Cincinnati Bengals 2009 Media Guide.indb - Bengals Home

DARRIN SIMMONS — Special Teams
Darrin Simmons is
in his seventh season as
Bengals special teams
coach. He has coached
the full Bengals career
of record-setting place
kicker Shayne Graham
and directed consistently
effective kick coverage
teams.
Simmons has been on
the job for all six of kicker Graham’s Bengals seasons. During
that span, Graham has raised his career FG accuracy
to 85.64 percent, fourth-best all-time in the NFL. Graham
saw brief NFL action for Buffalo and Carolina before joining
the Bengals, and his Cincinnati-only FG percentage
is a club-record 87.50, nearly two points higher than his
league career mark.
Graham holds numerous other Bengals records,
including season FG percentage (91.2), points (131) and
field goals (31) in a season, fi eld goals in a game (seven)
and consecutive FGs made (21).
Simmons’ kick coverage units both ranked in the NFL’s
top half last season. Opponents were limited to 22.5 yards
per kickoff return (ranked 13th) and 9.1 yards per punt return
(ranked 14th). In 2006, Simmons added an NFL statistics
title to his resume when the Bengals led the league in punt
coverage, allowing only 5.6 yards per return.
Simmons’ Bengals special teams have also shown a
nose for the ball, forcing 17 fumbles in his previous six
seasons. That’s nearly three times the total (six) for the
six seasons prior to his tenure.
Simmons works extensively in the punting game
to avoid touchbacks and pin the opposition deep in its
territory. He has a new talent to work with in 2009, as the
Bengals invested a fi fth-round draft choice in former University
of Cincinnati standout Kevin Huber. Last season,
Bengals punter Kyle Larson had only three touchbacks
while launching 28 punts that forced opponents to start
possession inside their 20-yard line. Larson’s plus-25 dif-
Bob Surace is in
his eighth season on the
Bengals coaching staff,
and in his sixth year as
assistant offensive line
coach.
Surace (pronounced
“suh-RACE”) was offensive
staff assistant in his
fi rst two Bengals seasons,
and in addition to his work
with the line, he continues to play a key role in the entire
offensive staff’s game preparation.
Working closely with assistant head coach/offensive
line coach Paul Alexander, Surace has helped mold a line
that has led the way in rewriting the franchise record for
— 15 —
ferential (28-3) tied for second in the NFL and tied for first
in the AFC. For his Bengals career, Larson had a differential
of plus-77 (109 inside-20s and 32 touchbacks).
Simmons entered the NFL in 1998 on the same
Baltimore Ravens staff as Bengals head coach Marvin
Lewis, who was Ravens defensive coordinator at the time.
Simmons was assistant special teams coach and assistant
strength and conditioning coach for the Ravens, and he
held that same role for the Carolina Panthers from 1999-
2002. He joined the Bengals in 2003.
A former college punter himself, Simmons played an
integral role at Carolina in the development of Todd Sauerbrun
as one of the NFL’s top punters of the time. Simmons
coached his first league-leading coverage unit in ’02, as the
Panthers held foes to an NFL-best 18.5 yards per KOR.
Simmons began his coaching career as a graduate
assistant at Kansas University in 1996. He moved to the
University of Minnesota in 1997.
Simmons punted in college for Kansas from 1993-95,
earning All-Big Eight honors his final year. As a senior, he
helped the Jayhawks to a top-10 national ranking and to an
Aloha Bowl victory over UCLA. Also as a Kansas senior,
he won honors as an academic All-American.
Prior to playing for Kansas, Simmons was a punter
and QB for Dodge City (Kan.) Community College. In 1992
at Dodge City, he led the nation’s junior colleges in punting
and was a first-team JUCO All-American.
Simmons earned a degree in sports management
from Kansas in 1996.
Born April 9, 1973, in Elkhart, Kan., he graduated
from Elkhart High School. He and his wife, Rhonda, have
a daughter and two sons.
PLAYING AND COACHING HISTORY — 1991-
92: Played quarterback and punter at Dodge City (Kan.)
Community College. 1993-95: Punter, University of
Kansas. 1996: Graduate assistant coach, Kansas. 1997:
Assistant coach (AC), University of Minnesota. 1998: AC,
Baltimore Ravens. 1999-2002: AC, Carolina Panthers.
2003-present: AC, Bengals.
BOB SURACE — Assistant Offensive Line
fewest sacks allowed in two of the last four years.
The Bengals set a record low of 21 in 2005, during
the team’s AFC North title run, and two years later the
bar was re-set at 17. The total led the AFC and ranked
second in the NFL.
Last season was a tough one overall for the Cincinnati
offense, which struggled to recover from the loss of
Pro Bowl QB Carson Palmer for 12 games due to injury.
But the club rallied to finish the season on a three-game
win streak, and instrumental in the strong finish was the
coaching staff’s work with a line that was markedly short
of experience.
Due to injuries, the Bengals played their last six games
with rookie Anthony Collins at LOT and first-year player
Nate Livings at LG. Collins had seen action for only a
handful of plays when he was called on to start, and Livings
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