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Kiffin Signs Extension

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By ROY CUMMINGS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 19, 2008

Updated: 01/19/2008 12:16 am

TAMPA - The Bucs recognized that the price of keeping a good defensive coordinator had gone up this offseason. More importantly, they were willing to pay that increased price.

Finishing what arguably was the top item on their offseason to-do list, the Bucs on Friday signed longtime defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin to a multi-year contract extension.

Exact terms were not available, but it is believed Kiffin agreed to a three-year extension that calls for his annual salary to increase from the $1.7 million he made last season to at least $2 million.

Kiffin became the fourth Bucs coach to re-up with the team, joining offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Bill Muir, receivers coach Richard Mann and special teams coordinator Richard Bisaccia.

"We are pleased to announce that our three coordinators have signed extensions to remain with the Buccaneers," Bucs general manager Bruce Allen said. "This unprecedented consistency is a tribute to the organization and our coaches."

The Bucs still are hoping to re-sign quarterbacks coach Paul Hackett and senior assistant Aaron Kromer. However, there's a chance both will follow former running backs coach Art Valero and leave for other teams.

Also believed to be on the Bucs' offseason agenda is an extension for Coach Jon Gruden. It is believed that the Bucs' plans are to secure their staff of assistants before turning their attention to Gruden, who has one year left on his contract.

The deal for Kiffin, meanwhile, was struck amid reports suggesting the Bucs again had asked him to take a pay cut. Kiffin's agent, Memphis-based Jimmy Sexton, labeled those reports inaccurate.

"No, that's not true," Sexton told the Tribune on Friday. "That didn't happen."

During the initial stages of negotiations, the Bucs made an offer that did not please Kiffin or Sexton. In recent days, the offers improved markedly.

The Bucs probably would have found themselves in a battle for Kiffin's services had they not re-signed him to an extension before his contract expired Jan. 31.

The Atlanta Falcons, who reportedly would have tried to hire Kiffin if Pete Carroll had accepted their head coaching position, were considering hiring Kiffin anyway, even it meant hiring him before finding a head coach.

There also was talk in recent days of the Washington Redskins expressing interest in possibly hiring the 67-year-old Kiffin as their defensive coordinator.

Kiffin could not be reached for comment Friday.

It was believed all along that Kiffin's desire was to return to the Bucs, whose defense he has designed and guided for 12 years, including 10 in which the unit finished in the top 10 in the league.

His latest top-10 finish came this season, when the Bucs ranked second overall. That made the 2007 season the sixth in which Kiffin's defense has ranked among the top five in the league.

The job Kiffin did running the Bucs' defense in 2007 may go down as one of his best. After the unit finished 17th a year ago, Kiffin brought in two new coaches and used at least six new starters.

Relying less on the Tampa 2 scheme that has become the standard for many other defenses around the league, Kiffin guided a group that ranked first in the league against the pass and third in points allowed (16.9 per game).

In another Bucs-related item, former Raiders coach Bill Callahan is joining the Jets as an assistant head coach/offense.

Callahan, who served as Gruden's offensive coordinator when both were in Oakland, reportedly was headed to Tampa at one point.

Reporter Roy Cummings can be

reached at (813) 259-7979 or

rcummings@tampatrib.com.

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