A person with direct knowledge of the situation says Oregon will hire Mario Cristobal as its head coach.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because a deal and announcement were still being finalized. Cristobal was offensive coordinator at Oregon this past season and was named interim coach on Tuesday when Willie Taggart left to become coach at Florida State.

NBC Sports Northwest was first to report Oregon had decided to promote Cristobal.

Before coming to Eugene, Oregon, with Taggart, Cristobal had spent four seasons as offensive line coach at Alabama. He has six seasons of head coaching experience at Florida International, where he went 27-47, including 20-26 in conference, with two bowl appearances from 2007-12.

He was also an assistant at Miami, his alma mater.