Ran into an old friend this week: former defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin.

While making my way back from the NFC Championship via a flight connection in Atlanta, Kiffin -- now with the University of Tennessee -- was on the Atlanta-to-Tampa leg of my flight on his way to town for a recruiting stop.

We talked about many topics after deplaning in Tampa, but the one thing Kiffin urged me to share was how excited he was to see Raheem Morris promoted to head coach.

"How 'bout that," Kiffin said, in his typical energetic and over-caffeinated way.

Kiffin recalled how he heard about Morris from then-Jets coach Herm Edwards, who Kiffin called when looking for recommendations on a young quality-control coach. Morris arrived in Tampa a day after Jon Gruden, just as green as he could be. But he had the motivation to learn everything he could from the knowledgeable coaches around him, Kiffin said.

"I remember that day like it was yesterday," he said.

Regarding Jon Gruden's dismissal, Kiffin said he never saw it coming, just like everyone else. He even asked whether anything had happened since he left town that would have indicated this was coming. I assured him no one did or said anything that would have brought me to that conclusion before Friday evening.

Lastly, Kiffin mentioned an interesting observation he made, one he said he shared with linebacker Derrick Brooks in a phone conversation on Monday -- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.

On Saturday, Morris -- an African-American -- was named head coach in Tampa Bay. On Sunday, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, who also is black, advanced to the Super Bowl. And on Tuesday, Barack Obama was sworn in as the nation's first black president. The irony wasn't lost on Kiffin.

"To me," he said, "that says a lot when you look at all that."