Jerry Jones couldn’t bring himself to fire Monte Kiffin, but at least he admitted a mistake and demoted the man.
The Dallas Cowboys on Tuesday announced changes to their coaching staff. Scott Linehan, who was officially hired on Tuesday, was named the passing game coordinator. Kiffin was demoted from defensive coordinator to assistant head coach/defense. Taking over as defensive coordinator will be Rod Marinelli, who was the team’s defensive line coach.
Marinelli getting promoted must have been in the works for several weeks. You may recall that Lovie Smith was interested in hiring Marinelli as his defensive coordinator in Tampa, but the Cowboys reportedly would not let him out of his contract. It’s generally accepted practice for teams to let coaches interview for other jobs so long as they’re promotions. Marinelli probably would have made a fuss about this had Dallas not promised him he would be promoted.
One could see this move coming. Even though Jones said after the season that he wasn’t going to fire coaches, you knew he couldn’t go into another season with Kiffin as his DC. Not only was Monte’s defense so bad at USC that he was essentially forced out, but his defense was last in the NFL in yards allowed and 26th in scoring this season. Jones even admitted he made a mistake by firing Rob Ryan and replacing him with Kiffin. Kiffin’s seriously lucky Jones kept him on the payroll.
