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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Cutcliffe, Ole Miss Agree To Contract Extension
12/4/2000 | Football
"After the Egg Bowl victory, Coach Cutcliffe and I were able to sit down and discuss the Ole Miss football program," Shafer said. "We are proud to announce that we have agreed to extend his contract back to the original four years, which is the maximum allowed by the State of Mississippi. We have agreed in principle to the terms and are presently finishing up the appropriate details.
"As I have said many times, David Cutcliffe is a great fit for what we are trying to do here at Ole Miss. He runs a model program, sincerely caring for our student-athletes, both on and off the field. I have been pleased with all aspects of our football program."
Cutcliffe, who is concluding his second full season at Ole Miss, has helped the Rebel football program reach heights not seen in over 30 years.
"I want to thank the Ole Miss administration for the support and confidence shown to me, our staff, and players by extending my contract," Cutcliffe said. "I look forward to many successful years in Oxford."
Considered one of the best offensive minds in college football, Cutcliffe became the University of Mississippi's 34th head coach on Dec. 2, 1998, after serving 16 seasons at the University of Tennessee.
Prior to his hiring, Rebel fans had just witnessed their team lose the final three games of the regular season. However, in less than a month on the job, Cutcliffe turned a season of disappointment into a future of hope for the Ole Miss faithful, as the Rebels stunned the heavily-favored Texas Tech Red Raiders, 35-18, in the Sanford Independence Bowl. It was possibly the bowl season's biggest upset.
While Cutcliffe would be the first to tell you that the job of building the Ole Miss program into one the country's elite programs isn't finished, he certainly seems to have the Rebels on the rise.
Including the 1998 Sanford Independence Bowl win, Cutcliffe has guided Ole Miss to a 16-8 record. He has seen the Rebels achieve a national ranking as high as No. 16 (Nov. 14, 1999- ESPN/USA Today and The Associated Press), which is their highest since finishing the 1992 season at No. 16.
He led the Rebels to an 8-4 record in his first full season in 1999, including a 27-25 win over Oklahoma in the 1999 Sanford Independence Bowl. The national pollsters rewarded the Rebels with a No. 22 ranking in both The Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today Coaches Top 25 polls.
Hopes and expectations soared heading into year two of the Cutcliffe-era, as the Rebels were ranked No. 18 in the pre-season polls and were picked by many to contend for the SEC Western Division title.
While several key injuries put a damper on Ole Miss' title hopes, Cutcliffe continued to steer a steady ship. He kept the Rebels in the SEC Western Division title hunt into November, and also kept Ole Miss in the eyes of the poll voters. Including the pre-season polls, Ole Miss spent four weeks ranked in the Top 25, and the Rebels garnered votes in at least one of the two major college football polls during every week of the regular season.
Cutcliffe also returned the Golden Egg to Oxford with a 45-30 victory over arch-rival Mississippi State on Thanksgiving Night, in a game televised on ESPN.
The win over the Bulldogs gave Ole Miss its fourth straight, seven-win season for the first time since the Rebels had seven straight from 1965-71. The seven-win campaign also made Cutcliffe the third coach in Ole Miss history to win at least seven games in his first two seasons with the Rebels, joining Harry J. Mehre and the legendary John Vaught.
Ole Miss' appearance in the 2000 Music City Bowl marks its fourth straight bowl appearance, something the Rebels have not done since going to a then-national record 15 straight bowl games from 1957-72. Ole Miss is the only school in the SEC Western Division to earn a bowl berth in each of the past four seasons.
Ole Miss also heads into the Music City Bowl as just one of three schools nationally to have won a bowl game in each of the past three seasons, and two of those victories have come under Cutcliffe.
With the Rebels' success in Cutcliffe's first two seasons, Ole Miss has enjoyed tremendous national TV exposure. The 2000 Music City Bowl will mark the 16th time Ole Miss has appeared on regional or national TV during the past two seasons, including the 1998 Sanford Independence Bowl. Eleven of those 16 TV games were carried nationally by either ESPN or ESPN2. Ole Miss also played in a nationally-televised CBS game in 1999 against Alabama in Oxford.
This season, Ole Miss set a school single-season record with eight TV appearances, including the Music City Bowl. Five of those eight appearances came on either ESPN or ESPN2.
With the excitement generated by Cutcliffe in his first two years, the Ole Miss faithful has turned out in record numbers. The University set a record for season-ticket sells in 2000 and the Rebels played before a home crowd of over 50,000 three times this season. Since Vaught-Hemingway Stadium/ Hollingsworth Field was expanded to its current capacity prior to 1998, Ole Miss has had eight crowds of over 50,000. Six of those have come during Cutcliffe's brief tenure.
Twice this season, Ole Miss set a new single-game attendance mark. On Sept. 9, a crowd of 52,368 saw the Rebels host Auburn, and that mark was bettered when 52,476 turned out for the Ole Miss-LSU game on Nov. 11.
With the excitement of the future of Ole Miss football under Cutcliffe's leadership, the University has started another expansion of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium/Hollingsworth Field which will see capacity increase to nearly 60,000.