Ole Miss athletics director Keith Carter inside the team room of the Manning Center on Monday.

Mike MacInytre will serves as the interim head coach of the Ole Miss football program in the wake of the firing of head coach Matt Luke.

MacIntyre, the former Colorado and San Jose State head coach, just finished his first season as the defensive coordinator at Ole Miss. Athletics director Keith Carter made the announcement on Monday.

The remainder of the assistant coaches on the staff remain employed by the university for the time being and Carter has ordered them to continue recruiting operations as normal until otherwise advised.

"Mike MacIntyre will take over and be in charge of the team in the interim period," Carter said. "I spoke with him this morning and he was more than willing to do that. The assistant coaches are on the road right now, and what we've told them is to please just go in and continue the visits. Wear the Ole Miss logo, continue to spread the Ole Miss message and they've been great. The assistants have been great. This is a hard time for them, as well.

"But absolutely, as we talk to a new coach, we will encourage the new coach to look at this staff. I think this staff has done a tremendous job in a lot of ways. I think there are some pieces on this staff that could be very beneficial to a new staff, potentially."

Carter stressed the new head coach will be allowed the autonomy to hire who he wants at every position on the staff.

"We know how this works. A new coach will have the autonomy to bring in who he wants to. But certainly, we will talk about our assistants and some if the good things they've done," Carter said.

Mike MacIntyre

Assistant coaches Rich Rodriguez (offensive coordinator), Calvin Magee (tight ends), Tyrone Nix (outside linebackers) and Jeff Koonz (inside linebackers) were each in their first year on the Ole Miss staff. Jack Bicknell (offensive line) has three seasons at Ole Miss under his belt, Charles Clark (cornerbacks) has been on staff two seasons, while Derrick Nix (running backs) is the longest tenured assistant with 12 seasons and having worked for three different head coaches in Oxford.

Carter said Ole Miss plans to move swiftly to get a new head coach and staff in place.

"We want to move as quickly as possible," he said.

The early signing period in recruiting begins on Dec. 18.

"With this new signing day, it complicates things a lot when you're making a change like this. Certainly, we want to move quickly. I don't want to put a time frame on it, but as quickly and efficiently as we can," said Carter.

Luke was fired after three seasons at the helm of the program. He compiled an overall record of 15-21.