BREAKING NEWS-Lane Kiffin Leaves Tennessee for USC

Tennessee's Lane Kiffin has been named the next head coach at Southern California, athletic director Mike Garrett announced on Tuesday. Kiffin will bring his father and defensive coordinator, Monte Kiffin, and assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator Ed Orgeron to Southern California with him. Sources tell ESPN.com's Chris Low that Tennessee wide receivers coach Kippy Brown will be named interim coach of the Volunteers. He had been given the opportunity to follow Kiffin to USC as well. Lane and Monte Kiffin and Orgeron will hold a news conference on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET Kiffin replaces Pete Carroll, who jumped to the NFL as coach of the Seattle Seahawks. "This was not an easy decision," Kiffin said in a brief press conference on Tennessee's campus. "I really believe this is the only place I would have left here to go." The hiring was first reported by ESPN.com. "We are really excited to welcome Lane Kiffin back to USC," Garrett said in a statement. "I was able to watch him closely when he was an assistant with us and what I saw was a bright, creative young coach who I thought would make an excellent head coach here if the opportunity ever arose. I'm confident he and his staff will keep USC football performing at the high level that we expect." Kiffin, the former Oakland Raiders coach, led the Volunteers for only one season. Kiffin has been on the move of late. He was 7-6 in his one season at Tennessee and 5-15 in one-plus seasons with the Raiders before being fired in September 2008. He was a member of the USC coaching staff from 2001 to '06, first as wide receivers coach and then as offensive coordinator under Carroll. Kiffin's contract calls for him to pay a $800,000 buyout for leaving Tennessee after only one season. "Those payments shall be made in monthly installments over a 36-month period," the contract reads. It was not immediately clear if USC would pay any of that sum.