Lane Kiffin talks Ole Miss football at SEC Media Days
Watch Ole Miss football coach Lane Kiffin speak at SEC Media Days
I was saddened last week to learn about the death of Monte Kiffin.
Monte, who was 84, was a treasure in so many ways – great defensive mind, great person – and I was fortunate to be around him for many years in the ’90s when he was with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers where he served as defensive coordinator for 13 seasons under Tony Dungy and Jon Gruden. I’m also going to use his first name in this story because when sports fans think of Kiffin these days, they think of Lane, his son and the current head football coach at Ole Miss.
Lane once was the head football coach at Florida Atlantic and he added his dad to the coaching staff where he worked from 2017-19, more as a defensive consultant than anything. Sort of like Michael Corleone having his father as his consigliore.
In those three seasons, the Owls won two Conference USA titles and went 26-13.
Monte stayed in the background at FAU, but there were numerous times he held court for the media who covered the Bucs 30 years ago, explaining the Cover 2 defense that made Tampa Bay a playoff contender and a Super Bowl champion and helped put Derrick Brooks, Warren Sapp, John Lynch and Ronde Barber into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Make no mistake – the defense was the key to that success. With a better offense, the Bucs would have won at least one other Super Bowl back then.
But there is one conversation with Monte that I want to share, a conversation that helps explain who he was and why I miss the pre-internet, pre-iPhone era.
One night after hitting the Tampa Jai Alai fronton, fellow Tampa Tribune sports writer Pat Yasinskas and I headed for The Press Box, Tampa’s oldest sports bar. We had just sat down and ordered a couple of beers when we noticed Monte sitting in the dining room all by himself, watching Nebraska (his alma mater) playing a football game on the West Coast. Back then, there was not the plethora of cable/satellite/streaming channels so if you wanted to watch a game outside your area, you headed for the nearest sports bar.
At the time, Pat and I were covering the Bucs; I was the beat writer, Pat was my backup. Of course we walked over and started talking to him. Monte invited us to join him and the next thing you knew, he was talking about the Cornhuskers defense and then quickly shifting into talking about defense in general.
He starting using napkins to draw up schemes and formations. It turned into an impromptu class on the Cover 2 and it was fascinating to hear the master explain it all with illustrations.
Of course, the conversation was off the record and none of us cared. Those diagrams ended up in the garbage and we said good night and headed out.
The unfortunate thing is that something like that could never happen today – coaches are much more guarded with the media and many in the media could not wait to post something on X or Instagram about what the coach just told them.
But we learned a lot that night in the Press Box, helping us write about the Bucs defense and what was going on behind the scenes. It was similar in that we were “allowed” to watch practices back then. There was an understanding that we could not write about the plays they were running and only could write about other things we witnessed – such as injuries or lineup changes – once we cleared it with the head coach.
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Once had an executive sports editor at another paper scold the Tampa Bay area media for not reporting what we saw at those practices or to tell the team that if we watched practice, we could write whatever we wanted. And, by the way, we want a copy of your playbook, your game plans and your pre-game speech.
Bottom line was that we did see things at practice that aided our coverage of the games; a new play that was not working at practice but suddenly clicked on game day, or a player hobbling around all week and able to tough it out and play on Sunday. It’s why those who broadcast NFL and college football meet with the coaches and players ahead of time so when they are covering those games, they have all the background and insight they need.
So, I smile when I think of that night at the Press Box, talking to a defensive genius who had all the time in the world for two sports scribes who were the better for it.