For Duke University football's recently reenergized and multiplied fans, last week brought anxious hours.

With the coaching job at the University of Tennessee suddenly vacant, and with Duke coach David Cutcliffe's long history with that program, it seemed likely he would be considered for the job.

And it seemed reasonable he would be sorely tempted.

For a few hours Thursday evening and Friday morning, the Internet was abuzz with anxiety-inducing, increasingly confident predictions he was leaving.

The good news Friday morning was that he was not, and you could almost hear a collective exhale finally coming from the Iron Dukes, the Blue Devils' most stalwart gridiron fans.

What's so remarkable about this story is how unlikely it seemed that it would play out that way in this era of high-stakes, high-cost, high-pressure major college football. It is an atmosphere we are far from alone in decrying, as the budgets of major programs soar and the highest profile sports become increasingly disengaged from the university as a whole.

Cutcliffe's decision to stay at Duke in many ways defied all of that.

He almost certainly would have garnered a higher salary. He would have gone from a struggling program, long in the shadows of the hardly football-rich Atlantic Coast Conference, to a perennial contender in the football-crazed Southeastern Conference.

He stayed, by all indications, out of loyalty -- what The Herald-Sun's Duke sports beat reporter, Brian Strickland, labeled "legendary loyalty" in a column Saturday.

Cutcliffe had come to Duke to resurrect a long-suffering program. As he acknowledged Friday, and no one would dispute, that job is far from done. He chose to stay to complete it, or at least to continue moving it forward.

Perhaps one reason Cutcliffe stayed was the indication he could not take his entire coaching staff with him to the Volunteers. But that, too, is loyalty, a commitment to men he has recruited here to help in rebuilding Duke's football program.

He is making progress. He has stirred more excitement in a student body that had grown almost oblivious to football. He has energized alumni and generated enthusiasm in the Durham community.

College coaching is a high-wire act, and it's likely Cutcliffe's decision was influenced in part by the fact that Duke's hierarchy understands rebuilding will take time.

Cutcliffe faces several more years of tenaciously improving the team, attracting better recruits who in turn will boost the program and attract still better recruits.

It could take a decade to fully realize what he and Duke administrators see as the school's full potential on the football field.

Last week, Cutcliffe made the admirable decision to stay and continue that job.