IRVING, Texas — To give Monte Kiffin’s unusual hiring as Cowboys defensive coordinator some perspective, consider Tom Coughlin — the NFL’s oldest head coach at age 67 — was still a player at Syracuse when Kiffin started coaching in 1966.
Nearly 50 years later, Coughlin’s Giants will find out Sunday night if the old dog Kiffin has taught the Cowboys’ porous defense any new tricks.
“It’s a new start here and a new season, and when you’ve got football and coaching in your blood like I do, that’s always exciting,” said the 73-year-old father of USC coach Lane Kiffin, his head dripping in sweat after practice yesterday in the unforgiving Texas sun.
Jerry Jones’ decision last winter to replace Rob Ryan with Kiffin came from so far out of left field the Giants were left scrambling to get up to speed on the noted former Buccaneers defensive play-caller going into this weekend’s season opener at AT&T Stadium.
Kiffin supposedly retired from the NFL after the 2008 season, spending the ensuing years coaching defense for his son at Tennessee and USC as he transitioned to what many on the pro level thought would be comfortable retirement.
As a result, Eli Manning and the Giants admit they were forced to dust off old Tampa Bay film and locate tapes from Kiffin’s two recent college stops after Jones brought Kiffin in to revive a Dallas defense that never lived up to Rob Ryan’s bluster in his two seasons as coordinator.
“Because of him, we’ve had to watch a lot of different teams and different leagues to get a feel for what we might get from [Kiffin],” Manning said. “It’s been a lot of preparation.”
The Cowboys haven’t been far behind when it comes to getting acclimated to Kiffin, whose arrival with his trusty 4-3 defensive scheme marks something of a sea change in the recent history of the franchise.
Dallas hasn’t run the 4-3 as its primary defensive look since Bill Parcells arrived in 2003 and switched the Cowboys to a 3-4 while loading up his drafts with players best suited to that system.
Jones stayed with the 3-4 even after Parcells left, but three consecutive seasons without a playoff berth — a drought that could be blamed plenty on a dreadful defense — prompted the Cowboys owner to see if a switch back to the 4-3 could make a difference.
Jones might have found the perfect match in the highly respected Kiffin, whose famed “Tampa 2” coverage strategy with the 4-3 helped power the Buccaneers to a Super Bowl crown in 2003.
The main questions about Kiffin are how much stamina he has at 73 and whether the passing-game explosion and arrival of the read option in the five years he was away means the NFL has passed him by.
Injuries aren’t helping Kiffin’s cause, at least so far. The Cowboys will be without top defensive tackle Jay Ratliff (groin) on Sunday and might get only a few snaps from standout end Anthony Spencer (knee), so their front seven is a bit of a mess at the moment.
Nevertheless, Kiffin sounds rejuvenated and ready to have the same effect on Dallas’ defense.
“It’s time to go out there and have them play,” he said. “This is for real. The last time I checked, they’re going to be counting from here on out. I can’t wait to get started.”