Legendary Nebraska and NFL defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin dies at 84

But those who know the lifetime college and NFL coach best often think first about those drawings.

Lou Holtz — who hired Kiffin to be his coordinator at Arkansas in 1977 — once said Kiffin would scribble a defense on your shirt if you weren’t paying attention. Napkins, newspapers and paperback books were also fair game. More than once he detailed formations on the homework of his three children.

Kiffin died Thursday in Oxford, Mississippi, surrounded by family and friends. He was 84.

A coaching career spanning more than half a century began in Nebraska and continued to touch Husker football long after he left to serve as an assistant for eight NFL teams across 28 seasons. He became the NFL’s highest-paid assistant — signing a three-year, $5.1 million contract — after his Tampa Bay defense snagged a Super Bowl-record five interceptions en route to a title after the 2002 season. He later set the high-water mark at the college level ($1.2 million) in 2009 when he served as defensive coordinator at Tennessee for his son, Lane.

Kiffin, though, never lost his Midwest humility. A native of Lexington born Feb. 29, 1940, Kiffin was an all-state honoree in basketball and football as a tackle. Though he never earned all-conference honors at Nebraska, he lettered as a two-way tackle from 1961-63 and was a key piece of coach Bob Devaney’s first two squads.

Devaney brought back Kiffin as a grad assistant in 1966, the first of 11 seasons in Lincoln that included national championships in 1970 and 1971. When Tom Osborne became head coach in 1973, Kiffin moved to defensive coordinator and stayed through 1976.

With the Huskers, his preferred basic-assignment football on the line came to be known as the “one-gap” scheme. Size didn’t matter as much as quickness and players being where they were supposed to be. He often encouraged his defenders to play racquetball to improve their quickness.

“If he asked you if you were playing (racquetball), you’d better be in a position to say yes,” former NU lineman Bill Janssen said in 1991.

Kiffin joined Holtz in Arkansas after the 1976 season and began the career of a football-loving journeyman. His only stint as a head coach came with N.C. State (1980-82) before he jumped to the NFL as Green Bay’s linebackers coach in 1983. He made five more pro stops before Tony Dungy lured him to Tampa Bay in 1996.

The pair worked together to craft a cover-two scheme — known as the “Tampa 2” — specifically designed to neutralize the West Coast offenses running rampant in the league. Fundamentals, not size, were key.

“Having a guy like Monte is like having a Bill Walsh,” Tampa safety John Lynch told the New York Times in 2002. “I played for Walsh at Stanford, and Monte has his kind of knack for calling plays, only on the defensive side.”

Even as the Bucs were closing in on a Super Bowl, Kiffin fielded a call from then-Nebraska coach Frank Solich who was searching for a defensive coordinator. Kiffin — a former NU teammate of Solich’s in 1963 — recommended an up-and-coming Packers assistant he knew named Bo Pelini.

Kiffin was never a hotter name than after the lopsided Super Bowl win. He was a favorite to become San Francisco’s head coach the next season but Tampa coach Jon Gruden convinced him to stay.

“This guy has been in a lot of big games and been on the cutting edge of his profession for a long time,” Gruden said in 2003. “Sometimes assistant coaches, for whatever reason, don’t get nearly enough credit. This guy deserves an unbelievable amount of credit.”

Late in 2003, Kiffin was a popular speculative candidate as Nebraska Athletic Director Steve Pederson searched for a new head football coach. But he remained with the Bucs through 2008 — 13 seasons in all — before joining his son’s staff at Tennessee.

His year in Knoxville and three more with Lane at USC (2010-12) were never dominant, and the elder Kiffin returned to the NFL with Dallas in 2013-14. Retirement didn’t stick the year after that — “You can only go on so many walks with your wife on the beach,” he quipped at the time — and he spent 2016 with Jacksonville as a defensive assistant. Then he again shifted to college ball to join Florida Atlantic (2017-19), where Lane was head coach and his other son, Chris, was co-defensive coordinator.

The elder Kiffin served as a player personnel analyst for Ole Miss the past four seasons.

Through it all, the man many called “Kif” never considered retirement. Dungy would take Kiffin’s blanket and pillow and drop the temperature in the Tampa offices to encourage the assistant to go home. During an interview with Saints coach Jim Mora before the 1995 season, Kiffin got so excited talking about defense that he famously demonstrated a scheme by rearranging Mora’s office furniture.

With the Bucs, Kiffin was known for his “Nebraska jig,” a dance he did for players the night before games.

“It’s really bad, but it’s funny,” Hall-of-Fame defensive lineman Warren Sapp said at the time. “It breaks the ice for us. After a long week of preparation, Monte, with his music on, it’s just classic.”

Kiffin’s own coaching tree also includes former Tampa Bay assistants Mike Tomlin and Rod Marinelli, though Kiffin informed a throng of Super Bowl media waiting for him in 2002 that he’s “not a self-promoter.” It’s about the football, he said. It’s about the people.

“I’m not a golfer; I’m not a fisherman,” Kiffin said at the time. “I’m a football coach who loves his work and respects his profession. And I’m a Lexington, Nebraska, boy who grew up in that town of 5,000 people in a state where there is only flatlands and football.”