After leading Southern Miss to a 9-5 record in his third season, Southern Miss head coach Todd Monken is heading to Tampa Bay as offensive coordinator.
Both parties have announced the move.
Monken previously worked with Dirk Koetter (the newly appointed head coach of the Bucs) with the Jaguars when Kotter was the offensive coordinator and Monken coached the wide receivers from 2007-2010. In three seasons, Monken took over a winless (0-12) Southern Miss program, and built them into a Conference USA contender again, winning 9 games last season and leading the program to an appearance in the Heart of Dallas Bowl. Prior to arriving in Hattiesburg, Monken was the offensive coordinator / quarterbacks coach at Oklahoma State for two seasons where they lit up the scoreboard. Monken got his coaching starts at Grand Valley State (D-II - MI) and Notre Dame as a graduate assistant before moving on to stops at Eastern Michigan, Louisiana Tech, Oklahoma State, and LSU before the previously mentioned stops with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Oklahoma State, and his first head coaching job at Southern Miss. The past few weeks were filled with some chatter in coaching circles that Monken may be on the move to the league.
Southern Miss is now in the tough position of conducting a coaching search just two weeks before national signing day.
Monken's move moves the needle to 28 head coaching changes in the 2015-2016 cycle, and Southern Miss is the only job currently unfilled.
Stay tuned to The Scoop to see how this one plays out.