The Bucs introduced Greg Schiano as their new head coach today. (Debby Wong-US PRESSWIRE)
The Greg Schiano press conference has just wrapped and Schiano has just spent about 20 minutes making remarks and answering questions. You can’t help but like Schiano a little bit more after watching him address media for the first time, he’s a very frank, very passionate guy and you get the sense he’s going to leave it all on the table in Tampa.
I’ll give you the highlights here and then I’ll update with some direct quotes after the jump. For starters the courtship only lasted a few days, so Schiano was not initially on the Buccaneers radar but was likely a contingency after Chip Kelly declined. He spoke about how this opportunity, for the first time in his career after a number of other offers, felt right. He was sorry to leave Rutgers but excited about coming to a place like Tampa where they are passionate about winning.
The real highlights though were with regard to the program he’ll run and the way this team will operate day to day. He plans to hire coordinators, but still be involved in all three phases of the game. But more than that he’ll get this young, somewhat unruly team to be professionals. Everything will run on a tight schedule, everything will have purpose and there will be winning culture implanted in Tampa whether this current roster likes it or not.
It’s obviously just an opening press conference, but so far Schiano has said all the right things.
It's time to come down from the rollercoaster that was the Buccaneers' coaching search.(Matt Kartozian-US PRESSWIRE)
Yesterday was filled with more than a little bit of excitement if you are a Bucs fans. The team ended a three-plus week coaching search and hired Greg Schiano. Though the move came as a surprise to many, Schiano reportedly interviewed extremely well and has worked under Joe Paterno as well as at Miami during it’s hey-day a decade ago. He is credited with improving Rutgers and has a keen knack for discipline and efficiency.
If that sounds like a sell job, it is a little bit. Because it’s time to start selling yourself on this hire if you haven’t already.
Yesterday was a great chance to rage a little if you didn’t like the move. It was a good opportunity to question ownership, throw up your arms and maybe even threaten to follow another team. If it’s not all out of your system take another day. But like it or not Greg Schiano is going to be the coach so you might as well jump on board .
There’s a distinction between being a thinking, critical fan and unsupportive, and I’m not asking anyone to drink cool-aid or get a Greg Schiano haircut. It’s your place to criticize and call the mistakes out when you see them, hell, that’s half the fun. I’m just saying no matter what Schiano’s still the coach, it’s done at this point, so now it’s time to support the Bucs. It’s time to support Schiano. And it’s time to hope that any reservations you have will eventually be proven wrong.
I stumbled across this video early this morning of a Rutgers BBQ at Greg Schiano’s house back in June of last year. I always think it’s interesting to see a guy away from the field and see how he interacts with his players. Schiano has a very solid reputation as a disciplinarian and a blue-collar guy, but it looks like he knows how to let loose a little bit too.
How relevant is this video? What’s the point? I’m not sure everything we do here has to have a point. This is just kind of a fun, off-beat glimpse at the Buccaneers’ new head coach.
Butch Davis and Randy Shannon are both potential candidates for the Bucs coaching staff. (Bob Donnan-US PRESSWIRE)
The hunt for Greg Schiano’s coaching staff is already under way. Within the same day the Buccaneers seemingly came from out of left field to sign the former Rutgers head coach to a five-year contract they’re already beginning to look at assistants and coordinators that could potentially join Schiano in Tampa.
As I just mentioned, Mark Dominik maintains final control over coaching hires, but Schiano will have a say and will likely have a number of choices in mind. One possibility, and one group of coaches who may be available (as opposed to those at Rutgers who will be looking to move up at the University) are the men Schiano shares a University of Miami connection with. Like them or not, the Hurricanes have been one of the most prolific college programs, when it comes to creating professionals, that the NFL has ever seen.
If you look at the early 2000′s Miami Hurricanes rosters, upwards of 50 players made it to the NFL, several could be Hall of Famers, and as for current impact, Ed Reed, Frank Gore and Willis McGahee were all on the same roster and factored well into the playoffs (and Gore and McGahee were just back-ups on that roster).
The point is, Butch Davis could recruit, and these men could coach. Now some of them could be candidates to join the staff here in Tampa. Let’s have a look.
In this episode the Buccaneers hire former Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano and now have their search come to a conclusion….or has it? Josh and Patrik react, analyze and look forward to a future with Greg Schiano in Tampa.
Mark Dominik maintains final say over all coaching hires. (Kyle Terada-US PRESSWIRE)
I give Mark Dominik a lot of credit, he knows that if things don’t turn out well this go-round in Tampa he’s out of job. That’s why Dominik will have final say over all coaching hires, though new head coach Greg Schiano will have a lot of say in the process. At least that’s what Rick Stroud is reporting.
