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UCF football coach Josh Heupel is leaving the Knights and joining Tennessee as the Volunteers’ new head coach.

The move follows the departure of UCF’s Athletic Director Danny White last week, who also moved to the University of Tennessee as its athletic director.

Heupel coached UCF for three seasons, with a record of 28 and 8. He joined the organization after Scott Frost left UCF and took the head coaching position in Nebraska. As a term of his contract, Heupel will owe a $3.5 million buyout.

UCF’s President Alexander Cartwright said the university launched a search for a new athletic director whose first job will be to hire a head coach to replace Heupel.

“With our two vacancies, we have an opportunity to define the future of UCF Athletics,” said Cartwright “When we had a similar opportunity five years ago, UCF made many hires that quickly elevated the national profile of our athletics programs. I look forward to working with all of our coaches, student-athletes, athletics staff and fans to continue building on our momentum.”

UCF named Scott Carr as interim athletic director and defensive coordinator Randy Shannon as interim head coach.