Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin will be joining his son Lane at Tennessee, sources told ESPN senior NFL analyst Chris Mortensen.
"It's all just speculation. That's all it is," Monte Kiffin said after Tampa Bay's 23-20 victory over New Orleans. "I can honestly tell you it's speculation, just like it came up with the Raiders, it came up two years ago, it came up last year.
"It's not fair to our players. Tonight isn't about Monte Kiffin. It's about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, our defensive football team, Jon Gruden, our offense, our special teams and a great, great win. And we're 9-3."
One of the stumbling blocks that led to the demise of Lane Kiffin in Oakland with Al Davis was that Kiffin wanted to fire defensive coordinator Rob Ryan and hire his father Monte away from the Bucs. He was the highest paid defensive coordinator in the NFL.
Tennessee has reached an agreement with Lane Kiffin to take over as coach, with an announcement planned for Monday.
Sources confirm to ESPN that his 68-year-old father plans to join his son after the Bucs' season.
Monte Kiffin once introduced a more aggressive national recruiting plan to USC and he recruited ex-Vols great Peyton Manning, who was consulted by his alma mater and signed off on Tennessee's hiring of Kiffin, sources told ESPN.
ESPN senior NFL analyst Chris Mortensen and ESPN.com's Pat Yasinskas contributed to this report.