Monte Kiffin

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Monte Kiffin (born February 29, 1940 in Lexington, Nebraska), who close friends and family call Kiff, is an American football coach in the NFL. He currently serves as defensive coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Kiffin is widely considered to be one of the best defensive minds in the NFL, and an elite defensive coordinator. His defensive philosophy is one of the most influential in modern college and pro football. His son Lane Kiffin is currently the head coach of the Oakland Raiders.

[edit] Early years

Monte Kiffin is a native of Lexington, Nebraska. From 1959-1963, Kiffin was an offensive and defensive tackle at the University of Nebraska. After a brief stint as a defensive end for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Kiffin returned to Nebraska as a defensive coach. In 1977, he moved to the University of Arkansas, and then in 1980, he got his one and only head coaching job at North Carolina State.

He then began a series of short stints in the NFL for the Green Bay Packers, Buffalo Bills, Minnesota Vikings (twice), New York Jets, and New Orleans Saints. In 1996, he became the defensive coordinator for the Bucs.

After Tony Dungy was dismissed by the Buccaneer front office following the 2001 season, Kiffin was persuaded by incoming head coach Jon Gruden to remain in Tampa and continue to run his defense. Kiffin had been interviewed for a head coaching position with the San Francisco 49ers. With the seamless transition on defense allowing the new coaching staff to focus intently on a more potent offensive philosophy, the result was an immediate balance between offense and defense that carried the Buccaneers to the organization's first championship in Super Bowl XXXVII on January 26, 2003 in San Diego, California.

[edit] Defensive philosophy

Monte Kiffin is the mastermind behind the Tampa 2 scheme, which is a slight modification of Tony Dungy's Cover 2. His defensive philosophy has several hallmarks.

• Speed over size and strength. Coordinators that employ Kiffin-style defenses, such as former Texas Longhorns defensive coordinator and current Iowa State Cyclones head coach Gene Chizik or former Texas Longhorns defensive coordinator and current Syracuse Orange head coach Greg Robinson, will often replace linebackers with safeties and linemen with linebackers in order to put more speed on the field, an approach known as spinning down. In particular, linebackers must be able to cover receivers; in the Tampa 2 scheme, one linebacker frequently drops back into pass protection, turning what looks like a Cover 2 defense into a Cover 3. Kiffin's defenses also employ large but quick defensive/nose tackles as run-stoppers.
• Preventing scores over preventing yardage. A Kiffin coordinator doesn't care how many yards an offense gains, as long as the team doesn't score, an approach known as bend-but-don't-break.
• Multiple defenses from one look. Kiffin-style defenses try to use the same personnel (or the same kind of personnel) at all times, so that the offense cannot adjust its play call based on the alignment of the defensive personnel.
• Attacking and causing turnovers. Kiffin-style defenses focus on getting the ball away from the offense by stripping the ball away from the ball carrier or reading the quarterback to make an interception. The risk is that if the ball is not stripped or intercepted, then the ball carrier on offense has a better chance of gaining more yards or scoring; the reward is that the offensive drive is stopped without a score more often, frequently giving good field position.

[edit] External links

• Official Biography

Preceded by Rusty Tillman

Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive coordinators 1996–present

Succeeded by Current Coordinator

Preceded by Bo Rein

North Carolina State University Head Football Coach 1980–1982

Succeeded by Tom Reed