American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...
coach who is currently a senior defensive assistant for the Cincinnati Bengals of the
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
(NFL). Duffner served as the head coach of the Maryland Terrapins football team from 1992 to 1996.
Duffner was born and raised in the
Washington, D.C.
)
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, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
College of William and Mary
The College of William & Mary (officially The College of William and Mary in Virginia, abbreviated as William & Mary, W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Founded in 1693 by letters patent issued by King William III ...
under head coach Marv Levy and was recruited to the school by assistant coach
Bobby Ross
Robert Joseph Ross (born December 23, 1936) is an American former football coach. He served as the head football coach at The Citadel (1973–1977), the University of Maryland, College Park (1982–1986), the Georgia Institute of Technology ...
. His first coaching job was as a Graduate Assistant under iconic coach
Woody Hayes
Wayne Woodrow Hayes (February 14, 1913 – March 12, 1987) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Denison University (1946–1948), Miami University in Oxford, Ohio (1949–1950), and Ohio State University (1951 ...
at
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...
followed by a stint as Defensive Coordinator for the
University of Cincinnati
The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44,0 ...
Bearcats; he moved to Holy Cross in the same role in 1981 and ascended to the Head Coach position in 1986, compiling a stellar 60–5–1 record. At Maryland, Duffner compiled a 20–35 record, his most important legacy at Maryland has been in the record books; most of the Terps' longstanding single game, season, and career passing and receiving record were broken during his tenure. This was due to the implementation of his
run and shoot
The run and shoot offense (also known as Run N' Shoot) is an offensive system for American football which emphasizes receiver motion and on-the-fly adjustments of receivers' routes in response to different defenses. It was conceived by former ...
offense and quarterbacks
John Kaleo
John Kaleo (born February 5, 1971) is a retired American football quarterback in the Arena Football League (AFL) for the Albany Firebirds (1993), Cleveland Thunderbolts (1994), St. Louis Stampede (1995–1996), Anaheim Piranhas (1997), San Jose ...
,
Scott Milanovich
Scott Stewart Milanovich (born January 25, 1973) is an American football coach and former quarterback who is the quarterbacks coach for the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League (NFL). He previously served as the head coach of the ...
, and Brian Cummings. However, his teams were notoriously weak on defense, frequently giving up points so fast that even his prolific offense couldn't keep up. Duffner's only winning season came in 1995 when the Terps finished with a 6–5 record and started with four consecutive wins.
After leaving Maryland, Duffner became an assistant with the Cincinnati Bengals from 1997 to 2002, where he served as linebackers coach and then defensive coordinator. From 2003 to 2005, he served with the Green Bay Packers. In early 2006, he was signed by the
Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division. The team pla ...
as the linebackers coach. He was hired by the Miami Dolphins in January to be their LB Coach for the 2014 season. On October 15, 2018 Duffner was named as the new defensive coordinator of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Duffner was hired by the Bengals as a senior defensive assistant on March 7, 2019. He missed the team's week 10 game in 2020 against the Pittsburgh Steelers due to
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...