UTC's Matt Pope finalist for Austin Peay AD

photo UTC's Matt Pope

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga senior associate athletic director Matt Pope is one of five finalists for the Austin Peay athletic director job. He will interview Monday at the Ohio Valley Conference school in Clarksville, Tenn.

Austin Peay released the names of its finalists Friday. The other four are Bill Lansden from the University of Memphis, Derek van der Merwe from Central Michigan, Chad Kimmel from Wisconsin and Julio Freire from UNLV.

Pope started at UTC in January 2001 as the assistant athletic director for administration and business. He was promoted to associate AD for internal operations, finance and marketing in December 2002 and in 2010 was named senior associate AD for administration and internal operations.

Among his many duties are managing UTC's budget and football scheduling.

Pope served as UTC's interim AD in 2006, following Steve Sloan's retirement. He was a candidate for the AD job then, when Rick Hart was hired, and again following Hart's departure last July. Pope was not among the three finalists for the UTC job, which went to David Blackburn last month.

According to an Austin Peay release, Pope will be the first candidate to interview. Dave Loos is giving up the athletic director job but will remain the Governors' men's basketball coach.

Contact John Frierson at jfrierson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6268. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/MocsBeat.

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