Pete Carroll: Cowboys “Lucky” To Have Kiffin

The Seahawks coach counts Monte Kiffin as something of a mentor

Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll counts Monte Kiffin as something of a mentor, and he believes the Dallas Cowboys are lucky to have the 72-year-old in the fold going into 2013. Further, he believes Kiffin is better suited to life in the NFL than the college game, where he’s been coordinating under his son Lane (at Tennessee and USC) for the past four years.

“I think he brings a tremendous wealth of knowledge and understanding, an extraordinary ability to analyze and evaluate and his communication skills with the players on this level,” Carroll said, per ESPN Dallas. “I think there was some issue for him in college that he was just so far out there with how he coached and what he understands and what it takes to play on this level that it didn’t translate as easily as he would’ve liked (in college). I think the Cowboys are lucky to get him, and I think he’ll be a great asset.”

According to reports, Kiffin has instructed players to study Carroll’s defense in Seattle in preparation for the installment of the Tampa 2, but Kiffin insists that he isn’t going to copycat the Seahawks. Rather, Dallas’s system will look like a sort of amalgamation of several different systems from around the league.

“We play a similar scheme we have for years,” Kiffin said. “I was at the Bucs and Pete was at Southern Cal and we would talk all the time. We’ve kind of played that scheme. It just so happens that he’s at Seattle and they happened to play pretty well this year, but they do play some single-high safety and have some good corners that can bump. And we play cover-2 and they play cover-2. That’s where you hear about this Seattle deal. But we are also very much the Buccaneers, Chicago Bears, without a doubt.”

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