Jaguars hire Monte Kiffin as defensive assistant

On Monday, the Jaguars announced they had hired 76 year old Monte Kiffin as a defensive assistant.  Kiffin has been a coach in the NFL for 28 years, where he has been a defensive coordinator for 17 of those years. He is best known for  spending 13 seasons as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive coordinator from 1996-2008, where he turned the Tampa Bay unit into one that was one of the top ranked in the for almost a decade.  During his time with Tampa Bay, he coached a pair of future Hall of Famers in linebacker Derrick Brooks and defensive tackle Warren Sapp.

In addition to his time with Tampa Bay, he has nearly a half-century of football coaching experience, and he got his first job as a defensive coordinator in 1973 with the University of Nebraska.  While he was the defensive coordinator for the Buccaneers from 1996 to 2008 season, he became known as the father of what is now referred to as the “Tampa 2 defense”, and he’s also spent time as the defensive coordinator of the Cowboys, Saints and Vikings. He also coached on the college level at Arkansas, Tennessee and most recently at USC.

Even when Kiffin was retired last year , he stayed involved  as a sort of unofficial consultant for the Jaguars. He first started visiting the Jaguars during there training camp last July, and head coach Gus Bradley asked him to help when the Jaguars started a search for a new defensive coordinator for the 2016 season. The team ultimately decided to promote Todd Wash to become the next defensive coordinator.