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Tony Dungy
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Anthony Kevin Dungy (born October 6, 1955, Jackson, Michigan)
is former professional football player and current head coach of the
NFL's Indianapolis Colts. From 1996 to 2001, he was the coach of the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Tony Dungy was born in Jackson, Michigan to Wilbur and Cleomae Dungy,
both of whom were educators. They encouraged a focus on academics
early on in their children's lives. Tony Dungy attended Parkside High
School, where he played the guard position on the basketball team and
the quarterback position on the football team |
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Position(s) |
Head Coach |
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College |
University of Minnesota |
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Career Record |
102-58-0 |
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Team(s) as a player |
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1977-1978 |
Pittsburgh Steelers |
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1979 |
San Francisco 49ers |
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Team(s) as a coach/administrator |
|
1981-1988 |
Pittsburgh Steelers
(Defensive Coach)
(Defensive Backs Coach)
(Defensive Coordinator) |
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1989-1991 |
Kansas City Chiefs
(Defensive Backs Coach) |
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1992-1995 |
Minnesota Vikings
(Defensive Coordinator) |
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1996-2001 |
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
(Head Coach) |
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2002-Present |
Indianapolis Colts
(Head Coach) |
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College career
Dungy was recruited by University of Minnesota coach Cal Stoll, and
played for the Golden Gophers from 1973 to 1976. He entered the
starting lineup as a quarterback during his freshman year, and in
four years, finished as Minnesota's career leader in pass attempts
(576), completions (274), touchdown passes (25), and passing yards
(3,577). He also finished fourth in career total offense in the Big
Ten Conference. He received Minnesota's Most Valuable Player award twice.
Professional career
Following college, Dungy entered the National Football League as a
free agent playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers, where he played as a
backup safety during Pittsburgh's Steel Curtain dynasty. In the
Steelers Super Bowl winning season of 1978, he was promoted to
starter and led the team with 6 interceptions.
After defeating the Dallas Cowboys in Super
Bowl XIII (Dungy recovered a fumble that set up a Steelers
touchdown in the game), Pittsburgh traded Dungy to the San
Francisco 49ers in 1979, where he played one year. The 49ers traded
him to the New York Giants at the beginning of the 1980 season, but
he was cut during training camp. Subsequently, he retired from the
National Football League.
In his 3 NFL seasons, Dungy recorded 9 interceptions, which he
returned for 132 yards. He also recovered 3 fumbles and returned 8
punts for 52 yards.
Coaching career
Assistant coaching positions
Following his retirement, Dungy was invited to become an assistant
coach for his alma mater, the University of Minnesota in 1980. After
one season in charge of defensive backs, he was asked to come back to
the NFL as a coach. He was hired as an assistant coach with the
Steelers by Chuck Noll, his former coach, in 1981.
In 1982, he was named defensive backfield coach, and was promoted in
1984 to defensive coordinator. His defenses achieved success, and he
was often projected to become the first African American head coach.
He left the Steelers in 1989 to become the defensive backs coach for
the Kansas City Chiefs, and took over the defensive coordinator
position for the Minnesota Vikings in 1992. While at Minnesota,
Dungy's defense was ranked first in the NFL.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Although he was not the first African American to do so, Dungy
finally achieved his dream when he was hired as head coach by Rich
McKay to reform the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a team well-known for its
lack of success, in 1995. In 1997, the Buccaneers finished second in
the NFC Central division, Tampa Bay's first winning season since
1982, and defeated the Detroit Lions in its first playoff game,
losing its next game to the defending champion Green Bay Packers.
Under Dungy's watch, the Buccaneers went to the playoffs three times
and won its division in 1999 only to lose to the St Louis Rams in the
NFC Championship Game, but Dungy was fired by the team in 2001 due to
the club's repeated losses in the playoffs — most notably, two
lopsided defeats (in 2000 and 2001) to the Philadelphia
Eagles— and because it was determined by the team's higher
management that the conservative offense that Dungy ran was too
inconsistent against NFL teams. The following year, the Buccaneers
easily defeated the Philadelphia Eagles in the 2002 NFC Championship
game under coach Jon Gruden en route to the club's first Super Bowl
appearance and victory.
Indianapolis Colts
On January 22, 2002, Dungy was hired as head coach of the
Indianapolis Colts, a team that at the time was very potent
offensively, but very weak defensively. He installed his "Cover
2" defense immediately and ever since has set about retooling
the Colts' defense to his liking. Since joining the Colts, Dungy has
left the high-powered offense previously installed there by Jim Mora,
in both playing style and in personnel, virtually unchanged. Dungy
would be reunited with Tom Moore, who was retained as offensive
coordinator. Moore was the offensive coordinator when Dungy was a
college player at Minnesota.
Since his arrival in Indianapolis, Dungy had struggled to fix the
Colts' defense, and has had mixed results in the postseason. In his
first season at Indianapolis the Colts were shut out 41-0 by the New
York Jets in a first-round playoff game, and the team lost postseason
games to the New England Patriots in both 2003 (in the AFC
championship game) and 2004 (in the second round of the playoffs).
Dungy signed a three-year contract extension in 2005 for US$5 million
per year.
The Colts focused on defensive improvements during the 2005
offseason, signing five-year defensive tackle Corey Simon. Widely
expected to be a Super Bowl contender, the Colts won their first 13
games, prompting much speculation about the possibility of the Colts
becoming the NFL's first team to finish the season undefeated since
the 1972 Miami Dolphins.
However, this dream was shattered when the Colts lost their 14th game
to the San Diego Chargers. The Colts did manage to obtain home field
advantage throughout the playoffs. With the Colts seemingly on their
way to the Super Bowl, they were defeated in the divisional playoff
series against the Pittsburgh Steelers. This loss made the Colts the
first team to ever start a season 13-0 and not reach the Super Bowl.
