eternally grateful. And I'll tell you this, I told him that I feel like I have failed him. I obviously have not done a good enough job over the last three years of communicating with Coach Cutcliffe where we got to this point. I am going to take this responsibility on myself and go back and look at all the things I could have done better to make sure I learn from any event that happens like this. I always try to do that.

I would like to say that we have begun the process of looking for a new head coach at Ole Miss. We are not asking for much. We would prefer to have somebody with head coaching experience. We want an aggressive defense, a creative offense, and a disciplined team. We want an energetic person who is a coach's coach and a player's coach. I don't think that is asking for too much. I believe they are out there.

The thing that I do know and I am excited about, is the future of Ole Miss football. And that is why we have to be relentless at getting better everyday, every week, every year. We cannot step backwards. We have to attack problems as they occur, correct them, and move forward.

While this not a happy day because we have developed relationships, and families are affected. The Ole Miss family as a whole is affected. But the day has come, so now we have to move forward. We are going to aggressively persue the best coach we can find to give the best possible outcome for our players to succeed. And we will be successful in that.

Q& A With Pete Boone and Robert Khayat
Q: Can you talk about who you have as far as candidates on your list?
A: (PB) No

Q: Pete, you maintained that this was a standard evaluation. How did it go from a standard evaluation to a dismissal of the head coach?
A: (PB) Coach Cutcliffe told me he had to do what was right for him. I told him I absolutely agreed. I think it came down to the definition who's defining right. That was the quandary that we were developing. Was this a standard evaluation? I had some observations of things I wanted him to do and for him to come to me with a plan. That's standard. What happens after that just happens. It was not intended. I fully expected Monday morning to have a defined plan, and it was not there. As we left Monday, I thought we were in agreement on a plan, and I think his heart told him different overnight. That is why it moved back and forth.

Q: What were some of the specific things you wanted to see changed?
A: (RK) Pete and I were both looking for something that indicated a grasp of adjustments that needed to be made, which is true in the life of every person in this room and my work as Chancellor. When you look back over what you've done the last year or the last 10 years, if you do it objectively, you realize there are some things you could do better. That's what Pete was asking for and what we were expecting. Coach Cutcliffe felt that what he had in place was the correct way to go. That's where we couldn't get on the same page. We felt something more was necessary.

Q: What were the things you two were looking for that he wasn't?
A: (RK) We were looking for a clear picture of where we were going and a clear indication of adjustments that would suggest, at least, if not guarantee, that progress would be made and that we would feel better about where we are. I believe that Ole Miss should be in the top echelon of the Southeastern Conference. I believe we should be in the championship game. I think we ought to be competing every year. If you don't believe that about yourselves, than you can't get there. I believe coach Cutcliffe believed that too. I believe that he believed that we could play for the SEC Championship and maybe be in a BCS bowl game. That's why were here in this gorgeous building. That's why there are 60,000 seats in the stadium. We have a first-class program so we can be nationally competitive in everything we do. We want people to know that the department of English is comparable to the department of English anywhere in America. We want the same thing for football and women's track. We are committed to being a great public university. A great public university with athletics has great athletics programs. We had a different view of what was required to move the football program up. It's not to say that we are right or that coach Cutcliffe is right. We had to make this decision.

Q: Were staff changes suggested?
A: (PB) No. I am going to give you example. If I am responsible for a program and there is someone who has a certain amount of responsibility, I want to hear what that person has to say about changes. I am not going to tell them about changes. Part of this process has to do with my evaluation of him or anyone I that am evaluating, is how they come to a decision. That is almost as important to me as the decision itself. In this case, I will say his decision on to stay with the status quo did not indicate to me that the decision-making process had included all the facts that I had in front of me. I've got all the analysis for the last three-to-four years on offense and defense. We have had peaks and valleys. Sometimes the players were motivated and sometimes they were not. All of those things I was looking for him to identify too, and say "here is what I am going to do about them." That didn't happen.

Q: In your own observations, did you think staff changes needed to be made?
A: (PB) I know that on defense we've ranked in the eighth, ninth, 10th or 11th spot in the last several years. There seem to be a trend there. I was looking for a plan of how that was not going to happen. I didn't get that. I am not necessarily saying a change should have been made. I am saying that I didn't hear a plan to make that better. I don't want to get into a position of where I am recommending changes. When that happens and a coach listens to my recommendations, something is wrong.

