Rumor Mill: Houston Nutt to apply for open South Florida Bulls coaching position

Ben Cornfield | December 4, 2012 at 1:41 pm | 0 Comments

One disgraced coach may be set to replace another in Tampa.

After firing Skip Holtz after just three seasons at the helm of South Florida, the Bulls’ athletic department is reportedly set to interview former Arkansas and Ole Miss head man Houston Nutt.

We’re going to go with a simple ‘Houton, we have a problem’, but feel free to insert your favorite Houston, nut, or Houston Nutt joke here.

Holtz was signed to a five-year extension prior to the 2012 season, despite having gone just 5-7 in the team’s 2011 campaign. If the program’s standards sounds like they were set remarkably low, that is because they were.

Could Houston Nutt be headed for the sunshine? (Spruce Derden-USA TODAY Sports)

USF was forced to fire coach Jim Leavitt — the man who started the program 16 years ago and brought the Bulls all the way up from the FCS, through a transition, and finally to the Big East in 2005 — after he attacked a player in the locker room.

Thus, despite the 5-7 record, USF was just happy to have a coach that didn’t go Hulk Hogan on his own recruited student-athletes.

However, a regression led to a 3-9 season in 2012 and a 16-21 overall record. Not good enough. Thus, despite the extension and the subsequent buyout, Holtz was shown the door out of Tampa.

Nutt spent 10 years at the helm of Arkansas compiling a 75-48 record between 1998-2007. His teams finished first in the SEC West three times during his tenure, but a regression of his own led to his firing following the 2007 season.

An ever-downtrodden Ole Miss program scooped up Nutt, hoping to rekindle some of the recruiting and on-field success Nutt enjoyed in spurts for Hogs Nation.

However, Nutt’s tenure began with a 9-7 SEC record but tailspun to a 1-15 in-conference finish over his final two seasons. His overall record with the Rebels was 24-26, but his 2-10 overall mark in 2011 ultimately ran him right on out of town.

Did his record ultimately lead him all the way down to Tampa, Florida?

That remains to be seen, but at the very least we all know the Big East is far easier to compete in than the SEC.

Well, maybe not for Skip Holtz.