KNOXVILLE -- Lane Kiffin's tenure as the University of Tennessee football coach ended abruptly Tuesday night.
Kiffin accepted the head coaching position at Southern California, where he spent several years as an assistant.
Defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, Lane's father, and defensive line coach Ed Orgeron will go with him to USC, according to several players who attended the coach's 9 p.m. farewell meeting.
Kippy Brown, who recently started his third stint with UT as an assistant, was named interim head coach.
Lane Kiffin offered a brief statement to reporters at 10 p.m., but he didn't take questions and shortened the statement when a local television news director refused to accept the coach's terms for a group interview.
"This was not an easy decision," Kiffin said. "This was something that happened very quick -- a decision that me and my family made. We've been here 14 months. The support has been unbelievable here. I really believe that (USC) was probably the only place that I would have left here to go. There's so many people to thank, so I'm just going to be really generic and say I'm very thankful to all the Tennessee people, and the way that they welcomed myself and my family.
"It's been an exciting time, and I know that I can walk out of here and say this: We've been here for 14 months, and there's not one day that I didn't give everything that I had to the Tennessee football program. And I know, just leaving that team room, and looking around at the players coming in on this roster, and what's going on in their development, that we're leaving here a lot better team that we were 14 months ago."
Several hundred UT students stood outside the football complex Tuesday night. Many held signs -- one saying, "Go home, traitor" -- and chanted obscenities.
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