According to the website coachingsearch.com, the Buccaneers are interviewing Ohio State defensive assistant coach Bill Sheridan on Thursday for Tampa Bay's defensive coordinator and Tampa Bay head coach Greg Schiano has spoken with Alabama offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland about the team's vacant offensive line coaching position. PewterReport.com cannot confirm this report.

Sheridan was recently hired at Ohio State by new head coach Urban Meyer to serve as the team's defensive backs coach.

“Bill Sheridan is a perfect fit for our program,” Meyer said. “His experiences in the NFL are huge. He has Midwest roots and, most importantly, he wants to be an Ohio State Buckeye. I am really impressed with him and I think he is going to be a terrific addition to our defensive staff as a coach, teacher and as a recruiter.”

Sheridan discussed joining the Buckeyes team in 2012.

“I have a refreshed perspective coming back from the NFL and getting into college coaching again,” Sheridan said. “I am really interested to study the offenses people are running in the Big Ten. The running quarterbacks are distinctly different than what you see in the NFL. It is stimulating if you enjoy the schematic part of the game, and I do.”

Sheridan has just one year of experience as a defensive coordinator for the New York Giants in 2009, but was fired after the season as the Giants lost eight of the last 11 games, and surrendered 40 points or more a franchise-record five times in one year. He was promoted from the position of linebackers coach where he served in New York from 2005-08. Sheridan left New York to serve as the Miami Dolphins' linebackers coach from 2010-11.

He also nearly has 20 years of college experience at Maine, Cincinnati, Army, Michigan State, Notre Dame and Michigan.

Should Sheridan leap to the NFL, it wouldn't be the first time a Bucs coach has taken position for a college football team, only to leave for the Bucs shortly thereafter. Tampa Bay wide receivers coach P.J. Fleck, who coached at Rutgers with Schiano, joined the staff at Northern Illinois for one day before leaving for the Bucs.

Stoutland spent last year coaching the national champion Crimson Tide offensive line after spending the previous four years serving as the offensive line coach for the Miami Hurricanes. He also coached the offensive line at Michigan State (2000-06), Syracuse (1997-99) and Cornell (1993-96).