The world lost a spark on July 11, 2024, when Monte Kiffin passed away at the age of 84. While he made a significant impact during his professional career as a football coach, his legacy spreads beyond the field. Coaches and players, including Kiffin’s son, Ole Miss HC Lane Kiffin, remembered him at SEC Media Days this week.
Monte Kiffin’s Legacy Extends Far Beyond the Football Field
Ole Miss announced the news on X, saying Kiffin was “surrounded by family and friends” in Oxford, Mississippi. The statement also read, “As his grandson Knox said, he’s free of pain and smiling down on us from above.”
Kiffin joined his son Lane’s staff at Ole Miss as a player personnel analyst in 2020 but stepped away last year as his health began to fail. He would still occasionally come to practices to observe from a golf cart, but he no longer operated in an official capacity.
Despite SEC Media Days taking place less than a week after his father’s passing, the younger Kiffin showed up — just as Monte would’ve wanted him to.
“I’ve talked before about [him] being my hero. I had a high school neighborhood friend, middle school friend, and he said hero is not really the right term for him, it’s superhero.
“It’s what he was to the people that he touched. He used this term, and now I’m using this term in description of him, because I feel like there is very few superheros and very few great ones that loved everyone and tried to help everyone they came in touch with forever. Whether you were big or small, wherever you were, he tried to help.
“One person said, which I think is telling for those of you who don’t know him, and I thought this was very descriptive. He said, ‘I met him in a gas station. Although he was a stranger to me, he made me feel like a friend.’ That was him.
“So he never wanted anybody to have a bad day or sad day, so this is me trying to do that. I appreciate everything and [there have] already been a lot of questions about it. I understand that. I’m appreciative of that. But as he would say, his first rule when you put on the chalkboard back in the day to all players and coaches was to show up. First rule of getting better is you got to show up. Show up and do your job. That’s what I’m trying to do here.”
Current Rebels DE Jared Ivey and QB Jaxson Dart also attended the even in Dallas, Texas, and took a moment to recognize the beloved figure in the program.
“Pops was awesome, man,” Ivey said. “He was a D-line guy, and he would come watch pass rush, and after we had rushed and everybody went he would call everybody and huddle up and tell a story. He would get us hyped up. … He was around a lot, so it was tough.
“My mom loved him. She had a great conversation with him whenever I came on my visit. He kind of pulled her to the side and let her know the type of guy Lane is and kind of the stuff that he instilled in coach Kiffin. Love the guy.”
Although Kiffin was a defensive coach through and through, he never ignored the other side of the ball and made a lasting impression on Dart when he visited Ole Miss as a four-star recruit in 2021.
“Pops was on my visit here. From Day 1 he was somebody that I was surrounded with,” Dart said. “Definitely someone that meant a lot to this program. He instills everything when it comes down to coaching, and I think he was Coach Kiffin’s biggest mentor. I’ve been very grateful and honored to be in his presence and to learn from him. I know he’s in a better place.”
Kiffin is best known for fathering the Tampa 2 defense and winning Super Bowl 37 while serving as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive coordinator. His defenses consistently ranked near the top of the NFL and placed six different players on All-Pro rosters, with four of them (Derrick Brooks, Warren Sapp, John Lynch, and Ronde Barber) ultimately reaching the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The Bucs inducted Kiffin into their Ring of Honor in 2021, and just two weeks before his passing, he received the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Awards of Excellence, which has been given to individuals who “have helped drive the accomplishments of their profession, individual NFL Clubs, and the sport of pro football” since 2022.
However, only 29 of Kiffin’s 57 years of coaching football came in the NFL. After playing on the offensive and defensive line at Nebraska (1959-63), the Minnesota Vikings selected him in the 15th round of the 1964 NFL Draft. The Lexington native wasn’t able to stick on the roster, and after brief stints in the Continental Football League and the Canadian Football League, he turned his attention toward coaching.
Following two seasons as a graduate assistant under his former coach and College Football Hall of Famer Bob DeVaney, Kiffin was promoted to the Huskers’ defensive coordinator role in 1969. Just two years later, he helped Nebraska win back-to-back national championships, the program’s only other titles outside of a legendary 1990s run (1994, 1995, and 1997).
Kiffin went on to have several other collegiate stops before joining the NFL ranks (Arkansas, 1977-79; NC State, 1980-82 — his first and only head coaching role) and after (Tennessee, 2009; USC, 2010-12; FAU, 2017-19).
But no matter where he went, Kiffin brought his kind, genuine, enthusiastic, and positive personality with him. Whether coaching players on the field, speaking with fans and children off of it, or even dancing to James Brown’s “I Feel Good” with the team, he spread an energy that some people simply didn’t have in them before meeting him.
Kiffin’s influence will be felt for generations to come, not only in the halls of football history but in the hearts and minds of all who were fortunate enough to play for him, coach alongside him, know him, and enjoy his presence from a distance, as many fans have in his nearly six decades patrolling the sidelines.
