Cincinnati coach Butch Jones has resigned to take the head-coaching job at Tennessee, both schools announced Friday morning.

Assistant head coach/defensive line coach Steve Stripling has been named interim head coach for the Belk Bowl.

"I would like to thank Butch Jones for his time at the University of Cincinnati,” Cincinnati athletic director Whit Babcock said in a statement. “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.”

Jones went 23-14 at Cincinnati in three seasons, guiding the Bearcats to back-to-back Big East championships in 2011 and 2012 and was named Big East Coach of the Year in 2011. In the past week, Jones had conversations with Purdue and Colorado before turning his eyes to the vacant Tennessee job when Charlie Strong decided to stay at Louisville.

I will have more on this later today, so check back to the blog.