Cincinnati hires Tommy Tuberville from Texas Tech

• Tuberville, who was 20-17 in three seasons at Texas Tech, replaces Butch Jones

Cincinnati has acted quickly to fill its football coaching vacancy.

The school has hired Texas Tech coach Tommy Tuberville one day after former coach Butch Jones accepted an offer from Tennessee.

The move reverses a trend for the Bearcats, who have seen Mark Dantonio, Brian Kelly and now Jones leave after short tenures. They were all up-and-coming talents in the coaching profession. Tuberville has 17 seasons under his belt.

It's also an interesting move on the coaching ladder for Tuberville. He has also coached Mississippi and Auburn in the Southeastern Conference and now leaves the Big 12 for a school in the Big East, a conference that has seen its football prospects damaged in the recent expansion in college athletics.

The question is whether Cincinnati will be in the same situation of needing to find a replacement if Tuberville has success and decides to leave.

Tuberville won 85 games in 10 seasons at Auburn before he resigned after the 2008 season. At Auburn, he worked with current Cincinnati athletics director Whit Babcock, who was assistant athletics director of development at the school. Tuberville's overall coaching record is 130-77.

"I'm very proud to welcome Tommy, Suzanne, Tucker and Troy into our Bearcats family," Babcock said. "Coach Tuberville's record speaks for itself over the past 17 seasons. It also speaks volumes to the visibility and leadership of our University that we were able to attract such an accomplished coach to lead our program into the future."

Tuberville arrived at Texas Tech after Mike Leach's messy divorce from the school but failed to build on Leach's success.

In three seasons, Tuberville went 20-17, including a 7-5 record this season. The Red Raiders will face Minnesota in the Meineke Care Bowl on Dec. 28.

"I've enjoyed my time working with Tommy Tuberville," Texas Tech athletics director Kirby Hocutt said. "He's a good man, a man of great character, and I wish him well, wish him nothing but success as he moves forward and want to thank him for his leadership and his service to Texas Tech University and to our football program."

An obvious possibility for Texas Tech to replace Tuberville would be Kliff Kingsbury. The former Red Raiders quarterback is the offensive coordinator at Texas A&M.

Another would be former defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeil, who has spent the last three seasons as coach of East Carolina.

"I'm not going to put a timeline upon ourselves," Hocutt said when asked about how quickly the school would move to find a replacement. "We will move as expeditiously as we possibly can, but at the same time we're going to take as much time as we need to find the right individual for this program."