Why...

Free UNC Dook basketball tickets.

 

Why? He's got the two time defending national champs in his conference.

 

Here is a good take on why...

Johnson, Duke are a good fit
Commentary by JOE BIDDLE
Staff Writer


Published: Tuesday, 12/11/07 Bobby Johnson is definitely on Duke's radar screen.
The next 48 hours should determine just how deep he is in the picture.
If Johnson gets an offer he can live with, I believe he will take it.
Why on earth would Johnson leave Vanderbilt for Duke, you ask?
There are a number of reasons. Duke reportedly offered Navy's Paul Johnson a $2 million a year contract before Georgia Tech upped the ante and hired him.
Bobby Johnson is believed to be getting somewhere in the $800,000 range at Vanderbilt. He could at least double his salary at Duke.
You can win easier at Duke than Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt plays in the toughest division in college football. He has been here six seasons and hasn't been able to rise above five wins a season. That's where you find yourself when you have to play Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina and Kentucky every year.
Vanderbilt won one of those games this season.
ACC more familiar
The Atlantic Coast Conference is competitive, but not the constant grind a coach has at Vanderbilt every season.
A Duke coach faces Virginia, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Miami and North Carolina in the Coastal Division. Virginia, Georgia Tech and North Carolina share more similar academic profiles with Duke than any school Vanderbilt faces in the SEC. Duke also played Wake Forest, Clemson and Florida State this season.
Duke already has better football facilities than Vanderbilt. Duke's stadium, which is rarely more than half filled, will undergo some upgrades in the near future.
Johnson and any members of his staff he might take with him would have more of a comfort zone at Duke. Many of them worked in the area before, whether with Johnson at Furman, or coaching elsewhere in the Carolinas.
It's an area they can recruit. Even at Vanderbilt, they have six players on the current roster from the Carolinas.
Duke more known
Like Vanderbilt, Duke has to recruit nationally. Duke has a significant advantage because of its name recognition. Sure, it comes from its basketball program, but high school recruits all over the country recognize Duke's name. Not so with Vanderbilt.
Another reason to take the job is the current instability at Vanderbilt. There is no chancellor and it has been said it could take a year for the search to produce one. Former chancellor E. Gordon Gee was very pro-athletics. What if the next chancellor believes athletics is nothing but a necessary evil?
Vanderbilt does not have an athletics director, as David Williams oversees the athletics department. His expertise is as a legal counsel and administrator. At Duke, Johnson would answer to Athletics Director Joe Aleeva.
If Bobby Johnson can get the job and Duke makes it right, Vanderbilt will be back in that familiar coaching search mode.

Published: Tuesday, 12/11/07

 

Well, that article lays out some pretty good reasons why he would take the job. Hard to believe Duke puts up 2 mill a year for a football coach though...

 

He agrees and is staying at Vandy.

Johnson stays at Vanderbilt
Withdraws name from Duke search


[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif]Vanderbilt Coach Bobby Johnson withdrew from consideration for the Duke job, saying there's more work here to do. BILLY KINGSLEY / FILE / THE TENNESSEAN[/FONT]By MAURICE PATTON
Staff Writer


Published: Wednesday, 12/12/07 Vanderbilt's 2008 football homecoming foe is Duke.
Bobby Johnson will be on the sideline for that contest — leading the home team, as it turns out.
After interviewing Monday with officials at the Atlantic Coast Conference school, Johnson has withdrawn from consideration for the vacancy there and will remain at the Commodores' helm for his seventh season.
"I still think we've got a lot of work to do here," Johnson said by telephone from Pennsylvania, where he was on a recruiting trip. "I like Vanderbilt very much. I like Nashville a whole lot and I think our staff feels the same way. We just want to continue to get better at Vanderbilt.
"We're going to do some things to make our program better. I feel like we'll have an equal or better chance to be successful than I would at Duke."
Ted Roof was dismissed at Duke on Nov. 26 after compiling a 6-45 record over four-plus seasons. The Blue Devils went 1-11 in 2007, losing all eight of their ACC games. They have not won a conference game since the 2004 season.
"I think Duke made it widely known they were going to try to improve their program and make a strategic plan and stick to it and finance it," Johnson said. "You're always looking for places where you feel like you're going to have a chance to be successful. I thought they were going to have a good chance."
Johnson is 20-50 in six seasons at Vanderbilt, but 14-21 in his last three years.
Johnson said his talks with Duke officials had not progressed to the point of an offer.
Upon returning from his interview, Johnson spoke with Vanderbilt officials Monday night and during the day Tuesday and received some assurances that things were moving in the right direction administratively.
Among the items discussed were facility improvements and commitments.
"Everything we talked about were things we'd been talking about," Vanderbilt vice chancellor David Williams said. "We just all needed to get in the room and make sure we're giving him the things he needs to get us to the next level.
"We realized he wanted to be here, we wanted him to be here and we've got a plan to go forward."
Raises and contract extensions for Johnson and his staff will be discussed but Williams said the new deals were not directly linked to the talks with Duke. "There's nothing more than what we do at the end of every year," he said.
John Ingram, chairman of the athletic committee for the school's Board of Trust, was pleased with the overall outcome of the previous 48 hours.
"I'm thrilled and 100 percent convinced that Bobby Johnson is the right man to be at Vanderbilt and I could not be happier that he's committed to staying here," Ingram said.
"I cannot be happier that the university is willing to step up and provide him the tools so that he feels he can get it done here."

Published: Wednesday, 12/12/07

 

Looks like its Cutcliffe...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/football/ncaa/12/14/cutcliffe.duke.ap/index.html