Purdue Interviews Cincinnati Head Coach Butch Jones

University of Cincinnati head coach Butch Jones interviewed with Purdue  on Sunday.

Jones earned a share of the Big East title this week for the second straight year and has won 19 games over the past two seasons for the Bearcats, but could leave the program one year after signing a three-year extension.

One of the hottest coaching candidates in the country, Jones has drawn interest from Kentucky in November before they hired Mark Stoops, and is also drawing interest from Colorado and will meet with the school today.

Purdue went 6-6 this season, but that wasn’t enough to save Danny Hope’s job as he was fired at the end of the regular season.

Purdue has stated that they are willing to spend money to get the right guy to lead the program into the future after being ranking at the bottom of spending on coaches last season.  Hope earned less than $1 million last season while Jones is scheduled to make $1.6 million at Cincinnati in 2013.

I would expect a starting salary of $2 million for Jones that would gradually escalate with each year of the contract to get him to walk away from the Bearcats program where he has enjoyed a successful run the last two seasons.

It will be interesting to see if Jones does indeed meet with Colorado–who fired their last coach after just two seasons–or if he feels comfortable enough at Purdue to accept the job without interviewing with Colorado, which may be one of the worst FBS programs.

The Boilermakers will play in the Heart of Dallas Bowl on New Year’s Day, but even if Jones accepts the job will not coach in the bowl game, because wide receivers coach, Pat Higgins has already been named as the interim coach for the bowl game.

I would expect Jones to make a decision as soon as today where he will be coaching in 2013.

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Patrick is a diehard Chicago sports and an avid college football fan, and the host of “The Wake-up Call,” a weekly sports show on Sportstownchicago.com airing live on Wednesday mornings from 8-10. View his show’s website here.