Tony Dungy

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Tony Dungy
Tony Dungy
Date of birth	October 6, 1955
Place of birth	Jackson, Michigan
Position(s)	Head Coach
College	University of Minnesota
Career Record	88-56-0
Playing Stats	DatabaseFootball
Coaching Stats	DatabaseFootball
Team(s) as a player
1977-1978 1979	Pittsburgh Steelers San Francisco 49ers
Team(s) as a coach/administrator
1996-2001 2002-Present	Tampa Bay Buccaneers Indianapolis Colts

Anthony Kevin Dungy (b. October 6, 1955, Jackson, Michigan) is former professional football player and current head coach of the NFL's Indianapolis Colts. Dungy also coached the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Contents 1 Early life 2 College career 3 Professional career 4 Coaching career 4.1 Assistant coaching positions 4.2 Tampa Bay Buccaneers 4.3 Indianapolis Colts 4.4 Monday night return 4.5 Coaching style 5 Personal 6 Trivia 7 References

[edit] Early life

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.

[edit] College career

Dungy was recruited by University of Minnesota coach Cal Stoll, and played his entire college career 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.

[edit] 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, 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.

[edit] Coaching career

[edit] 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 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.

[edit] 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, but Dungy was fired by the team in 2001 on account of 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 lone Super Bowl appearance and victory.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Monday night return

On October 6, 2003, the Colts came to Tampa to play the Buccaneers on Monday Night Football. The Bucs had just won the Super Bowl in Jon Gruden's first year as their coach while the Colts had gotten blown out by the Jets 41-0 in the first round of the playoffs. Of course, this sparked all kinds of media hype before the game as the Colts were 4-0 coming into the game. When Dungy took the field, he received a mixed reaction from the crowd along with a few high fives from some of the Buccaneer players. Once the game started, nothing could go right for the Colts, and nothing could go wrong for the Bucs. On Tampa's second possession, Brad Johnson threw an interception to Mike Doss who fumbled the ball during the return. The fumble bounced right into the hands of Keenan McCardell who ran it in for a touchdown. Somehow, the Colts managed to bring themselves to within two touchdowns (28-14) in the 4th quarter. With 5:04 left in the game, Peyton Manning threw an interception to Ronde Barber who returned it for a touchdown. This all but slammed the door shut as the Colts now trailed 35-14. As the crowd at Raymond James Stadium began to clear out, Brad Pyatt returned the ensuing kick off 90 yards which put the Colts on the Bucs 10 yard line. After 2 attempts at the endzone, James Mungro scored on a 3 yard run with 3:37 left in the game which now made it 35-21.

The Colts then recovered an onsides kick and scored on a Marvin Harrison touchdown catch with 2:29 left which brought the Colts to 35-28. With only one timeout remaining, the Colts attempted another onsides kick which the Bucs recovered. With one timeout and the two minute warning remaining, it appeared the Bucs could run the clock out with a first down. After a short run, the Colts called their last timeout, stopping the clock. On the following play, the Bucs had another short run which appeared to take the clock down to the two minute warning. However, Kenyatta Walker was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct on the play, not only costing the Bucs 15 yards, but this also stopped the clock as it was a personal foul. The clocked was stopped at 2:04 and the Bucs would have to run another play before the two minute warning.

In essence, the penalty gave the Colts an extra timeout. The Bucs would punt the ball away and the Colts took over with 1:32 remaining and no timeouts. After Manning was sacked for a huge loss, he hurried his team back to the line and completed a short pass over the middle keeping the ball in the field of play and the clock running. However, Warren Sapp was flagged for a helmet to helmet call on Manning which not only gave the Colts 15 more yard and a first down, but would again stop the clock as this was a personal foul. Manning then completed a 60 yard pass to Marvin Harrison which put the ball on the 4 yard line. The Colts scored a touchdown on a run by Ricky Williams tying the game 35-35 at the end of regulation. This whole series of events happened so fast, that the fans who had left the game and were listening on the radio as they pulled out of the stadium were literally turning around in the middle of the street trying to get back in. The Bucs would win the overtime coin toss but would eventually have to punt the ball away. The Colts then slowly drove down the field and attempted a field goal with 3:47 remaining in overtime. Mike Vanderjagt missed the field goal attempt, but Simeon Rice was called for leaping, which gave the Colts an automatic first down. The Colts elected to attempt another field goal and the ball bounced off the upright but still made it through giving the Colts the victory 38-35. The Colts final 3 touchdowns to tie the game came with less than 4 minutes remaining, a feat no team in the history of the NFL had done before. The NFL would go on to say that the leaping penalty against Tampa was a valid call. However the league later admitted that the onsides kick that the Colts recovered should have been flagged as an illegal touch. Even though the kick went the required 10 yards, it never touched the ground first as the ball was kicked straight up in the air.

[edit] 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 noze 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 safties 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 safties 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.

[edit] 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, James (died 12/22/05), Eric, and Jordan.

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 ([1]).

[edit] Trivia

• Dungy is the only NFL player since the merger to intercept a pass and throw a pass interception in the same game. Dungy was the emergency quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers in a 1977 game against the Baltimore Colts when both Terry Bradshaw and Mike Kruczek went down with injuries on October 30, 1977. He played safety on defense.

• Dungy is the first NFL head coach to defeat all 32 NFL teams.

• Dungy is the youngest assistant coach in NFL history (age 25)

• Dungy has made the playoff as a head coach 8 times but to date has only 5 playoffs wins and has never been to the Super Bowl.

[edit] References

• NFL.com - Indianapolis Colts Coaching Staff. Retrieved on 2005-12-24.
• The Official Website of the Indianapolis Colts. Retrieved on 2005-12-24.
• Gale - Free Resources - Black History - Biographies - Tony Dungy. Retrieved on 2005-12-24.
• Tony Dungy's Son Dies of Apparent Suicide - Yahoo! News. Retrieved on 2005-12-24.
• ESPN.com - NFL - Preliminary autopsy: Dungy's son took own life. Retrieved on 2005-12-24.
• ESPN.com - NFL -Smith: Faith, family then football. Retrieved on 2005-12-24.
• ESPN.com - NFL -Tony Dungy Amazing Grace. Retrieved on 2006-06-18.

Preceded by: Jim Mora	Indianapolis Colts Head Coaches 2002-	Succeeded by: Incumbent
Preceded by: Sam Wyche	Tampa Bay Buccaneers Head Coaches 1996–2001	Succeeded by: Jon Gruden
Preceded by: Woody Widenhofer	Pittsburgh Steelers Defensive Coordinators 1984-1988	Succeeded by: Rod Rust

Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts Head Coaches
Molesworth • Ewbank • Shula • McCafferty • Sandusky • Schnellenberger • Thomas • Marchibroda • McCormack • Kush • Dowhower • Meyer • Venturi • Marchibroda • Infante • Mora Sr. • Dungy

Tampa Bay Buccaneers Head Coaches
McKay • Bennett • Perkins • Williamson • Wyche • Dungy • Gruden

Current National Football League head coaches
Belichick • Billick • Childress • Coughlin • Cowher • Crennel • Del Rio • Dungy • Edwards • Fisher • Fox • Gibbs • Green • Gruden • Holmgren • Jauron • Kubiak • Lewis • Linehan • Mangini • McCarthy • Marinelli • Mora • Nolan • Parcells • Payton • Reid • Saban • Schottenheimer • Shanahan • Shell • Smith