Butch Jones leaves Cincinnati for Tennessee

Dec 7, 2012 - 1:38 PM Knoxville, TN (Sports Network) - Butch Jones is leaving Cincinnati to become the head football coach at Tennessee.

Jones resigned from his position at Cincinnati on Friday morning. Tennessee will introduce Jones at a press conference Friday afternoon.

The 44-year-old Jones was the coach of the Bearcats for the past three years, recording a 23-14 record during that span. He guided Cincinnati to back-to- back conference championships in 2011 and 2012 and was named Big East Coach of the Year in 2011.

"I would like to thank Butch Jones for his time at the University of Cincinnati," director of athletics 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."

Cincinnati named Steve Stripling interim head coach for the Belk Bowl.

Jones decided to go with Tennessee after reportedly turning down an offer to become the new coach at Colorado earlier this week.

At Tennessee, Jones will succeed Derek Dooley, who was fired on Nov. 18 following an embarrassing 41-18 road loss at Vanderbilt. Dooley posted a losing record in each of his three seasons in Knoxville.

The Volunteers went 5-7 this season with a 1-7 mark in the SEC.

Prior to taking the job at Cincinnati, Jones spent three years as the head coach at Central Michigan. Jones went 27-13 as coach of the Chippewas, winning MAC Championships in 2007 and 2009.

Jones is a native of Michigan and spent two years as wide receivers coach at West Virginia before being named Central Michigan's head coach in 2007.