The family will hold a private burial service in Lexington, Neb., but a celebration of Kiffin’s life will take place at Indian Rocks Baptist Church in Largo, Fla., on Saturday, July 20, at 1 p.m. CT.
In lieu of flowers, the family established a charitable foundation for those who wish to donate. For more details, please visit HERE.
Everything Coaches and Players Said About Kiffin at SEC Media Days
Arkansas Head Coach Sam Pittman
“I want to tell a story about Monte Kiffin. He was a defensive coordinator at Arkansas 1977, ’78, and ’79. Lou Holtz was the head coach in those three years. With his expertise of coaching defense, the Razorbacks finished 3, 11, and 8 in the national polls when Coach Kiffin was the defensive coordinator.
“1978 the Grove Ridge Runners played the Miami War Dogs, Coach Kiffin came over to the game. Now, I always knew I wanted to be a coach, and Coach Kiffin came over to the game. He was there to see Todd Berry. Todd Berry was the number one ranked quarterback in the state of Oklahoma. He was not there to see any of the Grove Ridge Runners.
“We lost the game late 21 to 16, and Charlie Cooper, our head football coach there at Grove, Coach Kiffin came in and asked could he talk to the team. He came in and said some unbelievable things about our toughness and fight and our grit.
“I remember the impact that his speech, that it made on me. I thought, you know, as I become a coach, how we can change lives and how we can be meaningful to young athletes, young people by the way that Coach Kiffin talked to us that day. I’ll never forget that as long as I live.”
Florida Head Coach Billy Napier
“This week, we lost one of the all-time greats in our profession, Monte Kiffin. I worked with Lane for three years at the University of Alabama, and I would tell you Lane coaches because of his dad and what he observed growing up. I certainly chose the profession because of my dad.
“I lost my dad seven years ago to ALS. Lane and I have been communicating throughout the week. I texted him earlier in the week. I said, I’ve been through this before, and I told him, I said, coaching is a profession where you have an opportunity to make an impact on people and leave a legacy, and his dad did just that. He made an impact because of how he treated people, the approach that he took to coaching, the way he made people feel.
“The impact isn’t linear in coaching. It’s exponential. The most important part here: Exponential impact. This is third-generation, fourth-generation impact, and that comes with the blessing and the opportunity of being in this profession that we call coaching.
“I was reading a quote this week, and I told Lane this last night when I talked to him. Inheritance is what you leave for someone. Legacy is what you leave in someone. Few did it better than Monte Kiffin. Our thoughts and prayers are with Lane and the Kiffin family as they celebrate his life this weekend in Tampa.”
Missouri Head Coach Eli Drinkwitz
“I want to start by honoring the life and legacy of Monte Kiffin. I want to send my condolences to Coach Kiffin, his brother Chris, and their family.
“You know, Coach Kiffin was the gold standard of defensive coaches in football. Obviously, the inventor of the Tampa 2. His legacy on the game has impacted a lot of coaches and a lot of great players, but he also raised two great sons, who are elite coaches in their own right.
“In a profession full of great men and great coaches, I usually refer to the elite ones as giants in the game, but I’m going to defer to what Lane said about his father and refer to Coach Kiffin as a superhero. And so the game of football lost a superhero this week, and may he rest in peace.”
South Carolina Head Coach Shane Beamer
“I got a phone call back from Monte Kiffin, which I thought was one of the coolest things. And he just spent 20 minutes talking to me on the phone. … Being the son of a coach as well, I know that relationship, and I know it’s a tough time for the Kiffin family.”
Texas Head Coach Steve Sarkisian
“When I was a young coach, my first job as a graduate assistant was at USC under Pete Carroll. There was a tight end coach there who was a young coach, as well, by the name of Lane Kiffin. His father, Monte, took me under his wing every time he came to town, and we talked football.
“I learned more about Tampa 2 than anybody, so anybody who’s playing me, please play Tampa 2 because I can tell you exactly who’s supposed to go where, how, and why because that’s how Monte Kiffin was. He was so detailed. He was a genuine man. He cared for all of those that nobody cared about.
“It’s a dear loss, not only for the sport of football, but it’s a dear loss for me, and I know for Lane, and my condolences to the Kiffin family on that.”
Texas A&M Head Coach Mike Elko
“Like many before me, I want to start by offering my condolences to Lane Kiffin and his family on the passing of his father. Coach Monte Kiffin was a legendary defensive coordinator. I was a young defensive coach when Coach Kiffin was establishing the Tampa 2 system down with the Bucs. He quickly became a defense that everyone was trying to emulate.
“I never personally crossed paths with him, but from afar, he set the standard of what defensive football should look like. Many of us over the years have tried to emulate it. The majority of us unsuccessfully. That’s probably why Lane is coaching on offense.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family through this difficult time.”
Vanderbilt Head Coach Clark Lea
“I would also like to send my heartfelt condolences to the Kiffin family with the recent passing of Monte Kiffin. Coach Kiffin certainly left his mark on our game. His contributions to the coaching profession were monumental. His legacy will continue to inspire and guide us forward.”
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