ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Chris Low

Who said going back to school was a drag?

Monte Kiffin wouldn't have it any other way. It's how he wanted to finish his illustrious career, with his son, Lane, and as he says, "It's Tennessee."

	Kim Klement/US Presswire
	Vols defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin is coaching college football for the first time since 1982.

It all comes full circle for the elder Kiffin on Tuesday when the Vols open spring practice. He's the highest-paid defensive coordinator in all of college football ($1.5 million this year counting a retention bonus), and he'll also be one of the most watched.

That comes with the territory when you're one of the foremost defensive minds in football over the past two decades.

The lure of working with his son was what pulled Kiffin away from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after 13 years there, including a Super Bowl championship in 2002, and 26 years as an NFL assistant.

His last college stint was with North Carolina State as head coach from 1980-82.

"Lane was talking to several different places, and had he gone somewhere else, I don't know that I would have gone," Kiffin said. "I had a pretty good relationship with the [Bucs] owners, and even though what happened to coach [Jon] Gruden, I think I probably would have been in a pretty good position to stay.

"When Lane went for his interview with Tennessee, he said, 'Dad, what do you think about Tennessee?' I said, 'Now, that's a different deal.' He didn't get my attention until he said Tennessee."

Even then, Lane Kiffin had to turn on some of his best recruiting charm. Monte Kiffin was clearly one of the centerpieces of the staff Lane Kiffin wanted to put together, and his legendary dad was a big part of the first conversation he had with Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton.

"He's a good recruiter now," Monte Kiffin said of his son. "He recruited Ed Orgeron and recruited Lance Thompson away from Nick Saban. He's going to do the same thing with the players. We just got a late start this year."

The transition has been a little odd for Monte Kiffin, getting used to all the time restrictions with the players and not even being able to work with them the past few months.

"In the pros, you've got them in the offseason," said the 69-year-old Kiffin, still a ball of energy. "You just can't do it here. You may have to cut back on some of the things you want to do with the defense because of the time. The players can't learn it. They just don't have as much time."

Kiffin's not making any predictions on how his famed "Tampa 2" defense will do at the college level. It's a defense renowned for utilizing speed over size, taking linebackers and turning them into cover guys and pressuring the quarterback from every angle imaginable.

It's a defense he says Tony Dungy was running when they were together on the Minnesota defensive staff in the early 1990s, and it rose to fame in 2002 with the Super Bowl title.

The prerequisites are pretty simple if you're going to play defense for Kiffin.

"You have to play hard, and you have to be a team guy," he said, echoing what one of his favorite players with the Buccaneers used to say.

"Derrick Brooks had a saying that 'Buc Ball' wasn't for everybody. It's going to be the same way here at Tennessee. We're going to find the guys who are going to do it the right way."

Working for your son can provide an interesting dynamic. We've seen it the other way around quite often in college football -- Skip Holtz working for Lou Holtz, Steve Spurrier Jr. working for Steve Spurrier and Jeff Bowden working for Bobby Bowden.

The results haven't always been flattering.

Monte Kiffin doesn't see any issues working for his son. He calls Lane "coach," and Lane calls him "Dad."

Recently, the younger Kiffin joked about the situation when he quipped, "I don't know what I'm going to do if he's late for a staff meeting. I called mom, and that didn't work."

One of the differences in this setup, though, is that Monte Kiffin is on the defensive side and Lane Kiffin is on the offensive side. And in many ways, Monte Kiffin thinks Southern California coach Pete Carroll has helped to shape his son from a football sense more than he has.

Monte Kiffin also dismisses the notion that Lane Kiffin, only 33, started his coaching career on third base and had more doors open up for him because he happened to be Monte Kiffin's son.

"He worked his way up under Pete and grew up through the ranks, and I wasn't there," Monte Kiffin said. "I'm a defensive guy. If he was a defensive guy, you might say that. He's an offensive guy, though, and Pete Carroll is a defensive guy, so Lane's done a lot of this on his own."

As polarizing as Lane Kiffin has been at times around the SEC ever since landing the Tennessee job, Monte Kiffin says his son hasn't just been a bull in a china shop. In short, he's learned as he's gone.

Monte Kiffin was as disappointed as anybody to see Lane Kiffin stick his foot in his mouth with the comments about Urban Meyer back in February. But like any dad, he's also quick to point out that the whole thing was blown out of proportion and that Lane isn't the arrogant blowhard he's been made out to be by some.

"I didn't have to pull him aside. He knew he made a mistake," Monte Kiffin said. "It's just one of those things that got away from him, the whole Urban Meyer thing. Lane was brought up to respect other coaches. He totally respects older coaches and has some old school about him.

"It's just that there were a lot of people there at the breakfast, and he got excited and carried away. I know he didn't intend for it to come out like Urban Meyer was a cheater or anything like that. He didn't raise his hand and say, 'You're a cheater.' But, again, you just have to be careful."

Monte Kiffin is careful about making any early judgments when it comes to his first Tennessee defense. He gets his first collective look at his personnel on Tuesday afternoon on Haslam Field.

He knows he has a great player in safety Eric Berry, but he's concerned about his depth, particularly up front.

"We have some good players here," Monte Kiffin said. "To win in this league, you have to have a lot of good players. We'll put in the defense and see what it looks like and how fast they learn it. It still gets back to the players.

"When Lane was hired, I told him, 'The good news is that you got the head job at Tennessee. The bad news is ... have you checked your schedule?'"