Whittingham turns down Tennessee to stay with Utah


Save Story

Estimated read time: Less than a minute

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

SALT LAKE CITY -- University of Utah Head Coach Kyle Whittingham turned down an offer to become the next head coach at the University of Tennessee.

Tennessee officials flew to Utah Thursday night and offered him the job. After sleeping on it, Whittingham turned down the offer Friday morning.

The offer reportedly would have doubled his current salary of $1.2 million a year.

Whittingham signed a five-year contract extension with the Utes in December of 2008.

File photo of Louisiana Tech coach Derek Dooley who has resigned from his positions as coach and athletic director to join the Tennessee Volunteers. (AP Photo/Rob Carr)
File photo of Louisiana Tech coach Derek Dooley who has resigned from his positions as coach and athletic director to join the Tennessee Volunteers. (AP Photo/Rob Carr)

The Volunteers quickly turned to Louisiana Tech Head Coach Derek Dooley, whom they hired Friday afternoon.

Louisiana Tech spokesman Malcolm Butler says Dooley has resigned from his positions as coach and athletic director to join the Volunteers.

The son of former Georgia coach Vince Dooley, Derek Dooley went 17-20 in three seasons at Louisiana Tech.

The Volunteers hired him after a quick search to fill the vacancy created when Lane Kiffin abruptly resigned Tuesday night, bolting to Southern California after 14 months.

(Copyright 2010 Bonneville International Corporation. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or distributed. AP contributed to this report.)

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

STAY IN THE KNOW

Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Newsletter Signup

KSL Weather Forecast

KSL Weather Forecast
Play button