FAYETTEVILLE — The University of Arkansas football team held opponents to an average of 7.9 points in 1977 to rank third nationally in scoring defense, but the Razorbacks were even stingier against Oklahoma’s vaunted Wishbone offense.
Arkansas capped the season by beating the Sooners 31-6 in the Orange Bowl, played on Jan. 2, 1978 in Miami to finish 11-1 and ranked No. 3 in the Associated Press poll.
Monte Kiffin was in his first season as Arkansas’ defensive coordinator for Coach Lou Holtz and devised a new scheme that shut down No. 2 Oklahoma, which came into the Orange Bowl averaging 32.9 points.
The surprise Kiffin sprung on Oklahoma was having nose tackle Reggie Freeman play as an outside linebacker and shadow Sooners quarterback Thomas Lott while defensive tackles Dan Hampton and Jimmy Walker — both All-Southwest Conference players in 1977 and All-Americans as seniors in 1978 — tied up the offensive linemen and used their speed against the Sooners’ bulk to gain the advantage.
“It was ingenious what Monte Kiffin did with Reggie, and it stopped Oklahoma dead in their tracks,” said Hampton, voted into the College Sports Hall of Fame in 2024. “There’s no bigger Exhibit A of how amazingly creative Monte Kiffin was. He was amazing.”
Kiffin, who helped Arkansas to a 30-5-1 record as defensive coordinator from 1977-79 before becoming North Carolina State’s head coach and going on to a lengthy NFL coaching career, died Thursday at age 84 in Oxford, Miss. Since 2020 he had been an analyst for his son, Ole Miss Coach Lane Kiffin.
“It was a shock to see that Monte had passed on,” Walker said. “I just remember him being so full of energy at Arkansas, and even after he left.
“Football lost a great coach and a great person.”
Kiffin was in the midst of his 13-year run as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ defensive coordinator when he spoke to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette at the Senior Bowl in January 2005 about his time with the Razorbacks.
Designing the “Tampa 2” defense is Kiffin’s claim to fame along with helping the Buccaneers beat the Oakland Raiders 48-21 in Super Bowl XXXVII in January 2003, but he clearly enjoyed talking about Arkansas.
“I used to love playing in Little Rock at old War Memorial Stadium,” Kiffin said, his face lighting up with a big smile. “When they turned the lights on down there and everybody was screaming, ‘Wooo, Pig! Sooey!’ man, you talk about getting excited. That was awesome.”
A defensive lineman at Nebraska and native of Lexington, Neb., Kiffin was the Cornhuskers’ defensive coordinator from 1969-76 and helped them win back-to-back national championships in 1970-71.
“Beating Oklahoma the way we did in the Super Bowl ranks right up there with winning the national championships at Nebraska,” Kiffin said. “That game was one of the greatest thrills I’ve ever experienced.”
Kiffin laughed when told he said “Super Bowl” rather than “Orange Bowl” while talking about Arkansas beating Oklahoma.
“Well, it was a super game for Arkansas,” Kiffin said. “I guess calling it ‘super’ shows how big it was to me.”
Hampton, a Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee in 2002 after a 12-year career with the Chicago Bears, said the Razorbacks never questioned Kiffin changing the defensive scheme for Oklahoma.
“We weren’t sitting around in our hotel rooms in Miami thinking, ‘This is nuts. What the hell is Monte doing?’ ” Hampton said. “If he would have said, ‘Jump out of the hotel,’ we would have said, ‘Which floor?’
“We bought in and it worked out perfectly. Had Reggie ever played outside before? No. He was a nose tackle. But Monte put him out there in space, and Reggie became player of the game.”
Freeman had six sacks and was the Orange Bowl’s Defensive Most Valuable Player.
“I wish everybody could have played for Monte Kiffin,” Hampton said. “He was that great.
“He had this infectious, crazy, wild-eyed look, and you’d see him and get excited and want to go out there and play 8 feet off the ground for him. Those two years I played for Monte was as fun as fun could get.”
Arkansas lost four key players on offense for the Orange Bowl — running backs Ben Cowins and Michael Forrest and receiver Donny Bobo were suspended by Holtz for disciplinary reasons and All-American offensive lineman Leotis Harris suffered a knee injury in practice — and Oklahoma was made an 18-point favorite by oddsmakers.
“I remember us having free time in Miami and going to the malls in our red and white jogging suits,” Walker said. “People would run up to us with their pads and pens for autographs thinking we were Oklahoma players, because we had basically the same colors.
“When they learned we were from Arkansas, they didn’t want anything to do with us. They’d say, ‘Oh well, never mind.’
“We couldn’t wait to play Oklahoma, because nobody gave us a chance. But we knew how impactful our defense had been throughout the year, and we knew Oklahoma was going to have problems with us.
“As we watched film, Monte would point out things we could exploit, and we realized that Oklahoma played against teams like Ohio State and Nebraska with big, physical defensive linemen. They hadn’t played against teams with linemen as quick and fast as we were.”
Walker also recalled how Kiffin coached mental toughness.