A: (RK) I'll give you an example. When we hired a new Dean of the School of Education, the provost and I talked about expectations. It's up to the Dean of School of Education to figure out how to meet those expectations. For me to say who they should hire and what kinds of programs they should implement is wrong. What I can say to him, is "there is a teacher shortage in Mississippi and there is a shortage of well-trained administrators. We need to meet the needs of this state. As Dean of the School of Education, Dean Burrow, we are expecting you to develop a way to do that and we want to see how you are going to do that. It's not that different than athletics. Organizational rules are transferable from teams to corporations to families. What Pete was asking for was entirely reasonable. David's response felt right to him and we respect that.

Q: How much concern do you think it is for potential candidates that a coach goes 10-3 and is two field goals away from the SEC Championship and gets fired one year later.
A: (PB) You might ask Notre Dame or Florida what there concern is. (RK) This is not about the won-loss record. It's about what is ahead for us.

(PB) My job is to look at the underlying things that go on not just what you see on Saturday. There are so many things that go on that you all don't know about that are the essential foundation of any program or company. That's what I am charged with, making sure that the foundation is solid but also when you start building that structure that it is solid.

Q: Are the concerns you had this year, some of the same you had last year?
A: (PB) A lot of the conversations I had this year, I had with him three seasons ago.

Q: What are the terms of his buyout?
A: (PB) The lawyers are dealing with that. That's a private foundation matter.

(RK) I used to be a lawyer, and that really is a personnel matter. It's a contractual relationship and it would be highly inappropriate to talk about that.

Q: Will there be a search committee or will you guys head that up?
A: (PB) The Chancellor and I will head this up. We will keep people informed.

(RK) We have a Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics, chaired by Dr. Robert Weems. The Athletics Committee will be involved in the conversations.

Q: Was the Athletics Committee involved in this decision?
A: (PB) No. The problem, is when more than one or two people get involved, so much can be misunderstood. The Chancellor and I were really the only ones who talked about it. This was not a "this year conversation." He evaluates me and he asks me about my programs. I am responsible to him. I talk about all the programs. Whenever we talk, I give him updates on how things are going. This was an on-going evaluation.

(RK) Let me elaborate a little on this. Last night, I asked Robert Weems to come over to my house. I brought him up to date on where we were. He is a dear friend and I trust him. At that time, I didn't think we would be here today.

Q: So you asked him (Cutcliffe) for a plan and he didn't give you one?
A: (PB) I am sure he (Cutcliffe) had one in his mind. I asked after we met Monday if he would put it in writing, because words can be misunderstood. I thought it would be good to have it in writing. The next day, he had changed his mind.

Q: Chancellor, did you feel torn between these two men (Pete and David)?
A: Yes. I said to them in the meeting, "both of you are very good men, who are very smart. Both of you love the university and both want us to be successful. It would seem to me that we could find a way to come together. That's how I left it this morning. I hoped at the time there would be some resolution. I know Pete and David hoped so too. But, there wasn't. Our responsibility is to the University of Mississippi. We are fiduciaries. We have to place the interests of the university above our personal interests and our personal feelings about individuals.

Q: Are you worried about how this will effect recruiting and are you worried about losing a year?
A: (PB) No. You never like change. Continuity is important. Coaches build relationships with high school coaches and families. I don't worry about losing a year. I think a lot of ground can be made up in a hurry if we get the right person. But, do you lose? Yes you lose any time there is a change. Everybody loses some. It's how fast you recover that's important. We have every reason to believe that we will make haste, select the right person, and that that person will select the right staff that will get out and do the things that they have been successful doing at other places.

Q: What about the current staff?
A: (PB) They are all employees of the university. I would encourage the new coach to talk to the staff that's here before he does anything, but I have to let that coach make those decisions.

Q: How soon would you like to have a coach in place?
A: I would love to have it done by the weekend. I don't think that is realistic. I have not talked with anyone yet. I have not made any calls or sent any feelers out. I didn't want to do anything until this deal was settled.

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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