Bucs new OC has name floated for a college gig.

Time for a hearty laugh for a slow March Saturday afternoon (Joe had been watching DVR recordings of “Hard Knocks.”)

Bucs offensive coordinator Todd Monken’s name has been floated for the opening at the University of Illinois.

Yes, in case you are off social media, you may not know that Illinois fired it’s head coach today — what great timing, just days before spring practice — some four months after naming Bill Cubit the head coach (he was previously “interim” coach.)

The new coach at Illinois will make the third coach in two years at the august school of higher learning in the middle of the cornfields.

And if one is to believe Pete Thamel of Sports Illustrated and his throw-it-up-against-the-wall-and-see-if-it-sticks missive, Thamel floated Monken’s name as a possible new coach at Illinois.

Names for Illinois: Leslie Frazier, P.J. Fleck, Jim Tressel, Ed Warinner, Todd Monken, Brock Spack, Al Golden and Troy Calhoun.

— Pete Thamel (@SIPeteThamel) March 5, 2016

Now Joe understands Monken is from the Land of Lincoln and has ties all throughout the state. He is from the western burbs of Chicago (Wheaton) and has a family member who was very successful high school coach in the St. Louis suburbs of southern Illinois (Belleville and East St. Louis to be exact).

That doesn’t mean Monken is dumb.

When he was introduced as Bucs offensive coordinator, Monken clearly said a main reasons he took the job was to coach America’s Quarterback, Pro Bowler Jameis Winston.

So Monken is going to leave a bowl team he built (Southern Miss) to coach Jameis, and the he’s going to drop all of that to take over a sh!tshow that is the football program in Champaign?

Hell, Joe will argue Southern Miss is a better program than Illinois, maybe even a better pay grade. And if the Bucs do anything at all, Monken could be in line for an NFL head coaching gig.

And Monken is going to burn that opportunity up to take over one of the worst Power Five programs in the nation?

This is what you call a reach.