Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin publicly spoke about his father Monte on Monday for the first time since the longtime NFL coachs death on Thursday.
Kiffin made his regularly scheduled appearance at SEC media days in Dallas ahead of his fathers memorial service on Saturday and called his father a superhero. He referenced a friend he had from middle school that used the term for his father and remarked how accurate it was.
He said heros not really the right term for him, its superhero and thats what he was to the people that he touched, Lane Kiffin said at the podium on Monday. He used this term and now Im using this term in description of him because I feel like theres very few superheroes, theres very few great ones that loved everyone and tried to help everyone they came in touch with forever. Whether you were big or small, whoever you were he tried to help.
Monte passed away at the age of 84 last week. He worked for decades as an assistant coach for numerous teams in both the college and pro ranks. After he was a defensive assistant for the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2016, Monte had been serving as an assistant and analyst on Lanes staffs at Florida Atlantic and Ole Miss.
Monte Kiffin is most known for the work he did with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 1996-2008. There, his Tampa 2 defense was the leagues defensive standard as the Bucs won their first Super Bowl at the end of the 2002 season. That Super Bowl came in Jon Grudens first season as the Bucs head coach and a big reason for Tampas immediate success was because Kiffin stayed on as the teams defensive coordinator.
After parting ways with Tampa Bay at the end of the 2008 season, Monte Kiffin became the defensive coordinator for Lane at Tennessee in 2009 and moved to USC with his son in 2010. He returned to the NFL for three seasons from 2013-16 before he went back to the college ranks.
In his remarks about his dad on Monday, Lane said that he would share more at his fathers memorial service and wanted to keep his focus on the task at hand while citing his father.
He never wanted anyone to have a bad day or be sad and this is me trying to do that, Kiffin said. I appreciate everything and theres already been a lot of questions about it I understand that and Im appreciative of it but as he would say, his first rule that he would put on the chalkboard in the back to all players and coaches was to show up. First rule of getting better is to show up, show up and do your job. And thats what Im trying to do here.