TAMPA, Fla. — Monte Kiffin, the longtime NFL and college assistant coach whose Tampa Bay defenses regularly ranked amongst the league’s finest, passedaway Thursday. He was 84.
One of the designers of the ultra effective Tampa 2 defensive plan, Kiffin invested 13 seasons as defensive planner of the Bucs under previous coaches Tony Dungy and Jon Gruden from 1996 to 2008 and assisted the franchise win the veryfirst of its 2 Super Bowl titles.
The University of Mississippi football program revealed on the social media platform X that Kiffin, assoonas the head coach at North Carolina State, passedaway surrounded by household and buddies in Oxford, Mississippi, where Kiffin’s child, Lane, is coach of the Rebels.
“As a coach, Monte was a real innovator who got the finest out of his gamers and assisted develop one of the signature defenses of the early 2000s,” the Glazer household, which owns the Buccaneers and inducted Kiffin into the group’s Ring of Honor 3 years ago, stated in a declaration.
“His enthusiastic and energetic management design reso