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Sources: Fedora Interviewing at Tennessee

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Suddenly UNC head coach Larry Fedora is being mentioned as one of three candidates to replace Derek Dooley at Tennessee.

Grant Halverson

Well, that sure didn't take long. After one year at North Carolina, Larry Fedora's is reportedly interviewing with Tennessee's AD today for the vacant head coaching position for the Tennessee Volunteers. According to VolQuest.com, UT's Rivals affiliate, Tennessee is down to three candidates: Louisville's Charlie Strong, Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy and now Fedora, who is in New York City today to likely meet with Tennessee AD Dave Hart.

Fortunately for the Heels, right now it looks like Fedora is probably third in terms of preference, with Strong the popular choice among the Vols' fan base. Brian Barbour over at Tar Heel Blog sums up the situation nicely:

I don't see Fedora leaving unless he gets promised the world. Even then, UT is a bit of a mess right now and as Andrew Carter astutely points out, if Fedora had wanted an SEC job, he could have taken the Texas A&M job last year in his hometown. There are also indications Strong and Gundy are ahead of Fedora in the order of preference so we are probably still two or three moves away from this being something to really worry about. Still, don't be shocked if this ends with Fedora getting a little extra time and cash out of UNC just to make sure Fedora is happy.

Just judging from the early straw poll (by which I mean reading reactions on Twitter), a lot of fans seem pretty aggravated that Fedora would be interviewing after only one season in Chapel Hill, but you can't really fault the guy - Tennessee (or probably any SEC job for that matter) is a step up from UNC in terms of profile, finances and facilities, so if Fedora keeps winning and making waves at Carolina it's realistically only a matter of time until he moves on and we try to find the next up-and-coming guy. No matter how many people try to argue that UNC can be a "career"-type job, I just don't see it happening. Until we leave the ACC for the Big SEC Mountain Twelve Conference in 2017, that is.