On the spread offense –  ”The hard part is, you have to isolate the option. That’s why Tim Tebow is so interesting to me. He’s like Brandon Jacobs playing quarterback. He’s 250 pounds. He’s the strongest human being who’s ever played the position. Ever. He will kick the living [expletive] out of a defensive lineman. He’ll fight anybody. He is rare. Tebow is the kind of guy who could revolutionize the game. He’s the ‘wildcat’ who can throw. Most of the teams that have the wildcat back there, it’s Ronnie Brown, it’s Jerious Norwood, it’s whoever you want to say it is. This guy here is 250 pounds of concrete cyanide, man. And he can throw. He throws well enough at any level to play quarterback.”

On the stream of hate from former players - ”Yeah, it hurt. But I’ve also had some of the greatest phone calls that made it all worthwhile. I remember when I got the job, they weren’t real happy with where they were at that time, either. There was a lot of criticism of the last coach [Tony Dungy]. I remember when Mike Holmgren left Green Bay, they were killing him. I remember when Bill Walsh left, what Joe [Montana] said about him. So this happens. When you’re the head coach, you coach 53 people, and their wives and their girlfriends and their families and all those people. So I’m not going to worry about it. Yeah, I’m disappointed that I’m a ‘scumbag’ and that I couldn’t get along with the quarterback [when] I live my life through the quarterback. Mike Clayton has his own opinion and I respect that.”

There are some other good quotes about what he’s doing with the Tampa Bay Storm and what his plans for the future are.  Make sure to check it out.

There were reports of the same when Lane became the head coach in Oakland, but it appeared as though Monte turned him down.  This situation is a little different though.  Lane has the ability to be a fixture of Tennessee Vols football for a long time, and his father has the ability to coach with his son, and retire doing so.  Monte is 68 years old this year, so most likely he has another 6-7 years coaching football.  Why not do it with your son for a great college football program in one of the best conferences in the country?

Let’s assume Monte goes with Lane and the Bucs are forced to find a new defensive coordinator, knowing that we’ve had the same one for the last 14 seasons, who would be the top candidates?  I personally think the list is very short, and very solid, with all of these coaches having ties to the Monte Kiffin/Tony Dungy defensive regime in Tampa.  I’m going to list the guys in the order in which I happen to like them. 

Raheem Morris – Morris is a coach on the rise in the NFL coaching ranks.  The one season in the past 12 that the Bucs have struggled defensively, was when Morris vacated his defensive backs assignment with the Bucs to be the defensive coordinator for the Kansas State Wildcats.  I love this guy, he is intense, and he knows how to teach players how to play.  Being as though he is going to get looks from other teams as the defensive coordinator and we will not be able to keep him, this would be the ideal situation.  He takes over for one his true proffesors of the game in Monte Kiffing, and the Bucs don’t skip a beat moving forward.

Rod Marinelli – I truly feel bad for Rod.  The roster the Lions have assembled in the Detroit truly consists of one great offensive player (Calvin Johnson) and one great defensive player (Ernie Sims) and the rest of the team is crap.  Marinelli is certainly going to be fired when a new GM and regime take over in the offseason, and once again one of Monte Kiffin’s students will be available to run our defense. Coming back to Tampa to be our DC is just a natural progression for Marinelli.  There is one extra perk for hiring Marinelli.  We would most likely be bringing back Joe Barry (Rod’s son in law) who is currently the defensive coordinator for the Lions.  He was previously an LB coach with us.  Brining back Rod would essentially be bringing back two former assistants.  This is another situation where I don’t think the Bucs lose a step defensively or stylistically as we’ll continue to use the same defensive approach we have had for a decade. 

Larry Coyer – Jon Gruden loves Larry Coyer, it seemed like the minute he was relieved of his duties as defensive coordinator of the Denver Broncos, Gruden brought him on board to work with the Dline and be the Assistant Head Coach.  His title currently makes him an obvious front runner if the DC spot were to open up because of the departure of Monte.  He has brought some elements to our defense that I love currently, namely the rotation of defensive lineman that all possess multi-position versatility.  The Jimmy Wilkerson hybrid types were not part of our defense before Coyer got here, and I think they bring a new element to the Tampa 2.  I tend to think we could move towards a more multi faceted defense if Coyer were to take over incorporating some 3-4, some standard man 4-3 and our traditional Tampa 2. 

Herm Edwards – I’m not positive if Herman Edwards will be the fall guy in Kansas City after the season or not, but if he is, the Buccaneers will gladly bring him back.  He doesn’t seem like the best head coach, but there are tons of assistants in every sport who just aren’t cut out to to be the head man, but are one of the best in the business as assistants.  To me, this is Herman Edwards.  Another Monte Kiffin/Tony Dungy disciple, Herm would energize the fan base just like Marinelli would.  The fans around the area hate seeing the Dungyites leave, and this would certainly assuage the loss of Monte, as least to the fans.  Herm would most likely be running an identical defense to what we run now. 

I would imagine it would be kind of pointless to look outside these 4 guys as they all have huge ties to the Tampa area.   Anyone of these guys would allow us to lose an icon such as Monte and make the transition easy.