John McKay was the last coach to go 0-for a full NFL season three decades ago when he was charged with running the expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1976. McKay, of course, spent the 15 years before that coaching in college at USC.

That's just another wouldn't-you-know in this amazingly symmetrical season with the Lions, who employ more ex-Bucs than any team in the NFL and have fallen to the Saints and Colts – two other teams in the record books for futility – on their way to 0-15.

Lions coach Rod Marinelli grew up in southern California watching McKay's teams, spent one season coaching the Trojans defensive line, and got to know McKay a bit during his 10 seasons as an assistant in Tampa before McKay passed away in 2001.

Marinelli said he never asked McKay about the 0-14 season he endured 32 years ago and his lasting memories of McKay are as "a great football coach" at USC.

“It was awesome growing up in that era down there," Marinelli "Pitch and power and blast; they used to call it the blast play. Those are good names. It was physical. They were physical. He brought the I-formation in and really turned that into a physical running place. It took him a little time, but he got that going.”