LSU's Porter accepts offer to be Memphis coach

BATON ROUGE, La. -- An LSU official says Tigers assistant Larry Porter has accepted an offer to become the next head coach at Memphis.

The official spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because Porter did not plan to inform the Tigers' players of his decision until after Saturday night's game against Arkansas.

Memphis officials have scheduled a news conference for Sunday, but athletic department spokesman Bob Winn said Saturday only that the announcement "pertains to the football program."

Memphis (2-10) completed its season with a 33-30 overtime loss against Tulsa on Friday. Coach Tommy West was fired earlier in the month, but finished out the season. He was 49-61 in nine seasons as Tigers coach.

Porter, a former Memphis running back, is LSU's running backs coach and a top recruiter for the program.

"Coach Porter has been a great influence and a great coach for me," LSU running back Trindon Holliday said. "He has helped me grow from a young boy when I got here four years ago into a young man. He has taught me a lot of valuable things on and off the field since I have been here at LSU.

"I think he is going to be a great head coach. He has all the tools to be a very successful head coach and win a lot of games."

He has been with LSU for five seasons, coming over from Oklahoma State with coach Les Miles in 2005.

Porter played four seasons at Memphis and finished his career in 1993 with 2,194 yards rushing. He ranks sixth in school history in rushing and fourth in rushing touchdowns with 20.

He started his coaching career at Tennessee-Martin in 1998.