The Kiffin debate: Can a son be his father's head coach?

December 16, 7:02 PMCollege Sports ExaminerJacob Osterhout

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Nobody puts daddy in a corner.

Monte Kiffin confirmed yesterday what most football fans have believed for weeks. He will be leaving the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the highest paid defensive coordinator in the NFL to join his son Lane Kiffin at Tennessee.

Interestingly, this comes on the heels of Virginia football coach Al Groh replacing his son Mike Groh as offensive coordinator of the Cavaliers, which wasn't a surprise either. Virginia has not finished among the top 100 Division I-A teams in total offense since Mike Groh took over for Ron Prince after the 2005 season.

Father-son coaching tandems are a bit like a family placing all its eggs in one basket. When the team is winning, everyone is happy. But if the losses start piling up, the strain is felt not only within the program, but around the family dinner table.

The Kiffin situation is unique in that a 33-year-old son will be the head coach and his 67-year-old father will be the assistant.

Coming from a household ruled by a pater familius who took orders from no one except the family dog, I cannot imagine how a son can be his father's boss, especially when that son has no college head-coaching experience. Does Lane Kiffin feel comfortable telling his father what to do? Monte Kiffin has coached for 31 more years than his son.

Then again, Monte Kiffin won't really need to be told what to do. He's a defensive genius in the NFL. The great God horse, Wikipedia, even describes Monte as "widely considered to be one of the best defensive minds in the NFL, and an elite defensive coordinator." And as we all know, Wikipedia is never wrong.

Of course, coaching in the NFL isn't the same as coaching in college and Monte hasn't coached college ball since 1982 when he was the head coach of North Carolina State, which went a modest 16-17 under his guidance.

Everyone seems to think this is a great opportunity for the Kiffin family to work together, including Tampa Bay Bucs coach John Gruden.

"I think we all respect his situation. We had a pretty good indication that he was going to join his son," Gruden said on Monday. "It's a great reunion, I think, for the Kiffin family. I'm happy for him."

And, in a perfect orange world -- in which the Volunteers win an SEC championship and compete for a national championship right off the bat -- this is a great situation.

But we all know the world isn't perfect and there are always struggles. (This rule does not seem to apply to Urban Meyer, who hasn't lost since the Children's Crusade of 1212.) If the Tennessee defense struggles Lane Kiffin will be forced to choose between his team and his family, like Virginia's Al Groh. And just like Groh, Kiffin will choose his team and have to tell the press that his daddy is pursuing opportunities elsewhere.

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