Tennessee’s long, regional nightmare has officially come to an end.
Two days after Charlie Strong rejected the Vols, and two days after Butch Jones vehemently denied a report that he had accepted the Colorado job, the Vols announced Friday morning that they have hired the latter to be their new head football coach. Jones will replace Derek Dooley, who was fired in mid-November after three years at the school.
A press conference to introduce Jones will be held at 2:30 p.m. ET this afternoon.
Jones has spent the past three seasons at Cincinnati, winning 19 games and sharing conference championships the past two years. For his career, including a three-year stint at Central Michigan, Jones owns a 50-27 mark.
Jones, who also interviewed for the Purdue vacancy, will take over a program that has won just 16 games the past three seasons, and has lost 14 of their last 16 in SEC play.
Shortly before UT’s announcement, Cincinnati confirmed that Jones had stepped down as head coach and would be replaced on an interim basis by Steve Stripling.
“I would like to thank Butch Jones for his time at the University of Cincinnati,” UC athletic director Whit Babcock said. “With that said, we are excited about the future of this program and this job will be extremely attractive nationally. Our search will begin immediately.”