In a rather surprising piece of news during Sunday’s conference championship games, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are reportedly set to hire Southern Mississippi head coach Todd Monken to be the team’s offensive coordinator:
Bucs are hiring Southern Miss coach Todd Monken as their new offensive coordinator. Was WRs coach with Jaguars when Koetter coached there.
— Greg Auman (@gregauman) January 24, 2016
Going from head coach at a mid-tier college program to offensive coordinator in the NFL could be seen as a lateral move for Monken.
That’s only magnified by the fact that Buccaneers head coach Dirk Koetter is expected to be the team’s primary play caller in his first season as its head coach.
Monken was the Jacksonville Jaguars wide receivers coach from 2007-2010, the very same span that saw Koetter employed as the team’s offensive coordinator.
That’s the only professional experience Monken boasts.
Prior to taking the Southern Miss head coaching job, Monken had worked as the offensive coordinator for Oklahoma State from 2011-12 as well as multiple roles as an assistant for Louisiana Tech, Eastern Michigan and Notre Dame.
He took over what had been a winless Southern Miss program in 2013, eventually leading the team to an appearance in the Heart of Dallas Bowl this past season. Modkin was 13-25 in his three years with the Golden Eagles.