Brady Hoke to serve as interim head coach at Tennessee

Butch Jones is finally out as head coach at Tennessee, but a familiar face is taking over for the rest of the season.

Butch Jones clearly had a short leash, a scalding hot seat or whatever the preferred phrase is for a coach who will be unemployed soon. But a low-point was reached on Saturday, with a 50-17 loss to Missouri to drop the Tennessee Volunteers to 4-6 this season and 0-6 in the SEC, and Jones was let go on Sunday morning.

So someone has to be the head coach at Tennessee for the final two games of the regular season, and a hypothetical bowl game if they somehow manage to beat LSU and Vanderbilt and get to six wins. To that end, Brady Hoke will take over on an interim basis.

Hoke is a familiar name to college football fans, as the former head coach at Michigan (2011-2014), San Diego State (2009-2010) and Ball State (2003-2008). After one season as defensive coordinator at Oregon, Hoke is in his first season as associate head coach/defensive line coach at Tennessee.

Hoke has a 78-70 combined record as a head coach, and he went 11-2 and reached the Sugar Bowl in his first year at Michigan. But things went downhill after that in Ann Arbor, with back-to-back losses in lesser bowls, a 6-10 record in the Big Ten over his final two seasons and a 5-7 record to get him fired in 2014.

No matter how things go from here this season, Hoke is not a serious candidate to be the permanent head coach at Tennessee. The school will surely have their sights set on a big name like Chip Kelly or Les Miles, or a highly regarded younger coach like Matt Campbell or Scott Frost.

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But Hoke can bolster his case for his next job, as a defensive line coach, defensive coordinator or even a head coach. Perhaps most importantly, the question of “whatever happened to…?” Hoke after he was fired at Michigan has been answered.