(AP) -- When Dennis Felton left Georgia in 2009, the coaching lifer needed some time away.

He had just spent six years trying to pull the cratered Bulldogs program out of the depths created by an academic fraud scandal under previous coach Jim Harrick, and the daily grind of coaching his team while being caught in a power struggle between the school president and athletic director had worn him down.

"I wanted to be away. I was burnt out after my experience with Georgia," Felton said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. "I wanted a break. I felt like I needed a break. It was the first time in my life I had total flexibility to do whatever I wanted to do."