Coaching style
Dungy's coaching strategy involves a conservative, ball-control
offense based primarily around running the ball and short,
high-percentage passes, combined with a stifling "Cover
2" style zone defense, which is usually based out of a 4
lineman, 3 linebacker, 4 defensive back formation. While coaching the
Indianapolis Colts however, most of the offensive planning has been
handled by his offensive coordinator.
The "Cover 2" defense Dungy uses involves having his
linemen rushing the passer, the cornerbacks covering the passing flat
area, the linebackers covering the middle of the field, and the
safeties providing deep coverage on each half of their respective
zones. While the Cover 2 defense is not a new concept, the personnel
that Dungy uses in this defense is very specific, and as a result,
his style of defense has earned the moniker of the "Tampa
2" around the NFL .
The personnel Dungy uses in the Tampa 2 are specific in position and
required abilities. All positions in his defense place a premium on
speed, and often the result is that they are all undersized by league
standards. The defensive linemen in his scheme have to be quick and
agile enough to create pressure on the quarterback without the aid of
a blitz from either the linebackers or the secondary, with the
defensive tackle in the nose position having above-average tackling
skills to help stop the run.
The three linebackers and two cornerbacks are responsible for
covering the middle of the field. The outside linebackers general
zone is between the cornerbacks covering the area of the field from
the line of scrimmage to 10 yards back. The middle linebacker must
have better-than-average speed, and additional skills to be able to
read the play and either maintain his central position to help the
outside linebackers cover short passes, drop behind the linebackers
in coverage and protect the zone of the field behind the outside
linebackers from 11-20 yards out, or run up to the line of scrimmage
to help assist in stopping the run. The cornerbacks protect the
sidelines of the field from the line of scrimmage to anywhere between
15-20 yards out. An additional requirement for all of Dungy's
linebackers and cornerbacks is to be above-average tacklers, as they
are usually the primary tacklers in the defense.
The two safeties are responsible for covering their respective halves
of the field from 20 yards out and more. The safeties in Dungy's
system are expected to be above-average cover men with the ability to
break up passes, but each safety also is expected to have additional
specific skills. The strong safeties, while not expected to be great
tacklers, are expected to be hard hitters. The hard hitting strong
safety protects the middle of the field from being exploited by
small, fast wide receivers, and running backs on 'Wheel' routes, by
intimidating them to not run their routes in that direction. The free
safety in Dungy's system will be called upon to do one of two things
in certain situations, either blitz the quarterback, requiring him to
have the skills necessary to beat a blocking running back or
fullback, or to assume the coverage zone left by a blitzing cornerback.
When executed properly, Dungy's Tampa 2 defense is difficult to beat,
which speaks for its longevity that it has fundamentally not changed
since first introduced when he came to Tampa in 1996. Teams that have
been successful against his defense have managed to run the ball up
the middle past the defensive tackles, or throw passes in the seams
between the outside linebackers and the cornerbacks (often the
most effective receiver against a Tampa 2 defense is a Tight End,
since they often line up against this seam).
Other tactics that have shown to be effective on occasion are
misdirection plays that take advantage of the defensive speed and
rely on the defense 'overrunning' the play (such as the middle
linebacker rushing to the line of scrimmage on a play-action pass),
or overloading the safeties by having multiple receivers running deep
routes, creating more targets in a zone than defenders. Recently,
certain teams have also been able to exploit the seam between the
cornerbacks and the safeties, when the quarterback can throw a pass
to a receiver in that seam faster than the safety can rush up to
close it and cover the receiver.
Personal
Dungy's tenure in Tampa Bay as the head coach of the Buccaneers
brought greater attention to his personal accomplishments outside of
sports. Tony Dungy has earned widespread respect both on and off the
field due to what many see as strong convictions and high personal
standards of ethics and behavior, which affect his behavior as both a
coach and as a member of his community. He has been active in many
community service organizations in the cities in which he has
coached. While in Tampa Bay, Dungy worked as a public speaker for the
Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Athletes in Action.
He began a mentoring program for young people called Mentors for
Life, and provided Buccaneers' tickets for the participants. He also
supported other charitable programs in the area such as Big
Brothers/Big Sisters, Boys and Girls Club, the Prison Crusade
Ministry, foster parenting organizations, and Family First. His
community involvement and care continues in Indianapolis where Tony
helped launch the Basket of Hope program which aids children at Riley
Hospital for Children. He continues to assist Big Brothers/Big
Sisters and the Boys and Girls Club in Indianapolis. He also supports
the Black Coaches Association National Convention and Indiana Black Expo.
Dungy is a devout Christian and at one point in his coaching career
considered leaving football for the prison ministry. Throughout his
career, he has remained involved with community service organizations.
Dungy is married to Lauren Dungy and has two daughters, Tiara and
Jade, and three sons, Eric, and Jordan, and the late James Dungy
Dungy's 18-year-old son, James, was found unresponsive in his
apartment in Lutz, Florida, by his girlfriend on December 22, 2005.
CPR was performed, but he was pronounced dead upon arrival at
University Community Hospital. A preliminary coroner's report
indicated that James committed suicide. He had been treated for a
prescription drug overdose on October 21 of that year.
It was reported on January 5, 2006 that James Dungy used a belt to
hang himself from a ceiling fan. The game against the Seattle
Seahawks on December 24, 2005 was coached by assistant coach Jim Caldwell
Headlines of James Dungy's Death
James
A. Dungy Obituary & Memorials
The
final hours of James Dungy
Dungy
ulogizes son as 'sweet young boy'
A
gripping goodbye
(With Photos)
Report
confirms Dungy took own life
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