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Kevin Guy

Head Coach/Director of Football Operations

Kevin Guy begins his tenth season in the Arena Football League, and his second as Head Coach/Director of Football Operations of the Arizona Rattlers. This will be Guy’s sixth season coaching in the league after joining the team on August 10th 2007 following a successful two year stint with the San Jose SaberCats.

Last season with the Rattlers, Kevin successfully turned around one of the AFL’s most storied franchises after a few down years. After the team finished with the second-worst record in the American Conference in 2007, Guy took over in 2008 and led the team to an 8-8 record, the third-best in the Conference, and a first-round home-playoff game. He finished the year as one of only four coaches to receive votes for AFL Coach of the Year. Guy built the team virtually from scratch, ending 2008 with only three players from the 2007 team and entering the season with nine rookies and seven second-year players.

Under Guy, a defensive specialist throughout his career, the Rattlers’ defense led the AFL in rushing yards allowed per game and per carry, and held teams to the fewest first downs per game. The defense led the league in red-zone efficiency. Opponents scored only 67.1 percent of the time they were inside the 10-yardline, five percent better than the AFL’s second-ranked red-zone defense (New York, 72.1%).

Prior to joining the Rattlers, in Guy’s two seasons as Defensive Coordinator with San Jose, the SaberCats were known as one of the league’s best defensive squads, advancing to the American Conference Finals in 2006 and winning Arena Bowl XXI in 2007. Last season, under Guy’s leadership, the SaberCats allowed the second fewest points in the league, an average of only 47.6 points per game. The SaberCats finished fifth in the league in both yards allowed per game with 281.3 and in passing yards allowed with 266.2. Coach Guy’s defense also led the league in red-zone defense (71.4 percent), fumble recoveries (20), fumble returns (18), fumble return average (6.7) and interception returns for touchdowns (5). The SaberCats were also second in turnover margin (+21), fumble returns for touchdowns (5), and first downs allowed (311), third in interceptions (22), and fourth in sacks (19).

In Coach Guy’s first season with the SaberCats, the team finished fourth in turnover margin with plus-seven, a dramatic improvement from the team’s minus-one margin the year before. They improved from 16 to 18 interceptions, 11 to 16 fumbles recovered, one to four interceptions returned for touchdowns, and scored two touchdowns on fumble returns after having none the prior year.

When Guy joined the San Jose SaberCats in 2005, he left the Arena2 with the most wins in the history of the league. Guy amassed 52 career wins in his four seasons, averaging 13 victories a season. He also grabbed a Coach of the Year honor and finished with a .732 winning percentage while leading the Tennessee Valley Vipers (2002-04) and Rio Grande Valley Dorados (2005).

Guy spent 2005 as Head Coach and Director of Football Operations for the Texas-based Dorados, leading the club to a 10-6 regular season record and a trip to the league’s National Conference championship game. The Dorados’ last win in 2005, a 65-42 win over Tulsa in the playoffs, lifted Guy to the top of the league’s coaching leaders.

Before heading to Rio Grande, Guy serve as Head Coach and Football Operations Director of the Tennessee Valley Vipers, winning 39 of 48 regular season games and claiming a division title in each season. During the 2003 campaign, the Vipers won their first 14 games and advanced to the Conference Championship game, earning Guy the Coach of the Year award.

During Guy’s tenure as an af2 coach, his teams have been consistently ranked near the top of the major statistical categories while working with rosters that have experienced a high rate of turnover. Guy had 31 players in four years advance from the af2, with five joining the National Football League. He has also coached Ironman of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, and Lineman of the Year award winners while having 14 players earn All-af2 recognition.

In 2001, Guy became the Defensive Coordinator of the Florida Bobcats of the AFL where his defense held its opponents to fewer than 30 points a game twice and forced 26 turnovers on the year. The Bobcats also averaged six defensive stops per game.

Guy joined the coaching ranks following an AFL playing career that lasted four seasons. He started the 2000 campaign as the Defensive Coordinator with the New Jersey Red Dogs before, at only 26 years of age, being elevated to Interim Head Coach for the remaining four games of the season. His team ranked fourth in the AFL in total defense and fifth in pass defense. Over the final four games as Head Coach, the Red Dogs scored an average of nearly 10 points a game more than the first 10 games.

As a player, Kevin played four seasons with the Minnesota Fighting Pike (1996), the New Jersey Red Dogs (1997-99), and the Orlando Predators (1999) primarily as a WR/DB, and helped the Predators to advance to ArenaBowl XIII.

Kevin attended the University of West Alabama (formally Livingston University) from 1991-1995. He was born December 6, 1972 in Birmingham, Alabama.