Lane Kiffin remembers Monte Kiffin

Lane Kiffin remembered his late father, Monte, during Ole Miss's appearance at SEC Media Days on Monday in Dallas. 

Kiffin died Thursday at 84 years old. 

"I've talked before about him being my hero. I had a middle school neighborhood friend, he said hero's not really the right term for him. It's superhero," Kiffin said. "That'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 there's very few superheroes and very few great ones that loved every one and tried to help everyone they came in touch with, forever. Whether you were big or small, wherever you were, he tried to help."

The Kiffins will hold a remembrance of life ceremony for Monte on Saturday in the Tampa era, and Lane deferred to for deep reflections of his father in a public setting. On Monday, it was about powering through the job of representing Ole Miss days after his father's passing. 

"One person said, and I thought this was very descriptive: I met him at a gas station, and although he was a stranger, he made me feel like a friend. He never wanted anybody to have a bad day or be sad, so this is me trying to do that," Kiffin said. "His first rule he put on the chalkboard to all players and coaches every day was to show up. The first rule of getting better is show up. You've got to show up and do your job. That's what I'm trying to do here."

A former offensive and defensive tackle at Nebraska, Kiffin played professionally in the NFL, Canadian Football League and Continental Football League from 1964-66, then launched a legendary coaching career at his alma mater in 1966. Kiffin coached more than 15 years at the college level, rising to become NC State's head coach from 1980-82, before revolutionizing pass coverage as an assistant at the NFL level. He coordinated defenses for the Minnesota Vikings, New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he unleashed the famed Tampa 2 defense, before entering the third chapter of his career in 2009.

Monte served as an assistant on Lane's coaching staffs at each of his stops. The elder Kiffin was Lane's defensive coordinator at Tennessee in 2009, then his assistant head coach at USC from 2010-12. 

Monte was then a defensive assistant on Lane's Florida Atlantic staff from 2017-19, then came aboard at Ole Miss as a player personnel analyst from 2020-23. Monte's younger son, Chris, was most recently the linebackers coach for the Houston Texans. 

Greg Sankey met Monte Kiffin in 2009, when the former was the SEC's associate commissioner and the latter Tennessee's defensive coordinator. "I was invited in by (then SEC commissioner) Mike Slive to sit around a table and watch to Mike and Monte tell stories about who they both knew in college football. I think that is a sign of respect that Monte earned as one of the greatest coaches in football, certainly one of the greatest assistants at the NFL level," Sankey said Monday.

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