If this is indeed the case, and Stroud is the best on the Bucs beat so I have no reason to doubt it is, it means Dominik is once again ensuring that he is the man in charge of the Bucs football operation and that the power structure runs through him specifically. If things fall apart, if players don’t develop, if the Bucs don’t win, it will now be largely on Dominik’s shoulders.
There are a lot of different thoughts on Mark Dominik, some fans love him while others have turned on him. I give him the benefit of the doubt. Like him or not he has a keen eye for talent (especially when it comes to finding diamonds in the rough) and I think he will develop into an exceptional GM, but even I have started to lose some faith after a protracted and at times confused coaching search.
This also complicates Dominik’s job even further at this junction, as he is both overseeing the pre-draft scouting taking place at the Senior Bowl and considering coaching candidates for Schiano’s staff. But I suppose it’s better than trusting a head coach with minimal NFL experience to name a staff by himself.
There’s still a lot left to play out, but at least the Bucs are on the to next phase.
Don't be surprised if names like Randy Shannon come up as defensive assistants. (Mandatory Credit: Jonathan Brownfield-US PRESSWIRE)
Like it or not, and I admit early on I have not, Greg Schiano is the head coach. I may not be thrilled with the Glazers and Mark Dominik, but as for Shiano it’s time to support him, it’s time to get on board and it’s time to turn our attention to the Buccaneers’ hunt for coordinators and assistants.
The Bucs did themselves few favors by being the last team to pick a head coach because they get last shot at coordinators and assistants too. The team is going to have to try and hire another coordinator (which teams can block any interview they want) or they have to hire an assistant.
This is stage is nearly as crucial as the hiring of the coach. The head coach is just one man and there are 53 players on the active roster and a eight on the practice squad. The staff of coaches spend most of the time with the players on the field, in the film room and around the team facilities. They have to impart the head coaches philosophy and teach his fundamentals. This needs to be a solid group or the team isn’t going to develop and the Bucs are going to waste a lot of talent.
Over the next few days we’ll point out some interesting candidates for the coordinator positions, and possibly even an assistant or two. Personally for coordinators I like looking at current NFL assistants. Typically quarterbacks coaches for offense. As for assistants though there are college programs with solid positional assistants and even coordinators that could come up and teach technique at a professional level and be great hires. There are options. The Bucs can actually come out of this process extremely strong with a good staff in place.
At First Glance is a new feature on The Pewter Plank where we don’t let the news settle before we react. You get one of our writers most visceral reactions, though that does come with the caveat that when cooler heads prevail we have license to change our minds…
Schiano is finalizing a deal to coach the Bucs as we speak. (Mandatory Credit: Richard Mackson-US PRESSWIRE)
After three and a half weeks of meandering about aimlessly with little success, the Buccaneers seem to have concluded their coaching search in absolutely unspectacular fashion. By hiring Rutger’s Greg Schiano. Now before everyone jumps down my throat, yes, it could be A LOT worse. I’ll give you that.
But when that’s the best icing you can put on this cake, it shows you just how far this organization has fallen since 2003. Let’s forget about the aimless set of initial interviews, the shot in the dark up in Eugene and all of the rest of that and just talk for a second about the actual man the Buccaneers just hired.
Let’s be honest and weigh the good with the bad. Why he deserves the job, and why he’s overwhelmingly under-qualified. Why hiring someone like Greg Schiano a few weeks ago makes sense, but at this point it’s just another laughable mistake in a squandered coaching search.
If this is true it’s frankly shocking to me, Schiano was never mentioned and despite having been a coordinator on some very good Miami Hurricanes teams in the late 90′s and early 2000′s, he hasn’t really done anything at Rutgers in the past decade.
Schiano is a 45 year-old coach who has three years of NFL experience coaching on the Chicago Bears during the 90′s as a defensive assistant for two years before being promoted to coach the defensive backfield. This is another out of left-field candidate and I’m going to be extremely interesting to see what the Bucs are reportedly offering. The reason is that he’s hardly the most qualified or even the most attractive candidate, he’s a game over .500 all-time in his career at Rutgers and outside of working at Miami for a while in has never been associated with winning football.
I’m not trying to put a damper on the potential hire. Just saying that at first glance it looks like the Buccaneers completely blew this one.
Here’s an interesting take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ coaching search. To give you a little perspective, yesterday it was reported Mike Sherman was being interviewed a second time for the Bucs head coaching job. Ira Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune tweeted late last night that he was unable to confirm the interview actually took place though. he then mentioned the possibility of a smoke screen
At some point yesterday, Rick Stroud also tweeted that there was a mystery candidate potentially in the mix (once again). Independently, I don’t put much stock in either of those tweets, but together they make a little bit more sense. I have other thoughts, but this is take on Rant Sports was interesting to me. This writer, one “Mr. Destiny” thinks Kevin Gilbride, the Giants offensive coordinator is potentially that guy. Personally I think if it’s a Giants DC it would be Fewell, but since we haven’t mentioned Gilbride, have a look.
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