“The biggest thing that impressed me with Monte was mind over matter,” Walker said. “I remember when we had a bowl practice in Fayetteville before the Orange Bowl and it was December and really cold. Monte took off his shirt and said, ‘Hey, it’s all in your mind that it’s cold.’
“We thought, ‘Man, he’s crazy.’ But to me, it worked because I stopped thinking about being cold during practice.”
Arkansas Coach Sam Pittman in 2021 recalled meeting Kiffin in 1978. Kiffin scouted a game between Pittman’s Grove (Okla.) High School team that played Miami (Okla.).
“Miami was No. 1 and we were No. 100 in the league below them, and they ended up beating us 21-16,” Pittman said. “They scored late in the game.
“Coach Kiffin came into our locker room and talked about the fight and the grit of the Grove Ridgerunners.”
Larry Beightol was on Holtz’s Arkansas staff with Kiffin as the offensive line coach. Beightol, who died in April at age 81, also was a long-time NFL assistant coach.
“Monte’s the best defensive coordinator I’ve ever coached against or been around,”Beightol said in 2009. “He’s head and shoulders above the other guys.”
Kiffin credited Harold Horton — Arkansas’ defensive line coach in 1977 — with making a major contribution to the Orange Bowl victory.
“We won because our defense controlled the line of scrimmage, and that was because of Harold’s guys,” Kiffin said in 2005. “Harold was a great coach. Not good — great.”
Horton played for the Razorbacks, was an Arkansas assistant coach from 1968-80 and later an administrator with the Razorback Foundation.
“I highly respected Monte Kiffin as a coach and as a person,” Horton said. “I enjoyed being around Monte. He would always be the first guy at work every morning, and I was the second, because I wanted to be where he was.”
Horton’s son, Tim, a former Arkansas player and assistant coach, told the story of his father and Kiffin having a disagreement before Kiffin’s first spring practice with the Razorbacks.
Harold Horton, who had been coaching linebackers, moved to the defensive line position so Kiffin could coach linebackers.
“At Nebraska, Monte coached the flipper technique to get off blocks using your forearm,” Tim Horton, now an assistant coach at Air Force, said in recalling stories he heard from his father, Kiffin and Beightol. “Dad believed in using the hands technique, where you get your hands inside of a blocker’s pads and then you create separation by slinging him around.
“Going into spring practice, Monte told Dad, ‘Hey, I’ll let you try that hands technique the first day or two, but then we’re going to change and do it my way with the flipper technique.’
“The first contact drill in spring practice, the defensive line tore up the offensive line. Just demolished them. After practice Monte came up to Dad and said, ‘Harold, I think we’ll use that hands technique.’ “
Hampton said that during team meals, Kiffin often got lost in his thoughts.
“Monte was kind of like the nutty professor,” Hampton said. “He’d be sitting there at dinner and everybody’s talking about this and that, and Monte would be off looking into space.
“You’d say, ‘Coach, you alright?’ He wouldn’t say anything, and then after a while, he’d say, ‘Yeah, I’m thinking about this defense.’
“He was picturing what we needed to do as a defense to combat whatever play the offense had coming at us.
“Monte Kiffin was one of a kind and just a glorious, glorious coach. God bless him.”
Walker said he appreciated that Kiffin cared about his players away from the field.
“He’d come to the dorm and visit us and make sure we were doing OK,” Walker said. “Stuff that a lot of coaches just wouldn’t do, but that Monte did.”
Monte Kiffin at a glance
BORN Feb. 29, 1940 in Lexington, Neb.
DIED July 11, 2024 in Oxford, Miss (age 84)
AS A PLAYER Defensive lineman at Nebraska 1959-63. Had short stints professionally with the Minnesota Vikings, Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Toronto Rifles and Brooklyn Dodgers 1964-66.
AS A COACH
Nebraska graduate assistant 1966-68, defensive coordinator 1969-76
Arkansas defensive coordinator 1977-79
North Carolina State head coach 1980-82 (16-17 overall record, 8-10 ACC)
Green Bay Packers linebackers coach 1983
Buffalo Bills linebackers coach 1984-85
Minnesota Vikings linebackers coach 1986-89
New York Jets linebackers coach 1990
Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator 1991, linebackers coach 1992-94
New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator 1995
Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive coordinator 1996-2008
Tennessee defensive coordinator 2009
Southern California defensive coordinator 2010-12
Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator 2013, assistant head coach for defense 2014
Jacksonville Jaguars defensive assistant 2016
Florida Atlantic defensive assistant 2017-19
Ole Miss player personnel analyst 2020-23
NOTEWORTHY Defensive coordinator for Nebraska’s back-to-back national championship teams in 1970-71 … Helped Arkansas to a 30-5-1 record as defensive coordinator, highlighted by 31-6 victory over Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl to cap the 1977 season … Credited with developing the “Tampa 2” defense … Tampa Bay’s defensive coordinator when the Buccaneers beat Oakland in the Super Bowl to cap the 2002 season … Only assistant coach inducted in the Tampa Bay Ring of Honor … Father of Ole Miss Coach Lane Kiffin.
