Once upon a time, Monte Kiffin introduced Mike Tomlin to Tony Dungy and the rest is history
Legendary defensive guru Kiffin passes away at 84
Excerpt from Tomlin: The Soul of a Football Coach (the unauthorized biography of Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin by John Harris from Sports Publishing).
When Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Tony Dungy needed a new secondary coach in 2001 to replace Herman Edwards, who had been hired as head coach of the New York Jets, the name Mike Tomlin was brought to his attention.
Tomlin was the cornerbacks coach at the University of Cincinnati under head coach Rick Minter, who received a phone call from Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive coordinator and longtime friend Monte Kiffin.
“My original mentor in coaching when I started at Arkansas (in 1978, as a graduate assistant) under Lou Holtz … Monte was my guy,” Minter said. “I was at NC State with Monte and Greg Robinson. Pete Carroll was our defensive coordinator. Monte and I stayed in touch through the years.
“Monte called me,” continued Minter. “They lost Herman Edwards to the Jets. He says, `I understand you’ve got this rising star as a DB coach.’
“ I said, `You must be referring to Mike Tomlin.’
“`Yeah. Mike Tomlin. Tell me about him.’
“`Monte, I’ll tell you this. If you were to bring him in for an interview, you will hire him.’”
Kiffin, who was directly involved in the hiring of six assistants who became NFL head coaches, including Tomlin, wasn’t buying it … at least, not at first.
“You have to know Monte a little bit,” said Minter. “He said, `Now wait a minute. You don’t know everything.’
“That’s a funny story between Monte and I.”
When Dungy held a meeting with Tampa Bay’s scouting department about potential coaching candidates, one name stood out:
Mike Tomlin.
“I called our scouting department in,” said Dungy, who wrote the forward for Tomlin: The Soul of a Football Coach. “… I asked, “`Can you guys give me names of people who are very, very good college coaches, good technicians, good communicators that might be able to handle this room of All-Pros and younger guys?”
Tampa Bay’s secondary room included future Pro Football Hall of Famers John Lynch and Ronde Barber.
“Two or three people mentioned Mike,” continued Dungy. “I said, `”I need to talk to this guy.”
When Kiffin invited Tomlin to Tampa for an interview, he was only 27 years old.
“I called Mike, and I said, `This is Coach Kiffin from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers,’” Kiffin said. “He didn’t believe me.”
Dungy said, “We brought him into Tampa, and in five minutes I could tell the scouts were right.
“He just came in with the idea of, `Hey, I know what I’m doing. I’m very confident, but I’m not cocky or overbearing. I have some thoughts on how you play winning football.’ It was amazing. He sat for about two hours with Monte Kiffin and our defensive staff.”
“He was outstanding in the interview,” Kiffin said. “… I call it the `it’ factor. Some guys just have it. You can feel it.”
Entering his 18th consecutive season as head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Mike Tomlin has a career record of 173-100-2 for a .633 winning percentage. At age 36, he became the youngest head coach to win a Super Bowl, a record which was later broken by Sean McVay. He holds the record for most consecutive non-losing seasons to begin a coaching career since being hired in 2007 - six years after receiving that first call from Kiffin.