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Football legend Monte ‘Pops’ Kiffin was son Lane’s ‘cheat code to get going’ in coaching

Ben Garrettby:Ben Garrett•07/11/24•

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Monte Kiffin — the legendary football coach and father of Lane, the fifth-year Ole Miss head coach — has passed away.

Ole Miss announced the news Thursday afternoon. Kiffin was 84 and went peacefully while in Oxford, where he primarily spent his final years. He was surrounded by family and friends.

“He’s free of pain and smiling down on us from above,” Lane’s son, Knox, said in the university statement.

Kiffin spent 13 years with the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers as a defensive coordinator from 1996-2008. They finished Top 10 in the league every season but one. He also had one-year stints in Minnesota, New Orleans and Dallas.

Kiffin’s in the Buccaneers Ring of Honor.

“I was fortunate to have a head start (in football) with my dad,” Lane said during his stop by the Ole Miss Spirit’s ‘Ivey League podcast in the spring. “When other kids were going through normal kids stuff, I’m sitting in position meetings in the NFL and watching coaches draw plays on the board.”

Lane said Monte always had time for his kids, however.

“He was awesome,” he said. Ole Miss has produced the third-best record in the SEC since he was hired. “He was always coaching, but then he was teaching and coaching at home, too, with us. He was amazing. He’d spend all day working, and then he’d rush to the field where we were having baseball or football practices and come help coach our teams when we were little.”

RELATED: Legendary coach Monte Kiffin, father of Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin, dies at 84

Monte, while retired, was actively involved at Ole Miss. 

Lane’s Rebels won a program-record 11 games last season. Monte, a former defensive lineman and DL coach, routinely sat in on the group’s position meetings. 

Monte was even a captain for Red Team in the 2023 Grove Bowl.

“The connections that you have from having a dad like that, just very grateful,” Lane Kiffin said. “I had a cheat code to get going.”

Monte Kiffin spent some 30 years in the NFL. He’s the longest-tenured coach in Buccaneers franchise history. Among his pupils were Pro Football Hall of Famers Warren Sapp, Derrick Brooks, Ronde Barber and John Lynch.

Kiffin also served as an assistant coach with the Packers, Bills, Vikings, Saints and Jaguars. He was the head coach at North Carolina State from 1980-82. 

Kiffin was an assistant for Lane at three different stops.

His youngest son, Chris, is currently the defensive line coach for the Cleveland Browns. Chris previously served as Ole Miss defensive line coach under former head coach Hugh Freeze.

“I always had a ton of respect for Lane’s dad, Monte,” legendary coach Nick Saban said. Saban’s background, like Kiffin’s, was on the defensive side. He retired earlier this off-season. “He visited (Alabama) a few times when Lane was here, and I just think he’s a wonderful man.

“What he did to impact the game is probably as significant as anybody I know. He was really the first coach I remember that actually coordinated fronted coverage, where you over-shift the front one way, then balance the coverage back the other way. And it tied it together in a way that was very, very effective. He gets a lot of credit when he was in Tampa for Tampa 2, which I think he was the first person to do that.” 

Kiffin brought the Tampa 2 to Tony Dungy’s coaching staff in 1996. The Buccaneers improved from 27th in total defense to 11th in his debut season.

The rest is history.

“Pops is a great guy,” star Ole Miss defender and ‘Ivey League’ host Jared Ivey said. “He sits in on the d-line meetings. Pops is a d-line guy. He’s always giving his two cents (like how) the ’N’ in Nebraska stands for knowledge. 

“I love having pops around. He’s awesome.”

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