Will Monte Kiffin Leave Tampa Bay to Join His Son at Tennessee?

In the wake of Lane Kiffin's hiring at the university of Tennessee, reports began to surface that Buccaneers defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin -- Lane's dad -- would be joining him to run the Volunteers defense. It appears that there's plenty of fire to go along with that smoke, as ESPN's Chris Mortensen mentioned today that Kiffin is leaning towards going that route.

There are only two possible holdups to such a deal. The first one being, (Monte) Kiffin is still under contract with the Buccaneers after signing a contract extension a year ago.

The second possible hold up is: are we sure the Tennessee athletic director isn't a senile old man that will refuse to let (Lane) Kiffin fire the current defensive coordinator to bring in his pop to coach alongside him? Okay, perhaps that's not going to happen. If you'll recall, Lane, reportedly, tried to bring Monte with him out to Oakland prior to this season, until Al Davis decided that Rob Ryan was the greatest defensive coordinator ever. Obviously, that's not going to be a problem here, as I'm just looking for a reason to make another Al Davis joke.

Moving on, Monte has been the defensive coordinator in Tampa Bay since the 1995 season, and has been one of the key components in developing one of the better defenses in the NFL, helping the Buccaneers go from woeful bottom-dwellers, to one of the top teams in the NFC, winning the Super Bowl following the 2002 season.

Should the Buccaneers lose Monte, reports are that they will pursue soon-to-be-former Lions head coach Rod Marinelli to replace him. Marinelli was the Buccaneers defensive line coach and assistant head coach prior to being Matt Millen's most recent (and last) sacrificial lamb of a head coach.

During his three years as Lions head coach, Detroit's defense has ranked 31st, 19th, and 22nd. Though, in fairness to Marinelli, the Lions players are, well, you all saw the game on Thanksgiving.