Longtime NFL assistant coach and defensive mastermind Monte Kiffin dies at age 84

TAMPA, Florida: Longtime NFL and college assistant coach Monte Kiffin, whose Tampa Bay defences were consistently among the best in the league, passed away on Thursday. He was eighty-four.

Kiffin passed away in Oxford, Mississippi, where his son Lane is the Rebels’ coach, surrounded by family and friends, according to the Ole Miss football department.

Kiffin, a former Vikings draft selection, assisted coaches Jerry Burns and Dennis Green from 1986 to 1989 and 1991 to 1994. In 1991, Burns’ final season as head coach of the Vikings, Kiffin served as defensive coordinator. However, after Tony Dungy succeeded Green as coordinator, Kiffin went back to coaching linebackers.

After Kiffin permanently left the Vikings in 1995 to take a position as defensive coordinator with the Saints, he later accepted the same position with Tampa Bay after Dungy was named Buccaneers coach. Under Dungy and Jon Gruden, he worked for 13 seasons, creating the incredibly effective Tampa 2 defensive strategy and leading the team to its first Super Bowl victory.

“As a coach, Monte was a true innovator who got the best out of his players and helped create one of the signature defences of the early 2000s,” the Buccaneers’ ownership group, the Glazer family, said in a statement. Three years ago, Kiffin was inducted into the team’s Ring of Honour.

“All of his players responded well to his passionate and energizing leadership style, and he played a significant role in both our first Super Bowl victory and the careers of Hall of Famers like Warren Sapp, Derrick Brooks, John Lynch, and Ronde Barber,” the Glazers continued. “Monte was gracious, kind, sincere, and always had a positive attitude off the field.” He held great significance for both our family and the Buccaneers organization.

NFL defensive player of the year was awarded to Sapp in 1999 and to Brooks in 2002, when Tampa Bay defeated the Oakland Raiders in the Super Bowl with the best defence in the league.

Tampa Bay’s defence led the NFL in fewest points allowed per game (17.5) during his time with the Bucs. They also placed second in terms of takeaways (293) and yards allowed per game (286.8), third in terms of interceptions (249), and tenth in terms of sacks (503).

The 2002 Bucs defence, led by Brooks, Sapp, Lynch, Barber, and Simeon Rice, became the first team since the 1985 Chicago Bears, who won the Super Bowl, to lead the league in the same season for the fewest points allowed (196), yards allowed per game (252.8), and interceptions (31).

Kiffin, a native of Lexington, Nebraska, was a defensive assistant under Bob Devaney and a lineman on the University of Nebraska’s 1970 and 1971 championship teams, which went undefeated.

Over the course of a career spanning more than 50 years, Kiffin He served as an NFL assistant with the Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers, Buffalo Bills, and New York Jets in addition to working at Arkansas.

Following his departure from the Bucs, he primarily worked for his son Lane while attending Tennessee, Southern California, Florida Atlantic, and Ole Miss for college. Lane Kiffin is a graduate of Bloomington Jefferson.